Facts mix with popular fictions
Half a century after his death ... Moroccans recall Jimmy Hendrix's "historic" visit
Legendary guitarist Jimmy Hendrix tragically passed away as a young man.
A.F.B.
Fifty years after the death of Jimmy Hendrix, the small village of Diabat, near the Atlantic coast in southern Morocco, celebrates the memory of the legendary guitarist who had a "historical passage" in the region prior to his tragic departure in his prime.
The 60-year-old, Mohamed Boualala, who grew up in Diabat before joining the army, recalls the American musician's visit to the region more than half a century ago, saying, "I saw him here, he was a young man with a guitar on his back."
In the summer of 1969, the brilliant musician made a lightning visit to the tourist city of Essaouira, located five kilometers from Diabat, and this fast station remains fresh in the memory of the region, but not through any image or sound recording, but through the many stories circulating about it.
"I saw Jimi Hendrix once or twice, he came here and visited Diabat with his friends, but he never lived here," says Mohamed Boualala, who wears a traditional brown shirt.
Although half a century has passed since the death of the American musician, on September 18, 1970, at the age of 27, in London, after consuming a fatal mixture of sleeping pills and drink, his memory is still strongly present in various parts of the small village.
Diabat looks like a shrine dedicated to Jimmy Hendrix. Several sites bear the player's name, including the Café Jimmy and the Hendrix Inn. His colorful pictures and slogans commemorating the player's "historical passage" are also spread before his memorable participation in the Woodstock Festival when he was at the top His glory.
Abdulaziz, a 72-year-old man, says that he took a picture with Hendrix but "lost it", describing the musician as "looking in good health and was surrounded by his bodyguards."
While the visits of Jim Morrison, Paul McCartney and Robert Blunt to Morocco in the 1960s and 1970s were meticulously documented, there is still a mystery surrounding Hendrix's passage through the country, generating a torrent of rumors, some of which are very strange.
"His short visit during the summer of 1969 sparked a torrent of misinformation and fake stories," says Cesar Glebeek, one of the musician's biographers, in an interview published on the website "Unifibes".
Many stories are circulating about Hendrix's activities in Morocco, including what he says that he traveled around the country in a pickup truck and wanted to buy an island off Essaouira, or even the entire village of Diabat, before settling for the demolished palace of Dar al-Sultan.
"Jimi Hendrix went to Essaouira on the Atlantic coast," said the singer of the famous "Led Zeppelin", Robert Blunt, on a podcast in June 2019, "Many mysterious things happened there."
He also preferred to "approach the Sahara Desert" by going to Marrakesh instead of going down in northern Morocco.
The memory of Jimi Hendrix is a magnet for visitors to the area. “Tourists come to Essaouira especially for Jimi Hendrix, and at the same time, Essaouira is a historical and musical city,” said Abdelhamid Najjar, a record dealer in Diabat.
Sultan House
According to one of the circulating accounts, the left-handed player was inspired by the ruins of the demolished palace of the Sultan's House, at the entrances of the village, to compose his famous song "Castle Maid of Sand", but this song was released in 1967, that is, two years before his visit to Morocco.
However, this did not prevent the small cafe, which is filled with pictures of the American star, from showing this song through a wooden sign placed on the wall.
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