JANUARY 20, 1968

VOL. 1, NO. 4

OUR PRICE:
TWENTY-FIVE CENTS

BY RALPH J. GLEASON BY MICHAEL LYDON BY JANN WENNER

A flat out anti-drug statement is an im- The new Capitol LP, Got that Feeling: The Crown Prince of Soul is dead.
portant part of the package of the new Dona- Jimi Hendrix Plays, Curtis Knight Sings, is Otis Redding, 26 years old, a former well-
van twin-LP set released in December. not what it appears: Hendrix's latest release. driller from Macon, Georgia, died in a plane
An in an exclusive interview with ROLLING The cover, with no liner notes and no dates, crash in an icy Wisconsin lake on Decem-
STONE, he reiterated the plea to youth and has a picture of Hendrix taken at the Mon- ber 10. With him were the five teen-age
underlined his position. terey Pop Festival, but all the tracks were members of the Bar-Kays, a group which
recorded before then and before Hendrix's made the popular instrumental, "Soul
"I call upon every youth to stop the use fame and full artistic development. Some Finger," and who backed Otis on his recent
of all drugs and banish them into the dark of them may be three years old. tours and appearances.
and dismal places. For they are crippling our The record is barely representative of Otis was headed from Cleveland, Ohio, to
precious growth." what Hendrix is now doing and is an em- a Sunday evening concert in Madison, Wis-
Donovan makes this statement in the liner barrassment to him as a musician. More- consin. It was his first tour in the private
notes he wrote himself for Epic Records' two- over, while it does show the early elements plane he had just purchased. His plane hit
LP set. of the style he has now developed, it is so the surface of the fog-shrouded lake with
"Must you lay down your Fate to the Lord badly rcorded to be of little historical value. tremendous force, widely scattering the
High Alchemy in the hands of the Chalk and The record i!; in fact eight tracks selected debris. He was only four miles from the
the Drug?" Donovan asks in his message to out of 30 bought as a package by Capitol Madison Municipal Airport. On Tuesday,
youth and adds the warning "Magic circles from New York producer Ed Chalpin. teams of divers were still dredging the bot-
he will spin and dirges he will sing through Chalpin runs PPX Industries, a company tom of the lake in a search for the bodies.
the transparency of a Queen Ant's Wing." that does note for note copies of American See the centerspread of this edition
"Yes, I call upon every youth to stop the hits for South American distribution.
Hendrix, who played with a group called for one of Otis' last interviews.
use of all Drugs and heed the Quest to seek
the Sun." Curtis Knight and the Squires about three Redding's singing career began when he
In his Fairmont Hotel suite during his rec- years ago, may have recorded them under won fifteen straight Sunday night talent
ord-breaking engagement in San Francisco, a PPX producer's contract or when con- shows in Macon. One day he drove with a
Donovan repeated his call. "There's so much tracted to the Sue or RSVP recording com- friend of his to Memphis for a recording
energy being misdirected," he said. "The en- panies. The Sue and RSVP contracts were session, cut two sides himself and was im-
ergy that built the great civilizations---China, bought out by Hendrix's present manage- mediately a major talent. Among the many
India- that could all be done again without ment. songs he was responsible for were "Pain in
drugs. Nick Venet, an A & R man at CaJ?itol who My Heart," done in a later version by some
prepared the album, says he has little idea of his greatest admirers, the Rolling Stones;
"I tasted a few things and just gave it up. when the material was recorded: "I didn't
Drugs are only a minor part, a phase, a fad "Mr. Pitiful," a song so popular on the
trust what Chalpin told me, so I didn't put rhythm and blues charts that for a long time
everybody has to live through-well not ev- any liner notes on the cover." Most he thinks
erybody. I was never a big drugger." he was known as Mr. Pitiful; "That's How
are "several years" old. By internal evidence Strong My Love Is," another song which was
With the references to drugs in Donovan's ( the use of a wah-wah pedal, a device in- picked up by the Rollin~ Stones. .
lyrics, the question naturally arises of a pos- troduced about a year ago), he figured that Among the others, Otis' great recordmgs
sible conflict. 'The songs were a commentary two tracks ( "Hush Now" and "Get That included "Shake," a Sam Cooke song with
on the scene, truthfully, on what was going Feeling") were recorded when Hendrix was which he broke up the Monterey Pop Fes-
on then. They were not an endorsement," in New York in May. tival; "I've Been Loving You Too Long," and
Donovan says. Yes, it applies to grass as well Venet makes no claim to the album's "Try A Little Tenderness," soul ballads
as to the so-called harder drugs, he told quality. Chalpin, he says, hoped four LP's which he made so effective b;Y singing the
ROLLING STONE. could be made from his 30 tracks, but Venet tenderest lines against drivmg uptempo
His reflection of drugs and his exhortation could find only eight which he thought were beats. Another great Otis ballad was "Fa-Fa-
to his fans to put them down apparently is a salvageable. "We also made to remix and Fa-Fa-Fa" also known as "Sad Song." The
direct result of his involvement with the Ma- re-record Chalpin's tapes," he said, "We lost song he did which sold the biggest was his
harishi Mahesh Yogi, the guru who has in- some fidelity along the way." version of the Stones' "Satisfaction," which
terested the Beatles and others in transcen- Warner Brothers/Reprise, which is bring- broke on many white charts as well as R&B
dental meditation. Continued on Page 21 ing out a real new Hendrix LP ( see Nick surveys. -Continued on Page 4
-Continued on P 4
 RoLLING STONE/JANUARY 20, 1968
PACE 4

