THE DIRTY TAPE
The tape is a reel to reel home recording made by Jimi at his room in the Drake Hotel located at 440 Park Avenue at 56th Street in New York City.
It was recorded sometime in or around March 1968 and is well known in collector circles under various names like "Paul Caruso abuse session" or "Paul Caruso rag session". It features an apparently quite intoxicated Paul Caruso (Jimi's harmonica playing Greenwich Village friend famous for his "cameo" appearance on Axis: bold as love) exchanging insults with an alternative amused, puzzled or slightly annoyed Mr. Wiggles with Jimi mainly laughing in the background and operating the tape deck. Paul Caruso was interviewed about this tape and other subjects in Jimpress issue 69 and he called it "The Dirty Tape" so that's the name I'm going to use for it.
The tape has been in circulation for years but the identity of the "black" side of this (good humoured) debate was unknown even though Jimi adresses Wiggles by name at one point in the recording, the name Mr. Wiggles was not familiar to Hendrix collectors at all before the 2002 cd re-issues of Mr. Wiggles & related recordings came out.
Below is a run down of the entire recording. The transcription of the chat and comments in superscript are by R.MacNeill.
TAPE CONTENTS
The timings given below may vary slightly on your copy of the tape, the source used here is the collectors disc "Electric Ladyland - Apartment Recordings 68" (ATM 236/237).
The tape starts with snippets of an (apparently unreleased) Bob Dylan take of "All Along The Watchtower" and Jimi & an unknown second guitarist setting up the microphones. Sounds like the snippets are out of sequence, perhaps the setting up -part was taped over a segment of Jimi playing along to the Bob Dylan recording? This part of the tape probably is unrelated to the following segment and perhaps from an entirely different date.
The Bob Dylan version of the track played at the start is interesting, it isn't the official version released on the "John Wesley Harding" -lp and would seem to not be in circulation other than the few seconds on this tape. It wasn't known to some Bob Dylan collectors that I asked for comment, they in fact were of the opinion that it was a fake done by a Dylan imitator which I find highly doubtful. Dylan was in the habit of giving out tapes of unreleased songs to other artists which is how the the famous Basement Tapes came about.
John McDermott noted in his book "Ultimate Hendrix" (p.87) that publicist Michael Goldstein (who worked for both Dylan and Hendrix) had given Jimi reels of unreleased Dylan songs so there is no reason why Jimi couldn't have had an unreleased Dylan recording of All Along The Watchtower in his posession.
After the Dylan segment is over the tape continues with a recording of Jimi, Paul Caruso, Mr. Wiggles & an unknown woman. Mr. Wiggles refers to "3 coons in the room and one whitey" at one point on the the tape.
At 8.27 Caruso makes a joke about a circus opening up on April 2nd and that he needs to get Mr. Wiggles a job there as a clown. At 10.02 Mr. Wiggles says "let me finish" and Caruso replies with "oh fuck like B.B.King". Could he be referring to the lengthy introductions done by B.B.King during the Generation club jam? On that tape King mentions starting at the club on April 2nd. This would suggest that the Dirty Tape was recorded around end of March / start of April. Though if it was recorded pre-April 2nd like Paul's comment would suggest he couldn't be referring to the April B.B.King jam that Jimi taped.
In any case Paul Caruso's statement in the interview published in Jimpress 69 that the tape was recorded in March 1968 is very likely roughly correct.
link to a short mp3-sample of this tape
At 1.26 in the sample above you can hear Jimi adress Mr. Wiggles by name, asking about who he should get for something (hard to make this part out). This section, even if not fully intelligible, confirms the long lost identity of Paul's sparring partner. For further proof you can for example A/B the vocals on the recording of "Bright Lights, Big City" that follows with "Wash My Back" by Mr. Wiggles.
While this doesn't prove that Jimi actually plays on any of Mr. Wiggles own recordings it certainly add more weight to those claims as they clearly knew each other pretty well.
The Transcription
There must be some [tape cut]
Jimi: Both of us don’t like that ….I’ll erase it…
Said the joker to the [tape cut]
? : Tasting
[tape cut] ….
Paul: No, didn’t get nothin’
….
Jimi : Don’t play, don’t play, don’t play
Paul : Nothing coming through
Jimi : Hold that microphone down there
Paul : What?
…
Jimi: Voice, pull it back up
…
Jimi: The way you could open it up, I’m gonna find out…
[tape cut]
Paul : Hey, listen, you’re so goddamn ugly, you look through a window and it’ill melt, heh-heh
Mr W : It migh’-it maybe might melt, but you’re the oogly! mutha
Jimi : [Laughter]
Mr W : It’d take nine ugly’s to make one oogly! and you is double oogly! baby
Paul : What the hell!
