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- true innovator of the electric guitar
- Hendrix arrives
- played right-handed Fender Stratocastor upside down, strung upside down, so that string order was the same (lowest strings on top, highest on the bottom of the neck)
- taught himself guitar by listening to blues (Muddy Waters & BB King)
and rock (Chuck Berry & Eddie Cochran)
- 1961 - discharged from the army due to parachuting injuries
- began working in NYC as sideman "Jimmy
James" for Sam Cooke, BB King, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Ike
& Tina Turner, and the Isley Brothers
- 1965 - formed his own band Jimmy James & the Flames
to play Greenwich Village coffeehouses
- 1966 - Chas Chandler (bassist for the Animals) took him to London
where he formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience;
Noel Redding (bass) and Mitch Mitchell (drums)
- successful in England, but not introduced to US until his appearance, at
Paul McCartney's insistence, at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival
- Who/Hendrix discussion of performance
order ... Jimi lost and had to follow The Who
- ended his set by setting guitar on fire!
- comparison of performance style of Pete Townsend to Jimi Hendrix**
- including Townsend's own words
Purple Haze
- innovative guitar sounds, using only his Stratocaster,
amp, Maestro fuzz box, wah-wah pedal, and nose-bleed volume
- used toggle switch & tremelo bar
- Hendrix was a real showman
- played guitar behind his back and/or with his teeth
- undulated & writhed on stag
"Foxey Lady"
performance of Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone"
- Electric Ladyland (3rd album; 1968) was his only #1 album
- containing Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," Hendrix' only
Top 40 single (#20, 1968)
the album also contained several highly experimental works:
And
the Gods Made Love
opening cut on the album, using tape-speed manipulation to create a
brief electronic composition
mainstream rock
long guitar improvisation, typical of the experimental San Francisco era
two video performances & commentary:
- Jimi on protest songs through Townsend's reflections on the death of so many musicians of the era
12-bar blues; excellent rock/blues guitar
technique
Rainy
Day, Dream Away
opens side 3 as a gentle rock song (hint of jazz)
Moon
Turn the Tides
fine "artsy" musicianship of Hendrix, Mitchell, & Redding
returns on side 4 with a harder rock sound ... listen
to guitar tone
- Hendrix was far more than a flamboyant, drug-influenced, sexually explicit
performer
- he was truly ahead of his time.
performed as the culminating act at Woodstock
Hendrix with Mick Jagger in 1969.
- 1969 - disbanded the Jimi Hendrix Experience
and retreated to upstate NY ... remember Dylan?
- opened his own recording studio (Electric Ladyland)
and began recording his own album
- 1969/70 - formed a new band with Bill Cox (bass) & Buddy Miles (drums)
called Band of Gypsys
- early 1970 - in the middle of a performance, stopped playing & walked
offstage
- 9/18/70 - Hendrix died ("inhalation of
vomit following barbiturate intoxication")
Jimi Hendrix' funeral ... Mitch Mitchell (drums) is on the far
right & Noel Redding (bass) is second from the right
- has become deified by later guitarists
& musicians
- Noel Redding died in 2003 and Mitch Mitchell passed away on November 12, 2008.
Death of the 3 J's between 9/18/70 and 7/3/71:
(includes discussion of the deaths of Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, & Keith Moon)
- 9/18/70 - Jimi Hendrix
- 10/4/70 - Janis Joplin
- 7/3/71 - Jim Morrison
- later tragedy: Keith Moon's death 7/7/78
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