James Marshall ”Jimi” Hendrix was born on November 27, 1942 in Seattle, Washington.   His given name at the time was Johnny Allen Hendrix, but it just doesn’t have the same ring does it?  If there is a Mount Rushmore of Guitar Gods this guy is front and center.  Like George Washington.   A Man among boys when it comes to playing the guitar, the poor guy didn’t even make it to his 28th birthday.  Jimi Hendrix died on September 18, 1970 in London.  Naturally, there are differing opinions as to how this great musician passed away, but the generally accepted version of events is that he took 9 tablets of Vesparax, a German made sleeping pill, when the actual prescription called for half a tablet.  Oh, and by the way, the prescription was for his girlfriend at the time, Monika Danneman, and not Hendrix himself.  I don’t know that the truth of this sordid tale of wine, women and song ever really came to light, but are still some strange and conflicting accounts of the events of that evening floating around.   Monika Danneman committed suicide, or so the story goes, years later in 1996 under her own cloud of suspicion.   Many folks thought she had something to do with Hendrix’s asphyxiation, but nobody could seem to prove it.   CSI: London, had it existed in 1970, would almost certainly have cracked the case.   To me, like Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and dozens of others; it doesn’t really matter.  They can release all the posthumous recordings they want; as a music consuming public, we got robbed of one of the all time greats.  The famous Rolling Stone 2003 list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time listed him as Numero Uno.   I have my favorites, and I know you definitely have yours, for the other four Mount Rushmore Guitar Gods, but it would be unthinkable if Jimi Hendrix’s mug wasn’t carved in stone on this mythical mountain.
I think I’ve told this story before, but that hasn’t stopped me in the past so what the heck.  I got drunk, with my buddy Jim, in 1974 or so, at the ago of fourteen, while drinking red wine at his parents house.   I remember playing a wooden tennis racquet as my lead guitar.  We were listening to Jimi Hendrix’s famous LP Smash Hits.  It was Jim’s sister’s record, but we stumbled on it about five years after it was released (July 1969 here in the United States).   As was the custom in those days with English artists, there were two versions of Smash Hits: one for the UK and one for the US.  Fortunately for us over here, our version included the Bob Dylan cover “All Along The Watchtower” and Hendrix classics “Crosstown Traffic and Red House” instead of the lesser tracks that appeared on the English version.   I remember staggering home…I was on foot and needed to navigate maybe 400 yards to reach my front door…and sleeping it off, but I will always remember that first introduction to Jimi Hendrix and wine.  14 sounds awful young to be drinking, but we were living in the sticks of New Jersey and, as happening (not) high school freshmen now, found our way into trouble whenever we could.   As a side note my friend is a tremendously successful businessman living in London and I seem to have turned out all right (well…I’ve never been arrested or even detained…that’s got to count for something right?) for the most part.   Of course we are both still big Jimi Hendrix fans as well.   That doesn’t mean pounding drinks at 14 is a good idea, but I’d be hypocritical if I put out a PSA on the subject about now.
I own a copy of Jimi Plays Monterey (the DVD), but I remembering “taping” it off of MTV about 20 years ago or more so I’d seen a lot of it prior to buying the expanded version on DVD a couple years back.  I am still mesmerized watching footage of a young Jimi Hendrix playing live.  It’s not the playing with his teeth or behind the head that has me spellbound.  It’s not the burning of the guitar or the eventual smashing of the guitar either.  It’s the way the music gushes out of this guy in loud and soft bursts of thunder.  Yes he played a normal guitar upside down and backwards being left handed, but I can sort of see that happening too.   His hands and fingers were huge.  But the Soul and the Blues that careened out of his playing was a thing of beauty.  I’m listening to his version of “Like a Rolling Stone” as I type.  I love Bob Dylan and his version is still always going to be number one in my book, but Hendrix does a fantastic job on this song for my money.   We know he clobbered “All Along The Watchtower.”  He hit that cover right off the ball and it reached places Bob Dylan never came close to with his version.  Another great cover by Jimi Hendrix is his cover of The Troggs’ “Wild Thing.”  Electric Blues were never the same after Jimi Hendrix released Are You Experienced in May of 1967.   “Hey Joe,” a song credited to a guy named Billy Roberts in 1962, was Jimi Hendrix’s first big hit.  It’s still one of his best to me.   A Los Angeles band called The Leaves were the first to record it commercially in 1965, but all bets were off when The Jimi Experience put it out as a single in 1966.  The B side was “Stone Free.”  Not bad for a first crack at the business huh?   They are still playing these songs to this day on the radio.
