Late one night in 1968, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, and William Hawkins sat, cross-legged and likely stoned, in an Ottawa motel room. Hendrix and Mitchell had both played gigs in town earlier that night, and Hawkins, a long-standing member of the local coffee-house scene, had brought his guitar to the after-party. He played them a song he’d written called “Scorpio.” Mitchell was born under that sign, and as Hawkins later admitted to the Ottawa Citizen, he had been “trying desperately” to seduce the celebrated folk singer for years. “That night she looked so radiant and was smiling a lot.” Hawkins told Hendrix he’d written a song for every zodiac sign because it was a good way to pick up women. Hendrix laughed out loud. “He laughed even louder when I told him it wasn’t working on Joni,” Hawkins said.
I’ve read a few different accounts of that night, and in my favourite, singer Ritchie Havens was at the motel too. The next year, in the summer of 1969, Havens performed a fearless opening set at Woodstock in front of tens of thousands of fans. But, at the motel, the charismatic twenty-seven-year-old from Ottawa was almost too much for Havens. According to Hawkins, Havens looked at him and said, “I don’t know if the world’s ready for you, man.”
