Article content On Sept. 18, 1970, English paramedics arrived at the Samarkand Hotel in London to find Jimi Hendrix unresponsive and covered in his own vomit. He was pronounced dead at nearby St.
Mary Abbots Hospital; a coroner would eventually establish that Hendrix, who had alcohol, cannabis, amphetamines and barbiturates in his system, choked on his own vomit after overdosing on sleeping pills. His Vancouver Sun obit noted that Hendrix spent a lot of time in Vancouver while growing up “to see his Cherokee Indian grandmother. He also had Mexican and Negro blood.
” The article said Hendrix “made a heavily physical thing of his singing. He had been accused of being too sexual, even for swinging London, with his gyrating pelvis and guitar banging.” The article went on mention Hendrix’s arrest and later acquittal on drug-possession charges in Toronto 16 months earlier.
And the story mentioned a year-old quote: “I tell you, when I die I’m not going to have a funeral, I’m going to have a jam session. “And, knowing me, I’ll probably get busted at my own funeral.” The next day, Sept.
19, The Vancouver Sun carried a story headlined “Requiem for guitarist Jimi Hendrix”. Eric Burdon performed the 70-minute requiem and “millions of fans around the world who mourned the death of the great guitarist would have found it right,” United Press International’s John Meehan wrote. “Eric sobbed his sadness in uptempo blues.
” Hendrix, the article noted, had once.