Jimi Hendrix
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| Jimi Hendrix | |
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| Born | November 27 1942 Seattle, Washington, USA |
| Died | September 18, 1970 London, England |
| Alias(es) | James Marshall Hendrix |
| Genre(s) | Hard rock Acid rock Blues rock Psychedelic rock |
| Affiliation(s) | The Jimi Hendrix Experience Gypsy Sun and Rainbows Band of Gypsys The Cry of Love |
| Label(s) | MCA, Reprise, Track, Polydor, Capitol |
| Notable guitars | Fender Stratocaster Gibson Flying V 12-String-Zemaitis Acoustic |
| Years active | 1966 – 1970 |
| Official site | JimiHendrix.com |
Jimi Hendrix (November 27, 1942 - September 18 1970) was an American guitarist. Hendrix is thought to be one of the most influential musicians in the history of rock and roll music.
[edit] The Life, Death and Music of Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix was born in Seattle on November 27, 1942. He was to die on September 18, 1970 in London, recognised as one of the most influential guitarist in Rock history.
Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix but was later renamed James Marshall Hendrix. He was deeply affected by the poverty and neglect that he had to grow up in, his parents divorced when he was nine and his mother died when he was 16. But playing in his favour, instead of growing up in a segregated area where blacks and whites lived apart, he grew up in Seattle’s central cities, which had a mix of African-American, Hispanic and Caucasian.
Hendrix in his early years was a fan of Elvis Presley and after seeing the man himself play at Sick’s Stadium on September 1,1957, he drew a colour picture of him holding an acoustic guitar surrounded by the line-up of songs that he himself had played at that concert. This insight into Hendrix’ mind can be seen in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio even today. His admiration of Elvis Presley did not diminish as time went by. He went to a movie of Presley’s “King Creole” in Paris in late 1968, apparently to give him inspiration and strength.
His other tastes included famous blues musicians such as Muddy Waters and Lightning Hopkins; he also shook hands with R&B star Little Richard whilst Richard was playing in Jimi’s Central District.
At about the age of fourteen, Jimi found his first guitar. It was a broken acoustic guitar with one string that had been thrown away by another boy. His first electric guitar was a white Supro Ozark that his father, Al Hendrix, had bought him. He didn’t have lessons and learned basic tunes and improvisation from watching Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley play live.
His first proper concert was with a small amateur band without a name, playing in a synagogue. Hendrix was fired between songs because of too much showing off and twenty-minute solos. He later joined a band called The Velvetones, who played at the Yesler Terrace but it was a voluntary action so he didn’t make any money from this. But his left handed playing on a guitar made for right-handed people and uncontrolled solo outbursts attracted positive attention. His Supro Ozark was stolen after he left it behind the scenes overnight after a concert but his father came to the rescue and bought him a white Silvertone Danelectro, which Hendrix painted red and wrote the name of his present girlfriend, Betty Jean, on it. Hendrix managed to get through middle school but didn’t manage to graduate from his High School, Garfield High School. Hendrix once told some reporters in the late 1960’s that his expulsion had racial implications but the truth was it was just because of poor grades and bad time management.
After getting in trouble by stealing cars twice, Hendrix got the choice of either going to prison for two years or to enlist in the US Army. Even though both lead to just about the same thing, Hendrix chose to enlist in the Army on May 31, 1961. The observations made on him by his generals were less than charitable. His superiors quoted that he was repeatedly caught sleeping on duty and needed constant supervision. A superior said, “His mind apparently cannot function while performing duties and thinking about his guitar”. But aside from all he negative reports from his laziness or day dreaming, his Army enlistment was crucial to him, although not known to him at the time. For it was at a recreation centre that he met another soldier and bass player called Billy Cox. They would play together in a small group called The King Kasuals, just for fun.
On May 31, 1962, after being in the Army for one year, Hendrix’ superiors thought it best to discharge him for behaviour problems. Hendrix tried (in vain) to cover this up by saying he had been given a medical discharge after breaking his ankle whilst landing his 26th parachute jump.
