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Speaker 1: The Seven Club is the production of I Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: and Double Elvis Media. Jimmie Hendricks died at the age

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Speaker 1: of and he lived a life that was as challenging

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Speaker 1: as it was fulfilling. I can give you twenty seven

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Speaker 1: reasons why that statement is true. Eleven would be the

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Speaker 1: number of emotions his guitar would cause you to feel

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Speaker 1: everything from joy to pain, sorrow to ecstasy, and everything

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Speaker 1: in between, sometimes all in the same three notes. One

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Speaker 1: more would be the number of recurring dreams that would

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Speaker 1: haunt him, where he'd find himself chasing after his dead mother, Lucille.

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Speaker 1: She passed away when Jimmy was only fifteen, before he

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Speaker 1: truly got to know her. Two would be the number

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Speaker 1: of guns pointed at him on a Harlem street corner

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Speaker 1: when he objected to some local hustlers promoting a show

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Speaker 1: of his that he hadn't even agreed to play. Another

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Speaker 1: one would be the New York City drug kingpin who

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Speaker 1: wanted Jimmy on his payroll, slinging dope as and means

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Speaker 1: to supplement his income from music in Twelve would be

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Speaker 1: the number of months he would have left to live

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Speaker 1: after a restless crowd pelted him with eggs and bottles

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Speaker 1: on stage during a neighborhood street festival. All totally on

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Speaker 1: this our third episode of season one. Street hustlers and

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Speaker 1: gun toting gangsters, kingpins, angry crowds, haunting dreams and always searching.

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Speaker 1: Jimi Hendrix. I'm Jake Brennan and this is the twenty

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Speaker 1: seven close. He's like twenty seven little one with bill

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Speaker 1: brawls like always, guys, they got more than three hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty fople mostly dung Engle, showed up to hear

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Speaker 1: the greatest rock loops in the country. Jimmi Hendrix slid

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Speaker 1: his dope money through the slot at the top of

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Speaker 1: the door to the blown out five story building on

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Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty f Street in Harlem. The slot

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Speaker 1: had a rusty metal flap that squeaked when he stuck

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Speaker 1: the cash through and felt the hand on the other

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Speaker 1: side grab it on mark slot on marked building. He

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Speaker 1: waited for what seemed like an eternity. It lasted all

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Speaker 1: of fifteen seconds. When the time was up, the slot

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Speaker 1: was pulled back violently and out popped the gloved hand,

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Speaker 1: and Jimmy took a small baggy of cocaine from the

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Speaker 1: anonymous dealer inside and was quickly on his way. Harlem

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Speaker 1: is open frontier, lay ahead tenements squished together in varying

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Speaker 1: shades of nineteen sixty nine, drap the fire escapes like

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Speaker 1: existential urban sculptures, clinging to the brick facade, Trash collecting

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Speaker 1: on the recesses of curb corners and overflowing in the

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Speaker 1: cans on the wide sidewalks. For every building occupied by

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Speaker 1: a small bodega, there were three more shackled and gates

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Speaker 1: plagued by peeling paint, makeshift signs left by someone who

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Speaker 1: spotted the opportunity. Dope is death in times like these,

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Speaker 1: Christ is what you need. Heroin Jesus, What was even

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Speaker 1: the difference? Jimmie Hendricks wondered this to himself as he

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Speaker 1: shuffled down a hundred and twenty five, flanked by his friends,

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Speaker 1: to hark Alim and his twin brother Ton de Rat,

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Speaker 1: two of the first people he met when he arrived

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Speaker 1: in Harlem five years earlier in nineteen sixty four. They

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Speaker 1: stood watch while Jimmy made his transaction at the slot

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Speaker 1: in the door. Everyone called them twins. They called themselves

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Speaker 1: to ghetto fighters. Their parents called them Arthur and Albert

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Speaker 1: Allen Valentine's Day Babies. They were born and raised in Harlem.

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Speaker 1: The twins were hardcore musicians, drug dealers, scensters. As teenagers,

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Speaker 1: they joined Robert Ironhood Bradley's Gladdy Years bodybuilding crew, and

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Speaker 1: they got big quick. They knew how the streets worked,

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Speaker 1: how the game worked, how the game was played, and

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Speaker 1: how to adapt to stay alive. And that's what the

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Speaker 1: body building was all about, adapting. And they were helpful

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Speaker 1: to have around, especially in Harlem. As Jimmy was once

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Speaker 1: again about to be reminded. The trio made their way

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Speaker 1: up the unofficial thoroughfare of Harlem and came upon a

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Speaker 1: kid hanging a poster with Jimmy's face on it. Late

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Speaker 1: teens tops haphazardly pasting the sheet with broad, disaffected strokes,

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Speaker 1: and the poster was promoting a show that Jimmy was

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Speaker 1: playing the following week, It's Small As Paradise over on

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Speaker 1: Seventh Avenue. This was news to Jimmie Hendricks. Jimmy wasn't

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Speaker 1: playing a show at Small Ast next week. The hell,

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Speaker 1: Jimmy thought, this guy hanging posters up and down the

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Speaker 1: street with my face on them? The show next week

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Speaker 1: as small as I am playing no show at Smalls.

