Me, Jacqui, Liz and Martin.
Some cool girls!
Among the many US travel/road books that I have read, two
stand out. Firstly the mad crazy brilliant “On the road” by Jack Kerouac (which
I have read many times and am reading again as we travel), and the more
measured thoughtful “Travels with Charley” by John Steinbeck. This was written during
the later part of his life and reflects on the America he knew and wrote about
decades earlier. Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California and knew the West
Coast well.
In 1960 he travelled around the USA with his giant poodle,
Charley and drove into Seattle, then a small but growing successful city. This
was long before the Microsoft revolution and the growth of Boeing and many
other household names. It is difficult to think that in Steinbeck’s youth, this
was just a small fishing port.
John Steinbeck
He wrote:
"I
remembered Seattle as a town sitting on hills beside a matchless harborage -- a
little city of space and trees and gardens, its houses matched to such a
background. It is no longer so. The tops of hills are shaved off to make level
warrens for the rabbits of the present. The highways eight lanes wide cut like
glaciers through the uneasy land. This Seattle had no relation to the one I
remembered. The traffic rushed with murderous intensity. On the outskirts of
this place I once knew well I could not find my way. Along what had been
country lanes rich with berries, high wire fences and mile-long factories
stretched, and the yellow smoke of progress hung over all, fighting the sea
winds' efforts to drive them off. "
Pike Market
A fishy tale at Pike Market
He goes on to describe
the port area and its cobbled streets, which have now been turned into trendy
bourgeois districts such as Pike Place.
"The old
port with narrow streets and cobbled surfaces, smoke-grimed, goes into a period
of desolation inhabited at night by the vague ruins of men, the lotus eaters
who struggle daily toward unconsciousness by way of raw alcohol. Nearly every
city I know has such a dying mother of violence and despair where at night the
brightness of the street lamps is sucked away and policemen walk in pairs. And
then one day perhaps the city returns and rips out the sore and builds a
monument to the past."
Steinbeck went
on to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962 and died in 1968
The
wharfs have been transformed but they don’t seem to have the vibrancy and charm
that similar areas of San Francisco have achieved. One climbs up from the water’s
edge to the Pike Market, which has become one of Seattle’s major tourist
attractions. The old market now buzzes with restaurants, grumpy tea shirt sellers
and the ubiquitous Seattle coffee house. Seattle is the world capital of
coffee.
Pike Place entertainment
This city was
responsible for the invasion of coffee chains into nearly every city in the
world. And it all started in the Pike Market. Two teachers and a writer started
a store on Western Avenue, which was swiftly relocated to Pike Place. Starbucks
is the world’s biggest coffee chain with19,972 stores in 60 countries, including 12,937 in the United States and
790 in Great Britain. Seattle literally has a coffee house on every corner and
I am told that over 80% of Americans live within 20 minutes driving time of a
Starbucks. Not bad for the small store that we visited today.
The original Starbucks at Pike Place
Despite the success of the Aerospace industry, computers
and coffee, Seattle will be remembered also for its contribution to popular
music. Younger music buffs will champion Nirvana and the birth of Grunge but to
my generation, the city stands out as the birthplace of Johnny Allen Hendrix
The Seattle Music Experience
Jimi Hendrix was born in Seattle on November 27, 1942. To many he was one of the greatest electric guitarists
of all time. I still remember that first time that he appeared on Top of the
Pops, playing Purple Haze as one of the defining moments of my musical
upbringing. We simply had never seen or heard anything like him before!
After a hesitant start
to his career he was spotted in 1966 by Keith Richard’s girlfriend playing in a
club in New York. He was persuaded by Chas Chandler (former bassist for the
Animals) to move to London. Following a series of auditions, Noel Redding and
Mitch Mitchell joined him to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Jimi's colourful jumpsuit
Hendrix’s famous white Stratocaster
Hendrix’s famous white Stratocaster on which he played his
rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in
the early morning of August 18th 1969 is on display in a
disappointingly small Jimi Hendrix museum (part of the Seattle Music Experience
Project). He bought the guitar in 1968 and played it at many concerts including
the 1969 Newport Festival and his final concert at The Isle of Fehmarn
(Germany) on September 6th 1970. Twelve days later he died of a
fatal overdose. Other memorabilia include a series of his guitars (whole and
smashed), some of his clothes, personal effects, writings and an excellent
timeline wall with a musical history played through headphones.
My mental image of the
man is a larger than life character, filling the space that he inhabited. The
museum has one of his colorful jump suits that he often performed in. What a
surprise to see how small and diminutive he really was.
It was great to visit
one of my favorite cities again One of the most relaxed and comfortable places
in the world to live. Tomorrow we leave on the ferry across Puget Sound and our
journey begins for real.
P.S. I forgot another
great travel book: Woody Guthrie’s “Bound for Glory”
Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze
Jimi Hendrix: Star Spangled Banner: Live at Woodstock
