Jimi Hendrix

Born:

James Marshall Hendrix
November 27, 1942
Seattle, Washington, USA

Died:

September 18, 1970
London, England

Hendrix grew up as a shy and sensitive boy, deeply affected by the conditions of poverty and neglect in the slums of Seattle, Washington where he was raised.  He was also troubled by the family events of his childhood: his parents' divorce when he was nine, and the death of his mother in 1958.

Young Hendrix was particularly fond of Elvis Presley and Little Richard; he attended an Elvis concert in 1957 and shook hands with Little Richard that same year. He was exposed to blues music early on from listening to records by Muddy Waters and Lightnin Hopkins with a boarder his father had rented a room to. He was also strongly impressed by the 1954 western Johnny Guitar, in which the hero carries no gun but instead wears a guitar slung behind his back.

At about age 14, Jimi acquired his very first guitar, a severely battered acoustic with one string that he retrieved when another boy had thrown it away. Young Jimi proudly slung his guitar behind his back like the hero in Johnny Guitar, and tried to coax every sound possible from its one string. His first electric guitar was a white Supro Ozark that his father bought for him. He learned simply by practicing and watching others play, and he emulated the flashy moves of T-Bone Walker and the duck walk of Chuck Berry.

His first gig was with an unnamed band in the basement of a synagogue. After too much wild playing and showing off, he was fired between sets. The first formal band he played in was The Velvetones, who performed regularly at the Yesler Terrace Neighborhood House without pay. His flashy style and left-handed playing of a right-handed guitar were already drawing attention.

When his guitar was stolen (after he left it backstage overnight), his father (James A. 'Al' Hendrix) bought him a white Silvertone Danelectro which Jimi promptly painted red and emblazoned with the words Betty Jean, the name of his high school girlfriend.

After getting into trouble with the police over a stolen car, Hendrix traded a two-year prison sentence for enlistment in the U.S. Army and was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He became a parachute infantryman with the famous 101st Airborne Division, and received an honorable medical discharge.

 Hendrix's Army records cite numerous complaints about his work ethic including sleeping on the job, having little regard for regulations and being distracted by his off duty musical endeavors, as noted by Seargent Louis Hoekstra who wrote that "his mind apparently cannot function while performing duties and thinking about his guitar." He was also suspected of "taking dope" and once was caught masturbating in the latrine after leaving his post.

Early Career  [ top ]

After he completed his military service, Hendrix and Billy Cox moved to nearby Clarksville, Tennessee and re-formed their band as The King Kasuals. The group toiled in low-paying gigs at obscure venues, eventually moving to Nashville. There they played and sometimes lived in the clubs along Jefferson Street, the traditional heart of Nashville's black community, and home to a lively rhythm and blues scene.

In November 1962, Hendrix participated in his first studio session, where his wild but still undeveloped playing found him cut from the soundboard.

For the next three years, Hendrix made a precarious living on the Chitlin Circuit, performing in black oriented venues throughout the South with both the King Kasuals and in backing bands for various soul, R&B, and blues musicians including Chuck Jackson, Slim Harpo, Tommy Tucker, Sam Cooke, and Jackie Wilson. The Chitlin Circuit was an important phase of Jimi's career, since the refinement of his style and blues roots occurred there.

Unfortunately his work garnered him little fame or profit, and the extremes of racism and poverty that he endured left an indelible mark of hardship on his memories of this era.

New York    [ top ]

Frustrated by his experiences in the South, Hendrix decided to try his luck in New York City. In January 1964, he moved to Harlem, where he quickly befriended Lithofayne "Fayne" Pridgeon (who later became his girlfriend) and the Aleem twins, Taharqa and Tunde-Ra. The Aleem twins quickly became loyal friends who kept Hendrix out of trouble in New York.

The twins also performed as backup singers on some of his recordings, most notably the funk anthem "Freedom". Pridgeon, a beautiful Harlem native with connections throughout the area's music scene, provided Hendrix with shelter, support, and encouragement during the poorest and most desperate years of his life.

In February 1964, Hendrix won first prize in the Apollo Theater amateur contest—the win was encouraging, but in general he found the New York scene difficult to break into.

In 1965, Hendrix earned a spot as the new guitarist for the The Isley Brothers' band and joined their national tour, which included the southern Chitlin Circuit. Hendrix played his first successful studio session on the two-part Isley Brothers hit "Testify". In Nashville, he left the Isleys to tour with Gorgeous George Odell.