After being “released” from the Army, Hendrix and Billy Cox moved together to Clarksville in Tennessee, where they continued in their group The King Kasuals. He and Cox played in small bars but Hendrix didn’t make much, so he and Cox moved to Nashville. They played to Nashville’s black population with many blues improvised songs. In November 1962, Hendrix went to his first studio performance. His improvised songs didn’t get him a serious part in the studio but for the three years that proceeded, Hendrix participated in many other bands as rhythm and lead guitar and vocals. These small performances didn’t get him fame or fortune, but they did give him experience as to how a band might work behind the scenes, but unfortunately there was still serious segregation and racism at the time, which held him back from performing bigger tasks.
At the end of his tether, Hendrix left Nashville and went to Northern New York City. By January 1964, he was in Harlem and playing regularly at small time concerts and bars. It was also here where he met and became friends with Arthur and Albert Allen, who kept Hendrix safe in the dangerous streets of New York until he could cope for himself. They also played with him in some bands as rhythm vocals. After only one month in New York, Hendrix won first prize in an amateur guitar contest called The Apollo Theatre.
After a year in the Big Apple, Hendrix had many near fame experiences. He joined a band called The Isley Brothers and played his first successful studio recording, called “Testify”. After this he left the Isley Brothers to join a band called The Upsetters, led by Little Richard. Hendrix loved Little Richard and respected him, but they both often got into arguments about Hendrix’ laid back attitude, Hendrix’ wild style solos on the stage and even the clothes that Hendrix wore (which is strange because in the sixties, you could wear a lobster suit and no one would notice).
After a bit, Hendrix quit the band and joined Ike and Tina Turner, but was fired almost immediately for, again, his wild style improvised solos. He re-joined Little Richards band but was fired and barred from returning after he missed the tour bus to get to a concert. Hendrix finally realised that it was time to get real and stop his wild stage antics. He became more serious but still with a touch of unpredictability.
In 1966, Hendrix thought it wise to form his own band instead of joining others. He called his band Jimmy James and The Blues Flames. The members were people that he met around town, one of the members was a 15-year-old boy called Randy, later nicknamed Randy California. Hendrix played many gigs around New York City and many songs at a Café called Café Wha?. It was around this time that Hendrix met Frank Zappa, who showed him the wah-wah pedal which would be the basis of so many of Hendrix’ songs.
Later, Hendrix would get lucky. He became friends with the girlfriend of Keith Richards, guitarist for the Rolling Stones, Linda Keith. She took a liking to Hendrix’ music and showed him to Chas Chandler, the bassist for The Animals. Chandler told Hendrix to write a rock version of the song “Hey Joe” as a sort of entry test and when he did, Chandler brought him to London and Hendrix signed a contract with him and the old manager for the Animals. Hendrix had to form a new band, a professional one. He chose as a bassist a British bassist called Noel Redding and a drummer called Mitch Mitchell. He called the band The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience was to get its first album published in 1967. It was called Are You Experienced. The album reached #2 in the UK charts just behind The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts. All of this started after the Monterey Pop Festival in June that Hendrix’ record people finally decided to release the album. When the album was officially out, Hendrix toured the UK and some of Europe. All of these concerts made him forget the vow he had taken to “stop being so crazy onstage” and in March 1967, he set his guitar on fire. He also in other concerts did damage to stage equipment and amplifiers and he was once again warned to relax. On June 4, 1967, The Jimi Hendrix Experience played their last concert in London before going to tour America and many famous people had come to see Hendrix play such as Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Brain Epstein. Hendrix decided to show off his own version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts. Hendrix’ first album was known more as a manual on what could be played on guitar than an actual CD. In 2001, VH1 named Are You Experienced as the 5th greatest album of all time and the Rolling Stones magazine named it 15th best album out of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003.