Mr W : You ain’t got…
Paul : One half of your ugliness…
Mr W : …your fish
Paul : … is all the ugliness in the universe, baby
Mr W : Flip Wilson 1
Paul : One half of your ugliness
Mr W : Flip Wilson, I done ran across the ugly! boy, up here in New York
Paul : Oh, shit, man
Mr W : He have on red! boots
Paul : Look at this, look at this…
Jimi : Those red-ha-ha boots
Paul : … look at this skinny faggot, look like he just got cut up, man, two weeks ago
Mr W : Governor Wallace 2 got a, a Afro 3 up here, honey
Jimi : Oh, Lord huh
Mr W : Ha-some fuckin’ kid-huh. Jimi, this mother he came from in England
Paul : I told you about it, man, I told you
Jimi : ‘Cause you didn’t even listen
Mr W : Where’s he from?
Jimi : Oh, he’s-uh from ‘The Village’ 4 -uh…
Mr W : Duh
Paul : Heaven for you, man
Jimi : I was playin’ in…
Paul : Heaven to you, I’m tellin’ you
Mr W : You are, I me-mean, how-ow. I mean how did you discover this?
Jimi : I’ll think on it
Mr W : I mean what was your first uh-impression…
Paul : Hey! what! what! heh!
Mr W : … when you saw this, what was yours darlin’… when you first saw him
Paul : You don’t have to ask him, man.. so you, I never, plea-ha-ha-se
[laughter]
Mr W : I’m not, I’m not speakin’, she entitled to her opinion
Jimi : No, she’s, because of these two different accents, it’s so great, man
Mr W : Shit, no, no. Oh, what was your opinion?
Paul : Oh, I was the most beautiful creature she…
Girl : I, I loved him, okay
Mr W : You loved him
Girl : Right off, man
Mr W : Right
Mr W : He wary
Girl : He what?
Mr W : Wary, he-he-he is erratic, he is different
Paul : Oh, man!
Mr W : Now, now look, anybody
Paul : Give that boy a chocolate bar right away ha-ha-ha
Girl : Who is he?
Mr W : Man-no-look, look, look-loo’, I’m meanin’. Jimi?
Paul : Ha-ha-ha
Mr W : Jimi?
Girl : Has he ever seen
Paul : Ha-ha-ha
Girl : Has he ever seen Noel?
Mr W : Na, keep your feet, keep your feet back
Jimi : Oh, wow, you haven’t seen him
Paul : You haven’t seen Noel yet, man…
Mr W : Keep your feet back
Paul : I don’t even work with the cat, you know
Girl : I’m gonna show you a picture
Mr W : I know. I don’t want
Paul : You’re comin’ in here coppin’ all sorts of bullshit attitudes, man
Mr W : Who?
[Laughter]
Mr W : This is my brother
Paul : You come in walkin’ on the ceiling, or
Mr W : Oh, my God, she just look so sweet
Jimi : Who is that, who is that? [obviously looking at photographs of Noel]
Girl : Noel, huh
Jimi : Oh, yeah, that’s Noel, that’s our bass player
Mr W : Noel, fuck me
Paul : Yeah, all right, look at this, look he’s a skinny shark, he’s…
Mr W : That’s your bass player?
Paul : He’s got a face looks like a…
Mr W : Whose bass player?
Paul : …looks like the belly of a shark
Jimi : Our bass player
Mr W : Yeah
Paul : His face there, man
Mr W : He is a weird, yeah
Paul : Right, well, you, you-you look like you been out in the sun too long, man, ha-ha
Jimi? : Not at all
Paul : Twenty thousand years, man, you know how it is… I co’-come from the civilised World
Girl: : She’s a girl
Mr W : Hey, Jimi
Paul : I come from six civilised worlds
Mr W : Jimi, that nothing like a miscarriage that ever was one?
Jimi : Heh-heh, heh-heh
Mr W : He looks like a douche bag, you know
Paul : You look like dinosaur crap, you ha-ha better believe it, right now
Jimi : You figure you’re that old, oh, fuck me… if you’re that old, you better go…
Mr W : I’m goin’ on back down South y’all
Paul : Well, you better, man, we can’t stand to have you types up here, man
Mr W : I ain’t gonna put up with y’all, no more, now
Paul : You got to fi’, you better see a dentist first…
Mr W : But I, I’m goin’…
Paul : … a plastic surgeon…
Mr W : … I’m goin’ to see it all, after seein’ you
Paul : Oh, all right, hey listen, hey, hey
Mr W : I dig you, what’s your name? Doctor ’Oooh, Stitch’[?]
Jimi : The Ooh, Stitch heh-heh
Paul : No ha-ha [All laugh loudly] what, what’s this?
Mr W : This the first shit I shuck this year [All laugh loudly] good Lord, yeah. Boy, you walk that street they’d lock you up
Paul : Yeah ‘boos a boo’[?] tell me oogly
Mr W : You look like you’ve been in a riot!
