Jimi Hendrix died 43 years ago today. I don't mark that on my calendar (nobody should). I noticed it only because I was looking back at some old posts.
I remember that day, actually. I was only 10 but knew about him via older siblings and neighbors. Plus it was on the 6 o'clock news. The next day I learned that one other kid in my 5th grade class knew who he was.
Hendrix had something which no celebrity has had since -- not even the queen's favorite prince. It was an ability to bring races and nations together in awe and admiration. It was based on talent and showmanship. The hippies loved him while the squares just shook their heads. But even hippies who later grew edges can still see that in him.
Here is a clip from his Woodstock appearance. I think some kudos are due to the videographer on this one; the image is clear and he captured Hendrix' outsized hands and how he could just manipulate the fret board. Good crowd shots too: Link
(time skipped embedding appears complicated for this clip; and I have seen this one go up and come down quickly)
Favorite part is around 24m10s when he starts driving the same riff over and over using only modulation while sucking down a cigarette no-handed. I think this is where air-guitar got invented,
14 comments:
So why are you smiling?
because I know something you don't know.
and what is that?
My guitar is not left handed.
The Princes Bride.
That was part of his sinister eroticism, Lem.
I'm your average, ordinary, everyday dude
Drivin' with my baby, To get her in the mood
She's dialin'through my radio and I'm ready to make my move,
But what she got ain't rock'n'roll and it really blew my groove
It was - Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven
It makes me wanna scream - Bach, Tchaikovsky, violins
Turn it off! - That ain't my scene
Well I'm sorry girl, here's my confession
I suppose a rock's out of the question?
Let's get Rocked - Def Leppard
I love Jimi.
He was a great guitarist.
I don't know...
There is something sad a bout a guy trying to do too much by himself.
He looks like he is moving furniture on PEDs and the band is trying to keep up with him, up and down the stairs.
The guitar has limitations that should probably be respected?
Did people kiss ass back then?
I suspect as much. that's just my opinion.
That was part of his sinister eroticism,
Maybe that's it... love making doesn't have to sound good. if that makes any sense.
He really, really liked downers. That fact showed in his music - he ended up being too stoned to play. I found that annoying, then he died.
Oh well, he had a good run and died doing what he loved - choking on his own vomit.
Sixty Grit makes me look like one of the Happy Shiny People.
Didn't get around to commenting on the last thread where Jimi was discussed and wanted to make one comment. I find Are You Experienced to be extremely listener friendly myself. It's probably the rock album from the 1960s that I've listened to the most, and was THE soundtrack of me sitting around pools and beaches doing nothing in the 1980s. I can't even think of a close second, as my favorite Who and Pink Floyd and Stones ALBUMS are from the early 1970s.
I remember reading about some guy who made a living touring the country impersonating Jimi Hendrix.
The interviewer conceded that the guy could ape the costumes and the moves and the singing but what about the wild guitar playing?
The guy explained that most of Hendrix's stuff was feedback, harmonics and working the whammy bar.
Too glib, to be sure, but he had a point.
Room Full of Mirrors is a good bio of Jimmy. What a horrible life he had as a child.
When I was just out of high school, around 1980, I had much respect for a friend's father who had been something of a rock guitar demi-god, in his day.
I asked him whether Jimi Hendrix was really so good as all the hype.
He said absolutely yes and to fully appreciate his playing you need to get a recording and slow it down to catch all that's actually going on.
He also said that Randy Bachman's playing was nearly perfect and worthy of serious study.
Seriously - you are a wealthy, talented, wildly popular guitarist and when you are not working you think it's a good idea to take barbiturates, which render you unconscious. Take enough and you over dose.
I didn't get it then, it makes even less sense now.
I really like being awake and being able to work. It's a blessing.
I have a brother who is fond of pointing out that it was never conclusively proved that the vomit Hendrix aspirated was his own.
Who knows - he might have been murdered by some unknown vomiter.
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