Extrapolate
Anyone that doesn't believe Jimi Hendrix is the greatest guitarist of All time is FUCKING STUPID. As this summer approaches, so too does the 40th Anniversary of Jimi Hendrix's triumphant set at Woodstock. Although that performance saw a frustrated and somewhat frazzled Jimi at less than the peak of his powers, it was still clear at that time that the future possibilities offered by this energetic, visionary and relentlessly creative force of nature were almost limitless. Little more than a year later he was gone, and vanished forever with him were the unparalleled talent and potential for the guitar that would figure into every innovation in playing the electric guitar for the next four decades.
So, in honour of his greatness, I submit a purely subjective hypothetical career overview of the man's music, had he lived.
1970 - Jimi's long-delayed fourth studio album "First Rays Of The New Rising Sun" is released late that year. Containing material that had been partially worked out while touring with the band of Gypsys, it encompasses a wide variety of styles, beyond even the operational capacity of the Experience. Despite strong album sales and heavy rotation on FM dials, the album moves Jimi Farther from a mainstream that is quickly re-aligning itself in the wake of post-Beatlemania and a disintegrating counter-culture movement. Hendrix uses the opportunity to place his solo career on hold and explore musical friendships from a wide variety of musical backgrounds. PLacing the hiatus on his "every day" career allows Jimi to back away from the spotlight, conquering his personal issues and resolving the legal battles which beset him at this time.
1971 - Jimi joins ELP as a full-time member, and causing the prog-rock supergroup to be renamed Hendrix, Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Bringing a rawer rock edge to the English band's stilted prog-rock, allowing fro greater emphasis on improvisation and rhythmic interplay and simultaneously incorporating influences from the burgeoning Hard Rock genre that he had helped to create with the Experience. After a little more than a year of touring and two studio albums, Hendrix declines to participate further in HELP, citing that his creative energies lay elsewhere, particularly his partnership with Sly Stone.
1972 - With his own personal and professional life rapidly deteriorating, Sly Stone disbands the family. Hendrix, still not willing to re-form any group with himself at the head, instead spends the summer touring Europe with the Grateful Dead. Soon after he flies to Germany spend six weeks on a commune with the members of Amon Duul II, and also meets and records a one-off album with Damo Suzuki which remains unreleased until 2005.
1974 - After briefly jamming with James Brown in a conceptual small band setting, Miles Davis offers Hendrix a permanent spot in his touring band, and the two form a two-year partnership that results in a wealth of live releases. These display a profound appreciation for the subtle complexity of long-scale composition, improvisation and groove. These some of the finest acid rock, funk and jazz fusion recordings ever made. The partnership comes to an end as Miles's own appetite for drugs eventually causes the partnership to fizzle out in late 1975.
1975 - Turning his abilities to the recording studio, Hendrix produces a host of young and talented bands in Electric Ladyland Studios over the next three years, including albums by Funkadelic, Black Sabbath, Herbie Hancock, Pink Floyd, and Isaac Hayes. He also extends his musical partnerships further, appearing on albums with Muddy Waters, Brian Eno, Davis Bowie, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and George Harrison. As the 70's wear on, Hendrix's absence from the stage grows more obvious as Punk and Disco re-shape the musical landscape, and the remaining 60's icons slowly die off or become irrelevant.
1980 - Hendrix releases the first album to bear only his name on the cover in almost five years. A collaborative affair, it features guitar from Robert Fripp and and is produced by Brian Eno. Though it sells poorly and is initially seen as a disappointment, later generations come to view the record as a classic of post-punk and experimental electronic music. Hendrix also makes his first foray into music video at this time, producing a number of visually innovative clips.
1982 - The record's disappointing reception move Hendrix to switch gears, sharpening his playing and joining Ozzy Osbourne to replace the deceased Randy Rhodes. Showcasing his pure virtuosity and onstage showmanship more overtly than anything in nearly a decade, the tour ends with Hendrix re-energized and excited to try a new band. Hendrix cuts a pair of thrashy but riff-based albums with a metal group of his own in the mid-80's, before tiring of the rigidity and aggression of Heavy Metal altogether.
1985 - After recording an electric blues album with emerging phenom Stevie Ray Vaugh, Hendrix takes a hiatus and holes up in his recording studio for the next 18 months. His studio experiments at this time largely see a man struggling against the limitations of the the Guitar's sonic vocabulary. His only live appearance in this time is when the Experience re-unite to play at Live-Aid. No further move is made to revive the group until late 1986.
1987 - Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell reunite with Hendrix for a world tour. Though financially successful, the tour (Which included an in-their-prime Sonic Youth as the headliner) finds Jimi frustrating and confusing his aging fan base by refusing to play old favorites, and instead staging endless feedback jams which sometimes resulted in the exasperation of his band mates. Plans for a reunion album are scrapped.
