... he is gone. But he left us something that time can't erase.
Now he's loved by us all. Yes, he's loved by us all. That is my
story. It has no end. Now Jimi's gone, ...
(Read the complete lyrics here)
Also, in If 6 Was 9, Jimi mumbles in the background, some sentences
about his own death that never appears on any lyrics, neither on the Net
nor in CD/LP booklets:
I got my own life to deal with ... I'm the one who's got to die
when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to!
Jimi spent
September 18 in the flat of Monika Danneman.
There, he drew the number nine, nine times, and said "nine consciousness
was the highest form of consciousness". Then, he drew a Christian cross,
and decorated each of the four lines with the faces of famous people from
each of the four races: Martin Luther King, Jr and other black faces on
the left horizontal, Hitler, JFK and other white faces on the right horizontal.
Geronimo and other Indians on the lower vertical, and Genghis Khan, Gandhi
and other Asians on the opposite. He then said; "Monika. Remember this.
This is the Grand Design. Remember all I say. You are a painter. Put this
in your painting. Nine. Remember the number nine. There are nine planets.
And remember the number four. Four colors. Remember." Later, the two of
them went to a party where Jimi took a so-called "black bomber", a capsule
containing amphetamine and a sedative. He also snorted some LSD. At 8:30
PM, they got back to Monika's appartment. There they
stayed until 1:45 AM, when Jimi said he had to go
to some people's appartment. He did not like them, he said, but he had
to go. Alone. So Monika drove him there, and picked him up again at three
o'clock. What happened during this hour, and the identity of the people
is not known. They went to bed, and Monika awakened at 10:20 AM,
the morning of the eighteenth. She failed to wake Jimi, and noticed he
had taken nine of her sleeping pills. Vomit was around his mouth and nose.
What had happened, was he had drugged himself so much his reflexes was
not working. He had then got sick, vomited, and
failed to turn
around, like a healthy person would instantly have done. The vomit then
went back into his throat and was now choking him. But Monika did not know
this. She called Eric Burdon, a friend, for advice, because she was afraid
to call the ambulance. She feared Jimi would be angry if she got him into
a hospital if nothing really was wrong. Eric told her to call an ambulance,
and so she did. The ambulance personnel assured her Jimi was going to be
alright, and she checked him into St. Mary's Abbot Hospital in Kensington,
London under a false name. At 11:25 AM, September
18, 1970, Jimi officially died from inhalation of vomit.
The coroners office later stated an "open verdict", meaning the accurate
reason for his death was unknown. Referring to an old quote of Jimi; "when
I die, there won't be a funeral, but a jam session", a jam session was
arranged, to wich both Noel and Mitch attended.
Why state the inhalation as reason, then later change it? And why did
the coroner and informant, Gavin L. B. Thurston, never sign the death certificate?
Who were the people Jimi unwillingly visited hours before his death? Why
did Jimi eager to record the Ballad of Jimi at two o'clock at night,
on the month five years before his death? Did the cross mean anything,
or was it just another one of Jimi's strange philosophies? It could be
just a lot of co-incidents with natural explanations.
Or it could not.
We'll never know. Ha ha ha!