Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
>> Is there a run of Hendrix shows, or specific tour that, in your
opinion, was especially riveting during that time (67-68)?


Here's a few
October 9, 1967 Olympia, Paris - great soundboard recording.
December 22, 1967 Oympia, London - filmed - great fun version of "Sgt.
Peppers LHCB".
Feb 1968, Winterland, Jimi brings up Buddy Miles for a long version of
"Dear Mr. Fantasy."
March 19, 1968. Ottawa, Canada, great soundboard of this show
May 10, 1968, Fillmore East, NY. Jimi does Dylan's "Crawl out your
Window," and when someone yells out for him to take off his hat he
responds: "I'll take off my hat if you take off your pants."
  

    

>This comment related to Grunge comes from the key guitarists in this
>Seattle scene who love to cite Jimi as a fundamental influence.

Ask again Scot...Jimi is only part of the picture...next time ask about,
Leigh Stephens, Jan Savage, Wayne Kramer, Tony Iommi and Chris Newman who
also figure along with Page, Beck and others in the roots of grunge. One
might speculate Van Halen is in there somwhere, but the above list is a good
start.

Most electric guitarists today will give nod to Hendrix and rightfully, but
in contemplating Hendrix's 'inexplicable' sound,
I've yet to read or hear a discussion of 2 considerable factors.

  The extraordinary musical literacy of the players he mixed with
  in London. This literacy included knowledge of 20th century
  post-war tone stretching music, such as Stockhausen, Berio,
  Penderecki, and with many highly trained and road tested
  jazz skills. As well there was a wierd painterly approach by
  many of the younger UK musicians at the time that music critic
  Greg Russo attributes to art-school notions of 'expressionism'
  that mixed with their working class empathy for the blues.

 The role of jazz horn players on Hendrix, saxphonists who
  earlier in the 60s with their energetic extention of
  technique, range and expression, (and even theatrics in the
  case of John Gilmore),  seemed to very related to, if not set
  the foundation for what Hendrix later did on guitar.

(sorry about my rough posts and scribbles, i'm using telnet).
  

    
In this 1968 interview Jimi doesn't seemed bothered by categories,
charts, or reaching an R&B audience. But, in order to reach "soul
people" the group would have to improve. Jimi's asked why his music was
not crossing over on R&B radio.

Hendrix: It just takes time. We haven't been exposed in this one area
as much as we have in other areas. But we're as open to it as we are to
anything else.

Q: But why don't we see you on the R&B charts?

Hendrix: Well, it's all right. Our music may not be R&B to them; it
may not be what they think of as R&B. It doesn't bother me. Everyone
gets his chance.

Q: Do you feel that people are too hung up on musical categories and
won't listen to your records because of labels?

Hendrix: Yeah. But sometimes they don't listen to something because it
sounds completely alien to them and what they've been used to. It's
like a colored actress wants to make it Hollywood, she has to be twice
as good. It's like that with us: we have to be 10 times as good to get
the soul people to listen to us.

(from Hullabaloo - Feb. 1969)

. 
  

    
Darrell...of course Jimi is only a part of the picture in the
guitarists who influenced Grunge music.  He was, however, a key part of
the equation if we are to take several interviews by grunge guitarists
as to who their primary influences were.  

Even within Grunge there was not a monolithic sound. The guitar work
in Pearl Jam and Soundgarden is more sophisticated than Kurt Cobain's. 
Alice In Chains sounds far more foreboding and haunting with a
prominent bass blues fronting.

When I think of the primary similarity between Grunge music and the
great hard rock from 1966 to 1972, it is in the shared vibrancy.  In
the late 70s and 80s, from Disco to glam rock (including Journey,
Foreigner, Boston, etc.), and the splintering of rock toward varying
influences of folk, country, jazz fusion, and heavy metal, the vitality
of rock music seemed to dissipate.  In no way did Grunge come close to
overshadowing the cultural magnitude of psychedelic rock, but there
was a straight forward vibrancy captured by the Grunge bands that was
reminescent of the earlier era.   

Also, Darrell, your points about Jimi being influenced by the high
musical literacy of English musicians and jazz horn players is
fascinating.  Jimi, not being able to read or write music, certainly
had an incredible ability to absorb and synthesize many musical
influences.  

