YEah, Jimi was a shiny...
This morning there is a writer's block about which Jimi Hendrix tune was your favorite and why. That is almost as impossible to answer as "Which Beatles song is your favorite?" for those of my generation and taste. Instead of arguing over the merits of the two versions of Voodoo Child or Purple Haze, I will tell you my "Experience."
My sister had brought home this album (yup, vinyl), and put it on the record player (yup, not stereo, record player) in our bedroom. It had a wonderfully colorful psychedelic cover. She started playing it. I was hooked from the first note! I had never heard those sounds from a guitar, and as good as some of the guitar gods since him have been, I don't think I ever have again. HE was the king of the waa-waa pedal. IF you listen carefully to Hendrix's National Anthem, you can hear helicopters and bombs. In every other song, you hear the sounds of his very spirit coming through the amp. HE was just awesome.
I got to see him twice: once at the Kenedy Stadium in BRidgeport, CT in the summer of 1968, and again at Woodstock (yup, the original. There ARE advantages to being old and seeing history.)
Fast forward about 20 years and my oldest daughter- then 13- is going to do a report on Jimi Hendrix and tell the world why his music sucked. I asked her if she had ever heard him play, and she said no, she didn't have to- he was old. I told her that he was probably the guy who invented the heavy metal that she liked so well and of course she didn't believe me. Well, there was only one thing for it: took her to Walmart and bought a Hendrix tape and made her listen.
She was hooked from the first note!
Thanks, Jimi!
My sister had brought home this album (yup, vinyl), and put it on the record player (yup, not stereo, record player) in our bedroom. It had a wonderfully colorful psychedelic cover. She started playing it. I was hooked from the first note! I had never heard those sounds from a guitar, and as good as some of the guitar gods since him have been, I don't think I ever have again. HE was the king of the waa-waa pedal. IF you listen carefully to Hendrix's National Anthem, you can hear helicopters and bombs. In every other song, you hear the sounds of his very spirit coming through the amp. HE was just awesome.
I got to see him twice: once at the Kenedy Stadium in BRidgeport, CT in the summer of 1968, and again at Woodstock (yup, the original. There ARE advantages to being old and seeing history.)
Fast forward about 20 years and my oldest daughter- then 13- is going to do a report on Jimi Hendrix and tell the world why his music sucked. I asked her if she had ever heard him play, and she said no, she didn't have to- he was old. I told her that he was probably the guy who invented the heavy metal that she liked so well and of course she didn't believe me. Well, there was only one thing for it: took her to Walmart and bought a Hendrix tape and made her listen.
She was hooked from the first note!
Thanks, Jimi!