Jimi Hendrix: Life and Death of an Electric Alchemist

00:29:15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Byk_PmVKqM

Zusammenfassung

TLDRJimi Hendrix, born Johnny Allen Hendrix, was a musical prodigy and influential guitarist known for his unique sound and electric guitar skills. He faced a troubled childhood with a dysfunctional family, which shaped his artistic expression. After serving in the Army, he pursued music, gaining recognition as a session guitarist before forming The Jimi Hendrix Experience. His debut album, 'Are You Experienced?', showcased his innovative style and became a commercial success. Despite his fame, Hendrix struggled with personal issues and substance abuse, leading to his untimely death at 27. His legacy as a rock icon endures, influencing countless musicians.

Mitbringsel

  • 🎸 Jimi Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942.
  • 🎤 He grew up in a dysfunctional family that influenced his music career.
  • 🎶 Jimi's first band was The Velvetones, where he began honing his skills.
  • 💔 His military service was marked by trouble and a passion for music.
  • 🔥 Hendrix's unique sound came from playing right-handed guitars as a lefty.
  • 🌍 He gained fame with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and their debut album 'Are You Experienced?'.
  • 🎉 His performance at Woodstock, especially the 'Star Spangled Banner', became iconic.
  • 💊 Jimi struggled with substance abuse, which affected his personal life and career.
  • 🕊️ He died at the young age of 27, leaving a lasting legacy in rock music.
  • 📜 Hendrix's life story reflects the pressures of fame and the impact of his artistry.

Zeitleiste

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    Jimi Hendrix, born Johnny Allen Hendrix, emerged from a troubled family background to become a legendary guitarist. His early life was marked by instability due to his mother's alcoholism and his father's strict discipline, which shaped his musical journey and passion for blues music.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Hendrix's musical talent blossomed as he transitioned from a ukulele to a six-string guitar, joining bands like The Velvetones and The Rocking Kings. His unique sound, influenced by his left-handed playing style, began to attract attention, leading to opportunities in more professional settings.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    After a stint in the Army, where he struggled with discipline but formed a band, Hendrix returned to music, eventually gaining recognition in Nashville. His time as a session musician allowed him to hone his skills and connect with influential artists, setting the stage for his future success.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    In London, Hendrix's career skyrocketed after being discovered by Chas Chandler, leading to the formation of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Their debut album, 'Are You Experienced?', showcased his innovative guitar work and songwriting, propelling him to international fame after memorable performances like the Monterey Pop Festival.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:29:15

    Despite his success, Hendrix faced personal struggles, including substance abuse and tumultuous relationships. His later works, including 'Electric Ladyland', solidified his legacy, but his life was tragically cut short at the age of 27, leaving behind a profound impact on music and culture.

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Video-Fragen und Antworten

  • What was Jimi Hendrix's real name?

    Jimi Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix.

  • When was Jimi Hendrix born?

    Jimi Hendrix was born on November 27, 1942.

  • What was Jimi Hendrix known for?

    He was known as a musical prodigy and the first real electric guitar hero.

  • What was the name of Jimi Hendrix's first band?

    His first band was called The Velvetones.

  • What was Jimi Hendrix's signature guitar?

    Jimi Hendrix is famously associated with the Fender Stratocaster.

  • What was the cause of Jimi Hendrix's death?

    He died from asphyxia due to vomit, likely related to an overdose of sleeping pills.

  • How old was Jimi Hendrix when he died?

    He was 27 years old.

  • What was Jimi Hendrix's most famous performance?

    His rendition of the 'Star Spangled Banner' at Woodstock is iconic.

  • What was the name of Jimi Hendrix's debut album?

    His debut album was titled 'Are You Experienced?'.

  • Who were the members of The Jimi Hendrix Experience?

    The band consisted of Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding, and Mitch Mitchell.