Paul : Yeah, all right, man
Mr W : It look like they have attackted [sic] you
Paul : Hey, look, I’m not gonna hunt lions with you…
Mr W : It look like
Paul : I’m not gonna hunt lions with you
Mr W : It look like they have, it-it look like you have got the worst end of it
Paul : You’d scare a del, a dead elephant back to life
Mr W : Understand, but son I’m tellin’ you, you should dig yourself ba-by
Paul : Man… I maybe… I might have got hit by the ugly stick, but you got whooped by the whole forest
Mr W : This is the, baby, this is the twentieth century, you understandin’ me, an-an-an
Paul : Oh, you sc’-you-you’d scare blood from a stone, man, you’re so ugly ha-ha-ha
Mr W : My boy, you know what I’d do? I’d kill a rock! [All laugh loudly]
Mr W : I’d kill a rock!
Paul : Rock! You’d fuck one too
Mr W : You call me ugly, I’d kill a rock!
Paul : You’d fuck a rock too. I looked at you
Mr W : I know. I’m pretty, my hair look like silk
Paul : Your hair looks like crap, shit
Mr W : My skin look like velvet!
Paul : Your hair’s like some, like burnt beaver fur, man, that’s what it looks like, all crinkly and nasty
Mr W : You look funky, you know
Paul : Funky, shit, man, what are you, comin’ in here
Mr W : If they had a, if, if they had a funky contest, you had to win
Paul : Look at the space between your teeth there, man…
Mr W : Boy, that mean I got soul
Paul : … you, you su’, you-you suck mouse cock with them teeth, space between your teeth there, man
Mr W : Jimi, where you meet this freak from?
Jimi : I don’t know man …
Mr W : This is a freak
Paul : [cough] Ain’t nobody rule, uh-freak like you, man
Jimi : ‘Long as you’re above ‘that’, that’s all right bro’, go on
Mr W : Jimi, this, this, this young man here, you have insulted me!
Paul : Listen, you were a clown before you were born
Mr W : Baby, this is, baby, this is Black power
Paul : This is White power, this is Jewish power, this is Italian power…
Mr W : You ain’t no fuckin’ Jew
Paul : … this is purple power, man…
Mr W : Sit down, you ain’t nothin’
Paul : … this is whiskey power…
Mr W : You a fuckin’ Mississippi ‘Cracker’ 5
Paul : … this is transistor power…
Mr W : You is a Mississippi ‘Cracker’
Paul : … this is wispy-whiskey power…
Jimi : [Hysterical laughter]
Mr W : Shut up you is a ‘Cracker’, you’s a ‘Redneck’5, you’s a no good rebel 6, you is a fuckin’ ‘Tar Heel’ 7
Paul : Oh, Gypsy Rose 8 runs through your veins, faggot
Mr W : You fucker an’ your hot lip, baby, this some guy
Paul : You got a pair of red panties on an’ look at you, you’re the ‘Queen’ of the town, as ugly as you are
Mr W : I got on a white silk
? : Let me see the coke there Jimi
Mr W : According to you
Paul : White silk, you got to get somethin’ white next to you
? : [mumbles something?]
Mr W : You into silk Jimi?
Paul : You got to get somethin’ white next to you, man
Mr W : White silk and black alligator shoes
Paul : And all that shit
Mr W : Hundred dollar pair, that’s all, that’s all it is
Paul : That’s all, no underwear
Mr W : And I’m together, man!
Paul : No underwear a-ha, I know, I know
Mr W : Sister, sister, sis’-Miss Anne 9, honey?
Paul : Get, get, get, get…
Mr W : I’m just crazy about you white women, honey?
Paul : … get, you faggot ass away from me, man - boy
Jimi : [Sings]: Everytime it rains a ring, turn the ‘White’ girls on
Paul : You can’t trust, you can’t trust a Nigger to get close to you, like you, man
Paul : Ni’-heh, the fucker, he can’t trust a Nigger, oh, boy you ought to be ashamed of yourself callin’ me a Nigger, I ain’t no Nigger
Paul : I call you Nigger, I’m complimentin’ you, man…
Mr W : Lord, have mercy Jesus
Paul : … that’s the best I can say about you
Mr W : Honey, if a Nigger get near me, I just have a heart attack, darlin’. I just can’t stand them colored boys…
Paul : Jesus wouldn’t forgive you for bein’ so ugly. You know that?
Mr W : … ooooh, I have heard so much about them, Jee-uh-J’, I-I faithful
Paul : An’ you know them coloured boys, they sneak into your room an’ [for] hours lie, curse an’ insult you for bein’ beautiful
Mr W : You are beautiful darlin’…
Paul : Bobby-heh-heh-you’re beautiful
Mr W : You are beautiful, I mean if there ever were a picture o’ Mona Lisa
Paul : I’m gonna finish you, man…
Jimi : Make sure this shit is up loud enough
Paul : … I’m your every fuckin’ dream
Mr W : Now what are you doin’?
Jimi : Not, make sure this shit is loud
Mr W : You makin’ a tape man?