I think, though, we need to be careful not to overstate how much of
this English "literacy" he could have been exposed to and integrated
into his own style in the short time from when he arrived in London and
was put out on a rather grueling tour schedule. According to "Black
Gold", in September 1966, Hendrix flew to London. He started to record
the "Are You Experienced" album in October. In December '66 he wrote
"Purple Haze." The Experience started touring heavily in March 1967. 

Certainly, the guitar techniques of the successful players he met and
directly jammed with--Clapton, Townshend, Daevid Allen--were, as Rik
suggests, the primary influence on that last layering of the Hendrix
sound.  The high literacy of English players, in particular the
musicians you mentioned, was influential only insofar as he could
directly absorb such sophistication from those players he jammed with.
It's highly unlikely that he was aware of "Stockhausen, Berio, or
Penderecki."  It's certainly hard to suggest that this level of musical
literacy in the English scene was more significant than the Elvis
Presley or Muddy Waters records he heard as a kid?

On the other hand, I do agree that Jimi, from both the "Chitlin'
Circuit" and the techniques he learned in England to convey the sound,
was amazing at projecting a jazz horn sound through his guitar. 
  

    
The notion that he may have known music by the likes Stockhausen or
Penderecki is interesting. If so, perhaps they influenced him in his
use of feedback and electronics.
  

    
>It's certainly hard to suggest that this level of musical
>literacy in the English scene was more significant than the Elvis
>Presley or Muddy Waters records he heard as a kid?

The American experience was important, essential and perhaps it
weighs in more in the long run than the London experience. But many
American guitarists had that same background and yet did not sound
like Hendrix.

Every other tree has been shook, all that IMHO remains is the question
  of 20th century composers filtering through UK psychedelia, and the
expressive use of horns that was going earlier in the 60s. Then again
one Sun-Ra show in NYC could of done the trick.
  

    

Stockhausen certainly was in early Pink Floyd's bag of tricks,
Penderecki is a speculation, but the extended use of stringed
instruments to achieve previously unheard sounds is one thing in 
common. Maybe Hendrix was carrying around a copy of Holst's planets,
most people don't escape hearing 'classical' music, even if they
can't ID who they are listening to. Berio was in McCartney and 
George Martin's bag of tricks.

Would a few good nights though listening to early extended Pink Floyd
sets been enough to catch the thread?
  

    
To end, type . (a period) on a line by itself
Riding gain on a 100 Watt Marshall with no gain staging is a thing unto
itself, and you learn how to do it by being exposed to someone who does it.
The guys doing it at the time were in England.    THAT is where R&B went
into the stratosphere.
  

    
<<The American experience was important, essential and perhaps it
weighs in more in the long run than the London experience. But many
American guitarists had that same background and yet did not sound
like Hendrix. Every other tree has been shook, all that IMHO remains
is the question of 20th century composers filtering through UK
psychedelia>>

For me the question isn't one over the other, and I think you're
definitely onto something with this idea of "filtering."  As a musician
who couldn't read or write music or who never studied it formally,
Hendrix was essentially imitative and experimental. He obviously had a
great ear and excellent execution.

Where I feel I've had to stand my ground in this discussion is the
idea, somehow, that the music he heard and began to play as a begining
musician, those first live gigs at Spanish Castle, his entire youth,
should be discounted somehow, but in three months in England he would
absorb all the nuances of the post-war music scene there.  The fact
that Jimi was so imitative would indicate that all these disparate
influences factored into his musicianship. 

The music and limited musical playing experiences of his youth was
significant in how it steered Jimi towards the types of music he most
enjoyed--rockNroll, blues, R&B.  The "Chitlin' Circuit" taught him his
craft.  By the time Jimi got to London, he had the prerequisite skill
set to QUICKLY integrate and filter his R&B/Soul/Blues styling by
sitting in with the best players of UK Psychedelia.  Again, what he
learned was directly from the best guitarists in London's scene.  And,
absolutely, that was where R&B went into the stratosphere. 

Steve, do you know of any musicologist who has studied the stylistic
differences between Jimi's playing in the Greenwich Village days just
before he left for London in late 1966, and his playing on his two 1967
LPs: "Are You Experiences" and "Axis: Bold as Love"?  Such an analysis
would get at the heart of how significant the guitar playing of UK
psychedelia was in elevating Jimi's guitar playing to the
"stratospheric" level.
  