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Automatisches Blättern:
  • 00:00:22
    Even if you never cared for his songs, you surely heard of him. He was a musical prodigy,
  • 00:00:27
    the first real electric guitar hero. He grew from humble beginnings and a fractured family
  • 00:00:32
    to establish himself as one of the most influential guitarists of all time, a major force in 20th
  • 00:00:38
    century music. Get ready to jam out on your air-guitar with today’s protagonist: Jimi
  • 00:00:45
    Hendrix. Jimi, Jimmy or Johnny?
  • 00:00:51
    Jimi Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942 in Seattle. His father
  • 00:00:57
    Al, later renamed him James Marshall, or Jimmy for short.
  • 00:01:01
    Young Jimmy descended from a family of professional entertainers. His grandmother, Nora Rose,
  • 00:01:06
    was a dancer with a traveling vaudeville troupe called ‘Lacy’s Band’, and her husband
  • 00:01:10
    Bertran was a stagehand and roadie for the same outfit.
  • 00:01:13
    By 1912, the travelling couple had settled in Vancouver, Canada and in 1919, they had
  • 00:01:19
    their second born, James Allen, or ‘Al’. Young Al had inherited from Nora a love of
  • 00:01:25
    music and competitive dancing. In 1941 Al got engaged to Lucille Jeter, a lively and
  • 00:01:30
    beautiful 16-year-old from Roslyn, Washington. They had met that very same year at a concert
  • 00:01:35
    featuring legendary Jazz pianist Fats Waller. They were married the following year, and
  • 00:01:40
    as we already know, welcomed Johnny slash Jimmy on the 27th of November.
  • 00:01:45
    Is it important to note that Jimi Hendrix was named ‘Johnny’ at birth? Yes, it is,
  • 00:01:50
    because it was a symptom of Al and Lucille’s fast-deteriorating relationship. Since their
  • 00:01:55
    engagement days, Lucille had never let go of what she loved the most: partying and enjoying
  • 00:02:00
    the nightlife. And she did party hard, eventually developing an alcohol problem and psychiatric
  • 00:02:06
    issues. Lucille also had developed a reputation for being unfaithful. Amongst her alleged
  • 00:02:11
    lovers: one Johnny Williams. So, when Johnny/Jimmy was born, Al was stationed
  • 00:02:16
    in the Pacific with the US Army. But at the end of WWII, when Al returned to Seattle from
  • 00:02:21
    his service, he legally changed Johnny’s name. Was Jimmy an illegitimate child? That,
  • 00:02:26
    we don’t know, and neither did Al, but at least he wanted to erase any possible link
  • 00:02:31
    to a potential extramarital affair. By 1947, young Jimmy’s domestic life could
  • 00:02:36
    be accurately described as dysfunctional. Lucille was by all accounts a caring and loving
  • 00:02:41
    mother... when she was there. Unfortunately, that was a rare occurrence. Her drinking problem
  • 00:02:46
    worsened, and she developed a penchant for simply disappearing for days at the time.
  • 00:02:51
    Naturally, this disappearing act led to frequent, violent rows between her and Al. But the couple
  • 00:02:57
    stuck together four more years, and had even more children together: Leon, Joseph, Cathy
  • 00:03:02
    and finally Pamela, in 1951. In December of that same year, Al and Lucille
  • 00:03:07
    finally separated, and Al took over custody of his children.
  • 00:03:10
    Money was always tight for the single father. Joseph, Cathy and Pamela were all assigned
  • 00:03:14
    to foster families. Al took on multiple jobs -- janitor, gas station attendant, gardener
  • 00:03:19
    -- which allowed him to look after Jimmy and Leon. But even so, the two brothers spent
  • 00:03:23
    much of the early 1950s under the care of relatives, friends, or neighbours. Eventually,
  • 00:03:27
    Al was forced to foster his eldest sons, too, for a brief period.
  • 00:03:32
    In 1953, Al was able to eventually stabilise his financial situation, and he was granted
  • 00:03:36
    custody of Jimmy once more. A – D - Em
  • 00:03:41
    Al and Jimmy’s relationship may have been close, or tense, or both, varying on accounts.
  • 00:03:50
    They surely did bond over music. From an early age, Jimmy developed a fascination for legendary
  • 00:03:55
    Blues guitarists and vocalists in Al’s record collection. Artists like B.B. King, Muddy
  • 00:04:00
    Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and, most of all, the legendary Robert Johnson, who had learned
  • 00:04:05
    his guitar skills after signing a covenant with the Devil at a crossroads; whose fingerplay
  • 00:04:09
    was so skilful that he sounded like two guitarists playing at once; and who died at 27 after
  • 00:04:14
    drinking a shot of poisoned whiskey. This fascination for Blues guitar would soon
  • 00:04:18
    be noticed by Al, with the help of a broom. You see, Al Hendrix ran a tight ship around
  • 00:04:23
    the home, and while he was out, he required Jimmy to keep his bedroom tidy and clean.
  • 00:04:27
    When he returned home, he would often notice some broom straw on Jimmy’s bedroom floor.