The time had come for The Jimi Hendrix Experience to tour America. His first live concert was at the Monterey International Pop Festival. Hendrix positively went mad and burned and smashed his guitar at the end of his performance. The entire concert was filmed and shown in movie theatres all over the US which contributed to Hendrix’ fame. Also in England and America, others of Hendrix’ wild styles on stage were becoming world renowned such as playing guitar with his teeth and behind his back. But the concert that would give him the landmark on the road to greatness was at the Monterey Pop Festival on June 18, 1967. Hendrix played many great re-mixes of songs such as Hey Joe and Like a Rolling Stone. In the end, Hendrix burnt his guitar, smashed it to pieces and threw the pieces into the audience. Today, we can see these pieces of Stratocaster in Seattle at The Experience Music Project.
Hendrix’ second album also came out in 1967. It was called Axis: Bold as Love. It was much more deep and with better structures songs than in Are You Experienced such as Little Wing. Little Wing is a tribute to Hendrix's mother who died when Hendrix was still very young. According to some people, Little Wing is the Indian name of Hendrix's god-angel. Another name that Hendrix considered calling this song is "Little Ivey". There have been several other versions of the song by other artists including Stevie Ray Vaughan, Henry "Hank" Marrion, Metallica, Eric Clapton, Sting and Pearl Jam. Little Wing is played using a unique tune that Hendrix used in his earlier Rhythm and Blues sons. The guitar sounds as if it is playing two separate parts. This is achieved by playing a chord and changing one or two notes in the chord whist it is still ringing or changing multiple complementary notes.
But a significant difference in the album songs was that Hendrix tuned his guitar down a semi-tone (to E flat). The ironic thing is that the album was almost lost after Hendrix left the master tape for one side of the LP in the back of a taxi. The LP was only saved because Hendrix’ manager (Chas Chandler) discovered that Noel Redding had a copy of it on tape. Hendrix and Chandler had to remix the whole side in one night to reach the deadline and often say that they were not happy with the results. Hendrix also said that he didn’t like the album front cover. Although he liked the meaning behind the cover, he really had wanted it to show his Indian origins; But the Art designers thought Hendrix had meant India in South Asia, not Native American India, so they made the cover showing the Indian Gods Durga and Vishnu. The end of the tour of this album didn’t end as spectacularly as did the first one. Hendrix went on lots more concerts than his first one and played in front of bigger audiences. To fight his constant sleepiness, he took drugs and alcohol which maybe eased it for a few hours but made it come back worse. In the end Hendrix was arrested in Stockholm, Scandinavia after trashing his hotel room.
Hendrix first started recording his third album, called Electric LadyLand in 1968. As the time went by, Chas Chandler (Hendrix’ manager) decided to leave Hendrix. Chandler was very business oriented and thought that all songs should have a specific structure. This is shown on Hendrix’ first two albums because hardly any of his songs are over four minutes long and both albums were recorded in short times and his feelings clashed with Hendrix’ feelings. Hendrix was a perfectionist and didn’t like leaving something alone, he constantly made alterations to his songs. For example, Hendrix’ song Gypsy Eyes was re-recorded 43 times. As Hendrix became more and more of a perfectionist, Chandler left and gave control to Hendrix. Chandlers leaving changed Hendrix’ album completely. He began using different musicians and instruments. He used guitars with flutes and trombones all with distortion to get sound. His songs frequently had no structure or sections or even melody. Some of the most famous songs from Electric LadyLand are Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) and All Along The Watchtower. But these changed were not all good. Noel Redding would have to record different bass lines for different songs and then re-record them again and again. Redding often left the studio for a breath of fresh air and to calm his nerves, and then when he came back into the studio he would find that Hendrix played and recorded his bass part for him whilst he was gone.