    
>>Steve, do you know of any musicologist who has studied the stylistic
differences between Jimi's playing in the Greenwich Village days just
before he left for London in late 1966, and his playing on his two 1967
LPs: "Are You Experiences" and "Axis: Bold as Love

I'd suggest Douglas J Noble. He is a music journalist, guitar
instructor and musician based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His website is:
http://www.djnoble.demon.co.uk/
There are four specific articles about Hendrix's style on his site.

The only problem is we have no recorded music of Jimi's "Greenwich
Village days" to compare it with. I've looked and asked all the right
people too! The closest I've ever come is "Killin Floor" and "Hey Joe"
from an October 1966 Paris concert/broadcast (found on the box set from
2000). Also, there's a version of "Hey Joe" by Spirit. When I
interviewed Randy California he told me that this is the same style JJ
and the Blue Flames played it at Cafe Wha?. From September (N.Y.) to
October (Europe), it was the same Jimi, just a different back up band.
I'm not so sure he learned much from the "best guitarists in London's
scene," as they did from him. 

Personally, when Jimi crossed the Atlantic in 1966, I don't feel
anything magical happened to his playing, he just found a more
receptive audience with better resumes (Clapton, Townshend, Beck,
etc.). It was still the same hard drivin' blues, with a tinge of R&B
style, behind a rock beat that made him popular. I'm not discounting
Seattle or the influences he picked up there, I just feel much of the
credit should go to his father/mother for their love of music and
dance, and keeping that radio/record player on most of the time. (As a
kid, Jimi took it apart to see where the music was coming from.)

We do know that Jimi kept his R&B stage schtick while performing in
the Village. Guitarist Jeff Baxter said: “It was just incredible to
watch this guy play. They were playing lot of blues. Jimi played at the
guitar, on the guitar, around the guitar. It’s almost as if the
instrument wasn’t even there. There was so much on his mind, and there
just happened to be a guitar.”

According to folk singer Ellen McIllwaine, there were times when he'd
play a softer set in a Village club: "The picture I have in my head is
I was sitting at the piano and Jimi was leaning over on the barstool.
He was not the personality you’d see with the John Hammond act, like
squirting toothpaste into the audience and fooling around like that.
Jimi didn’t do any of that when we played together. He played very
quietly and seriously. I always played boogie-woogie piano and a couple
of ballads. It was kind of bluesy.”

If you take away all the psychedelic studio effects found "AYE" and
"ABAL" you still have great albums. His style didn't change, he was
just given the freedom and encouragement to explore his imagination.
Acid may have helped too.
  

    
Steve, do you know how Jimi first became interested in listening to
Bob Dylan?  At first blush it seems incongruous that Jimi would drawn
to Dylan and his heavily folk-influenced sound. Dylan's music, with
several notable exceptions, was so different from the R&B/Bluesy world
Jimi was inhabiting prior to going to London in the mid-'60s. Yet, if
ever there is an example of a rock cover song elevating the original
into the stratosphere, "All Along the Watchtower" takes Dylan's folk
ballad and commandeers it into the highest realms of psychedelic
fusion.
  

    
>>Chas Chandler

In one his last interviews, Chas said, "“When Jimi was playing in New
York, I was half convinced to sign him up before I heard him play. We
had a talk in a little restaurant before he played at the club. I
remember thinking, ‘this cat’s wild enough to upset more people than
Jagger. He had a trio, but I felt the drummer was not good enough. He
also had a brilliant guitarist – a boy called Randy California – who
was only sixteen. By the time I heard him play “Wild Thing” and “Like A
Rolling Stone,” I was certain. When he did a version of “Hey Joe,” a
number I was planning to record as my first independent venture from
the Animals with another artist – that clinched it. As soon as I
convinced Jimi that he could buy amplifiers in England – he seemed to
be under the impression we were all still using gas over here – he was
all for coming to London.”

>>Steve, do you know how Jimi first became interested in listening to
Bob Dylan? 

Hendrix was a huge fan of Dylan’s music. While in Curtis Knight & The
Squires, the civil rights themed song they recorded, “How Would You
Feel,” not only sounds like “Like a Rolling Stone,” it reworks the
Dylan line “How does it feel.” When Hendrix formed Jimi James and the
Blue Flames, they started including “Like a Rolling Stone” into the set
list, and this carried over to the Experience sets too. Unfortunately
no definitive studio version of Hendrix performing the song has
surfaced.

Fay Pridgeon, Jimi's girlfriend at the time (65/66) said he was
obsessive about Dylan, often grabbing her from another room to listen
to the latest Dylan record - often so loud the entire neighborhood
could hear it.

