INQUISITION - ‘Man this is Jimi’ by Ronnie Parson and Gary Rice:
“The only thing that has happened in Charlotte, the all American GRIT city, since the invention of the plow for the red necks, was the Hendrix concert May ninth at the Coliseum. For all you grits he’s that sik-ar-delic gitar picking nigger and the Coliseum is that big round building on Independence. J.W. Morgan introduced Chicago, the back-up group for the concert. Most of their numbers were off a new two-record album which they had just released. The reaction of the audience to this group was generally slow until the last number, which was more or less a blues oriented jam.
After Chicago finished playing there was a short intermission so that equipment could be set up. Evidently one wasn’t supposed to leave his seat during the so-called intermission, because the heat - (Charlotte Law Enforcement Officers) were telling everyone to ‘git in their seat.’ We hardly sat down before we noticed a plain clothesman patrolling the aisles. He approached our seats and asked if the movie camera which I was holding was a tape recorder. Unconvinced it was not a tape recorder, he took it and examined it, then decided that I was right after all, that it was indeed a movie camera. After returning it to me, he began hassling my friend; the incident went as follows:
Cop: What’s in that case under your chair?
Friend: A polaroid camera.
Cop: Do you have a tape recorder?
Friend: No.
Cop: Open up the case.
Friend: Do you have a search warrant?
Cop: Open it up.
Friend: I don’t believe I have to without a search warrant.
Cop (grabbing him by the arm): Step outside.
Friend (by this time a uniformed pig appeared):
Am I not entitled to a search warrant by the Constitution?
Cops: Step outside son.
At this time Hendrix came on stage, and deciding it wasn’t worth the hassle l opened the case proving the fuzz wrong once more. Needless to say the concert was fantastic. During his performance Hendrix did some of his well known numbers including ‘Fire’, Foxy Lady’, ‘Spanish Castle Magic’, ‘Purple Haze’ and ‘Voodoo Chile’. Along with these was a fantastic blues number -which lasted approximately twenty minutes.
At one time during the show the fans came swarming from their seats to the stage, but the pigs held them back. Between songs he encouraged non violent revolution, cracked jokes about the narcs, and commented on his last performance in Charlotte. Midway through the concert after our minds had become somewhat unzapped over actually hearing Hendrix playing, we decided to go to the stage and shoot some pictures. We had only taken a few shots when the boys dressed in black started chasing everyone back to their seats. We sat down awhile, until our butts started itching again, and then sneaked back to the stage for a few shots as the performance ended.
Obviously the cops were glad the show was over, for they were rushing people out the door right away. We couldn’t figure out whether they didn’t dig the loud music or whether they were in a hurry to get to the bus station.”
Interview by Ronnie Parson and Gary Rice:
“From the Coliseum we went to the Ramada Inn for an after party for Hendrix. On arriving there we were told there was no party scheduled, nor at the other Ramada Inn. Having an idea that Hendrix was staying at the Red Carpet, we called and asked if there was to be an after party for him there. The man answering the phone said he hadn’t heard of one, but there was a J. Hendrix registered and he rang the suite for us:
Us: Do you know if there is to be an after party here tonight?
Person on phone: I don’t know of one.
Us: Well, we were invited to one at the Ramada Inn, but there wasn’t one there so we
thought it might be here.
Person on phone: I haven’t heard of any, but why don’t you come over and we see what
happens.
Us: Yeah, okay.
Person on phone: You had better come in the side entrance because they might not let
you in the front.
Us: Okay, who am I talking to so we know where to go?
Person on phone: Man, this is Jimi!
Us: Wow, well you sure sound different on [the] phone.
JH: (Laughing) Yeah, well you know...
Us: Okay, we’ll be over in a little while.
JH: Okay, I’ll see ya.
When my friend hung up the phone I asked him who he had talked to, and with a rather stark look on his face he told me Hendrix. and that we were going to his room at the Red Carpet Inn. We left the Ramada Inn and started up-town and in twenty minutes we were there. We parked the car and wandered around for awhile, and unable to find the room we went into the front door to the lobby. Just as we expected, there was one of those fat, naive fellows behind the desk.
Feeling rather important, we informed him that we.. .were invited to Jimi’s room. For a member of the establishment he was pretty nice. He gave us the room number and told [us] to keep quiet.
We thanked him and got on the elevator and rode to the third floor. After hunting for a minute or two, we found room 307 and knocked on the door. Knock, knock, knock!
JH: Who is it?
Us: We just called from the Ramada Inn
JH: Okay, hold on a second.
(A few moments later he opened the door. No one passed or anything neat like that so
we shook hands and introduced ourselves. For some peculiar reason he didn’t
introduce himself.)
Us: All that stuff we heard about after parties must have been a bunch of crap.
JH: Well, I didn’t hear of any.
Us: We heard a lot of different stories. We didn’t wake you up or anything did we?
JH: No, I was just sitting around.
(About this time a pig got out of the elevator and told us to quiet down.)
JH: Come on in the room
Us: Okay, could we get a picture here in the doorway first?
JH: Yeah, sure.
(We snapped the picture and went inside.)
Us: This didn’t turn out too hot.
JH: Could I see it, how’d it turn out?
(He looked at it and laughed.)
JH: Take another one; that didn’t turn out too good.
Us: Okay, want a cigarette?
JH: Yeah, Kools, wow. (We snapped another picture.)
Us: This one turned out better.
JH: I’ve got a funny look on my face.
Us: You got your hair cut didn’t you?
JH: Yeah.
Us: How come?
JH: So it’d grow back, I guess.
Us: Your concert was really great tonight, but if I was you I wouldn’t have come back to
Charlotte the way they hassled ya last time.
JH: That’s okay man, don’t talk about hassles; that just makes it worse.
Us: You blew your amp tonight didn’t you?
JH: Yeah, one of them
Us: How long have you been on tour now?
JH: About three years.
Us: How many concerts do you do a week, about two?
JH: Oh yeah. Definitely at least two. But don’t talk about that man, it’s depressing.
Us: Are you going to be coming back?
JH: Maybe next spring.
Us: Looks like you’ve got a lot of clothes around here.
JH: Yeah the people at the concerts give us most of ‘em.
Us: Who’s the blonde [in the photograph] on the dresser?
JH: A friend of mine.
Us: How come you’re not smashing your stuff any more?
JH: ‘Cause people were coming just to see that.
Us: Well, I guess we better go we know you’re tired.
JH: Yeah man, I’m kinda tired right now, but why don’t you call tomorrow.
(He went into the other room and wrote down the [phone number.)
Us: Sure; what time, we don’t want to wake you up or anything.
JH: Yeah, right, well, call about ten o’clock and maybe you can get some pictures or
something.
Us: Okay, thanks a lot man, the concert was great and all that shit.
JH: Thanks, we’ll see ya tomorrow.”
Sujet: Charlotte (Coliseum): 9 mai 1969 
Mar 13 Juil 2010 - 22:25