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Speaker 1: Jimmy and the twins stood there analyzing this, gazing on

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Speaker 1: the wall. The kid turned and saw Jimmy look back

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Speaker 1: at the poster. Back to Jimmy put two and two together, smirked,

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Speaker 1: and then split bolted, dropped the sloppy poster brush and

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Speaker 1: hit the pavement in the sprint. Jimmy hollered after it

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Speaker 1: was stopped without missing a beat, tour after the kid.

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Speaker 1: The kid was fast and Jimmy, with his two packet

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Speaker 1: day lung, struggled to keep up. Yellow cabs peppered the

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Speaker 1: middle of the street as they ran, a constant streak

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Speaker 1: of yellow and Jimmy's peripheral vision the sidewalk was crueled

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Speaker 1: neath Jimmy's feet as they slammed down under the pavement.

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Speaker 1: The twins kept pace, monitored obstructions, gave directions. Out of

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Speaker 1: the way, motherfucker, Watch out for that car. He's gonna

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Speaker 1: turn here. No wait, ship, he's going straight down down

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Speaker 1: the one to five. They darted in and around. Small

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Speaker 1: crowds of people pooled throughout the long stretch of a

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Speaker 1: long jeans, flat caps, hands and pockets, waiting for a bus.

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Speaker 1: Waiting for the man. All you do is slow me down,

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Speaker 1: and I'm trying to get to the other side of town.

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Speaker 1: Acrosstown traffick legit trio held pace on the kid. Past

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Speaker 1: the old Blumstein building, passed Wilbur's Wigs and Big Brother Grocery.

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Speaker 1: A fat man hung out of a tenement window, shirtless.

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Speaker 1: A toddler and a new white dress clung to her

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Speaker 1: mother's purple bell bombs and the chase did not phase

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Speaker 1: any of them. The kid hit across street just as

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Speaker 1: a blue station wagon was turning off the main drag.

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Speaker 1: He caught the hood of the car and flipped over

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Speaker 1: on the other side, stumbled as he tried to regain

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Speaker 1: his footing and fell to his knees. It was all

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Speaker 1: Jimmy and the twins needed to catch up till Jimmy

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Speaker 1: grabbed the kid's arm and held him against the wall

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Speaker 1: the dilapidated store from and the twins flanked him. Jimmy,

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Speaker 1: let the kid have it. What's this all about? Man?

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Speaker 1: He struggled for his breath, and the kid did not.

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Speaker 1: He just sat there, smirking. His chuck. Tailors were so

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Speaker 1: scuffed up and street worn that they weren't even a

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Speaker 1: shade of white anymore. The laces freight at the top

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Speaker 1: where they had been haphazardly nodded. He wrote his hands

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Speaker 1: all over his jeans to get the residual poster glue out,

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Speaker 1: shook his head as if Jimmie Hendrix was intruding on him,

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Speaker 1: holding him up from getting his work done. The kid

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Speaker 1: didn't even know who the funk Jimmie Hendrix was. Jimmy

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Speaker 1: tried again, I'd playing Small's next week. You did take

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Speaker 1: that ship down off the wall back there, and the

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Speaker 1: kid did not say a word. Wouldn't dignify Jimmy's curbside outrage.

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Speaker 1: The twins weren't focused on Jimmy squabble. Instead, their focus

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Speaker 1: was on the three dudes standing nearby, backs up against

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Speaker 1: the wall, suddenly just there, and one was all kinds

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Speaker 1: of devonair, the other two in turtlenecks. They read black, militant,

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Speaker 1: not quite panthers, more sheep than scary. The devonair want

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Speaker 1: to skewed that revolution jab for pool Hall, tough striped

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Speaker 1: blue short sleeve, button up in a pork pie hat.

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Speaker 1: And the three of them were far enough away to

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Speaker 1: plead ignorance, but close enough to definitely be aware. Jimmy

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Speaker 1: kept calling out the kids bullshit. The kid just stood there,

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Speaker 1: still smirking, saying nothing, and the trio wall flowers came

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Speaker 1: to life and walked right up to the scene. Turtle

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Speaker 1: Nights followed behind the pork pie hat. As they approached,

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Speaker 1: slowly confidently, Jimmy realized how screening was. He'd acted impulsively

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Speaker 1: and this kid wasn't just some kid. He was mobbed

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Speaker 1: up and these wall flowers walking towards him. We're about

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Speaker 1: to bring this whole scene to the next level. What's

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Speaker 1: the matter? You're too good to players show? The wallflower

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Speaker 1: with the pork pie hat asked, calm but definitely offended.

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Speaker 1: Too good for this show, Too good for you, big shot.

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Speaker 1: You're a big shot, Jimmie Hendricks, big fucking shot. The

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Speaker 1: Leaning Twins knew these guys, knew these thugs by sight.

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Speaker 1: The one with the pork pie hat was Mookie Harlem, gangster,

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Speaker 1: bad dude, but they could reason with him. The other two,

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Speaker 1: Tabby and Good Doctor, they were hit men out of Detroit.

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Speaker 1: Tabby and Good Doctor had drawn little revolvers held tight

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Speaker 1: at their side so not to attract too much attention,

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Speaker 1: and we're pointing them right at Jimmy. Jimmy had no idea.