Jimi Hendrix went through a ton of stuff as a very young African American male in the 50′s & 60′s.  His parents divorced when he was 9 years old.   He got into some trouble with car thieves and had to choose between prison and the Army as punishment in 1961.  After a year he was discharged under circumstances that were not the best no matter what you may have heard.   He was either a lousy soldier or faked being gay to get out, but he was free to go back to being a musician.  He eventually played with The Isley Brothers and Little Richard fairly steadily for a while until forming his own band in 1966.  Chas Chandler, the ex bassist of The Animals, wanted to try his hand at managing and after Andrew Loog Oldham, of Rolling Stones’ fame, passed on managing Hendrix, Chandler took him to England.  He paired him up with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding and The Experience was born.   Between his short stay in New York, where he met Chandler through Keith Richards’ girlfriend Linda Keith, and now London, Hendrix was meeting all the right people and getting heard.  Chandler introduced Hendrix to Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton and from there the buzz was pretty special.  This guy was good; that much was obvious.  Pretty soon Jeff Beck and Brian Jones were friends and fans too.  It was happening.  London in the 60′s must have been pretty wild.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience released only three studio albums; Are You Experienced (1967), Axis: Bold As Love (1967) and Electric Ladyland (1968), but it seems like a dozen.  By 1969 Noel Redding was not getting along with Hendrix and, frustrated at not being able to play lead guitar as opposed to bass, quit the band.  Their last gig as the original Experience was June 29, 1969 at the Denver Pop Festival.  Eventually Old Army buddy Billy Cox was brought in to replace Redding on bass, ex-Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles was brought in to replace Mitch Mitchell and they attempted to carry on as The Band of Gypsys.  That arrangement lasted through Woodstock (August 1969) and nearly into 1970, but that was the lifespan of Band of Gypsys.   There was an attempt to resurrect the Experience that year, but it ultimately failed.  Billy Cox had to be brought back in place of Redding again so they could play live in 1970.  September 6th of that year was the last time Jimi Hendrix performed in concert at The Isle of Wight.   Three weeks later he was gone.  That, as they say, was very unfortunate.
Jimi Hendrix’s estate has released what seems like 15 or 20 posthumous CDs and some of them are tremendous.   1971′s Cry of Love is great with classics like “Angel, Freedom and Ezy Ryder,” but after this it seemed like it was all contractual obligations, outtakes, live stuff and box sets.  Jimi Hendrix put out more records dead than alive by leaps and bounds.   1987′s Live at Winterland, 1994′s Blues and 1995′s Voodoo Soup are pretty good for a deceased guy, but I just can’t keep buying these things as great as Jimi Hendrix was.  It’s like looking at the Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley bins;  the guy was in the public eye for what, six years tops?, and he’s got over 25 records on the market?  Somebody is making a lot of money on my dime that’s for sure.  Sinatra and Presley probably have over 50 records each on the market too.  Incredible.  I love a good cover of “Sunshine of Your Love” as much as the next guy, but damned if I’m ponying up $100 for his latest Box Set.  Sorry Jimi.  I don’t know if I imparted anything of interest here, but the takeaways are Jimi Hendrix was a very, very special talent, it’s unfortunate that he died so young, there are still questions surrounding the night that he died, he would have been 68 years old today if he had lived and we here at The Giant Panther still miss him.  Hope you’re resting comfortably big fella.  The world is still thinking about you.