The Velvet Underground was not the only unknown-but-soon-to-become-immortal act that Stan booked during the spring of 1967. To this day, conjecture on Jimi Hendrix’s activities and whereabouts still exists, although these are documented seemingly to a degree reserved for the Beatles, or perhaps, people on FBI Most Wanted lists. Most of his moves during the Summer of Love are well-documented due to the number of corroborating witnesses, but that still leaves all of Jimi’s private or unobserved movements that spice up the story.
This much is true: sometime in early March, Stan Kain spent several days in New York, talking up La Cave, visiting agents and attending concerts. He vividly recalled seeing Jimi perform on someone’s recommendation. Who exactly made the recommendation is lost to memory, but Stan recalled that the club was Steve Paul’s The Scene. The records of Stan’s trip to NYC and Jimi’s jams at the Scene intersect in that first week of March, and their agreement is dated 13 March, which is the first work day after Stan returned to Cleveland. He wasn’t all that hot about going to a rock & roll club, but upon witnessing the human hurricane and seeing the effect Jimi’s playing had on everyone in the room, he ended up signing the freshly-minted guitar god to a six-day residency beginning 1 August, for the bargain basement price of $600 plus expenses. Included was a rider granting Jimi 50% of the gross over $1,200. This would give Jimi plenty of time to return to England to put the finishing touches on his debut album and presumably play a number of club dates while there, and also, importantly, he’d have a chance to visit his new girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham, whom he had met on his first British club date at the Scotch of St. James venue, where Kathy was manager.[1]
Between March and August, a little festival took place in California: the Monterey International Pop Festival. Jimi’s performance was incendiary and propelled him into instant stardom. Not a whisper of any of these hijinks made the Cleveland newspapers. Jimi’s debut album had yet to be released in the States, and the music magazine industry was still in diapers. Rolling Stone magazine was all of one month old in June of 1967.[2] There was no buzz on the street. If anything, at this point both Nelson and Stan were wondering if maybe the six hundred bucks they promised the seemingly unknown guitar slinger was too steep a fee. The overwhelming interest Jimi attracted in New York had faded in the months between Stan’s visit and initial exuberance in signing the still-unknown performer.
Then the 30 June edition of Time Magazine hit the newsstands. Buried in a small article, their mention of Jimi’s performance might as well have been screamed into Stan’s ear by a town crier. Jimi’s music was secondary to the story: setting his guitar on fire was the hook. Stan was simultaneously shocked, dismayed and excited. In other words, he didn’t know what to think.
Perhaps, in retrospect, it was all for the best that Jimi detoured around La Cave in August 1967. Most of the accoutrements of La Cave were extremely flammable.
[1] Watts, Simon (3 February 2013). “Kathy Etchingham: Life as Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Foxy Lady'”. BBC News. UK: BBC
[2] Hendrix has, as of this writing, appeared on sixteen Rolling Stone covers, the first being 9 March, 1968.