  • 00:04:32
    In Al’s version of the story, he discovered that Jimmy would sit on his bed, listening
  • 00:04:36
    to Blues tracks while strumming the broom as if it were a guitar. Moved by this passion,
  • 00:04:41
    Al got Jimmy his first instrument: an old ukulele with one string.
  • 00:04:46
    In another, slightly less warm version of events, Al would beat Jimmy senseless every
  • 00:04:50
    time he returned home to find straw on the floor.
  • 00:04:53
    Whatever the truth about their relationship, Al did encourage his son’s musical talent.
  • 00:04:58
    In 1957, Al allowed Jimmy to graduate from one-string uke to a full six-stringed acoustic
  • 00:05:04
    guitar he had bought for five dollars. Jimmy had a keen musical ear and immediately
  • 00:05:08
    learned how to tune his guitar and play songs. “Smoke on the Water” was still to come,
  • 00:05:13
    so the first tune of choice for a novice guitarist like Jimmy was “Louie Louie” by Richard
  • 00:05:18
    Berry, with its three chords: A, D, E minor. In the summer of 1958, Jimmy joined his first
  • 00:05:25
    band, The Velvetones. The following year, Al got him his first electric guitar, a Supro
  • 00:05:29
    Ozark 1560S: a simple model with a single pick-up coil and an $89 price tag. By going
  • 00:05:36
    electric, Jimmy and the Velvetones could play their first concert.
  • 00:05:39
    Even though they were too young for the nightclub circuit, Jimmy could still hone his skills
  • 00:05:43
    playing teen dances in recreation halls and housing projects. And hone he did -- so much
  • 00:05:50
    so that he had his first admirers, and the Velvetones included in their dance sets his
  • 00:05:55
    original tune, “Jimmy’s Blues”. Jimmy’s reputation grew, and in 1959, he
  • 00:06:00
    was invited to join another band, the Rocking Kings. But he felt trapped in a small scene
  • 00:06:05
    of house parties and recreation centres, already aware of his potential and the unique sound
  • 00:06:11
    he was able to create. Even at this early stage, the sound of his
  • 00:06:14
    electric guitar had a unique quality to it, thanks to a very practical reason -- as a
  • 00:06:19
    left-handed musician, Jimmy could not afford to buy a left-handed guitar, so he had to
  • 00:06:23
    make do with 2nd hand standard guitars for righties. He made everything work by swapping
  • 00:06:28
    the position of the strings, but he did not want to (or perhaps wasn’t able to) flip
  • 00:06:33
    the position of the coils, or pick-ups. The result? The part of the coil designed
  • 00:06:38
    to pick up the notes from the ‘chunky’ strings was now amplifying the vibrations
  • 00:06:42
    from the thin strings, and vice versa. The result was a signature mix of bright high
  • 00:06:47
    notes and delicate low ones. An opportunity arose for young Jimi in 1960
  • 00:06:51
    when he was invited to join James Thomas and His Tomcats. This was a professionally managed
  • 00:06:56
    band, specialised in higher-end venues, like military officers’ clubs.
  • 00:07:01
    Soon, Jimi would be spending more time with the officers.
  • 00:07:05
    Joyriding Jimmy’s childhood and household had been
  • 00:07:12
    unstable and fractured, only slightly mitigated by Al’s strict discipline. The end result?
  • 00:07:17
    Jimmy knew how to get into trouble. By 1960, Jimmy had dropped out of Garfield
  • 00:07:21
    High School. According to him, he had been expelled for ‘smart-mouthing’ a teacher.
  • 00:07:25
    In between gigs and rehearsals Jimmy, was helping Al with his new landscaping business
  • 00:07:29
    to make a few extra buck, but it was never enough to cover Jimmy’s taste for expensive
  • 00:07:34
    and flashy clothing. According to some accounts, he wasn’t afraid to steal to fund his lifestyle.
  • 00:07:39
    At minimum, Jimmy committed two felonies that we know about. On May 2, 1961, he took a car
  • 00:07:44
    without the owner’s permission and went on a joy ride. He did it again, four days
  • 00:07:48
    later, though it’s not clear if it was the same car.
  • 00:07:51
    At the end of the month, Hendrix joined the Army – probably as an alternative to serving
  • 00:07:55
    a jail sentence. Later photos of Hendrix in old-fashioned,
  • 00:07:59
    Victorian Army tunics are iconic. So it’s kind of strange to see Jimmy in standard US
  • 00:08:05
    Army olive fatigues! In June of 1961, Private Hendrix was dropping
  • 00:08:09
    push ups at Fort Ord, California, before being shipped to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, training
  • 00:08:14
    with the 101st Airborne Division. It was only at this stage that Al sent him his new guitar,
  • 00:08:19
    a Danelectro Bronze Standard nicknamed ‘Betty Jean’, after his fiancée at that time.
  • 00:08:25
    Jimmy was not the only musician at Fort Campbell. Billy Cox, a bass player, was able to spot
  • 00:08:29
    Jimmy’s talent, which he later described as
  • 00:08:31
    “coming from a creative musical space somewhere between Beethoven and John Lee Hooker”
