JIMI PLAYS BERKELEY – The Long Strange Cinematic Trip

May 30 2024

By John McDermott.

Jimi Plays Berkeley was never intended to have been a finished theatrical film. Like so many entities associated with his rich legacy, Jimi Plays Berkeley took form in the turbulent vacuum created by Hendrix’s untimely death in September 1970. That it became a commercial property when other footage of Hendrix concerts languished elsewhere in vaults or left unclaimed was due entirely to the maneuvering of Jimi’s manager Michael Jeffery.

The project began in May 1970 as a simple assignment from Jeffery to Peter Pilafian. Pilafian was a musical jack of all trades. He was an electric violinist who had performed with The Mamas & The Papas and been featured on a host of albums during the era. He had also been involved with the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival where Hendrix has made his triumphant American debut. Seemingly out of the blue, Jeffery reached out to him to gauge his interested in filming a concert by Jimi Hendrix.

“[Michael Jeffery] probably had some instinct about its significance. Things were accelerating around that time and Jeffery sensed the importance of filming that sort of thing.”

~ Peter Pilafian

“Initially Michael Jeffery wanted me to cover the Berkeley concert,” explains Palafian. “That was primarily our mission.” With little direction from Jeffery apart from documenting the performances, Pilafian organized a small production crew and traveled from Los Angeles up to Berkeley to film Hendrix’s two concerts at the Berkeley Community Theater on May 30, 1970. Hendrix could have easily filled the nearby Oakland Coliseum, the location of the last Experience concert the previous year, but Jeffery harbored an alternative motive. He instead elected to have local promoter Bill Graham schedule two shows on one night at the venerable Berkeley theater. 

“Basically, Michael Jeffery wanted coverage of this concert,” remembers Pilafian. “He probably had some instinct about its significance. Things were accelerating around that time and Jeffery sensed the importance of filming that sort of thing. We went up there with our crew and being good documentarians, we covered peripheral material that was happening around Berkeley at that time and spoke to people about what they thought about Hendrix.”

With Pilafian and his crew readied, Jeffery hurriedly set plans in motion to professionally record both of the performances. Hendrix hired noted remote engineer Wally Heider’s mobile recording truck and designated Abe Jacobs, who handled sound for the guitarist on tour, to engineer the location recording.

Jimi’s two Berkeley performances were not part of an extended tour itinerary. Hendrix had begun a loose string of 1970 US tour dates with a sold out show at the Los Angeles Forum on April 25, but the guitarist had restricted his management to essentially schedule concerts on the weekends leaving weekdays for studio recording. “We would just do the work at weekends and there would be time off in between the gigs,” remembers Experience drummer Mith Mitchell. “Jimi, being as he was, was using Electric Lady Studios a lot even through it was unfinished.”

“Touring back then was not as sophisticated as it is today. We covered the complete United States. We would fly to Texas and come back afterwards.”

~ Billy Cox

The Berkeley concerts were one in a series of what Hendrix, his band and crew would come to know as ‘fly-outs.’ The days of touring by station wagon and sheer physical endurance were long past but not forgotten. “Touring back then was not as sophisticated as it is today” recalls Experience bassist Billy Cox. “Today, tours just got 100 miles, 200 miles there. We covered the complete United States. We would fly to Texas and come back afterwards.”

On the day of the performances, Hendrix, and his small cadre of band mates, select friends and trusted road crew flew west to California. Jeffery had briefed the entourage that the gigs would be filmed and recorded prior to their departure. Hendrix in turn consented to an afternoon soundcheck at the venue to make sure all the technical requirements would be met and checked in advance. This was a special consideration, suggests Billy Cox, as Hendrix disliked soundchecks and generally eschewed them.

Pilafian was instructed by Jeffery to meet Hendrix and his crew at their hotel and the filmmaker was standing by when the guitarist and his small entourage arrived in Berkeley. “We had full access to Jimi because we were working for Jeffery,” recollects Pilafian. “We did coordinate with his management before they had arrived and viewed ourselves as part of the team.” Such proximity by relative outsiders to Hendrix was highly unusual. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the celebrated scene where one of Pilafian’s camera operators actually rode from Jimi’s hotel to the venue in the guitarist’s limousine. Such candid, previously unseen views of the personal Jimi, of which a paucity of footage exists anywhere, provided a fascinating, if only fleeting glimpse of the legendary guitarist away from the stage.