FLASHES:
Door Slammed For Obscene Reasons
Jim Morrison, lead singer of protest his arrest and demand
the Doors, was busted for obscen- Morrison's release.
ity in New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven police released
Morrison that night on a $1500
during a concert at the New bond, charging him with breach
Haven Arena on Saturday, De- of the peace and resisting arrest.
cember 9th. According to police He is scheduled to appear in
reports, Morrison apparently be- New Haven court on January 2.
came annoyed at the presence of Morrison's version of the ar-
rest is that he was in a backstage
numerous policemen at the con- dressing room, kissing a girl,
cert and made "obscene objec- when a policeman asked him to
tions" to them. leave. Morrison asked the cop to
In the middle of a concert do the same. A scuffle ensued,
performance, several policemen at which time the .po\i~e threw
hustled Morrison from the stage the mace gas mto the dressing
and "were forced," according to room to get Morrison out.,. •
the police, to use a kind of tear- Everything was settl!'d q4ick-
gas spray called "Mace," when ly. The performance went-on un-;
he resisted being dragged off ti! Morrison, in the song "Back
stage. Mace is the same anti-per- Door Man," changed the lyric to
sonnel spray used by Oakland tell what had happened back- .,
police during the October anti- stage. At that point police, j_4mp-
draft demonstrations. ed on stage to take him away.
Before the performance began, Reporters and photographers i
Morrison had complained to po-
lice about the very tight secur-
ity arrangements. After he was
on assignment from Life Maga-
zine were also arrested, but they
have all the pictures of the in-
CROWN PRINCE IS DEAD
roll, rock and soul or whatever
-Continued from Page 1
arrested, about twenty five fans cident which they say they in- In terms of conventional suc- it's called. Otis was a man of
arrived at police headquarters to tend to publish. cess, Otis never .made it into the music.
top twenty of the national pop 1967 was the year that the
charts; others had much greater Stax-Volt operation at Memphis
Ray Charles Sues For Six Millions success with his material. Aretha
Franklin pulled off a million sel-
replaced the Motown group in
Detroit as the major influence on
Ray Charles has filed a six mil- some help to people struggling ler with one of Otis' favoirte orig- contemporary blues. Stax-Volt is
lion dollar libel lawsuit against with similar problems all over inal compositions, "Respe c t." a tightly knit group of writers,
the Johnson Publishing Compan- the world. That accomplishment Arthur Conley also made number performers and musicians. (Otis
ies for a May 18 article in Jet is turned into nothing if the man one, with "Sweet Soul Music," a wrote "Mr. Pitiful" and "Fa-Fa-
magazine accusing Charles of who comes through it can be song Otis wrote and produced. Fa-Fa-Fa" with Steve Cropper,
paying off police officers. turned into nothing by articles In 1967 he replaced Elvis Pres- who also collaborated on "Mid-
According to Charles, his final such as this. ley as the world's top male vo- ni&ht Hour," and Cropper is the
decision to sue was reached with- 'I'm not a perfect man and I c\\list in the Melody Maker poll, gmtarist with Booker T. and the
in the past three months. "My at- don't like to judge people, but a· position Presley had held for M.G.'s, the Stax-Volt house band,
torney warned me of the terrible I don't think it's right that big eight years. the band which backed Otis at
price a person pays when he sues publications should be free to In 1967 he proved himself to the Monterey.)
in a libel action. Nobody's life is hurt people just to make money. be a master of production (he The Memphis sound was go-
perfect, and most of the imper- I'm not just an entertainer. I am had a studio at his 300-acre ranch ing to take over soul in 1968.
fections get brought out in such a husband and a father and I outside of Macon) and a writer Everyone knew it, and Otis was
a tri;II. On the other hand, when want my life to mean something whose material was not only the front man at Stax. In 1968,
I feel that something is right, I to all the people who know me, suited to himself but to the en- he was going to become "the
am going to do it, whether it's but more particularly, to may tire medium. His voice was King of them all, y'all."