1989 - Hendrix embraces a new generation of alternative rock and hip-hop artists, releasing albums under a variety of names and groups over the next three years. His contributions to the hip-hop exploding in popularity at this time do not go unnoticed, as catalogue is heavily sampled. Hendrix's work yields a series of recordings which cut up his guitar playing and layered it over electronic beats, while simultaneously revealing an interest in noise-rock abrasiveness. Influenced by groups such as Spacemen 3 and the Jesus & Mary Chain, his new sound opens up new and exciting territory for both his guitar-playing and sound-manipulation abilities.
1992 - Hendrix, by this time recognized as an influential and still-relevant elder statesman by the alternative rock and hip hop communities, has largely found his profile in the mainstream diminished in the wake of the grunge explosion. However, an MTV unplugged appearance with BB King and Buddy Guy raises his profile once again to the top of the mainstream, and he tours that summer as a headliner at Lollapalooza. His band on this tour features a partial reunion of the Band Of Gypsys, with longtime friend Billy Cox returning on bass for the first time in twenty years.
1993 - Hendrix spends the next four years playing with a newly-formed psychedelic shoegaze power-trio, releasing four albums and touring the U.S. and Europe in small venues and to ecstatic receptions. In the meantime, he produces successful underground hip-hop albums by Raekwon, GZA, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and the Beastie Boys.
1997 - Feeling he has exhausted the potential of the electric guitar, and exhausted himself, Jimi "Retires" from playing the guitar to focus on electronic music. Though his experiments are largely kept to himself, a few are given limited release, to less-than enthusiastic public response. His work is well recieved in the electronic community, as his appearances on recordings by such luminaries as Trent Reznor, Massive Attack and Aphex Twin demonstrates.
2005 - After an eight year break from regular touring and recording, and recovering from a battle with skin-cancer, Hendrix releases an emotionally resonant roots-rock album which showcases his songwriting and singing to an unprecedented degree. The album is his biggest hit in a decade, spawning hit singles and a dominating performance at the Grammy's, sweeping every award he was nominated for.
2006 - A World reunion tour with the Experience is artistically and commercially successful, lasting until late 2007. An album, the first from the original members of the Experience in 35 years is remarkably in-step with the burgeoning noise and psych rock movements in the U.S., to whom Hendrix is seen as a founding father. This-late career revival is cut short by the untimely death of Mitch Mitchell in early 2008.
2009 - With the Experience disbanded permanently, 66-year-old Hendrix decides to return to his roots, forming an electric blues band with old pal Billy Cox and continuing to gig regularly, and into the foreseeable future.
So, in honour of his greatness, I submit a purely subjective hypothetical career overview of the man's music, had he lived.
1970 - Jimi's long-delayed fourth studio album "First Rays Of The New Rising Sun" is released late that year. Containing material that had been partially worked out while touring with the band of Gypsys, it encompasses a wide variety of styles, beyond even the operational capacity of the Experience. Despite strong album sales and heavy rotation on FM dials, the album moves Jimi Farther from a mainstream that is quickly re-aligning itself in the wake of post-Beatlemania and a disintegrating counter-culture movement. Hendrix uses the opportunity to place his solo career on hold and explore musical friendships from a wide variety of musical backgrounds. PLacing the hiatus on his "every day" career allows Jimi to back away from the spotlight, conquering his personal issues and resolving the legal battles which beset him at this time.
1971 - Jimi joins ELP as a full-time member, and causing the prog-rock supergroup to be renamed Hendrix, Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Bringing a rawer rock edge to the English band's stilted prog-rock, allowing fro greater emphasis on improvisation and rhythmic interplay and simultaneously incorporating influences from the burgeoning Hard Rock genre that he had helped to create with the Experience. After a little more than a year of touring and two studio albums, Hendrix declines to participate further in HELP, citing that his creative energies lay elsewhere, particularly his partnership with Sly Stone.
1972 - With his own personal and professional life rapidly deteriorating, Sly Stone disbands the family. Hendrix, still not willing to re-form any group with himself at the head, instead spends the summer touring Europe with the Grateful Dead. Soon after he flies to Germany spend six weeks on a commune with the members of Amon Duul II, and also meets and records a one-off album with Damo Suzuki which remains unreleased until 2005.
1974 - After briefly jamming with James Brown in a conceptual small band setting, Miles Davis offers Hendrix a permanent spot in his touring band, and the two form a two-year partnership that results in a wealth of live releases. These display a profound appreciation for the subtle complexity of long-scale composition, improvisation and groove. These some of the finest acid rock, funk and jazz fusion recordings ever made. The partnership comes to an end as Miles's own appetite for drugs eventually causes the partnership to fizzle out in late 1975.