  • 00:08:37
    Cox and Hendrix hit it off and formed a new band, the King Kasuals. Jimmy and Billy had
  • 00:08:42
    the potential, but the Kasuals never went far, as Jimmy, burdened by his constant cash
  • 00:08:47
    flow problems, would frequently pawn his guitar for a few bucks.
  • 00:08:50
    Jimmy was a source of frustration also for his superiors, described as being
  • 00:08:55
    "unable to conform to military rules and regulations" In later accounts, Hendrix reported that he
  • 00:09:00
    had been honourably discharged from the Army because he had broken his ankle during a parachute-training
  • 00:09:05
    jump. But no, that’s BS. On July 2, 1962, Jimmy was discharged with an ‘Undesirable’
  • 00:09:12
    status. Nothing too dramatic: his officers simply noted that he was severely distracted
  • 00:09:16
    “while performing duties, due to excessive thinking about his guitar.”
  • 00:09:20
    I wonder if that Sergeant realized he had just written Jimmy Hendrix’s first recorded
  • 00:09:25
    review! In addition to that appraisal, other Army
  • 00:09:28
    medical documents report Jimmy’s declaration that he was gay – a common stratagem used
  • 00:09:33
    at the time to be discharged early form Service. After his discharge, Jimmy left Fort Campbell
  • 00:09:39
    with $400 in his pocket, after selling Betty Jean to an Army buddy – the guitar, not
  • 00:09:44
    his girlfriend. He collected his final Army wages and moved to Clarksville, Tennessee,
  • 00:09:49
    settling around a Jazz Bar that he liked. A lot.
  • 00:09:52
    He liked it so much that he spent $384 in one night. That’s almost $3,300 in today’s
  • 00:09:58
    money. Stranded in Tennessee, all Jimmy could do
  • 00:10:00
    was return to Fort Campbell and beg his friend to return him the Danelectro. With his trusty
  • 00:10:05
    six-strings, Jimmy was able to make a few bucks playing solo gigs and sustain himself
  • 00:10:10
    until Billy Cox finished his Service in September. Two things of note here:
  • 00:10:15
    One: it seems like Jimmy was in no rush to return to Betty Jean – the girlfriend that
  • 00:10:19
    is, not the guitar. Two: there are no recorded traces of the Danelectro
  • 00:10:23
    after September of 1962, so it may still be in Clarksville … if you hail from there,
  • 00:10:29
    start looking for it now, as it could fetch you a $100,000 at auction.
  • 00:10:36
    Playing to the Stars By September of 1962, bass player Billy Cox
  • 00:10:42
    had also left the Army. Billy and Jimmy reassembled the King Kasuals and set their sights on one
  • 00:10:47
    of the Capital cities of American music, Nashville. Very soon, the Kasuals became the Kings of
  • 00:10:52
    the black nightclub scene in Nashville, supporting touring soul stars like the Marvelettes or
  • 00:10:57
    Curtis Mayfield. Things were looking up for Jimmy and he was
  • 00:11:00
    even able to afford train tickets to visit Grandma Nora – the vaudeville dancer – in
  • 00:11:05
    Vancouver. This happened around Christmas of 1963: during his stay in Canada, Hendrix
  • 00:11:09
    joined a local band for a short tour, which earned him the attention of early rock ‘n’
  • 00:11:14
    roll icon Little Richard. Little Richard hired him as a session guitarist
  • 00:11:18
    in his band, touring and recording with the legend. He can be heard on the single “I
  • 00:11:22
    Don’t Know What You’ve Got, But It’s Got Me”.
  • 00:11:24
    During 1964 and 1965, Jimmy became a sought-after session musician, playing recording studios
  • 00:11:30
    from New York to Los Angeles. One of his best-known records of the time is ‘Testify’ by the
  • 00:11:35
    Isley Brothers, an early, energetic funk piece, where Jimmy first displays his lead guitar
  • 00:11:40
    chops on vinyl. During this period Hendrix became infatuated
  • 00:11:44
    with Lithofayne Pridgon, a former lover of King of Soul Sam Cooke, who was well connected
  • 00:11:49
    to the New York black music scene. The infatuation was reciprocal, with Lithofayne, or ‘Faye’,
  • 00:11:55
    describing him as “… skinny, raw-boned, over-f**ked, underfed-looking
  • 00:11:59
    … Hendrix was my type” Jimmy and Faye had a passionate affair, in
  • 00:12:03
    which Pridgon embodied the role of both muse and mentor, introducing him to influential
  • 00:12:07
    Soul and R&B musicians. However, from her point of view, they were never really a couple,
  • 00:12:12
    and certainly not in an exclusive relationship. Jimmy was insanely jealous of her, but eventually
  • 00:12:17
    had to accept the fact that this ‘cute little heartbreaker’ could never be all his …
  • 00:12:23
    In late 1965, Jimmy had settled in the Greenwich Village district of New York. He had formed
  • 00:12:28
    a new ensemble, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, with whom he played in various nightclubs.
  • 00:12:33
    It was at the Cheetah Club that in 1966 he was spotted by a British model called Linda
  • 00:12:37
