The Return Of Jimi Hendrix (from "Dream Harder", 1993)
THE RETURN OF JIMI HENDRIX
I dreamed about Jimi Hendrix he came back for one day was born weeping out an egg the midwife said and straightaway began to pray with lifted head He spent the early hours communing with the morning stars And then he came over to my house where he tried out my guitar
He was young and black and beautiful big eyed, perfect skinned and he played my guitar like a lightning storm like twirling feathers in the wind He could make it sound like the end of the world a train, the prow of a ship He could squeeze it slow and masterful like a secret kiss on lovers' lips
Together we strolled in sculptured gardens passed a sleepy afternoon Maids were darting back and forth from a window came a violin tune Angels dressed as nurses toyed with playing cards Looters, sprung from prison filled the yard A yellow sun hung low and yawned and as it dipped Jimi stood up straight, grinned and shook his velvet hips
Calling himself "King Electric" in the evening he went wild played on a dozen stages in the clubs of New York lit the city end to end wired it up, fired it up scarved, bejewelled, long legged, snake limbed, athletic, driven, dangerous He made all Manhattan shake He made every street and sidewalk quake His stratocaster caused the mighty Empire State to vibrate His whammy bar caused shock-eyed punks from Hackensack and Yonkers raised on speed-metal and rap to enter trance and levitate He played "Purple Haze" in Pyramid "Voodoo Chile" at Sin E "Up From The Skies" and "Stone Free" in King Tut's Wah Wah Hut He did a forty-two minute karmic rising future shock "Star Bangled Banner" in the back of CBGB'S He stopped every clock in New York State and every heart that heard him and Time Itself was beaten and confused and fell lamblike under the spell of his fabulous flashing fingers He played an encore at The Bitter End - a heartburst "Little Wing" Even the waiters cried and then we fell outside and in the dusty dawn of Bleecker Street a sweet rain fell and Jimi died
Written: Manhattan July 1991 Appears: On "Dream Harder"