Rolling Stone Australia — July 2017

¥ON APRIL 4TH,1968, Martin Luther

King Jr. was assassinated in Mem-

phis. In the aftermath, America

burned. There were riots in Wash-

ington, D.C.; Baltimore; Chicago;

Kansas City, Missouri, and other

cities. In Boston, city leaders ex-

pectedmoreviolencetocome.Amid

this tension, James Brown, the most

explosive African-American musi-

cianoftheera,pulledoffamiracle.

Brownandhisbandwerebooked

to play Boston Garden on April 5th.

The city considered cancelling all

public events that night, but the con-

cert’s promoter, local City Coun-

cilman Thomas Atkins, convinced

MayorKevinWhitethatcallingoff

ashowofthatmagnitudemightlead

to even more anger and violence. “If

[his] concert had not occurred,” re-

called local radio DJ James “Early”

Bird, “we would have had the big-

gestprobleminthehistoryofBos-

ton since the Tea Party.”

Frustrating to Brown was the de-

cision to televise the show, a way of

keepingpeopleoutofthestreetsthat

would also drive down ticket sales.

“But he had an obligation to honour

Dr. King,” says Brown’s saxophon-

ist and bandleader Pee Wee Ellis,

and after Brown obtained the fee he

wanted, everything was set.

¥JIMIHENDRIX’S1967 debut album,

Are You Experienced,established

hisgenius.The200-someshowshe

played to support the album assured

hislegend.Backedbyhisecstatically

indulgentEnglishrhythmsection–

bassistNoelReddinganddrummer

MitchMitchell–Hendrixdidnoth-

ingshortofliberatetheelectricgui-

tar,turningeachshowintoapyro-

technic exploration. “I thought, ‘My

God, this is like Buddy Guy on acid’,”

Eric Clapton later recalled. For the

U.S., the coming-out party was the

Monterey Pop Festival, where Hen-

drix set his guitar ablaze, terrify-

ingthefiremarshalwhileleaving

the crowd spellbound. As the Expe-

rience toured that year, they played

alongsidePinkFloydandCatSte-

vensineverytypeofvenue,from

theatres to biker bars. “We also did

agraduationballinParisinMarch

1967,areallyplushplace,”Mitch-

ell recalled. “There was an oompah

band on before us, and they would

notleavethestage.Irememberone

ofourroadies,inafinalactofdes-

peration, pushing the trombonist’s

slidebackintohismouth–bloodand

teetheverywhere.”Whentheshows

went right, however, Hendrix was a

tourdeforce.Hissenseofshowman-

ship went back to his years as a side-

manwithLittleRichard;dressedin

radiantpsychedelicfrills,hebanged

theneckofhisguitar,bititsstrings

andplayeditbehindhishead.“With

Jimi,itwasatheatrepiece,”SoftMa-

chinedrummerandonetimeHen-

drix tourmate Robert Wyatt once

observed. “The drama, the pace,

thebuildupsanddrops.”Thepeak

Summer of Love moment came in

early June, when the Experience

played London. With the Beatles in

the crowd, Hendrix opened with the

title track fromSgt. Pepper’s Lonely

Hearts Club Band,which had been

releasedjusttwodaysearlier.“1967

was the best year of my life,” he de-

clared later. “I just wanted to play

and play.” KORY GROW

APRIL 5, 1968

BOSTONGARDEN

JAMES

BROWN

1967 WORLDWIDE TOUR

THE JIMI

HENDRIX

EXPERIENCE

48 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com July, 2017

PREVIOUS SPREAD: GETTY IMAGES. THIS PAGE: BOB DEAN/“BOSTON GLOBE”/GETTY IMAGES

I thought,

‘My God, this

is like Buddy

Guy on acid.’

Brown confers

with Boston

Mayor Kevin

White (right)

and Councilman

Thomas Atkins

backstage at

Boston Garden,

1968.

ERIC

CLAPTON

on seeing Hendrix

perform

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