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Speaker 1: He just kept on preaching the injustices that this fucked

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Speaker 1: up situation. Whoa tunde Rock called out to Mookie, where'd

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Speaker 1: you get that hat? And tunder Rock felt around in

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Speaker 1: his pocket for his piece, put his hand on it,

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Speaker 1: just to know it was there and ready. And Jimmy

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Speaker 1: had no idea That twins were packing at all times.

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Speaker 1: It was how the game was played. It was adapting.

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Speaker 1: The Twins appealed to their history with Mookie. The mooky

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Speaker 1: gesture to Jimmy, he didn't give two ships about him

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Speaker 1: or anybody else, but this show was happening whether or

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Speaker 1: not he wanted to be there. And this was a

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Speaker 1: direct order from fat Jack Taylor, the Fat Man, Harlem

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Speaker 1: drug kingpin. No ship. The Twins worked for the Fat

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Speaker 1: Man too. That kind of hurt that the Fat Man

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Speaker 1: would do them like that, But their allegiance was with Jimmy.

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Speaker 1: The Fat Man wants to show in Harlem. Will we'll

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Speaker 1: do a show in Harlem, but not like this. There's

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Speaker 1: another way. Jimmy let the Twins clean up the mess

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Speaker 1: and stood a few feet away as he arguing and

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Speaker 1: negotiating continued. He been in and out of Harlem, a

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Speaker 1: loot over the last few years, felt a connection to

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Speaker 1: the neighborhood, into the twins. In moments like this, though

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Speaker 1: hard boiled, street tough, he felt like he didn't belong,

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Speaker 1: like he was pushed around, taking advantage of made to

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Speaker 1: feel less. Then this wasn't the harm that he thought.

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Speaker 1: He knew the fake gas poster would come down off

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Speaker 1: the building's wall, but he didn't feel victorious. Two Harker

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Speaker 1: shot a glance over at Jimmy, emotion with his eyes

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Speaker 1: that everything would be okay. Jimmy's face, in return, was dejected.

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Speaker 1: He had that face, that face that summoned strangers, that

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Speaker 1: face that made fast friends. His guard was always down,

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Speaker 1: he had no guard. A child of poverty and neglect,

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Speaker 1: a true wanderer, Jimmy broadcast a desire to belong through

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Speaker 1: his face, a glimpse of optimism, a dash of trustworthiness.

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Speaker 1: Over the course of his twenty seven short years, that

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Speaker 1: face would attract a legion of admirers, confidence users, hangers

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Speaker 1: on girlfriends, bandmates, druggies, hippies, dreamers, managers, mafiosos, some prostitutes,

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Speaker 1: some true friends too, friends like the Leaves, Taharka and Tonderra.

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Speaker 1: When Jimmy met the twins, their music career was on

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Speaker 1: hold so they could pursue a faster, easier means of

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Speaker 1: making ends meet, like slinging dope for Fat Jack. Fat

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Speaker 1: Jack owned music clubs, a fast food joint called Fat

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Speaker 1: Jack's Chipman House, and record labels Rojack and Taster, among

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Speaker 1: others you never heard of, and Harlem music went hand

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Speaker 1: in hand with vice. Drugs and prostitution funded the music

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Speaker 1: clubs where Jimmy would play. Drugs and prostitution paid the

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Speaker 1: rent of the twins apartment where Jimmy would crash. Drugs

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Speaker 1: and prostitution passed the time where Jimmy would otherwise be idle.

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Speaker 1: Vice ruled everything around Jimmy Hendricks in the autumn of

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine. The twins were there to guide him

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Speaker 1: through it. Harlem in the nineteen sixties was decades removed

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Speaker 1: from its creative renaissance earlier in the century. The black

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Speaker 1: middle class was leaving for Brooklyn queens and the Bronx,

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Speaker 1: and most of the white population had left years earlier.

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Speaker 1: Crime was on the rise and housing conditions had deteriorated dramatically.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty eight alone, the city's Department of Buildings

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Speaker 1: received five hundred calls a day about rats and busted

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Speaker 1: heaters and backed up toilets. Riots broke out in nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty four after a black kid was shot by a

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Speaker 1: white cop, and then again in nineteen sixty eight when

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Speaker 1: Martin Luther King Jr. Was assassinated. Throughout the twentieth century,

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Speaker 1: crime had a grip on Harlem. As conditions worsened in

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Speaker 1: the sixties, gangsters, black locals sun enterprising out on their own,

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Speaker 1: and others sticking to the long standing, mostly peaceful tradition

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Speaker 1: of working for the Italian men downtown. No matter the type,

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Speaker 1: they all exploited the most vulnerable of their neighbors with drugs, prostitution, numbers,

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Speaker 1: and whatever. Flinn Flamm Fat Jack was the enterprising local

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Speaker 1: type of gangster. He approached Jimmy after seeing him hanging

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Speaker 1: around the Twins. People like you. He told Jimmy you

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Speaker 1: should sling dope with Taharka and Tondera, and Jimmy refused.

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Speaker 1: Not big, boss man, you ain't big, You just tall.

