DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Jimi Hendrix: 40th anniversary

Today, Sept. 18, is the 40th anniversary of the death of Jimi Hendrix, widely considered the most influential guitarist in rock history. Hendrix died in a London flat in 1970, from a lethal mixture of alcohol and sleeping pills.
As a guitarist (just a weekend warrior, I'm my own audience), I think Hendrix laid waste to pretty much all rock guitar playing that came before him, and most of what came after him.
He was not formally trained but was a phenomenally gifted composer - I think if Hendrix had been born 200 years ago he might have been a classical music composer. Check out Axis: Bold as Love (my favorite Hendrix song), or Are You Experienced? or Wind Cries Mary..... I'm not a religious man, but Hendrix was not of this earth.

Jimi - if there's a rock and roll heaven, we know who's on lead guitar.

I don't have enough Jimmy on my iPod

The title of this one is fitting.....also one of my favorite Hendrix songs. This will blow you away. (The drum solo's over at 0:50 if you want to jump to Jimi playing.)

A very talented and gifted guitarist however as a singer he's mediocre but he made some great riffs and belted out just enough from his vocal chords for me to like him. Granted that's just my opinion and I'm terribly picky about the music I listen to.

Here's an interesting fact I found about Jimi awhile ago. He actually wasn't left handed. When he picked up a guitar it didn't feel right to him to use his left hand on the fret board so he flipped it around and the rest is history. Here's a link to the story.

He could have gotten a left handed guitar....

He couldn't afford one at the time. He then played those upside down Strats until the end.

little wing - probably my favorite jimi song

My all-time favorite album will ALWAYS be the original Band of Gypsies. Not the multi-disc Hendrix family cash-grab version, but the original release. Only six songs on the thing. Live at the Fillmore, New Years Ever, 1969 into 70. His new band w/ Billy Cox and Buddy Miles. It's rock, funk, psychedelic and soul all in one. Check it out . . .

Nice video J!

Is that Mitch Mitchell on drums...........I do believe it is in the video.

I seen Mitchell play with a band called Ramatan.........never forget the date and venue!

Dayton Hara Arena July 15, 1972!

The Groundhogs were supposed to be the backup band!

It ended up being Ramatan warming up for Sabbath.

It was cool to see Mitch Mitchell on drums back then!

Hendrix and Stevie Ray were two of a kind.........great rock and blues combination!

Never had the chance to see either in concert...........they both died way too young.

I loved the Rainbow Bridge album........my favorite Hendrix album!

Hendrix is one kind of music that you just can't listen to quietly. Whether it's If 6 was 9, Crosstown Traffic, Watchtower, etc., you just have to turn it up.

For me, my absolute favorite is Voodoo Chile (slight return). Interesting story about it:

This was recorded after Hendrix had finished the long, slow blues of "Voodoo Chile," a 15-minute jam that appears earlier on the album. An ABC film crew came into the studio to do a piece on The Experience, and told them to "make like you're playing, boys." Jimi said, "Okay, let's do this in E." The TV footage was lost.

link

Also, one of my favorite Simpsons quotes, when Homer, Moe, Lenny and Carl are trying to decide (as children) what the name of their music group is:

Carl: Could you imagine us working there? The whole Carl Crew!?

Lenny: Hey I thought we were called Lenny And The Jets?

Moe: Ah you're both wrong. We're the Moe Szyslak Experience featuring Homer.

Ya know,
I often wonder what people thought about when they heard him playing back in the 60s?? If you think about it, there was Cream with Clapton, The Rolling Stones, The Who..etc but Hendrix was just a cut above all those greats. And even they knew he was better than they were, so just imagine what some kid in England or the US thinks when he is listening to Hendrix for the first time or LIVE...OMG.. must have blown their minds!!!

And I have always thought, the electric version of "Hear my Train a comin" was the BEST Hendrix has ever done. I first thought Machine Gun but Hear my train a comin takes all the emotion one can get out of a guitar and lays it out. After listening to that song, I'm either too fired up or too drained. I either lift harder or turn it up louder to hear all it has....

Hendrix, just a cut about the rest.