In Atlanta, he earned a spot in the backing band of Little Richard, known as The Upsetters. Although Hendrix idolized Richard, he clashed frequently with the star over tardiness, wardrobe, and above all, Hendrix's flashy stage antics.

For a short while, Hendrix quit and toured with Ike and Tina Turner, but was quickly fired for playing wild guitar solos and returned to Little Richard's band. Months later, he was banished from The Upsetters after missing the tour bus in Washington, D.C. Around this time he refined his flamboyant guitar stage style, much of which was influenced by Johnny "Guitar" Watson.

In the fall of 1965, Hendrix joined a New York-based band, Curtis Knight and the Squires, after meeting Knight in the lobby of a seedy midtown hotel where both men were living at the time. Hendrix then toured for two months with Joey Dee and the Starliters before rejoining the Squires in New York.

On October 15, 1965, Hendrix signed a three-year recording contract with entrepreneur Ed Chalpin, receiving $1 and 1% royalty on records with Curtis Knight.

While the relationship with Chalpin was short-lived, from a legal point of view, his contract remained in force, which caused considerable problems for Hendrix later on in his career. The legal dispute was eventually settled.

Greenwich Village     [ top ]

In the summer of 1966, Hendrix formed his own band, Jimmy James and The Blue Flames, composed of various friends he would casually meet at Manny's Music Shop, including a 15-year old runaway from California named Randy Wolfe. Since there were two musicians named "Randy" in the group, Hendrix dubbed Wolfe "Randy California" and the other "Randy Texas". Randy California would later co-found the band Spirit with Ed Cassidy.

Hendrix and his new band quickly gained local attention and played throughout New York City, but their primary spot was a residency at the Cafe Wha? on MacDougal Street in the West Village.

During this period Hendrix met and worked with singer-guitarist Ellen McIlwaine and guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, who was an employee at Manny's. Hendrix also met iconoclast Frank Zappa during this time. Zappa is credited as having introduced Hendrix to the newly-invented wah-wah pedal.

Discovery     [ top ]

Early in 1966 at the Cheetah Club on West 21st Street, Linda Keith, then girlfriend of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, befriended Hendrix and recommended him to Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham and producer Seymour Stein. Neither man took a liking to Hendrix's music, however, and they both passed. She then referred Chas Chandler, who was ending his tenure as bassist of The Animals and looking for talent to produce.

Chandler was enamored with the song "Hey Joe" and was convinced that he could create a hit single by remaking it into a rock song. Impressed with Hendrix's version, Chandler brought him to London and signed him to a management and production contract with himself and ex-Animals manager Michael Jeffery. Chandler then helped Hendrix form a new band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, with guitarist-turned-bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell.

After a number of European club appearances, word of Hendrix spread through the London music community. His showmanship and virtuosity made instant fans of reigning guitar heroes Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, as well as members of The Beatles and The Who, whose managers signed Hendrix to The Who's record label, Track Records.

Jimi's first single was a cover of "Hey Joe", crafted after folk-singer Tim Rose's slower revision of the song and adapted to Hendrix's emerging style. Backing the first single was Jimi's first songwriting effort, "Stone Free". Further success came with "Purple Haze", and "The Wind Cries Mary". The three singles were all UK Top 10 hits.

Onstage, Hendrix was also making a huge impression with fiery renditions of the BB King hit "Rock Me Baby" and an ultra-fast revision of Howlin Wolf's blues classic, "Killing Floor".

The first Jimi Hendrix Experience album, Are You Experienced, was released in the UK on May 12, 1967. It contained no previous UK singles or any B sides ("Hey Joe/Stone Free," "Purple Haze/51st Anniversary" and "The Wind Cries Mary/Highway Chile"). Only The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band prevented Are You Experienced from reaching No. 1 on the UK charts.

At this time, the Experience extensively toured the United Kingdom and parts of Europe . This allowed Hendrix to develop his stage presence, which reached a high point on March 31, 1967 when he set his guitar on fire. Later, after causing damage to amplifiers and other stage equipment at his shows, Rank Theatre management warned him to "tone down" his stage act.

On June 4, 1967, the Experience played their last show in England, at London's Saville Theatre, before heading off to America. The Sgt. Pepper's album had just been released days prior, and two Beatles (Paul McCartney and George Harrison) were in attendance at the show, along with a roll call of other UK rock stardom: Brian Epstein, Eric Clapton, Spencer Davis, Jack Bruce, and pop singer Lulu.