Hendrix also covered at least three other Dylan tunes, both live and
in the studio. These tracks include  “All Along the Watchtower,”
“Drifter's Escape” and “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?” In
addition, Dylan's lyrical style had a profound influence on Jimi's
original material. Hendrix songs such as “My Friend,” “The Wind Cries
Mary” and “Little Wing” all show a distinct Dylan-esque approach.
Hendrix had an effect on Dylan's music as well, as evidenced by the
live version of “All Along the Watchtower” from Dylan's 1974 live album
"Before the Flood."

###

Those in the SF Bay Area can tune in this Friday (11/23) night at 10
pm to KPFA (Berkley - 94.1 FM or listen on the net at:
http://www.kpfa.org/). I'll be a guest on "The history of funk & soul
show" and will be bringing some of my rare Hendrix material to play.
It's all part of annual birthday tribute the station does. 

I'm also hosting this event: On November 27, 2007 (Tuesday), Jimi
Hendrix would have turned 65. In celebration of that milestone, Book
Passage in Corte Madera (CA) will host a Jimi Hendrix Birthday Bash
featuring an Air Guitar Contest, guitar giveaway, and live music by
guitarist Ralph Woodson. The event starts at 7 pm. Call (415) 927-0960
for more info.
  

    
To get a glimpse of Jimi on the cusp of leaving the R&B circuit
behind, take a look at these photos of him backing, Wilson Pickett,
Esther Phillips, and Percy Sledge at the Atlantic Records release party
on May 5, 1966 at New York's Prelude Club. Jimi's in the house band,
King Curtis and the Kingpins.

The website
is:http://pictopia.com/perl/gal?provider_id=33&name=Hendrix,%20Jimi

Jimi's hair is slicked back, and it looks like he's playing a white
Fender strat. The liner notes of the 2nd Percy Sledge LP "Warm And
Tender Soul" (Atlantic SD 8132 released in 1966) have this to say:
"Percy Sledge comes from a small Alabama town called Leighton. His
first trip to the Big City came shortly after his first hit. We met him
when Atlantic Records threw a "welcome" bash at the famed Prelude
Supper Club on New York's upper Broadway. Percy was as dazzled by the
bright lights as the critics and radio people were dazzled by his
performance. As part of the "fun-and-games" that night, he and Esther
Phillips sang a duet version of "When A Man Loves A Woman" while King
Curtis and his band backed them up. Percy and Esther sang nineteen
choruses of the song before they finally quit."
  

    
You know, Vee-Jay just re-released Little Richard's Little Richard is
Back album (at least on eMusic and maybe iTunes), and the last tune on
the album is "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)," on which
Hendrix is clearly audible. I wonder if he's on the rest of the album,
too? Nobody's ever paid much attention to it because it's mostly
re-recordings of Richard's hits. But Don Covay is mixed up with it,
too.
  

    
Steve, in "Black Gold" you reference several interviews underscoring
Jimi's talk of dying young.  The song "If 6 Were 9" referenced Jimi's
readiness to die.  How much do you think Jimi actually had such
premonitions.  Also, I think it's tempting for people, after the fact,
to claim that Jimi had mentioned a death wish or suicide pact in the
months before he died.  What do you make of Jimi's own premonitions, if
anything, and the substance, if any, to some of these postmortem
interviews making similar claims?
  

    
>>Jimi's talk of dying young...

Well, there were certainly many references. He told "Rainbow Bridge"
film director in July of 1970, "The next time I go home to Seattle will
be in a pine box." He also told his friend Melinda Merryweather (art
director for "Rainbow Bridge") as he left Maui that he wouldn't be here
much longer, as she interpreted it - in this world. A few months later
he told the press and another friend, basically the same thing, "I
doubt I'll live to see 28." It all came true.

Keith Altham, who interviewed Jimi a few days before died said, "I
kind of felt that he was on some kind of suicide course for the
previous year. And I wouldn’t have been altogether surprised if I had
heard about it prior to that. Brian Jones had gone. It was a similar
kind of dissipation of a talent that I’d seen before. The fact that I’d
done that interview with him forty eight hours before his death, and
the kind of hope that he was expressing, and the aspirations that he
was talking about, that shook me because I thought he’s got it, he’s
got to get it back together again. It was incredibly sad to see
somebody of that superb talent disappear. I mean he was the rock’n’roll
electric guitarist of all time you know, and I doubt whether there
will ever be anybody like that again. I don’t think he’d actually
explored even his full potential yet. 