Paul : No, oh…
Jimi : No, tuh
Paul : … it isn’t. Never mind the tape recorder, man. Never mind the machinery, you’re ugly. You know, machinery, you know?
Mr W : I’m ugly, but, motherfucker, you oogly
Paul : Fifteen hundred… Fif-fifteen hundred doctors, witch doctors couldn’t pull you through, man
Mr W : You’ve been here four hundred years in the world of North America ‘Cracker’!...
Paul : You’ve been… you been eat …
Mr W : … and your days are numbered
Paul : … you’ve been eatin’ wo’…
Mr W : … an’ it take Black power
Paul : … you-you’ve been eatin’ wolf pussy for too many years ha-ha I think ha-ha… that’s where you got that scar up the side of your face, man, you were tryin’ to eat a wolf’s pussy out last night… huh… you got this breath smells like a elephants asshole
Mr W : I’m sheer overcome
Paul : Look at them blue-jeans, man. Of course you’re overcome, this is White power
talkin’. I don’t have to say too much more
Mr W : Please don’t, White man!
Paul : Oh, don’t, don’t take your clothes off in front of me, man
Mr W : White man, don’t say much more
Paul : No, The Sun shines for me
Mr W : Your da-a-ays are numbered!
Paul : Sunshine is white!
Mr W : Is what?
Paul : Sunshine is white!
Mr W : White man, you’re livin’ in a psychedelic world
Paul : Sunshine is white!
Mr W : Sunshine is black!
Paul : I get… I brought, no your sunshine might be black, man
Mr W : Don’t get near me!
Paul : Don’t give me none of your fuckin’ cheap moonshine either, man
Mr W : You are a nasty, dirty, filthy devil you 10
Paul : I’ll give you a fistful of pills, take care of you, man
Mr W : Don’t you get nearer
Paul : Put you in a goddamn, put you in a goddamn cage
Mr W : This mother here’ll get, he’s ignoring it, ooh, eh-heh, don’t tell me, this mother here
Jimi : I told you he was completely out of his mind, he’s completely crazy…
Paul : Ooh, shit
Jimi : … An’ anybody completely crazy, you know, no tellin’ what happens, just like a drunk person, when you’re gonna, try an’-uh get it a fight with a drunk person, you don’t know what he’s gonna do
Paul : Now, ye-es. Oh, I’ll.. Go ahead, drink that goddamn whiskey, man
Jimi : But he, honest to God he’s actually… You should see that song you’re writin’…
? : Yours, chief
Paul : You’ve said…
Jimi : … tell ‘em the words of your song you was writing
Mr W : God, he wanted to write a song
Paul : You wanna hear the words to the song I was writin’
Mr W : Yeah
Paul : All right, okay
Jimi : I told you, he’s completely out of his mind…
Paul : A-huh
Jimi : … that’s the, honest to God, truth
Paul : “Frozen leopards leap at me from the Gothic cobalt gables of her sight
Chosen velvet harpsichords creep across the carpets of the night
Mirrors on the roller coaster -
- casting changing images on the clouds up in the skies
Gods in flying saucers take you where the angels sleep and fly” 11
Mr W : Pretty nice
Paul : I’m gonna send you to work in a diamond mine, sexy
Mr W : No… I-I’m gonna tell you somethin’ boy, you remember this, can you hear?
Paul : I can’t remember you
Mr W : Now I’m gonna tell you somethin’ boy
Paul : From the source of ignorance, how can I remember anything you say
Mr W : You remember this here, you remember this… ‘Just because my hair is long’
Paul : You’re hair ain’t long
Mr W : I cut it off, boy, my hair was down my back
Paul : So get a wig, man
Mr W : I don’t need a wig, boy
Paul : It’s cheap enough, I-I’ll give you, I’ll give you twenty dollars, you get a wig
Mr W : Don’t put out no money, bro’, ‘cause I really don’t. The old faggot got some money. You remember him? The old faggot got some money, ain’t you
Paul : Faggot? Faggot? Faggot? I’m…
Jimi : Yeah, that’s the first they do is show off their money
Paul : I’m much more man than you’ll, than your, than your thirty second grandfather on your mother’s side
Mr W : You wanna turn a trick?
Paul : Turn a trick? Ha-ha
Jimi : Yeah-ha, turn a trick
Paul : You’ll be turnin’ cart-wheels for me faggot
Mr W : You wanna turn a trick?
Paul : I got to get you a job in the circus, opens up, man, open up at April second as a clown
Mr W : I wish you’d get me a job somewhere
Paul : Get you as a clown, man, you’re a clown, you’re ready-made, man, you’ve been made up for fifteen years now an’ you haven’t even got thick lips
Jimi : Oh, ho
Paul : Let’s face it, man. If you had thick lips?
Jimi : Well, there you go, there, he’s everybody’s child
Paul : You know
Jimi : All the, the whole World, the works [inhales strongly] Ooh, shit
Mr W : And what are you laughin’ at, huh? We were havin’, na-na-na. I mean what you, what are you prejudiced or somethin’?