    Keith – the girlfriend of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. Linda invited Jimmy
  • 00:12:42
    to a party and discovered that, though he may have displayed the bravado and confidence
  • 00:12:46
    of a guitar hero while on the stage, regular ol’ Jimmy was shy, polite, afflicted by
  • 00:12:51
    low self-esteem, and in need of a good meal. Linda immediately realised Jimmy’s star
  • 00:12:56
    potential and badly wanted to help him. She loaned him one of Keith Richard’s guitars,
  • 00:13:01
    a white Fender Stratocaster. She then invited a series of influential managers
  • 00:13:05
    and producers to listen to Hendrix play. First, it was Andrew Oldham, manager for the Rolling
  • 00:13:11
    Stones. But that night, Jimmy’s performance was lacklustre. Then, it was producer Seymour
  • 00:13:15
    Stein, who later discovered Madonna. This time, Jimmy was in much better form: overcome
  • 00:13:20
    with enthusiasm and sheer rock bad-assery, the guitarist smashed Keith Richards’white
  • 00:13:25
    Fender onto the stage. Linda was so furious with Jimmy that Stein fled the club, not keen
  • 00:13:30
    on getting involved in the row. Third time was the lucky one, when Linda invited
  • 00:13:34
    Chas Chandler to attend yet another gig at ‘Café Wha?’. Chandler was the bass player
  • 00:13:39
    with The Animals, now turned manager. He agreed with Linda that Jimmy was a full-on rock star
  • 00:13:44
    just waiting to be launched. Chas convinced Jimmy to fly with him to London
  • 00:13:48
    where he would quit the Animals and manage the guitarist’s budding career.
  • 00:13:52
    On September 23, 1966, the bassist and the guitarist took off from New York, headed to
  • 00:13:59
    England. It was mid-flight that Chas proposed a new spelling for his client’s stage name.
  • 00:14:04
    Jimi Hendrix was born. Are you Experienced?
  • 00:14:41
    Once in London, Chandler organised auditions to form Jimi’s band, settling on a ‘power
  • 00:15:54
    trio’ format, whereby Jimi would cover both guitar and lead vocal duties. The slots were
  • 00:15:59
    filled by guitarist Noel Redding – who was reluctantly put on bass -- and a whirlwind
  • 00:16:04
    of a drummer called Mitch Mitchell. Chandler also enlisted help from The Animals’
  • 00:16:08
    own manager, Michael Jeffery as he was more business-savvy. Jeffery was later described
  • 00:16:13
    as a sketchy type, with alleged ties to organised crimes in Newcastle, Northern England, and
  • 00:16:18
    even to the secret services. Under Jeffery’s guidance, the band was christened
  • 00:16:22
    ‘The Jimi Hendrix Experience’, and immediately set to work on a record.
  • 00:16:27
    Before the album could be released, Jimi was, as ever, strapped for cash and in need of
  • 00:16:31
    playing small gigs … it was at one of these semi-improvised sessions that Chandler introduced
  • 00:16:36
    him to DJ and hairdresser Kathy Etchingham. It took Jimi one pick-up line:
  • 00:16:40
    “I think you are beautiful.” And a couple of hours later they were spending
  • 00:16:43
    the night in Jimi’s hotel. The next morning, they were awakened by another of Jimi’s
  • 00:16:48
    many lovers. Mad with jealousy, the unnamed lady threatened to smash Hendrix’s only
  • 00:16:52
    guitar … on his head. Editor’s note: Simon, you’ll want to hit
  • 00:16:54
    the end of this next paragraph with a bit of sass, though not an overwhelming amount.
  • 00:16:55
    It’s not intended as straightforward sarcasm, but there is a payoff coming later. Leaving
  • 00:16:56
    you a note because it hit my eyes funny the first time I read it.
  • 00:16:57
    The early morning drama did not deter Kathy, who became Jimi’s regular girlfriend in
  • 00:16:58
    London. She stuck by him during the recording sessions of The Experience’s debut album,
  • 00:17:03
    while they lead a simple and quiet life, playing Monopoly and Twister and eating mashed potatoes.
  • 00:17:09
    Jimi, Noel and Mitch released their debut single: a cover of “Hey Joe”, a track
  • 00:17:13
    that deserves its own Biographics episode. The next single was an original Hendrix tune,
  • 00:17:18
    one that would introduce the world to his pyrotechnic lead guitar as well as songwriting
  • 00:17:22
    talent: “Purple Haze” The success of these singles granted The Jimi
  • 00:17:26
    Hendrix Experience a slot at the Monterey International Pop Festival in California.
  • 00:17:31
    The power trio took to the stage on June 18, 1967, unleashing on the audience a barrage
  • 00:17:37
    of original tunes and covers that literally set the stage on fire. Rolling Stone wrote:
  • 00:17:42
    “ … an orgasmic explosion of singing feedback, agitated stretches of jazzy improvisation
  • 00:17:48
    and recombinant R&B guitar … Hendrix, egged on by Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell's rhythmic
  • 00:17:53
    frenzy, drove "Wild Thing" head-on into a wall of white noise”
  • 00:17:58
    At the end of a heavily distorted rendition of Wild Thing by The Troggs, Jimi set his