Yes, that's Mitch Mitchell. That must've been a great Sabbath concert you saw, though I never heard of Ramatan. Hendrix actually played at the University of Toledo fieldhouse...as a backup to The Monkeys. Just a little before my time though. Led Zeppelin played the Toledo Sports Arena backing up Vanilla Fudge back then also. If people only knew, LOL.

Jimi Hendrix will always be one of my all time favorite rock and roll guitar players right along with Eddie Van Halen, Chris Duarte, Sonny Landreth, and Eric Johnson. Can't believe it's been 40 years already. Another great talent taken way too soon. RIP, Jimi.

Everyone experiences events in life that shape or change their mindset. There is nothing quite like being thirteen years old and hearing Purple Haze for the first time.

I forgot to mention when I posted earlier, that my Dad just toured the Hendrix museum during his trip to Seattle. He said it was top notch. Hopefully he has some pictures I might be able to post.

I don't think enough people talk about his death as it should be...a murder.

Death
Early on September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix died in London. He had spent the latter part of the previous evening at a party and was picked up by girlfriend Monika Dannemann and driven to her flat at the Samarkand Hotel, 22 Lansdowne Crescent, Notting Hill. According to the estimated time of death, from autopsy data and statements by friends about the evening of September 17, he died within a few hours after midnight, though no precise estimate was made at the original inquest.

Dannemann claimed in her original testimony that after they returned to her lodgings the evening before, Hendrix, unknown to her, had taken nine of her prescribed Vesperax sleeping pills. The normal medical dose was half a tablet, but Hendrix was unfamiliar with this very strong German brand. According to surgeon John Bannister, the doctor who initially attended to him, Hendrix had asphyxiated in his own vomit, mainly red wine which had filled his airways, as the autopsy was to show. For years, Dannemann publicly claimed that she had only discovered that her lover was unconscious and unresponsive sometime after 9 a.m., that Hendrix was alive when placed in the back of the ambulance after half past eleven, and that she rode with him on the way to the hospital; the latter two are denied by the ambulance crew. However, Dannemann's comments about that morning were often contradictory, varying from interview to interview. Police and ambulance statements reveal that there was no one but Hendrix in the flat when they arrived at 11:27 a.m., and not only was he dead when they arrived on the scene, but was fully clothed and had been dead for some time.

Later, Dannemen claimed that former road managers Gerry Stickels and Eric Barrett had been present before the ambulance was called and had removed some of Hendrix's possessions, including some of his most recent messages. Lyrics written by Hendrix, which were found in the apartment, led Eric Burdon to make a premature announcement on the BBC-TV program 24 Hours that he believed Hendrix had committed suicide. Burdon often claimed he had been telephoned by Dannemann after she discovered that Jimi failed to wake up.

Following a libel case brought in 1996 by Hendrix's long-term English girlfriend Kathy Etchingham, Monika Dannemann committed suicide.

Allegations of murder
A former Animals "roadie," James "Tappy" Wright, published a book in May 2009 claiming Hendrix's manager, Mike Jeffery, admitted to him that he had Hendrix killed because the rock star wanted to end his management contract John Bannister, the doctor who attended the scene of his death in 1970 stated in 2009 that it "sounded plausible".

It was claimed that Mike Jeffery was not "in London," he was in Spain when Jimi died in London on September 18, 1970.

"There was a freak storm across Majorca and all the phone lines were down. Somebody told Mike that Jimi had been trying to phone him. The first call that got through was to say Jimi was dead. Mike was terribly upset at the thought of Jimi not being able to get through to him." - Trixie Sullivan, secretary/assistant for Mike Jeffery

Wiki Page

Shame.

We were playing this "if you had a time machine and could go back and just watch something in the past and not change it....or profit from the truth once you returned" game at work a few weeks back. One of my choices was to go back and watch the 1969 Monterey International Pop Festival so I could see his set live (already seen/listened to it tons of times). The other was watching the 1980 US Olympic game against Soviet Union (going back to see the JFK assaination is too obvious).

With the Browns losing....maybe that's a good thread to start to keep us talking.

Wow, what I wouldn't give to see the JFK thing and resolve that,....

All that info on the Hendrix "murder" is intriuging,...had never seen any of that before.