Paul : No, she…
Jimi : No, she is all right, you know that
Mr W : Now, when I speak you don’t laugh, every time you speak - ee-hee-hee-hee
Paul : No, it’s ‘cause I’m sayin’ truth
Mr W : This is ugliest…
Paul : I’m speakin’ the truth, man
Mr W : This is the ugliest Whitey in The World
Paul : No, I am the prettiest Whitey in The World, man, you have not seen the ugliest yet
Girl : I’ve seen worse
Mr W : Uh?
Girl : I’ve seen worse
Mr W : Where?
Girl : Right here in this hotel
Paul : This is gettin’ a whole, hell of a lot worse, man
Mr W : Where have you seen a motherfucker uglier than that?
Girl : Right here, right here in this hotel
Paul : Awe, shit, man, you better check your watch, you-you got to go home soon, anyway, right?
Mr W : Good solution, the car
Paul : Well, I’m gonna start a riot, right here on the carpet, and see-and see who comes through
Mr W : You can start a riot?
Paul : Yeah, start a riot, right on the carpet here, there are cockroaches and rats
Jimi : What are you talkin’ about now?
Paul : The cockroaches and rats in this hotel room right here, will start a riot on your behalf
Mr W : Jimi? Where he livin’?
Jimi : Huh?
Mr W : Where he livin’?
Paul : I got my, a space-ship 12 on the roof, in the swimming pool
Mr W : Either way a, bwoy, I-I hate to imagine him, he get a record, wouldn’t you?
Paul : No, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not that at all
Mr W : Oh, man, if he’d get a hit record, I’d be’-I’d beat him off stage, wouldn’t you?
Paul : No-ho-ho, no
Mr W : I got to be careful ha-ha-uh-huh. You’re my buddy. What you say you’re name is?
Paul : Paul
Mr W : I really appreciate you Paul, you’re a nice cat, man
Paul : Mh-hmm
Jimi : Good
Mr W : An’ who ever listens to this tape, there’s no hard feelin’ between Paul and I
Paul : No, no, no, no, no
Mr W : I really dig the cat, man, he’s a, he, let me finish, will you for now
Paul : Oh, fuck, like BB King 13 man
Jimi : Oh, the motherfucker can be my guru [this is spoken behind the previous line by Paul
Mr W : No, I really dig the cat, man
Paul : It’s just like ignorant folks have to talk their way through it all
Mr W : Wi’-hey, man, will you please let me finish
Paul : All right, go ahead
Mr W : I really dig this cat, an’ at this time I would like to the best of my wisdom, knowledge and understandin’ to describe this cat, he’s a blue eyed ‘soul… brother’
Paul : Brown eyed soul man
Mr W : Brown eyed ‘soul brother’
Jimi : With contact lenses-huh
Mr W : He have-uh, he have-uh
Jimi : Contact lenses
Mr W : I don’t know why…he got, he got a contact lense
Paul : I got telescopes built into my eyeballs
Mr W : I don’t know what he is, but hold it, he got on uh-red boots, a… red, white, blue, green, yellow striped pants
Jimi : Pants, ah… white
Mr W : He got on a… Nehru type jacket - chord – a gold collar and gold cuffs, he got on a
black, synthetic shirt
Paul : Synthetic?! Like your face
Mr W : It ain’t silk motherfucker
Paul : You could use a synthetic face
Mr W : That’s all right
Paul : Yes, boy
Mr W : I’m, look, I’m describin’ you all right?
Paul : All right, I’m sc’, excuse me dear Lord, Jesus
Mr W : [in unison] Jesus
Paul : All powerful Jesus
Mr W : I don’t know, what his motherfuckin’ hair looks like, his hair is nappier 14 than ‘Bull Moose’ Jackson 15 heh-yeah-heh
Paul : You better get, go down the ‘Port Authority’ and get a gig carryin’ suitcases around, man,
Mr W : Awe… I really dig the cat, the first time I met him the night, but-uh, I think if he stayed with Jimi Hendrix and ‘The Experience’ blowin’ his harp, if he stopped blowin’ the harp and started blowin’ somethin’ else, he might be better off, if he wants to ha-ha, ha-ha
Paul : You know I-ey, hey listen right, I got somethin’ for you
Mr W : Ho-ho-ho, ha-ha, he can really blow, he got a good head on him honey,
Paul : Oh, ho-ho
Mr W : This motherfucker can blow!