Eric Burden, who had jammed with Jimi a few nights before he died,
agrees: "I could tell that he wasn't going to be around long. I really
think that he tried to exit several times. It just didn't work out for
him. I don't think that anybody could have helped him. I really think
that he was involved in one of these psychological games stimulated by
the drugs that were around at the time. And, short of somebody minding
him day and night, I don't think that there was a way that he could
have been safe, unfortunately.

Were these premonitions Jimi was giving us clues? I guess it all
depends who you talked to. Over the past thirty I've met and
interviewed many people that knew Jimi quite well. Some feel he was
murdered by his manager or even done in by the CIA/FBI because he was
becoming too political and powerful. I've even heard the Mafia may have
been involved.

From the evidence I've seen Jimi was depressed at the time of his
death, and who could blame him. He wanted out the contract that his
manager held over his head. This was the same guy that had him
kidnapped, and staged a rescue to look like he was the good guy. Jimi's
best friend/bass player, Billy Cox, had a breakdown. After being
spiked with acid, Billy had to leave the group.

Jimi had no home to speak of. No love in his life; Monika Danneman
claims they were to marry, but never had any proof. Then there were the
lawsuits from a previous manager, and a paternity suit. In the 28
photos that were taken on the day he died, you can see his warm smile
had gone and his face was puffy.

I'm not Mr. Theory guy, I just feel on the night of his death Jimi was
with a naive young lady that panicked when she saw he was choking. We
will never the complete story of how or why he died since Monika
committed suicide in 1996, just after losing a court case with one of
Jimi's other girlfriends.

At the time, I was covering the new investigation into Jimi's death
for my fanzine. Monika was in total denial,and couldn't believe that
someone was questioning her version of how Jimi died. Monika called my
house a few days before she killed herself and left a message on my
machine saying that she had something important to tell me.
Unfortunately I was never able to reach her and found out what was so
important; three days later she was found dead.

 
  

    
<<Monika called my house a few days before she killed herself and left
a message on my machine saying that she had something important to
tell me. Unfortunately I was never able to reach her>>


What a hollow feeling that must have been.


I agree with what a couple people said in an earlier post that
compared to Janis and Jim Morrison who were so overtly self-destructive
with alcoholism/heroin and alcoholism respectively, there seemed to be
an ambitiousness and zest of life (under his road-weary fatigue) that
hinted of such a promising future for Hendrix. I've always been willing
to accept the official account of his accidental death from wine/barbs
and asphyxiation. 
  

    

I wonder about the self-destructive virus, for some its a passive
and others an agressive trait that leads to risky behaviour and 
ingestions, and it always brings up the question of will over 
destiny. It seems a place like the Electric Lady Studios, friends and 
playmates on both sides of the pond, would of been enough positive 
magic to keep Hendrix on the upbeat, but sounds like there were more 
than a few things taking him down.
 

BTW: http://www.univibes.com/BBKing_on_Jimi.html
  

    
Steve, my favorite song of Hendrix that came out after he died was
"Angel" from the fine Cry of Love album.  Eva Sundqvist, the mother of
his son in Sweden, claimed it was about her. I've also read where Jimi
had worked on his arrangement for "Angel" quite extensively, so what we
get is a fairly unpolishe version, by Jimi's standards. Also, didn't
Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding or Billy Cox lay down their tracks for
Angel after Jimi died? What else can you tell us about Jimi?

Also, what other posthumous songs by Hendrix do you find most
compelling?
  

    
Steve, about 1980 I remember going to hear Randy Hanson, a white guy
from suburban Seattle, imitate Jimi Hendrix.  He had on an Afro wig and
Jimi's stage get up, and did an amazing job recreating Jimi's sound on
guitar.  He managed to parlay his Hendrix act into quite a long
career, didn't he? Were there or are there any other Hendrix imitation
acts still out there?

Also, we've talked about the influence of Jimi's guitar playing on the
Grunge guitarists, and the group Living Color.  Lenny Kravitz seems to
have been strongly influenced by Hendrix. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric
Clapton both did strong distinctive covers of Little Wing. There was a
folk couple, where the guy plays an amazing acoustic version of Little
Wing.  Where do you note the imitation of the Hendrix style of guitar
playing most strongly?  Are there some other musicians that you can
point to that were highly derivative of Jimi's sound?  You stated that
you think the guys in London, when he showed up in late '66, learned
more from him than he did from them.