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Speaker 1: That's about all he was loyal to the music and

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Speaker 1: nothing else, partly because he just wasn't that good at

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Speaker 1: anything else. Give him a broom and ask him to

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Speaker 1: sweep the floor, and he'd to suck it up. Give

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Speaker 1: him a paper hat and ask him to take lunch

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Speaker 1: orders at a burger joint. He sucked that up. Give

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Speaker 1: him a guitar, and the guitar he would suck that up, too,

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Speaker 1: but in a completely different way, and the best way possible.

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Speaker 1: That guitar was it for Jimmy Andricks. It was nearly everything,

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Speaker 1: and it handled nearly everything for him. It anyway. He

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Speaker 1: had that face to ensure that the other ten percent

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Speaker 1: would fall into place. Of course, the downfall to having

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Speaker 1: that face and that trustworthiness is that everyone wants a piece,

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Speaker 1: Everyone comes calling, especially when you were the most famous

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Speaker 1: black musician on the planet. Jimmy was a guitar god,

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Speaker 1: a sex symbol of voodoo child, a certified card carrying

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Speaker 1: member of the Freak Flag movement, a psychedelic visionary, and

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Speaker 1: the most recognized black performer there was, first as an

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Speaker 1: ex pat in England and then in his native US.

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Speaker 1: Bigger than Sly, bigger than Marvin, Bigger than the hardest

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Speaker 1: working man in show business. Harlems adopted Georgia Peach, Mr

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Speaker 1: Please Please Please, the original JB. James Brown. So a

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Speaker 1: bunch of African American organizations wanted Jimmy to play for them,

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Speaker 1: fat Jack among them, and they wanted Jimmy to be

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Speaker 1: their poster boy. Fat Jack wasn't alone. The Black Panthers

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Speaker 1: came calling Jimmy a politically ambivalent army. Vent always declined

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Speaker 1: this trip was his and he wasn't about to get

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Speaker 1: it knotted up in some other trip, but he was

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Speaker 1: bothered by the accusations from the black community that he

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Speaker 1: was making white music for white people. Even the historic

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Speaker 1: Apollo Theater turned him down when he tried to book

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Speaker 1: a show there, and they didn't need that many white

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Speaker 1: people hanging around. Meanwhile, the Underworld in Harlem would do

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Speaker 1: just about anything to get Jimmy on their show bill,

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Speaker 1: even if it meant sending out Mookie and his Detroit

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Speaker 1: triggerman to bring the artist into the fold. A free

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Speaker 1: street fair in Harlem seemed like the perfect compromise. The

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Speaker 1: all day festival would benefit the United Block Association, a

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Speaker 1: community engagement organization helping underprivileged youth. Jimmy and the band

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Speaker 1: would not get paid for playing. The idea was he'd

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Speaker 1: be giving back to the neighborhood and getting the goons

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Speaker 1: off his back in the process. The event would feature

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Speaker 1: an eclectic roster of acts that, while not as world

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Speaker 1: renowned as Jimmy, represented a particular slice of the black

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Speaker 1: musical landscape. In nine particular acts from fat Jack record

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Speaker 1: labels like R and B, singer Big Maybel, and Chuckle Luck.

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Speaker 1: Jimmy would be the headliner. Jimmy could bring some of

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Speaker 1: that peace, love and music vibe to the mean streets

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Speaker 1: of New York. He could attempt to be all things

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Speaker 1: to all people. Play for them, mugget up for them

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Speaker 1: from the stage, guitar and ten smile, something like that.

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Speaker 1: When Jimmy and Gypsy's Son and Rainbows got ready to

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Speaker 1: take the u B a outdoor stage at the intersection

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Speaker 1: of Lenox Avenue in A hundred and thirty ninth Street

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Speaker 1: on September five, it was midnight. Big Maybel just wrapped

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Speaker 1: up her set. People hung out of the tenement windows

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Speaker 1: surrounding the concert area and hollered for more. She refused

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Speaker 1: to encore. The stage sat empty, the crowd boob Mitch

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Speaker 1: Mitchell Jimmy's drummer filled the void of the empty stage

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Speaker 1: first and sat down behind his kid. The black crowd

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Speaker 1: took one look at this white dude with the massive

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Speaker 1: afro and booed lauda. They wanted Jimmy for themselves. He

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Speaker 1: was Harlem's Harlem didn't need some white drummer with a

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Speaker 1: wanna be black afro patronizing them. They could have their

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Speaker 1: own street festival without any help from the white man,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much. Jimmy's the longest strade around his

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Speaker 1: shoulder plugged in thought about his hero Bob Dylan and

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Speaker 1: the crowds in England booing him, calling him Judas and

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Speaker 1: Jimmy was only two chords into the opening number when

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Speaker 1: the first glass bottle swared past his head and exploded

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Speaker 1: in a defiant crash behind the stage. We'll be right

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Speaker 1: back after this word word word. Jimmy was eyeing a

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Speaker 1: little miss Strange from the stage. She was a couple

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Speaker 1: of rows back and impossible to ignore, which was why

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Speaker 1: Jimmy had his eyes wide open, which was a good

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Speaker 1: thing because without them being opened, he never would have

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Speaker 1: seen the glass bottle hurrowing straight at him. Fucking unreally

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Speaker 1: thought he was one of the biggest black entertainers on

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Speaker 1: the planet, and he was getting shipped thrown at him

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Speaker 1: in harlemm of all places. The bottle smashed flat against

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Speaker 1: his martial lamp. Glass show are shot all over the stage. Damn,

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Speaker 1: this would be harder than he thought. And then the

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Speaker 1: eggs came and they smashed against the front of the stage.