  • 00:18:03
    guitar on fire, before smashing it to bits onto the stage.
  • 00:18:06
    The Jimi Hendrix Experience would be impossible to ignore.
  • 00:18:10
    Yes, I am The first LP of the trio, Are You Experienced?,
  • 00:18:17
    hit the record stores in August of 1967. The music critics’ initial response was
  • 00:18:22
    unenthusiastic. This is how Rolling Stone summarised their review of the album:
  • 00:18:27
    “Despite Jimi’s musical brilliance and the group’s total precision, the poor quality
  • 00:18:31
    of the songs, and the inanity of the lyrics, too often get in the way …
  • 00:18:35
    Above all, this record is unrelentingly violent, and lyrically, inartistically violent at that”
  • 00:18:41
    Not everybody agreed. Many appreciated Jimi’s alchemist brew of psychedelia, 12-bar blues,
  • 00:18:47
    hard rock and aggressive funk. Are You Experienced? went on to spend 106 weeks on the Billboard
  • 00:18:51
    200, eventually selling more than five million copies in the U.S. alone.
  • 00:18:55
    Jimi’s debut was packed with many of his greatest works, songs impossible to ignore
  • 00:19:00
    even if you don’t really ‘dig’ Hendrix. Hey Joe! Purple Haze! Manic Depression! The
  • 00:19:05
    Wind Cries Mary! Red House! Personally, I’m partial to Foxey Lady.
  • 00:19:08
    Jimi Hendrix is routinely praised for his lead guitar work -- his imaginative, fast,
  • 00:19:12
    lengthy solos. But Foxey Lady is a clear example of Jimi’s powerful rhythm guitar playing;
  • 00:19:17
    in other words, the chords and riffs that make the backbone of a song, and the hallmark
  • 00:19:21
    of a good songwriter. The main riff of Foxey Lady, heard in the verses and during the solo
  • 00:19:25
    section, is deceptively simple: it alternates a low F sharp with a high E and A, creating
  • 00:19:31
    a funky, bouncy effect. But it revolves around a complex chord: ‘F Sharp seventh to the
  • 00:19:36
    ninth’ – a chord so distinctive that it became known as ‘The Hendrix Chord’.
  • 00:19:40
    Lyrically speaking, the song is about one “cute little heart breaker … a sweet little
  • 00:19:44
    love maker” A lady who, Jimi says
  • 00:19:46
    “Got to be all mine, all mine”. Although never confirmed by Hendrix himself,
  • 00:19:51
    the Foxey Lady is almost certainly his lover from the early New York days, Faye Pidgon.
  • 00:19:56
    Or was she? Another obvious candidate is Kathy Etchingham,
  • 00:19:59
    who claims to have also inspired Jimi’s ‘The Wind Cries Mary’. One night, Jimi
  • 00:20:03
    accused Kathy’s mash of being too lumpy. The couple had a furious row, ending with
  • 00:20:08
    Kathy leaving their apartment. Jimi, saddened by her departure, composed his most famous
  • 00:20:13
    ballad. Undesirable people
  • 00:20:20
    The couple reconciled almost immediately and decided to go steady from then on, throughout
  • 00:20:24
    1967 and until the end of 1968. But their love was still fragile, threatened on all
  • 00:20:29
    sides by the traps of fame. After the success of Are You Experienced,
  • 00:20:33
    Hendrix was a global superstar, with all its benefits and added pressures. His trio was
  • 00:20:37
    expected to tour and record constantly, abiding to an exhausting schedule.
  • 00:20:42
    In early January, the Experience was touring Sweden, when on the 10th of January, Jimi
  • 00:20:47
    was reported checking in at Gothenburg police headquarters, apparently on charges of possession
  • 00:20:52
    of illegal substances. It was clear to everybody in his entourage that Hendrix was not stranger
  • 00:20:56
    to illicit drugs, but in 1968, his consumption escalated from marijuana to LSD, amphetamines
  • 00:21:04
    and heroin. Kathy noted how during this period Jimi’s
  • 00:21:07
    normally sweet character started to change, becoming aggressive with his friends and even
  • 00:21:12
    smashing up hotel rooms. According to Kathy, Jimi’s entourage was infiltrated by
  • 00:21:16
    ‘dodgy, undesirable people, with an aggressive edge to them’
  • 00:21:19
    Scroungers at best, and possibly drug dealers or criminal types. Kathy described how
  • 00:21:24
    "He started to look really rough. His hair was breaking off, he didn't have healthy skin,
  • 00:21:29
    he looked as if he'd aged 10 years in two and a half."
  • 00:21:33
    Kathy Etchingham decided she had to move on, and the couple split up in 1969.
  • 00:21:37
    All the drama in the background did not prevent The Experience from delivering two albums
  • 00:21:41
    in 1968: Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland. Rolling Stone, via reviewer Jim Miller, continued
  • 00:21:47
    to show its aversion for Jimi. While Miller acknowledges the album as a
  • 00:21:50
    ‘vortex of apocalyptic transcendence’ He writes off the songs as
  • 00:21:54
    ‘basically, a bore’. If I am allowed an opinion, I beg to disagree,
  • 00:21:55
    While Axis is not packed with classics as its predecessor, it showcases Jimi’s evolution
  • 00:21:56