Jimi : Take your medicine, lay back and take your medicine
Paul : Okay
Mr W : Oh, he can blow in ‘A’
Paul : Hey, look, I’ll fuck you if you wasn’t so tight, you look so tight
Mr W : He can blow in ‘A’, which is Africa
Paul : You’re so goddamn tight sittin’ over there, man
Mr W : He can blow in ‘B’, which is Black, he can blow in ‘G’ and Lord have mercy his ‘E’ flat is just out of sight, ooh my God
Paul : You-you’ll be fartin’ in ‘G’ minor, you know…
Mr W : Looky here
Paul : … by the time you get home in your funky, fuckin’ blue jeans
Mr W : Hey, White boy, White boy, White boy, White
Paul : Don’t White boy at me, man
Mr W : Whitey, Whitey
Paul : Your fuckin’ jeans over there, man
Mr W : Whitey, Whitey, your days are numbered…
Paul : Oh, wait a minute…
Mr W : …on the face of the…
Paul : … the crease is comin’ out of your face, man
Mr W : Whitey, now, please, we’re buildin’ a bridge from Africa, oh, excuse me [laughter] This Whitey…
Paul : I walk on the water for fools like you, man…
Mr W : … he have no etiquette, no politeness, no manners…
Paul : Oh, take a bath…
Mr W : … When I started talkin’ about that good head he got, honey…
Paul : … and you don’t get so close to the damn microphone…
Mr W : … oh, he just writin’ shorthand…
Paul : … don’t get so goddamn close to the microphone, really
Mr W : … an’ he is up, an’ looky here, he stuck his hand all in my glass
Paul : It’s goddamn my Scotch, I went and bought the Scotch tonight, so you have to sit there and relax
Mr W : Just, Whitey? This is, this is Ringo, honey
Paul : Yes sir, Master, you should say to me, losers heh-heh
Mr W : An’ he is, an’ he is bitch too, he, oh, he just flicked some paper in my face, honey, he just go for me
Paul : Look at him swishin’ off on that couch there
Mr W : An’ he is as freaky as he can be
Paul : Wow, Miss freakiness
Mr W : He has sucked a raw chitlin’ 16, honey
Jimi : Swallower, anyway
Paul : In his, in his, Berman [?] Italian Ma’, in his Berman [?] Italian Mafia socks
Mr W : He’ll suck… he’ll suck
Paul : Boy, you could use some plastic, man and I do mean surgery
Mr W : What you talkin’ about socks? Was it? This-this boy do not know class, honey
Paul : Class, your ass
Mr W : He talkin’ about my socks an’ I got on silk socks, honey
Paul : You si’,… Silk so’, oh, that’s faggotry, man. Faggotry in the finest degree
Mr W : Silk all way up my legs, darlin’
Paul : Naw [cough]
Mr W : An’ eh, look how pretty them black legs is, just feel the muscle…
Paul : Awe fu’, Jesus Christ, man
Mr W : … how muscley they are
Paul : Those are the ugliest legs I have ever seen, man
Mr W : An’ Lord, he…
Paul : Picnic table legs, that’s it… all covered with hamburger meat, all packed into a little brown cellophane bag. There’s nothin’ like it, man, that’s why I can get these ‘Coons’ up in the room here, you know, entertain us… All right, oh, you’re just sayin’ somethin’ Lo-ord you-ou
Mr W : You got a lot o’ hardy, street ‘Coons’ up here, one ‘Whitey’
Paul : You’re the walkin’, you’re the walkin’
Mr W : An’ we, well-we, yeah, well we…
Paul : You’re the walkin’, hard-on, you know
Mr W : … we not laced him yet
Paul : You’re a walkin’, Gorilla ha’…
Mr W : But this Nigger here got a nappy head, now he’ill…
Paul : Never mind my nappy head, man
Mr W : … somethin’ had to happen somewhere, I believe he pretendin’…
Paul : If you can get somethin’ inside your stupid…your stupid…
Jimi : Hey, by the way, Paul, by the way, wait a minute, hold on
Paul : … your stupid brown ear
Mr W : Paul, now wait, wait
Jimi : Wait a minute Paul
Mr W : Paul, look here, you’re not White
Paul : No, man, I’m Pink!
Mr W : No, Paul, you…
Paul : I’m Pink power!
Mr W : … you is Nigger
Jimi : Say you’re American
Paul : I’m American, yeah
Mr W : No, Paul, you Afro-American, Paul, you…
Paul : Look, man, if I was God you wouldn’t know
Mr W : Paul, you is Nigger
Paul : If I was God you wouldn’t know
Mr W : Paul, you is Nigger
Paul : If I was The Sun you wouldn’t know, man
Jimi : Everybody can get a chance to have the benefit of ah, appreciating the colour of it
Mr W : Paul, Paul, you is Nigger…
Paul : Ni’, uh-Nigger is power then, it’s a Nigger, it’s a Nigger power for you
Mr W : Shit, Paul, you is more blacker than me
Paul : heh-Yeah, that’s right, …
Mr W : Paul, your hair is…
Paul : … an’ that’s easy …
Mr W : … Paul, your …
Paul : It’s easy to be blacker than you, man …
Mr W : … Paul, your hair is more nappier than Alley Oop 17
Paul : I close my [laughter] eye-eye…
Mr W : That’s a compliment
Paul : … I close my eyes and I see you
Mr W : Paul, don’t you never
Paul : Listen what I say
Mr W : Paul, just don’t you never go around among coloured people
Paul : I don’t see my, dig it, I-I close my eyes, I don’t see my eyelids, I see you, it’s just you’re a, a pitch black nothing, you know, it’s a no’, it’s a black minus black, ha-ha, to the tenth power
Mr W : An’ he, an’ he, Lord, he just smells like, uh-whoof
Paul : Oh, man. Hey, look, man, you smell like somethin’ that died thirty years ago
Mr W : But, I dig this White boy [laughter] I don’t want nothin’ to happen to this White boy
Paul : An’ I like this Black thing
Mr W : Now Charles Kenyatta 18 an’ your Mau-Mau’s 18
? : Yeah, we know…
Mr W : Rap Brown 19, Stokely Carmichael 20, Ron Karenga 21
Paul : U-u… Ulabangi 22…
Jimi : Yeah, most people who was there ‘Please don’t give up’….