Pilafian had met Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 but had no contact with him since that brief introduction. Nonetheless, he was genuinely intrigued by Hendrix and hoped to capture his inimitable personality and stage presence as vividly as possible. The impulse to reveal even more detail about the celebrated guitarist raised itself almost immediately upon meeting Hendrix. However, Jeffery had already predetermined Pilafian’s assignment. “We were there to get concert coverage, not to make a behind-the-scenes, personal documentary about Jimi,” admits Pilafian. “We sort of tried to do an interview with him. I remember shooting some stuff in the hotel room, but it didn’t work out very well. We also spent some time backstage with him, but nothing came of it. Jimi had himself pretty heavily insulated by a group of his people so that he wouldn’t be too exposed at any period of time. That was clearly his choice. I had kind of wanted to convey that as well as it was part of the overall Hendrix scene by our mission was to focus on the concert.”

“I started to feel incredibly happy. To me, the band with Jimi, Billy, and myself, I’d say from a musical standpoint, that was possibly the best band we had with Jimi. It was a delight to look forward to the gigs.”

~ Mitch Mitchell

By the time of the Berkeley concerts, Hendrix had retooled The Experience to include original drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy Cox. The trio had gelled as a unit and there was camaraderie between the three players that had not existed during the closing months of the original Experience in 1969. “When Billy came into the band properly, if there is such a thing, as a three-piece unit, it gave me a lot more freedom,” remembers Mitch Mitchell. “I started to feel incredibly happy. To me, the band with Jimi, Billy, and myself, I’d say from a musical standpoint, that was possibly the best band we had with Jimi. It was a delight to look forward to the gigs. Some of them were in the same circuit gigs as before—the large festivals left a lot to be desired, but there were some very pleasant gigs.”

Hendrix gave the Berkeley audiences and Pilafian’s film crew two of his finest performances. His set list not only encompassed older favorites such as “Purple Haze,” “Hey Joe,” and “I Don’t Live Today,” but Hendrix also presented extraordinary renditions of new songs such as “Straight Head” (know still as “Pass It On” at that time of this performance) and “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun.” Jimi’s riveting, high velocity take of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” stands as one of the hallmark moments of his career, as does his breathtaking, extended reading of “Hear My Train A Comin’.”

Jimi Hendrix did not create set lists in advance, opting instead to operate solely by feel, reading his audience and reacting accordingly. “There hadn’t been a set list for some time,” remembers Mitchell. “When Billy first started with us and the freedom of scope began, that was an intentional thing by Jimi. There would be a lot more things thrown out there to get away from the public wanted or expected to hear.”

With no idea what was coming or what songs to focus on, Pilafian’s crew let their cameras roll and captured whatever they could. “We used four cameras for the concert shoot,” explains Pilafian. “We had someone in the balcony of the theater and most importantly, someone right in front of Jimi at the edge of the stage.”

While Pilafian’s camera crew thankfully captured portions of both concerts [their coverage of “Johnny B. Goode” alone justified their entire effort] they lacked sufficient film and camera operators to cover the concert as extensively as such other Hendrix festival appearances as Monterey Pop and Woodstock had been. 

For decades, Hendrix followers have long been tormented by the incomplete and often haphazard coverage of such gems as “Hear My Train A Comin’” and “I Don’t Live Today” let alone the absence of many other inspired moments. Pilafian can offer little solace, as for every gem preserved for posterity like “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” many others simply escaped the grasp of his crew.

In the immediate aftermath of the concert, little was done with the material that has been filmed and recorded. The master audiotapes of the concert were shipped to Eddie Kramer at Electric Lady Studios, but the footage began a peculiar odyssey of its own thanks entirely to Michael Jeffery. Peter Pilafian explains, “after we shot the concert, Michael Jeffery, being the scoundrel that he was, refused to advance payment for the major portion of what we had done. I basically told him he couldn’t have the film until we got a check. Meanwhile, I stuck it in the refrigerator and that was the last I heard of it for a number of months. All of a sudden when Jimi died, we started to get phone calls from him. This was a few days after Jimi’s death. Suddenly, this footage became very important, and Jeffery said that he would wire the money so on so forth, but I didn’t think that would be the best advantage of the situation. I essentially held out on him instead of just giving him the unprocessed negative.”