In a courageous and brilliant display, Jimi chose to open the show with his own rendition of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", crafted minutes before taking the stage.

Months later, Reprise Records released the US version of Are You Experienced, removing "Red House," "Remember" and "Can You See Me" to make room for the first three UK single A-sides. Where the UK album kicked off with "Foxy Lady," the American one started with "Purple Haze".

The UK and US versions both offered a startling introduction to the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the album was a blueprint for what had become possible on the electric guitar.

Although quite popular in Europe at this time, the Experience had yet to crack America. Their chance came when Paul McCartney recommended the group to the organizers of the Monterey International Pop Festival. This proved to be a great opportunity for Hendrix, not only because of the large audience present at the event, but also because the performances were filmed by D. A. Pennebaker and later shown in movie theaters throughout the country as the concert documentary Monterey Pop, which immortalized Hendrix's iconic burning and smashing of his guitar at the finale of his performance. 

Today, the charred remnants of Hendrix's psychedelically painted Stratocaster can now be found at the Experience Music Project in Seattle.

Following the festival, the Experience played a short-lived gig as the opening act for pop group The Monkees on their first American tour. The Monkees asked for Hendrix because they were fans, but their mostly teenage audience did not warm to his outlandish stage act and he abruptly quit the tour after a few dates. Chas Chandler later admitted that being "thrown" from The Monkees tour was engineered to gain maximum media impact and publicity for Hendrix.

At the time, a story circulated claiming that Hendrix was removed from the tour because of complaints made by the Daughters of the American Revolution that his stage conduct was "lewd and indecent". Australian journalist Lillian Roxon, accompanying the tour, concocted the story. The claim was repeated in Roxon's 1969 Rock Encyclopedia but she later admitted it was fabricated.

Meanwhile in England, Hendrix's wild-man image and musical gimmickry (such as playing the guitar with his teeth and behind his back) continued to bring publicity, but Hendrix was already advancing musically and becoming frustrated by media and audience concentration on his stage tricks and hit singles.

Axis: Bold as Love     [ top ]

The Jimi Hendrix Experience's second 1967 album, Axis: Bold as Love continued the style established by Are You Experienced, but showcased a profound sense of melody along with his well-known technical virtuosity with tracks such as Little Wing and If 6 Was 9.

The opening track EXP featured a stereo effect in which a ruckus of sound emanating from Jimi's guitar appeared to revolve around the listener, fading out into the distance from the right channel, then returning in on the left.

It should also be noted that this album marked the first time Jimi recorded the whole album with his guitar tuned down one half-tone, to Eb, which he used exclusively thereafter.

A mishap almost prevented the album's release: Hendrix lost the master tape of side 1 of the LP, leaving it in the back seat of a London taxi. Chas Chandler and engineer Eddie Kramer tried re-mixing it, but couldn't match the lost mix. It was only saved by the discovery that bassist Noel Redding had a copy on tape, which had to be ironed flat as his machine had chewed it up. With the release deadline looming, Hendrix, Chandler and engineer Eddie Kramer remixed the missing side from the multitracks in an all-night session. Kramer and Hendrix later admitted that they were never entirely happy with the results.

Hendrix was also somewhat disappointed with the album's cover art. Although he appreciated the symbolic design, he had requested cover art that showcased his "Indian" heritage. The British art designers who created the cover assumed that he meant India the South Asian country, not the Native American race, and thus created cover art that depicts Hendrix and his Experience bandmates as the Vedic deities Durga and Vishnu.

Upon the album's release, the Jimi Hendrix Experience continued to pursue an extremely demanding touring schedule, which involved performing in front of ever-larger audiences. This, combined with the influence of drugs, alcohol and fatigue, led to a trouble-plagued tour of Scandinavia that culminated with the arrest of Hendrix in Stockholm after trashing his hotel room in a drunken rage.

Electric Ladyland     [ top ]

Hendrix's third recording, a double album, Electric Ladyland (1968), was a departure from their previous efforts.

As the album's recording progressed, Chas Chandler became so frustrated with Hendrix's perfectionism and with various friends and hangers-on milling about the studio that he decided to sever his professional relationship with Hendrix. Chandler's professional and musical education was very business-oriented, and it taught him that songs should be recorded in a matter of hours, and written with a view to releasing them as singles. His influence over the Experience's first two albums is clear in light of the facts that very few of the tracks are more than four minutes long, that both albums were recorded in short times, and that most of the songs on both albums conformed to the structure of a typical pop song.