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00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:13,360
Speaker 1: The sloppy egg entered slowly ran down their faded wooden structure,

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Speaker 1: eggs sucking eggs. That's how this is gonna go. Jimmy Hendrix,

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Speaker 1: fresh from blowing minds at Woodstock, getting pelted with eggs

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Speaker 1: and Harlem Gypsy's Son and Rainbows, started their set atop

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Speaker 1: the four ft tall stage at the ub A Harlem

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Speaker 1: Street Fair and it immediately felt like a disappointment. The

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Speaker 1: crowd of five thousand people that danced and sang all

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Speaker 1: day long, the gwindled two me or five hundred. The

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Speaker 1: peaceful vibe at wood Stock and taking the last train

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Speaker 1: to nowhere spilled and they were throwing eggs, tossing bottles.

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Speaker 1: They want a big maple back. Jimmy stepped to the microphone.

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Speaker 1: This music might stut loud and funky, but that's what's

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Speaker 1: in the air right now? And Jimmy dug in fire

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Speaker 1: to Foxy Lady, to Redhouse. All the shitty was feeling

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Speaker 1: at the moment, disappointment, regret, confusion, it is I are

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Speaker 1: to connect. He man handled his left hand strong strap,

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Speaker 1: bending it through his will and spitting out a version

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Speaker 1: of the Star Spangled Band or the Leo Fender never

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Speaker 1: could have imagined in his wildest dreams, then the Voodoo Child.

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Speaker 1: He looked back at Mitch mitchigal Niche with his mouth

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Speaker 1: wide open, arms flailing around the drum kit like he

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Speaker 1: was yelling at someone, and warned them of an oncoming disaster.

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Speaker 1: You give his eggs and bottles, We give you this.

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Speaker 1: And Jimmy duggan deeper posture, straight back, bent ever so slightly,

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Speaker 1: pointing his guitar to the sky, held tight against his chest,

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Speaker 1: and made it scream of the crowd, dug in fully.

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Speaker 1: Less than two d people stood in the crowd by

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Speaker 1: the time the show was finished. Each one of them

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Speaker 1: went home and told the first person they could find

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Speaker 1: about how fucking great Jimmy Hendrix was that night. Jimmy

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Speaker 1: was used to being an underdog, to being the odd

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Speaker 1: man out, understanding that he was one of those things

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Speaker 1: that is not like the others. To being simultaneously loved

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Speaker 1: and a vile, a black man, a drift and the

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Speaker 1: sea of white musicians, a black man on stage in

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Speaker 1: front of white audiences, the leader of a band had

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Speaker 1: stuck out like a weird, freaky caboose on the tail

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00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:10,440
Speaker 1: end of a prim and proper pop tour. This guy

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Speaker 1: was most certainly not like the others. When Jimmy Hendricks

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Speaker 1: first arrived in London in nineteen sixty six, he up

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Speaker 1: ended white British rock royalty pretty much immediately. Eric Clapton,

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Speaker 1: Pete Towns and Keith Richards. Jimmy smoked them all left

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Speaker 1: their jaws on the floor of the Regent Street Polytechnic.

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Speaker 1: They're probably still there. Every guitar player in the London

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Speaker 1: scene in nineteen sixty six remembers their lives the same way.

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Speaker 1: Before Jimmy and after Jimmy Clapton is God, God, meet

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendricks. Thanks for your service. Jimmy'll take it from here.

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Speaker 1: He opened a show with the title track Sergeant Pepper's

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Speaker 1: The Only Hearts Club Band, just three days after it

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Speaker 1: was released. Paul McCartney stood in the audience, shuffed for sure,

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Speaker 1: but suddenly unsure of himself too. And London musicians at

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Speaker 1: the time weren't just impressed. They were confused, frightened, demon

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Speaker 1: Pete Towns and pondered life behind the room. Jeff Beck

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Speaker 1: considered a career in interior design. Brian Jones turned to

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Speaker 1: Alistair Crawley. Chas Chandler quit playing in the Animals to

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Speaker 1: manage Jimmy and Eric Clapton asked Jimmy if he needed

359
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Speaker 1: a roadie. How does a human being play guitar like that?

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Speaker 1: Never mind that he's playing it behind his back or

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Speaker 1: with his teeth, They're making goddamn love to it right

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Speaker 1: there in front of everyone. How does it sound like that?

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Speaker 1: Plus that groove, that feel he could even sing and write?

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00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:40,800
Speaker 1: And then there were the kids who saw Jimmy opened

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Speaker 1: for the Monkeys in the summer of nineteen sixty seven,

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Speaker 1: when he brought his band to Jimmie Hendrix experienced the

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Speaker 1: States for the first time. The experience were rounded out

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Speaker 1: by Noah Redding on bass and Mitch mitchellan drums. Two

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Speaker 1: white British kids, their afros and flamboyant fashion choices rival Jimmy's.