Electric LadyLand was finally released in October 1968 and became Hendrix’ only #1 album in the US. It reached #5 in the UK. The album covers in the US and the UK were different because the album cover artwork didn’t reach the UK in time so a cover that had been lying around in a studio was used. It was of a group of naked women. Hendrix saw this and demanded that the cover be changed back as soon as possible. Something also happened with the title of the LP. A studio technician renamed the album Electric LandLady and it was almost released until Hendrix noticed the change and had to change it back, which annoyed him significantly.
In 2003, VH1 named the album the 72nd best album of all time, and the Rolling Stones magazine gave it 54th greatest album of all time. But all good things come to an end eventually, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience was no exception. Noel Redding was continuously frustrated by Hendrix because he was not playing guitar on any tracks, yet he had originally started off by playing the guitar and often claimed that he liked it better than the bass. In 1968, Redding formed his own band, called Fat Mattress. Hendrix often made jokes about the band name (unsurprisingly) and called it Thin Pillow. Hendrix was playing more and more of the bass lines on Electric LadyLand and Redding was seen less and less. After a concert, the last concert that The Jimi Hendrix Experience would play together, on June 29, 1968 at Denver’s Mile High Stadium, there was a riot that had to be broken up with tear gas. It was after this that Redding finally broke and announced that he was going to quit the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Hendrix finally had become famous enough to go to Woodstock. And on August 18, 1969 he signed and was considered to be the whole events main attraction, even with such bands playing as Santana, The Who and Jefferson Airplane. It is thought that through people who bought tickets just to see Hendrix, Woodstock made over $18,000, which was the highest profit ever made through a single musician and Hendrix’ group was allowed to play last thing on Sunday night. Hendrix didn’t arrive until Monday morning, which was unfortunate because of the 500,000 people that had paid to see him, around 180,000 were left and didn’t plan on staying his whole concert, they just wanted to see him in person for a few minutes. Hendrix’ band was introduced as The Jimi Hendrix Experience but Hendrix swiftly changed the mistake and changed the band name. Hendrix then went on to play a two-hour concert that was interrupted by every possible piece of equipment. Microphones screeched and guitars went out of tune. Also Hendrix’ large band had not practiced enough and were often out of time with Hendrix’ speedy solos. But to make up for all of this, Hendrix played a version of Star Spangled Banner, which became one of the greatest times in his career. He played this anthem with heavy distortion and screams from his guitar, and people thought that he was being anti-American and mocking their anthem and country. Hendrix, in an interview, said that he “did not intend for his performance to be a political statement”, rather he wanted it just simply to be another version of the national anthem. Unlike his other song called “Machine Gun”, which was clearly an anti-war protest song.
In September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix was found dead in a basement of the Samarkand Hotel in London. He died after drinking too much, then taking too many sleeping pills, vomiting and choking on his vomit because he could not gain consciousness. But the events leading to his death have never been properly explained. There are many theories that were put forward. His girlfriend, who was with him at the time that he died, said that he was alive when she put him in the back of the ambulance, but hospital records say that Hendrix had been dead for some time before the ambulance had reached him. People say that Hendrix was indeed alive, but that the paramedics did not properly support his head whilst he was unconscious and so he choked on his own vomit as a result of their own incompetence. A sad poem that was found in Hendrix’ apartment written by him has made some think that he commit suicide. But the most likely explanation is that Hendrix simply made a mistake, took too many sleeping pills whilst he was drunk, then couldn’t wake up as he vomited and choked as a result.
Hendrix was buried in Seattle in Greenwood Memorial Park. His headstone was somewhat unfortunate because it shows a picture of Hendrix playing a Stratocaster, but the Stratocaster is right handed even though Hendrix played left handed. But because Hendrix had so many fans, people were starting to get worried that the crowds of people would damage other graves, and so Hendrix’ father, Al Hendrix had another memorial site built away from other grave sites. The memorial is a granite dome, held up by three pillars and Hendrix is buried directly beneath. His autograph is at the foot of each pillar and a brass sundial is at the top of the dome. There is also a memorial statue of Hendrix playing a Stratocaster near the corner of Broadway in Seattle.
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