However, as Hendrix began developing his own vision and started to assert more control over the artistic process in the studio, Chandler decided to move to other opportunities and ceded overall control to Hendrix. Chandler's departure had a clear impact on the artistic direction that the recording took.

Jimi began tinkering with different combinations of musicians and instruments, and modern electronic effects. For example, Dave Mason, Chris Wood and Steve Winwood from the band Traffic, drummer Buddy Miles and former Dylan organist Al Kooper, among others, were all involved in the recording sessions. This was one of the other reasons that Chandler cited as precipitating his departure. He described how Hendrix went from a disciplined recording regimen to an erratic schedule, which often saw him beginning recording sessions in the middle of the night and with any number of hangers-on.

Chandler also expressed exasperation at the number of times Hendrix would insist on re-recording particular tracks - the song "Gypsy Eyes" was reportedly recorded 43 times. This was also frustrating for bassist Noel Redding, who would often leave the studio to calm himself, only to return and find that Hendrix had recorded the bass parts himself during Redding's absence.

The effects of these events can clearly be identified in the album's musical style. On a purely superficial level, the tracks no longer conformed to the standard pop song format, often lacked easily identifiable patterns or sections, and would sometimes lack even a recognizable melody. More particularly, however, the themes that the songs addressed, and the music that Hendrix set out to record, went far beyond anything that he had attempted to achieve before.

Electric Ladyland includes a number of compositions and arrangements for which Hendrix is still remembered. These include "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" as well as Hendrix's rendition of Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower".  Hendrix's version was a complete departure from the original, and includes one of the most highly praised guitar arrangements in modern music.

It was around this time that Jimi Hendrix lived with his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham at her Brook Street home, now the Handel House Museum, in the West End of London.

Morrison's Lament

Throughout the four years of his fame, Hendrix often appeared in impromptu jams with various musicians. A recording exists of Hendrix playing in March 1968 at Steve Paul's Scene Club, with blues legend Johnny Winter followed by Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles in which a very intoxicated Jim Morrison grabbed an open microphone and contributed a growling, obscenity laced vocal accompaniment. The band continued to play behind him, and Hendrix can be heard on the tape announcing Morrison's presence and offering him a better microphone.

The recording, circulated among Hendrix and Doors collectors, is titled Morrison's Lament. Albums of the recording were sold under various titles (originally Sky High, then Woke Up this Morning), some falsely claiming the presence of Johnny Winter's band.

Breakup of Jimi Hendrix Experience     [ top ]

The Jimi Hendrix Experience performed at London's Royal Albert Hall February 18 and February 24, 1969, two sold-out concerts which became the last British appearance of the band. A Gold and Goldstein-produced film titled Experience was also recorded at these two shows, but remains to this day unreleased.

Noel Redding felt increasingly frustrated by the fact that he was not playing his original and favored instrument, the guitar. In 1968, he decided to form his own band "Fat Mattress", which would sometimes open for the Experience - Hendrix would jokingly refer to them as "Thin Pillow". Redding and Hendrix would begin seeing less and less of each other, which also had an effect in the studio, with Hendrix playing many of the bass lines on Electric Ladyland.

Redding was also increasingly uncomfortable with the hysteria surrounding Hendrix's performances. The last Experience concert took place on June 29, 1969 at Barry Fey's Denver Pop Festival, a three-day event held at Denver's Mile High Stadium that was marked by rioting and tear gas. The three bandmates were smuggled out of the venue in the back of a rental truck which was crushed by a mob of fans. The next day, Noel Redding announced that he had quit the Experience.

Legal Troubles

Throughout 1969, Hendrix also encountered a number of legal difficulties. Firstly, a contractual dispute arose in relation to an unfavorable agreement that Hendrix had entered into with Ed Chalpin, a producer, long before he became successful. The dispute was resolved when the parties agreed that Hendrix would record an album specifically for Chalpin and that it would be released under his auspices. This was the genesis of the live album entitled Band of Gypsys.

Then on May 3, 1969 Hendrix was arrested at Toronto's Pearson International Airport after heroin and hashish were found in his luggage. Hendrix argued in his jury trial defense that the drugs were slipped into his bag by a fan without his knowledge, and he was acquitted on that basis.

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