painful or not. family who stuck by me through rough, but it carried with it a Otis was the Crown Prince of
"This article hurt me more all my troubles. style and a grace and an orig- Soul, and now the Crown Prince
than anything that has happened "I'll give any money I get to inality that was rare in the field is dead.
to me in a. long time. When a charity. I'm not suing anybody of rhythm and blues, rock and
man calls on his inner resources to get rich. I make enough mon-
to overcome problems that Hell
to lick, he likes to think that his
ey, but if it's lies about other peo-
ple, then maybe money is the
A SHODDY HENDRIX RECORD?
accomplishment might be of way to do it." - Continued from Page 1 the record is an unethical and
Jones' London report) in Jan- shoddy commercial trick.
uary and to which Jimi is now "We need not discuss our busi-
ness with anyone," said one top
Kooper Knocks Them Out contracted, is threatening court Capitol executive.
"The jazz musicians are the a bigger sound than I thought it action to stop sales. The LP, com- "The record's selling well and
hardest ones to please and we 're would be but it sounds great. pany executives argues, will hurl nobody is bitching but a few San
Steve Katz (f1 om the Blues the sales of their own record and Francisco types," said Venet,
knocking them out" says organ- "We're not saying it is all new
Project) is with me and we have Hendrix's growing reputation.
ist Al Kooper, formerly of the guys from the Maynard Ferguson Capitol, however, says that material and I think it is valuable
Blues Project, of his new group band, the Les Elgart band and Hendrix's contract with PPX is to have an artist's early work. If
Blood, Sweat and Tears. the Buddy Rich band and one still good and that they are on people don't like it, they won't
"The group has just signed cat who decided to go with us solid legal ground. Neither are buy it."
with Columbia and we go into rather than join Count Basie! they moved by complaints that
Wow!
the studio Monday (Dec. 11) to
record. Our first single will prob-
"After we get through record-
ing this month we hope to be
Pirate Caroline Still Afloat
ably be out in the second or third able to make a West Coast trip Three and a half months after Simultaneous with the ban-
week of January and it's called late in January or early in Feb- offshore pirate rock stations were ning, the BBC introduced Radio
"House in the Country." It's ruary." banned in Britain, Radio Caro- One, pop programming on a new
about the good things about get- Blood,°t,weat and Tears is line, always one of the top pi-
ting away m some place like Mill being pro uted for Columbia by rates, is still operating full blast wavelength. All the pirates but
Valley and how it's a good thing John Si on (who did, among from two ships. Caroline qu:d,;y w1111ereu away.
to do. other thi-ogs, "Red Rubber Ball") More mysteriously, it is turn- How lvng Caroline can keep
"The first LP will be the book "He~srfoe for us," Kooper said. ing a profit according to its man- going is moot. Station officials
we are p laying now. We've "He' not a committed producer. agement, even though it is now
worked at the Cafe Au Go Go He an lay back and tell us what say they had to borrow money to
illegal for British companies to cover losses immediately after
and at The Scene. both in New to leave in and what to take out. advertise on the station. Caroline
York, but we haven't gone on the He doesn't dig everything." runs ads for many English com- the ban, but now they insist they
road yet. The problem is the size Kooper is being managed by panies, all of whom deny that are breaking even and even mak-
of the group and the economics song-publisher Aaron Schroeder they either paid for or authorized ing a bit. Their existence is an
of it. with whom he has been asso- the ads. emliarrassment to the Labor Gov-
"We've got eight p1eces,Alt ciated as a songwriter for several But the station keeps going ernment which swore to Sl.Ilk the
two trumpets, bass. drums, i- .vears. Schroeder formerly man- The disc jockeys take their snore pirates, but a pleasure to the
tar, trombone and orga,,. I s a aged Gene Pitn~y leave m Holland, and Dutch boats fans wno find Radio One's pro•
·arry the supplies and records to grammmg depressingly unh1p
t ne broadcast ships.