    and experimentation. This is the album in which he perfected the use of the novel ‘Wah
  • 00:21:57
    wah’ pedal; in which he toyed with recording techniques, such as performing a solo from
  • 00:21:58
    the last note to the first, and then playing the tape backwards. This can be heard in ‘Castles
  • 00:21:59
    made of sand’, a lesser known track, but arguably his most heartfelt one.
  • 00:22:00
    The follow-up record, Electric Ladyland, is widely considered Jimi’s masterpiece. Even
  • 00:22:01
    Rolling Stone was more generous in its review! The album is noteworthy because of its production
  • 00:22:06
    history: several rock stars of the era collaborated in it, from Stevie Winwood to Brian Jones,
  • 00:22:11
    while Hendrix himself continued his experiments with recording technology, using looped tapes
  • 00:22:16
    and phasing effects. Hendrix actually left the recording studio
  • 00:22:19
    unsatisfied with the final sound of the recording. He was even less impressed with the cover
  • 00:22:24
    imposed by the label, a photo featuring a group of naked women which was banned from
  • 00:22:28
    many record stores. Jimi’s initial pick was a photo of him and the band playing with
  • 00:22:33
    some children, taken by Linda Eastman, soon to become Mrs Paul McCartney.
  • 00:22:37
    Song-wise, there is a lot to choose from. If I must pick just two tracks, they got to
  • 00:22:43
    be ‘All along the watchtower’, a Bob Dylan cover, which the folk singer himself admitted
  • 00:22:44
    superior to the original. And ‘Voodoo Child – slight return’, improvised on the cuff
  • 00:22:45
    by the band to the benefit of a BBC documentary crew. This may be considered Jimi’s heaviest
  • 00:22:46
    song, an ideal gateway from 1960s rock to early heavy metal.
  • 00:22:47
    Summer of ‘69 The Experience immediately started touring
  • 00:22:48
    to promote Ladyland, amidst growing tensions fuelled by Jimi’s addiction problems and
  • 00:22:50
    Redding’s growing dissatisfaction with his bass guitar duties. And yet, they were still
  • 00:22:54
    wildly successful. On March 22, 1969, Billboard magazine reported them winning the 1969 Popular
  • 00:23:01
    Music Prize, awarded at the Festival du Son, in Paris. The same issue listed The Experience
  • 00:23:06
    as the 2nd best selling band in the US, bested only by Simon & Garfunkel.
  • 00:23:11
    But trouble was always behind the corner: after a tour in Canada in May, Jimi was tried
  • 00:23:16
    and fined for possession of narcotics in Toronto. Shortly afterward, on the 29th of June, Noel
  • 00:23:21
    Redding decided to call it quits after a show in Denver. The Jimi Hendrix Experience had
  • 00:23:26
    officially disbanded. The break-up did not deter Jimi. He got back
  • 00:23:30
    in touch with his old army buddy, bassist Billy Cox. With the trusty Mitch Mitchell
  • 00:23:34
    on drums, guitarist Jerry Velez and percussionist Juma Sultan, they assembled a new band, Gypsy
  • 00:23:40
    Sun & Rainbows. The new combo ravished audiences and ravaged a few eardrums at possibly THE
  • 00:23:47
    rock concert par excellence, the Woodstock Festival.
  • 00:23:51
    On the evening of August 18, 1969, Jimi and friends took to the stage performing classics
  • 00:23:56
    and new tracks alike. Even if you are not into this kind of music, you probably have
  • 00:23:59
    heard Jimi’s rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner”. This mangled, electrocuted version
  • 00:24:04
    of the US national anthem could be considered Jimi’s most political moment, a sonic commentary
  • 00:24:10
    on a nation divided by civil unrest and the debate on the Vietnam War.
  • 00:24:16
    Shortly after Woodstock, Jimi was involved in one of the most puzzling events of his
  • 00:24:19
    life. The story comes from drug dealer and mobster Jon Roberts, one of many unsavoury
  • 00:24:24
    friends of Hendrix in New York. One night, Jimi had ventured into town looking to buy
  • 00:24:28
    some cocaine. As he entered a club frequented by dealers, he was spotted by two italian-american
  • 00:24:34
    young men, described by Roberts as ‘wise-guys wannabes’. The two saw an occasion to make
  • 00:24:39
    some serious money … and they kidnapped the rockstar! They held him in captivity for
  • 00:24:43
    two days, during which they contacted his management asking for either a ransom in cash
  • 00:24:48
    or a stake in royalties from future records. In one version of the event, manager Michael
  • 00:24:53
    Jeffery sent a group of thugs armed with machine guns to free Jimi. In a less spectacular account,
  • 00:24:58
    it was Roberts who solved the case. Using his underworld contacts, he quickly identified
  • 00:25:02
    the two kidnappers and threatened them over the phone:
  • 00:25:05
    “You let Jimi go, or you are dead. Do not harm a hair of his Afro.”
  • 00:25:10
    The two ‘wise guys’ relented, and a week later Roberts retaliated by giving them the
  • 00:25:14