Paul : … u-u-na-na-ya-ya-oh-yeah-yeah, kun daya…
Jimi : Get away from that microphone there
Paul : … what are you, oh, yeah, my you’re great an’ do yeah, yeah…
Jimi : Give him the microphone, man, sit down
Paul : … Olaboonji 23…
Jimi : This sounds, this sounds better than usual
Paul : … Olaboonji, Ola…
Jimi : Oh, but will we get there the same Wiggles?
Mr W : …Them…
Jimi : …you gonna get, who?...
Mr W : … the Mau-Mau
Jimi : The Mau-Mau’s?
Paul : The Mau-Mau’s
Mr W : I don’t want Stokely Carmichael
Paul : I’m the king of the Mau-Mau’s
Mr W : ‘H’ Rap Brown
Paul : Don’t give me that shit, dig my spear
Mr W : Swahili 24, Ron Karenga
Paul : Ubangi
Mr W : Max Stanford 25
Paul : Don’t forget the Ubangi
Mr W : Charles Kenyatta
Paul : Stan Getz 26
Mr W : ‘Amdu A Sal’ 27
Paul : Eric Clapton
Mr W : I am gonna at this time pass the death one on him: ‘The mama stew is Zulu 28, is Zulu all de way’
Paul : I wasn’t tryin’ to loo-oo-wou-ble-ose any sweat
Jimi : Pisssssssh!
Paul : [Starts blowing his harmonica]
Jimi : Get away from the microphone, get away… you better freakin’, you better play because that uh grab your big ass, you know ha-aha
Mr W : Blow Whitey, blow
Paul : That Black man’s dead
BRIGHT LIGHTS BIG CITY (Jimmy Reed)
Mr W : [sings]: Bright lights
Man? : Stoned
Paul : I do, I do decree that…
Jimi : Whatever you do…
Mr W : Come on boy, back me now!
Jimi : Okay, let’s…
Mr W : [sings]: Big city
Jimi : I tell you what, let’s play, let’s play it, fuck all this shit… play a number
Mr W : [sings]:
Gone to my baby’s head
Lord
Jimi: Everybody can get to do a bit
A bright light
Jimi: Fuck-xcuse me
Mmm-doh-doh
A big city
Jimi: Big titties
Gone to my baby’s head
Jimi: Baby got some glued on falsies there
I don’t know what’s wrong with my baby
Jimi: Stoned
But the big city’s gone to her head
Jimi: Sing the blues… mmh- mmh, don-don-don
I brought her to the big city
She done goddamn wrong
Lord, brought her to the big city
Paul: He’s too close to the mic’
Jimi : Don’t worry about it
And she done goddamn wrong
Jimi : Yeah, sing the blues
I’m gonna take her back to the country
Boy, where she belongs
A bright light
A big city
[Paul, Jimi & Wiggles sing harmony]:
Gone to my baby’s head
Jimi: Play your fuckin’ harmonica… two of us yeah, huh
Lo-ord, bright light
[Jimi starts singing harmony]:
A big city
Gone to my baby’s head
Don’t know what’s wrong with my baby
But the big city gone to her head
We-ell
A hush, hush
Jimi: Yeah
At her house
Jimi: Yeah and I need a friend
Ow!
Jimi : Well there goes Whitey again, there goes Whitey again
Mr W: That’s nice
Paul : Oh, you can-you can always count on Whitey to come through on the clutch
Mr W: You motherfuckin’ ‘White’…[tape ends]
2 George Wallace – racist, segregationist, three term governor of Alabama (a would be assassin, shot and paralysed him in 1972) heavily implying Paul is a racist
3 'Afro'. Referring to Paul's Bob Dylan 1966 style hair-do, also imitated by Jimi. And then Jimi's style subsequently being widely copied by both 'White' hipsters' and - I would contend - also African-Americans, but just by letting their har grow naturally (some of of whom turned it into a "I'm Black, my hair is 'nappy' and I'm proud"' statement, just look at the photo's of the audience at Jimi's 1969 Harlem street festival appearance)
4 The Village – Greenwich Village the bohemian enclave in NYC centered around Washington (Square) Park which was the East Coast equivalent of San Francisco's Haight- Ashbury .