“None of us had ever seen what we had photographed. If we weren’t going to get paid, I was not going to develop the film. I was naïve but not that naïve.”

~ Peter Pilafian

“As it was, we had never even bothered to process the film because we had never received any money from him. It had sat in our refrigerator for nearly four months. None of us had ever seen what we had photographed. If we weren’t going to get paid, I was not going to develop the film. I was naïve but not that naïve.”

“Now, all of a sudden the fur was flying, and I was getting a lot of heavy pressure to cough up the film,” continues Pilafian. “I refused and stated my desire to make a film out of it, because at that point, it was simply concert coverage.” 

Jeffery was in a highly unusual situation. He has not yet seen any of the footage, but with his artists now deceased and interest in all things Hendrix at an unprecedented peak, the combative former British MI-5 operative turned pop manager relented and accepted a compromise. “I got Jeffery to agree to a deal that we would make and deliver a finished film and he would pay the cost of it,” explains Pilafian. “We got that underway and Baird Bryant was the editor.”

Bryan was a colleague of Pilafian and camera operator Joan Churchill and was selected to edit the material into a theatrical film. “I was friends with Peter and Joan, and they had wanted me to go up and shoot this with them originally, but I shied away,” details Bryant. “When they came back with all of this footage, they didn’t even have enough money to develop it. They just put it on the shelf for months. Peter didn’t really know how to make a film out of what they had. They took me on as the editor and gave me a free hand and said, ‘Here it is. Make a film.’”

Almost immediately, the lack of concert material, especially complete performances of songs, led the filmmakers towards expanding the content to include much of the Berkeley political scene. “The (Hendrix performance) material was very skimpy,” admits Bryant. “When I look at it now, I can see that I used the shots of the stage lights to get me through it to quite a degree. Nonetheless, it still has a terrific punch.”

To broaden the film’s political scope, Bryant and Pilafian incorporated footage of Berkeley residents protesting the screening of Woodstock at a local cinema with little success. Bryant also edited in riot footage that had been shot independently by Johann Rush. “We did purchase some film from this cameraman who shot the Berkeley riots, and we used that stuff in ‘Machine Gun,’ explains Bryant. 

“I knew about him because I had found this guy previously in New Orleans where he had been a new cameraman. He had also worked on a 35mm Italian documentary called America: God’s Own Country. He was liker a combat cameraman. He had shot the riots in Los Angeles, and he loved to get in the thick of the battle with bullets flying all around. He was in San Francisco, and I got in touch with him and asked if he knew of anyone who had footage of the riots in Berkeley. He said, ‘Yes, I do!’ So, I worked that material into the film.” Despite their efforts, none of the extraneous material could match the clarity and power of Jimi’s own “Machine Gin.”

With an edited version now in hand, Bryant and Pilafian still had not title for the film. “It was funny, when Baird and I took the film into the title house to order the (screen) titles we still didn’t know what to call the thing,” recalls Pilafian. “We were standing at the window writing out the order and I looked at Baird and asked, ‘What are we going to name this little film?’ One of us just said… ‘How about Jimi Plays Berkeley?’ The name came just at the last minute.

With a print of Jimi Plays Berkeley tucked under his arm, Pilafian flew to New York to meet Michael Jeffery. Neither Jeffery nor anyone else in his camp had any input into the film at that this point. Pilafian had hoped his efforts would be greeted with enthusiasm, but instead his relationship with Jeffery started poorly and rapidly deteriorated. “We delivered the film, which had been originally shot in 16mm, for about $22,000,” remembers Pilafian. “Baird and I created the best film we could out of the material we had. Jeffery refused to pay me but said that he would do so in about three or four weeks. That never happened. Then lawyers got involved and things dragged on. We finally negotiated a deal where I have up my (profit) percentage in exchange for immediate payment. Of course, he paid me with a bad check that didn’t clear for a month.”