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Speaker 1: Their psychedelic blues based rock and roll was a future

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Speaker 1: shock to every audience. It was beastly, heaving, otherworldly, a

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Speaker 1: heavy trip of oa wah guitar and avalanche drums, tongue

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Speaker 1: flailing and pelvis thrusting that made Elvis seem like a

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Speaker 1: g rated bedtime story. Jimmy played his guitar. Jimmy lift

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Speaker 1: his guitar. Jimmy fucked his guitar. Jimmy lit his guitar

376
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Speaker 1: on fire. Jimmy had a term for it, science fiction

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Speaker 1: rock and roll. The monkeys were everything the experience were not.

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Speaker 1: They sang pretty pop tunes about trains and cuddly toys.

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Speaker 1: People say the monkey around, okay. They were originally a

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Speaker 1: construct for a TV show and gradually turned into real musicians,

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Speaker 1: but they never lived down there in authentic beginnings, some

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Speaker 1: fantasy assembled by a television executive, fodder from preteens for

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Speaker 1: those who lived a sheltered life, for those who wouldn't

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Speaker 1: know counterculture if it's snapped them in the ass with

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Speaker 1: the tied eye head him. Jimmy called them the plastic

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Speaker 1: beetles playing Jane. American teens came rushing home for Monkey

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Speaker 1: shows that summer and laid a serious trip on her

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Speaker 1: little brothers and sisters. I just saw this guy play

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Speaker 1: guitar with his fucking teeth. Oh shit, no ship. Jimmy's

390
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Speaker 1: talent was too intense, and despite the seeming novelty of

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Speaker 1: his music, odd live pairings and confounded audience, Jimmy Hendrix

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Speaker 1: eventually broke through the world began to see Jimmy the

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Speaker 1: way those early audiences did, as an intensely talented freak

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Speaker 1: of nature who was the physical manifestation of the words

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Speaker 1: star and he was endlessly compelling. Just as each gob

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Speaker 1: smacked teen wondered who is he, Jimmy asked himself the

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Speaker 1: same question. Who am I A sideshow attraction, a freak,

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Speaker 1: a god, a man out of time? Are these my people?

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Speaker 1: Is this where I'm meant to be? Is this who

400
00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:49,399
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be? After the U B A gig

401
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:53,359
Speaker 1: in Harlem, Jimmy was still asking himself those same questions,

402
00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:56,440
Speaker 1: still reaching out and grabbing for something, but never quite

403
00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:59,280
Speaker 1: grasping it. He thought back on the tour with the

404
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Speaker 1: Monkeys and the short lived but explosive life with the experience,

405
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Speaker 1: the shock of it, the audacity the newness of it,

406
00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:09,240
Speaker 1: the far out nous. It was a real trip to

407
00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:11,960
Speaker 1: turn white London on his head and then make head

408
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:14,800
Speaker 1: spin in America. But he also thought about the u

409
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:18,080
Speaker 1: b A, about Harlem, about the Black Panthers. In life

410
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Speaker 1: as a black man in the United States, one year

411
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Speaker 1: after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Jimmy was

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Speaker 1: a black man. He was a blues man. He was

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Speaker 1: raised on muddy waters and Holland Wolf And maybe he

414
00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:33,840
Speaker 1: should just be him, just him, no pyrotechnic artifice, no histrionics,

415
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Speaker 1: no pandering, no smoking mirrors, just be real, just stand

416
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Speaker 1: there and play, play the blues, play who he was.

417
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Speaker 1: He loved Mitch Mitchell like a brother, loved his playing.

418
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:47,359
Speaker 1: But maybe the Harlem crowd was right to boo him.

419
00:24:47,359 --> 00:24:50,199
Speaker 1: Maybe Jimmy needed to stop being everything to everybody and

420
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Speaker 1: just be him. But who was he really? It was

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Speaker 1: a question his own mother would have a hard time

422
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Speaker 1: man swerring if she was still around. In times like

423
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Speaker 1: these ponderous times when his own identity eluded him, Jimmy

424
00:25:07,119 --> 00:25:10,480
Speaker 1: thought of his mother, thought of Lucille. His mind would

425
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:13,159
Speaker 1: go back to the beginning piece together the moments of

426
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,320
Speaker 1: his life, try to understand the present. And there was

427
00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:18,639
Speaker 1: only one place he could find the seal these days,

428
00:25:19,359 --> 00:25:22,080
Speaker 1: and he tried to go there often, no matter how

429
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:48,000
Speaker 1: emotionally gnawing the trip was. Jimmy saw his mother, Lucille,

430
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:51,000
Speaker 1: and his dreams. Each time he'd fall asleep would be

431
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:54,040
Speaker 1: another chance to search out Lucille, to say hello one

432
00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:57,400
Speaker 1: last time, to hear her voice again, to steal back

433
00:25:57,480 --> 00:25:59,320
Speaker 1: some of the times they have been stolen from her,

434
00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,280
Speaker 1: still one from them. He'd find her in some dark

435
00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:06,520
Speaker 1: recess of his mind, deep in his subconscious down to

436
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:10,440
Speaker 1: Seattle Alley, inside a neighbor's house, in the passenger seat

437
00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:12,720
Speaker 1: of a car, on the other end of a telephone,

438
00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:16,399
Speaker 1: he dreamed to search her out, to hunt her down.

