Request citation for Hendrix quote: Once you are dead you are made for life

[Garson]

Jimi Hendrix supposedly said the following in 1969:

"It's funny the way most people love the dead. Once you are dead you are made for life. You have to die before they think you are worth anything."

This quote is widely-distributed because Jimi tragically died at an early age, and I am trying to obtain a precise citation for this quote. The best leads I have point to Melody Maker magazine. Below is a pointer to a webpage that claims the quote appeared in the March 8, 1969 issue of Melody Maker in an interview of Hendrix by Bob Dawbarn.

http://www.univibes.com/DiaryforFebr1969.html

But there is conflicting information. The book "Jimi Hendrix: London" by William Saunders has an excerpt from the same interview; however, the book says the interview was published March 4, 1969 in Melody Maker.

There is another possibility. A webpage here at crosstowntorrents.org indicated that the quotation appeared in the March 1, 1969 issue of Melody Maker. I obtained scans of page 14 and 15 of the March issue of Melody Maker and was unable to find the quotation in the article about Hendrix.

Melody Maker ran a three part story about Hendrix. It appeared in three separate issues around February and March 1969. The article printed on March 1 was Part 2.

Can a forum member supply an exact citation for this quotation? Would love to know the periodical name, issue date, page number, article title and author. Maybe someone has the relevant issues of Melody Maker (or scans of the issues) and can look for the quote; that would be great. Thanks!

[Rupe]

Attachment 15077Attachment 15078

Here you are. This was the third part of the article

[Rupe]

Melody Maker, I presume 8 March, interview with Bob Dawburn

[Garson]

Fantastic! Thank you Rupe for posting the images of the clipping with the quotation. It is enormously helpful.

Two weeks ago I made an "Interlibrary Loan Request" to obtain scans from the March 8, 1969 issue of Melody Maker. The number of libraries in the US with issues of Melody Maker from 1969 is very limited. The page number and article name were unknown to me, but I said I was trying to obtain an article/interview about Hendrix in the March 8 issue. I also said the article began with the sentence: "A lifelike rubber rat stared at the TV in Jimi Hendrix's top-floor flat just off London's Bond Street." Now thanks to your scan it is clear that the article does begin with that sentence.

Unfortunately, the request was rejected with the statement: "not able to find the article as cited". Therefore it is possible that the article appeared in a different issue. It is also possible that the librarians refused to look at the issue of Melody Maker without a page number or article name.

Do you think the date of the issue might be different than March 8? Does any forum member have more information about the issue date and page number of this interview?

Thanks again for the great information, Rupe!

[Rupe]

I'm pretty sure it must be 8 March, as Melody Maker was a weekly paper & the first two sections of the interview were dated 22 February & 1 March. Sorry I cut off the date & page number, but I was young then!

[purple jim]

I told you this was best place to ask Garson!

[Garson]

Purple Jim: Yes, you gave me excellent advice. Asking in this forum with such knowledgeable participants has resulted in the most valuable information to date.

[J.Lucas]

Rupe has an excellent set of 400+ UK 'clippings'...that can be downloaded here..
Very readable,impressive collection...
I am grateful to be able to see/read these ...as the US did not cover Hendrix much at all.
Heck I don't even remember hearing him on AM radio at all.

http://crosstowntorrents.org/showthr...rupe+clippings

[Garson]

I'm pretty sure it must be 8 March, as Melody Maker was a weekly paper & the first two sections of the interview were dated 22 February & 1 March. Sorry I cut off the date & page number, but I was young then!

The worthpoint.com website has a record of an old auction held on Ebay for the March 8, 1969 issue of Melody Maker. A careful description of the contents of the issue was included. The description states that part three of the Hendrix interview appeared in page 12 AND 13 of the issue:

[Begin excerpt]
p12-13."JIMI IN 3-D: Third Dimension: HENDRIX The man"
[End excerpt]
http://bit.ly/Q9hsi5

This is additional strong evidence you are right, Rupe. I will double check this information by re-requesting scans via Inter Library Loan now that I know the article name and the page numbers. Many thanks to Rupe whose scan revealed the article title. And many thanks to Purple Jim who pointed me to this forum. Allso, thanks to J. Lucas for pointing to Rupe's magnificent archive.

[Garson]

Recap and Update: Several books and reference works contain a quotation attributed to Jimi Hendrix on the theme of death. Here is a full version:

"It's funny the way most people love the dead. Once you are dead you are made for life. You have to die before they think you are worth anything."

Most books do not give a citation, and the ones that do give citations disagree with one another. Forum member Rupe had the exact clipping, and he knew the magazine name and the precise date! To double check I used Interlibrary Loan to obtain scans of pages 12 and 13 from the March 8, 1969 issue of Melody Maker. The clippings that appear earlier in this thread are indeed part of that two page spread. Here are the clipping numbers of the material that appears on the two pages:

Clipping 103: Picture of Jimi Hendrix seated
Clipping 104: Beginning of article titled "Third Dimension: Hendrix The Man".
Clipping 105: Continuation of "Third Dimension: Hendrix The Man".

Great thanks to Rupe, Purple Jim, and J.Lucas for your help.