“We finally negotiated a deal where I have up my (profit) percentage in exchange for immediate payment. Of course, he paid me with a bad check that didn’t clear for a month.”

~ Peter Pilafian

With Pilafian now set aside, Jeffery set out to create his own film from the underlying materials. He was well aware of the commercial impact that both the Monterey Pop and Woodstock films had upon Jimi’s career. He was determined to maximize the public’s considerable desire to see any footage of their late hero. 

To revamp the film, Jeffery assigned Electric Lady Studios engineer John Jansen to re-edit the film, “Jimi Plays Berkeley had been done as a one-hour documentary,” describes Jansen. “Jeffery wanted it to be a full-length movie and asked me if I could do it. I said sure, ‘Why not?’ I had never done it wrong. So, I was putting footage back into this movie because they had cut it really weird. The music was never synched up properly. All I know is that everyone—all of the cameramen must have been on acid—definitely the guy in the balcony with the zoom lens. Because every time you look at his footage he was zooming in and out supposedly in time with the music. Get this guy out of here! I was editing the film right up upon the time I left Electric Lady Studios and went to England. Someone yelled, ‘The car is here.’ I said, ‘Thank God’ and threw the film down, jumped into the car, drove to the airport, and moved.”

Undeterred, Jeffery completed a new cut of the film. This edition paired down more of the Berkeley protest footage and came in at a running time of less than an hour. Jeffery too the film out on the road, accepting bookings at colleges and independent theaters where it began to enjoy a cult following. Jeffery often double-booked the film with his other cinematic foray, the disastrous Rainbow Bridge. Jeffery even toured Jimi Plays Berkeley at concerts, using it as part of the bill in Europe that featured Cat Mother & The All-Night Newsboys and Jimmy & Vela—two acts remaining in his management stable. Jeffery’s death in a March 1973 plane crash shunted any further development of the film.

With the advent of DVD home video and the opportunity to provide fans with bonus material or expanded editions of cult films such as Jimi Plays Berkeley, it would have been wonderful to revisit the film and try to restore as many of Jimi’s magnificent concert performances as possible. Unfortunately, none of the film’s prizes outtakes were turned over to the Hendrix family by the previous administration that had controlled the guitarist’s legacy for more than two decades. Perhaps they may surface someday and help further reveal Jimi’s extraordinary command and vitality.

Jimi Plays Berkeley remains a flawed but essential snapshot of just how special a Jimi Hendrix concert performance was.

JIMI PLAYS BERKELEY

This special, expanded edition of Jimi Plays Berkeley showcases some of Jimi’s finest every performances filmed over two concerts at the Berkeley Community Theater on May 30, 1970.  The film documented the political unrest and student uprisings in Berkeley juxtaposed against such legendary Hendrix live performances as “Johnny B. Goode,” “Star Spangled Banner,” “I Don’t Live Today” and “Purple Haze.”

The Deluxe Edition also includes:

* A new, digitally restored transfer from the original 16mm negative.

* More than fifteen minutes of newly discovered, previously unseen documentary and performance footage of such classic songs as “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” “Machine Gun,” and “Hear My Train A Comin’” not featured in the original film release.

* Stereo and 5.1 surround soundtrack mixed by original Jim Hendrix engineer Eddie Kramer.

Special Features:

* Commentary from Abe Jacobs, the audio engineer who recorded the Berkeley concerts.

* In addition to the expanded Jimi Plays Berkeley documentary, as an added bonus, this special edition features an audio only presentation of Jimi’s complete Berkeley (second set) performance mixed in 5.1 surround sound. The audio only bonus concert recordings from Jimi’s second Berkeley performance include:

1. Pass It On (Straight Ahead)
2. Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)
3. Lover Man
4. Stone Free
5. Hey Joe
6. I Don’t Live Today
7. Machine Gun
8. Foxey Lady
9. Star Spangled Banner
10. Purple Haze
11. Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Available on DVD and Blu-ray from Authentic Hendrix and now streaming exclusively via The Coda Collection.