439
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 1: He had already lost her, but he was terrified that

440
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:22,199
Speaker 1: he would forget her forever. He'd holler after her as

441
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:24,879
Speaker 1: she walked down a foggy street, and his dreams begged

442
00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:26,840
Speaker 1: her to stay on the phone a little bit longer,

443
00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 1: always asking her to return to him, to not be

444
00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:34,000
Speaker 1: so far away. Every dream was the same, the setting

445
00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:38,040
Speaker 1: would be different, but Lucille was always transitioning, always leaving,

446
00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:43,399
Speaker 1: always on her way out, leaving him behind Lucille, Please

447
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:48,679
Speaker 1: come back where you belong. He'd been dreaming of his

448
00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 1: mother for over ten years now, but he never had

449
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 1: this particular dream. And there was a large caravan of

450
00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:58,159
Speaker 1: people riding animals through a desert. The desert sand was

451
00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:01,280
Speaker 1: deep orange, like tan green rind that you could sift

452
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 1: through and let run through your hands. And there were

453
00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:06,679
Speaker 1: no clouds in the pale blue sky. And the camel

454
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:11,119
Speaker 1: riders wore colorful turbans, scarves, and ropes, and their adventurous

455
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:14,639
Speaker 1: color palettes provided a stark contrast to the monochrome field

456
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:19,639
Speaker 1: of camels and sand. And there was Lucille up on

457
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:22,119
Speaker 1: one of the camels, half of her face obscured by

458
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:25,040
Speaker 1: a thick teal scarf. She brought up the rear of

459
00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:27,920
Speaker 1: the line like a weird little caboose, And the wind

460
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:30,560
Speaker 1: kicked up lightly, and the riders held their hands near

461
00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:34,160
Speaker 1: their eyes. The sun sat high, and the sky so

462
00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:36,480
Speaker 1: high up that you couldn't see it. It was just

463
00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:41,240
Speaker 1: pale blue, far and wide. Jimmy followed behind on foot,

464
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:44,040
Speaker 1: trudging through the sand dunes and struggling to keep up

465
00:27:44,040 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 1: with the procession of camels. He wore an embroidered dashiki

466
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:50,960
Speaker 1: a headband. In the dream, he couldn't feel the heat

467
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:53,520
Speaker 1: of the desert, didn't sweat, didn't run out of breath,

468
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:56,040
Speaker 1: but he still seemed unable to get as close to

469
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 1: the seal as he wanted. Every time he pushed forward,

470
00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:04,439
Speaker 1: she seemed to get a little farther away. A lonely

471
00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:07,639
Speaker 1: green tree sprouted from the middle of the open desert expands.

472
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,439
Speaker 1: It's leafy canopy looked like Jimmy's afro, blown out and

473
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:14,920
Speaker 1: bushy and threatening to topple. The tree. Skinny frame and

474
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:18,119
Speaker 1: the caravan continued past the tree, but Lucille stopped for

475
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 1: a moment. She sat atop the camel's back, fast in

476
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:24,720
Speaker 1: the tree shade and looked out onto the horizon. I'll

477
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 1: see you later, Jimmy, she said, Where are you going?

478
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:32,600
Speaker 1: Jimmy asked her. She didn't answer. She never answered that question,

479
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:35,680
Speaker 1: no matter how many times Jimmy would ask her. Every

480
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,040
Speaker 1: time she come to him in a dream, Jimmy would

481
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:40,840
Speaker 1: ask that same question. It was always near the end

482
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,320
Speaker 1: of the tream. Jimmy would toss out that request that

483
00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:47,600
Speaker 1: refrain the sill. I've been good to you, Please don't

484
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,760
Speaker 1: leave me alone. Lucille just stared ahead as the caravan

485
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:55,920
Speaker 1: continued its desert climb, and then she was moving again.

486
00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 1: She had somewhere else to be, closer and closer to

487
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:01,640
Speaker 1: the desert horizon, I said. Jimmy would have to wait

488
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:05,120
Speaker 1: until the next three follow her again, asked that question again,

489
00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:11,760
Speaker 1: But now she was gone. Jimmy was fifteen when his

490
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:15,280
Speaker 1: mother died. She was a heavy drinker. Her spleen ruptured

491
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:21,600
Speaker 1: hemorrhage cirrhosis. She was thirty two. Looking for his mother

492
00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:23,760
Speaker 1: was something Jimmy had grown used to, even when she

493
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:26,800
Speaker 1: was alive. She would disappear for days at a time,

494
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 1: out on a bender, out partying with friends, out meeting

495
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:33,480
Speaker 1: you strangers. She leave him with neighbors or family. She

496
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 1: was in and out of hospitals. Jimmy's father, al was

497
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:40,720
Speaker 1: largely absent during his early years, stationed halfway across the

498
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:44,400
Speaker 1: country in the Army. This left the parenting to Lucille,

499
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: a teenager who liked the party and was ill prepared

500
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:51,640
Speaker 1: to assume full duties as a caretaker. Lucille was living

501
00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:54,400
Speaker 1: with her parents when she became pregnant with Jimmy. Al