Thirty-seven years after Jimi died, what would you say his greatest
legacy is as a guitar player?  
  

    
<Anger he smiles, towering in shiny metallic purple armour
Queen jealousy, envy waits behind him
Her fiery green gown sneers at the grassy ground
Blue are the life-giving waters taken for granted,
They quietly understand
Once happy turquoise armies lay opposite ready,
But wonder why the fight is on

But theyre all bold as love, yes, theyre all bold as love
Yeah, theyre all bold as love
Just ask the axis>

So much has been written about Jimi Hendrix, the guitar phenomenon. 
Yet, comparatively little has been said about his abilities as a
lyricist.  When I listen to Band of Gypsys, the hard driving blues/soul
influence creates a renewed vibrancy for Jimi. Yet, for me, those
songs take Jimi back to his roots.  The songs are lyrically less
compelling.  

When we talk about what might have happened if Jimi had recorded with
Miles Davis, etc. I imagine Hendrix expanding and refining his guitar
presentation.  Yet, when I think of Jimi Hendrix, the distinctive
artist, his ascendence as an innovator of psychedelic rock comes in no
small part from his lyrical sensibility. This is why I wonder if
Hendrix would have ever had anywhere near the same impact on the more
"non-verbal" world of Jazz as he did in the emerging world of hard
rock.

In "Black Gold" you use excerpts from Jimi's many regular letters to
his father.  These show him to be a solid writer (and loving son) with
a fine ability to express himself on paper.  You also said earlier
that, until Chas Chandler encouraged Jimi to write lyrics, there is no
record of him having done so. I think this, more significantly than
imitating the guitar techniques of the London rock stars, is where Jimi
came into his own in England.  Chas Chandler, by encouraging Jimi to
write and sing, is perhaps most responsible for rounding Hendrix out as
a complete artist.

Steve, do you know of any books that have focused extensively on
Hendrix, the lyrical poet?  Certainly, it's not hard to speculate that
LSD played a key role in Jimi's predilection to write with strong color
imagery, the Alice-In-Wonderland style of fantastical evocations. 
Like all strong creative writers, Jimi wrote with great sensory detail.
 He understood the power of aliteration (green gown/grassy gown).
There is the influence of Sci-Fi themes and paranormal/extraterrestial
overtones. He also loved phantasmagoric/medevial/romantic allusions. 
Most importantly, Jimi's great musical ear allowed him to meld and
rhyme his imaginative imagery with melody.

When we try to imagine Jimi living longer, I am as curious how he
might have developed as a songwriter as I am about his potential guitar
advances.  There is talk of him studying at the Julliard School of
Music (which I doubt would have happened, because of the money demands
on him to keep touring/recording), but what might more years have
produced in Jimi, the poet?
  

    
>>This is why I wonder if Hendrix would have ever had anywhere near
the same impact on the more "non-verbal" world of Jazz as he did in the
emerging world of hard rock.

Good lord, all you have to do is wade through a decade of godawful
jazz-fusion to appreciate the degree to which less-talented guitarists
(whom I won't name for fear of goring someone's ox) tried bravely and
failed utterly to do what Hendrix did effortlessly. 

My fantasy of his collaboration with Miles Davis would be Miles
rasping "Hey, Hendrix, shut up and listen; don't play so much," as a
way to start integrating him into one of those large post Bitches Brew
bands he had. When Jimi finally figured out when to come in, it would
have been something so powerful it would have put Miles on the line.
Which is what Miles would have wanted, of course. By that point, he
didn't have sidemen; he had co-conspirators. 

But there were so many people reaching for new territories then that I
think some magnificent stuff would have come out of it.
  

    
"By that point, he didn't have sidemen; he had co-conspirators."

Wow.  You're right.


Look, everybody has down periods.   And it must truly suck to feel that
everybody else has plans for you that don't include yours.   But wanting
out of your contract, wanting out of an act that's beginning to bore you,
and wishing you'd made better choices in you love life can make for a bad
patch.  But they don't necessarily mean you want out of life.   TMOT.
Sometimes an overdose is just an overdose.
  

    
And it wasn't even an overdose. He choked to death on his vomit.
Probably lying in a bad position, had too much to drink, the sedative
made him logy, whoops... 
  

    
Tommy Dorsey went the same way, as I've mentioned over in g music.