5 Insults equating to 'White trash' used by both 'White' supremacists against poor "whites" and by African- Americans against 'White" racists
6 Rebel – as in the Confederates (Rebels) in the American Civil War, ie the slave owning side.
7 Tar Heel, a reference to the troops from N.Carolina (tar heels) who were supposedly a crucial part of the Confederate army.
8 Gypsy Rose (Lee) – Famous burlesque artist and stripper, had many relationships including several marriages.
9 "Miss Anne" — he is impersonating the notoriously 'camp' Little Richard here, "Miss Anne" features in his song 'Dancin' All Around The World', which features Hendrix' guitar;-)
10 This sentence appears to be a reference to Elijah Muhammed's bizarre science fiction meets 'race' racist story behind his 'Nation of Islam'. Members were?/are? ecouraged to view 'White' people like this. Former, charismatic, leader Malcolm X, after a visit to Mecca saw real Islam and rejected his racist view, setting up his own organisations, he was then assinated by followers of 'The Nation'
11 Jimi splutters with amusement and says 'wow' & 'fuck' sarcastically during Paul's recital
12 Probably a reference to 'EXP' where Jimi describes him as a 'spaceman', he takes off in his space-ship (UFO) during the interview
13 Probably referring to a previous BB King concert/jam featuring similar tipsy, rambling (but amusing) chat as on Jimi's tape of his jam with BB and Paul Butterfield's band in 1968
14 'Nappy' hair – usually taken as being a racist, denigrating description, It is an analogy between some sub- Saharan Africans hair and the fuzzy balls of fibers on the surface of cloth called 'naps'
15 'Bull Moose' Jackson – famous 'black' R&B singer and sax player, actually wore a close crop.
16 I think we all know what this is!
17 Alley Oop – the stone age cave-man, cartoon strip.
18 Charles Kenyatta – former confidant & bodyguard of Malcolm X, was the founder and leader of the 'Mau Mau Society', a para-military group who offered protection and education to the Harlem community from around 1967 (both names come from the Kenyan liberation movement of the 1950's)
19 'H' Rap Brown - took over as chairman of the SNCC from Stokely Carmichael
20 Stokely Carmichael - later became involved with The Black Panthers
21 "Maulana ('Master Teacher' in Swahili –so modest;-) Ron Karenga" (Ronald McKinley Everett) – formed the US (ie 'us 'blacks' / United Slaves/ United 'Simba' – 'Simba' is Swahili for lion. Panther/Lion geddit?) organization, a West Coast (pro 'separitist'- ie Apartied) rival to the Black Panthers (pro integrationist), it has been claimed he was a possible FBI Cointelpro beneficiary set up to damage the Panthers, but eventually became an embarassment. If he wasn't he certainly did a good job of it, members of the US causing a shoot-out that killed two Panthers and caused mayhem in the movement. He was sentenced in 1971 to four years, for torturing (over two days) two women members of US, even his wife testified against him! He is briefly featured in the 1990 BBC TV film 'Laughing Dice'.
21 'Ulabangi' Paul mispronouncing 'Ubangi' – a lingua franca of West & Central Africa, he pronounces it correctly below this
22 'Olabunji - Paul mispronouncing the 'Olatunji' centre for African studies in Harlem, founded by Babatunde Olatunji (with help from Coltrane), location of John Coltrane's last recorded concert.
23 Swahili – is a lingua franca of East Africa and is the only African language among the working languages used in the African Union
24 Max Stanford — alleged leader of 'RAM' the 'Revolutionary Action Movement' a "middle class" group of 'blacks' that advocated 'armed resistance' to oppression. They claim to have been hugely influential across the board from the 'New Left' to Malcolm X, but not neccessarily in their advocacy of 'self protection' though;), including the setting up of the Black Pather Party by Stokely Carmichael. Their chief in absentia appears to have been the famous (notorious at the time) WWII veteran and US exile Robert Williams.
25 Stan Getz –Ukrainian-American-Jewish, child prodigy, saxophonist (and multi-instrumentalist) and notorious doper, most famous for his collaboration on "The Girl From Ipanema" feat. Astrid Gilberto, basically Brazil's unofficial national anthem.
26 ''Amdu A Sal' Wiggles badly pronouncing [(Kal)'amu (Y)a Sal(aam)?] 'Kalamu Ya Salaam' (Val Ferdinand III)? — New Orleans poet, arts organiser/producer/activist, confident of Langstone Hughes. A moving force in the creation of the 'Black Arts Movement',
27 Zulu – The strongest nation in colonial South Africa, defeating British troops several times (their secret "weapon" was marijuana) and still a strong, traditional & political force.