1975 - Turning his abilities to the recording studio, Hendrix produces a host of young and talented bands in Electric Ladyland Studios over the next three years, including albums by Funkadelic, Black Sabbath, Herbie Hancock, Pink Floyd, and Isaac Hayes. He also extends his musical partnerships further, appearing on albums with Muddy Waters, Brian Eno, Davis Bowie, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and George Harrison. As the 70's wear on, Hendrix's absence from the stage grows more obvious as Punk and Disco re-shape the musical landscape, and the remaining 60's icons slowly die off or become irrelevant.
1980 - Hendrix releases the first album to bear only his name on the cover in almost five years. A collaborative affair, it features guitar from Robert Fripp and and is produced by Brian Eno. Though it sells poorly and is initially seen as a disappointment, later generations come to view the record as a classic of post-punk and experimental electronic music. Hendrix also makes his first foray into music video at this time, producing a number of visually innovative clips.
1982 - The record's disappointing reception move Hendrix to switch gears, sharpening his playing and joining Ozzy Osbourne to replace the deceased Randy Rhodes. Showcasing his pure virtuosity and onstage showmanship more overtly than anything in nearly a decade, the tour ends with Hendrix re-energized and excited to try a new band. Hendrix cuts a pair of thrashy but riff-based albums with a metal group of his own in the mid-80's, before tiring of the rigidity and aggression of Heavy Metal altogether.
1985 - After recording an electric blues album with emerging phenom Stevie Ray Vaugh, Hendrix takes a hiatus and holes up in his recording studio for the next 18 months. His studio experiments at this time largely see a man struggling against the limitations of the the Guitar's sonic vocabulary. His only live appearance in this time is when the Experience re-unite to play at Live-Aid. No further move is made to revive the group until late 1986.
1987 - Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell reunite with Hendrix for a world tour. Though financially successful, the tour (Which included an in-their-prime Sonic Youth as the headliner) finds Jimi frustrating and confusing his aging fan base by refusing to play old favorites, and instead staging endless feedback jams which sometimes resulted in the exasperation of his band mates. Plans for a reunion album are scrapped.
1989 - Hendrix embraces a new generation of alternative rock and hip-hop artists, releasing albums under a variety of names and groups over the next three years. His contributions to the hip-hop exploding in popularity at this time do not go unnoticed, as catalogue is heavily sampled. Hendrix's work yields a series of recordings which cut up his guitar playing and layered it over electronic beats, while simultaneously revealing an interest in noise-rock abrasiveness. Influenced by groups such as Spacemen 3 and the Jesus & Mary Chain, his new sound opens up new and exciting territory for both his guitar-playing and sound-manipulation abilities.
1992 - Hendrix, by this time recognized as an influential and still-relevant elder statesman by the alternative rock and hip hop communities, has largely found his profile in the mainstream diminished in the wake of the grunge explosion. However, an MTV unplugged appearance with BB King and Buddy Guy raises his profile once again to the top of the mainstream, and he tours that summer as a headliner at Lollapalooza. His band on this tour features a partial reunion of the Band Of Gypsys, with longtime friend Billy Cox returning on bass for the first time in twenty years.
1993 - Hendrix spends the next four years playing with a newly-formed psychedelic shoegaze power-trio, releasing four albums and touring the U.S. and Europe in small venues and to ecstatic receptions. In the meantime, he produces successful underground hip-hop albums by Raekwon, GZA, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and the Beastie Boys.
1997 - Feeling he has exhausted the potential of the electric guitar, and exhausted himself, Jimi "Retires" from playing the guitar to focus on electronic music. Though his experiments are largely kept to himself, a few are given limited release, to less-than enthusiastic public response. His work is well recieved in the electronic community, as his appearances on recordings by such luminaries as Trent Reznor, Massive Attack and Aphex Twin demonstrates.
2005 - After an eight year break from regular touring and recording, and recovering from a battle with skin-cancer, Hendrix releases an emotionally resonant roots-rock album which showcases his songwriting and singing to an unprecedented degree. The album is his biggest hit in a decade, spawning hit singles and a dominating performance at the Grammy's, sweeping every award he was nominated for.
2006 - A World reunion tour with the Experience is artistically and commercially successful, lasting until late 2007. An album, the first from the original members of the Experience in 35 years is remarkably in-step with the burgeoning noise and psych rock movements in the U.S., to whom Hendrix is seen as a founding father. This-late career revival is cut short by the untimely death of Mitch Mitchell in early 2008.
2009 - With the Experience disbanded permanently, 66-year-old Hendrix decides to return to his roots, forming an electric blues band with old pal Billy Cox and continuing to gig regularly, and into the foreseeable future.