    beating of their life. Apparently, Jimi had been so stoned he barely
  • 00:25:18
    took notice of the whole ordeal. Jeffery insisted he get back to work immediately,
  • 00:25:22
    but not with the Gypsy Sun and Rainbows. Instead, he suggested that Jimi reform a power trio,
  • 00:25:27
    as this was a more popular -- and more profitable -- line-up.
  • 00:25:30
    Jimi was clearly not happy, as he preferred larger ensembles, which allowed for more experimentation
  • 00:25:36
    and improvisation. The following stent, with Billy Cox and Buddy Miles, ended with a disastrous
  • 00:25:41
    concert at the Madison Square Garden in New York, on January 28, 1970. Jimi played only
  • 00:25:46
    two songs, before he sat down on the stage and refused to continue. Despite Buddy’s
  • 00:25:51
    best efforts, Jimi unplugged his guitar and walked backstage. Miles, Cox and Hendrix parted
  • 00:25:56
    ways in the aftermath. Jimi later told to Rolling Stone about his
  • 00:25:59
    exhaustion, resulting from internal conflict: “I figure that Madison Square Garden is
  • 00:26:04
    like the end of a big long fairy tale. Which is great. I think it’s like the best ending
  • 00:26:09
    I could possibly have come up with”. Burning of the Midnight Lamp
  • 00:26:16
    The following months saw Jimi partially reunite with the original Experience lineup for some
  • 00:26:21
    jams and recording sessions, but nothing concrete materialised. He was also preoccupied with
  • 00:26:26
    more personal matters. On March 9, 1970, news got to him that ex-girlfriend Kathy had just
  • 00:26:32
    married. In a desperate attempt to win her back, Jimi
  • 00:26:34
    flew from New York to London the next day and implored her to leave her husband Ray
  • 00:26:38
    and to move to New York with him. Hendrix assured her that he had rid himself of all
  • 00:26:42
    his bad habits, all his bad influences. But it was futile. He had realised far too late
  • 00:26:47
    that Kathy was the love of his life, and he had lost her to a life without love.
  • 00:26:52
    Jimi remained in Europe until September, having reformed the Experience once again, with Cox
  • 00:26:56
    on bass instead of Redding. They had even played an important gig, the Isle of Wight
  • 00:27:01
    festival, on August 30th. On September 17, he was back in London, and
  • 00:27:04
    he spent the night with his latest lover, German painter Monika Danneman. The morning
  • 00:27:08
    after, she found Jimi unconscious in his bed, having choked on his own vomit while asleep.
  • 00:27:13
    He was rushed to St Mary Abbot’s Hospital, when he was pronounced dead at 11:45am, on
  • 00:27:18
    September 18, 1970. The police found evidence that he may have
  • 00:27:21
    overdosed on sleeping pills, the likely cause of an accidental death. But not everybody
  • 00:27:25
    agreed. Eric Burdon, vocalist of The Animals and War,
  • 00:27:28
    was the last to perform with Jimi, at a jam session on the 16th. Burdon claims that after
  • 00:27:33
    his death, he had found a poem written by Hendrix in Monika’s apartment. According
  • 00:27:37
    to him, this poem was to be intended both as Jimi’s spiritual last will and testament,
  • 00:27:41
    as well as his suicide note. Burdon did not produce the note at the inquest, leading to
  • 00:27:45
    the death being ruled as accidental. Another more sinister theory came to light
  • 00:27:49
    in June of 2009, after the publication of ‘Rock Roadie’, by James 'Tappy' Wright,
  • 00:27:54
    one of the star's roadies. Tappy writes how, one year after Jimi’s
  • 00:27:57
    death, a drunken Michael Jeffery had confessed to murdering the guitarist. He and some accomplices
  • 00:28:01
    had forced down his throat the sleeping pills, alongside two entire bottles of red wine.
  • 00:28:06
    The motive? Jeffery had taken out a life insurance worth two million dollars on Jimi Hendrix.
  • 00:28:11
    The star had become too unreliable to tour and record profitably: he was now worth more
  • 00:28:15
    by being dead, than alive. Jeffery never told the story to anybody else, dying in a plane
  • 00:28:20
    crash in 1973. Conspiracy? Maybe, with a kernel of truth
  • 00:28:25
    … a doctor on duty at the time of Jimi’s death told the Telegraph that Hendrix had
  • 00:28:29
    a stomach full of red wine, but no alcohol in his blood: evidence that he had died immediately
  • 00:28:33
    after swallowing the drink, with no time to metabolize it.
  • 00:28:36
    I will let you draw your conclusions. Whatever the causes, Jimi Hendrix left his world too
  • 00:28:41
    early, aged only 27 years, like his early idol Robert Johnson. Like many other rock
  • 00:28:46
    stars of his age, he was too long a victim of the schemes of greedy managers, and the
  • 00:28:50
    demands and pressures of fame. Luckily for all of us, his legacy did not melt into the
  • 00:28:55
    sea, like a castle made of sand.
Tags
  • Jimi Hendrix
  • music
  • guitar
  • rock
  • legend
  • biography
  • influence
  • fame
  • legacy
  • 1960s