502
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:57,720
Speaker 1: It shipped out. Her folks were on welfare unable to

503
00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:01,200
Speaker 1: support a pregnant teenage daughter, she went down to Jackson

504
00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:04,479
Speaker 1: Street in Seattle, lied about her age, and picked up

505
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 1: a job waitressing at the Bucket of Blood and then

506
00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:11,640
Speaker 1: from his speakeasy Giant. She rubbed elbows with pimps and prostitutes,

507
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 1: junkies and drug dealers, some of the sketchiest clientele in

508
00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:18,960
Speaker 1: the city. She loved it. Sometimes she become the club's

509
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:22,920
Speaker 1: entertainment too. She'd sing for tips. She hit her age,

510
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:27,480
Speaker 1: hit her growing belly, and made that money. Lucille's mother

511
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:30,800
Speaker 1: and Jimmy's grandmother, Clarice Lawson, was the daughter of a

512
00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:34,479
Speaker 1: little rock slave in a Cherokee Indian two oppressed groups

513
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:37,280
Speaker 1: of people living under the genocidal thumb of the late

514
00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:41,840
Speaker 1: nineteenth century American government. Clarice and her husband relocated to

515
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:45,760
Speaker 1: the Pacific Northwest after witnessing a lynching in Arkansas. When

516
00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:49,120
Speaker 1: Jimmy was born in nineteen forty two, Seattle was home

517
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:53,120
Speaker 1: to the government's latest boat with systematic oppression. As Japanese

518
00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:56,640
Speaker 1: Americans were herded into internment camps following the bombing of

519
00:30:56,680 --> 00:31:01,040
Speaker 1: Pearl Harbor. Lucille's head wasn't in all uh. She kept

520
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:04,320
Speaker 1: to herself, stuck to herself, was typically too carried away

521
00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 1: with her own drama to get involved in anyone else's.

522
00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:10,760
Speaker 1: Jimmy had heard all the stories about his mother. They're

523
00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:13,720
Speaker 1: often more vivid than his own memories. Since so much

524
00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:16,720
Speaker 1: of his childhood moments he could recall didn't involve her,

525
00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:20,320
Speaker 1: he needed some stories for himself. He looked for in

526
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:22,800
Speaker 1: his mind the hardest when he was looking for himself,

527
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:26,360
Speaker 1: moments like the gig at the Salvation Club, like the

528
00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:28,360
Speaker 1: U b A Festival, or when he was out on

529
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:30,920
Speaker 1: the streets of Harlem or arriving in London for the

530
00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:35,280
Speaker 1: first time. Jimmy was always searching, just like he was yesterday,

531
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 1: just like he would be tomorrow, just like he was

532
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:40,960
Speaker 1: when he was eighteen and found himself handcuffed by two

533
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 1: Seattle be cops, And just like he was when he

534
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:47,360
Speaker 1: went searching for himself and the most unlikely of roles,

535
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:53,200
Speaker 1: Private James Marshall Hendricks, paratrooper for the first airport in

536
00:31:53,240 --> 00:32:09,120
Speaker 1: the U. S. Army. The twenty seven Club is scored

537
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 1: and co written by me Jake Brennan. Zeth Lundy is

538
00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:15,800
Speaker 1: the lead writer, editor and co producer. The twenty seven

539
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 1: Club is mixed and engineered by Sean Kleen and Matt Bowden,

540
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:22,280
Speaker 1: both of whom lent their considerable music talent to the

541
00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 1: scoring of the series, as well additional music and score

542
00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:29,320
Speaker 1: elements by Ryan Spreaker. The twenty seven Club is produced

543
00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 1: by myself for Double Elvis in partnership with iHeart Radio.

544
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 1: Sources for this episode are available at Double Elvis dot

545
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:39,640
Speaker 1: com on the twenty seven Club series page. The twenty

546
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 1: seven Club is released weekly every Thursday. Season one features

547
00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: twelve episodes on Jimmy Hendricks In season two will feature

548
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:50,120
Speaker 1: twelve episodes on Jim Morrison. If you like what you here,

549
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 1: please be sure to subscribe to the twenty seven Club

550
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 1: on Apple podcast the I Heart Radio app, or wherever

551
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, and if you'd like to win

552
00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:00,800
Speaker 1: a free twenty seven Club poster designed by a man himself,

553
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:03,840
Speaker 1: Nick Gonzalez, then leave a review for twenty seven Club

554
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:08,080
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or hashtag subscribe to seven Club on

555
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 1: social media, and we'll pick two winners each week and

556
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:14,720
Speaker 1: announce them on the Double Elvis Instagram page that's at

557
00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:17,400
Speaker 1: Double Elvis. You're gonna want to give that a fall off,

558
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:19,720
Speaker 1: so get out there and please spread the word about

559
00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:22,760
Speaker 1: the Seven Club. As always, you can find me blabbing

560
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:26,040
Speaker 1: about other crazy rock stars on my other podcast, disgrace Land,

561
00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:28,719
Speaker 1: and you can talk to me per usual on Instagram

562
00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:32,560
Speaker 1: and Twitter at graceland Pod. One way or another, I

563
00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:40,800
Speaker 1: hope to be talking to you soon. Until then, what

564
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:41,880
Speaker 1: that fear is