“I’m the one that’s got to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.”
― Jimi Hendrix“Music is a safe kind of high.”
― Jimi HendrixOh, I loved… I loved Jimi Hendrix.
~Bob Dylan (Verona press conference, May 1984)
Neil Young inducts Jimi Hendrix Experience Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions 1992:
All Along The Watchtower (live):
Continue reading September 18: Jimi Hendrix passed away in 1970
By 1969, Hendrix was the world’s highest-paid rock musician. In August, he headlined the Woodstock Music and Art Fair that included many of the most popular bands of the time. For the concert, he added rhythm guitarist Larry Lee and conga players Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez. The band rehearsed for less than two weeks before the performance, and according to Mitchell, they never connected musically. Before arriving at the engagement, he heard reports that the size of the audience had grown to epic proportions, which gave him cause for concern as he did not enjoy performing for large crowds. He was an important draw for the event, and although he accepted substantially less money for the appearance than his usual fee he was the festival’s highest-paid performer. As his scheduled time slot of midnight on Sunday drew closer, he indicated that he preferred to wait and close the show in the morning; the band took the stage around 8:00 a.m. on Monday.
Purple haze, all in my brain
Lately things they don’t seem the same
Actin’ funny, but I don’t know why
Excuse me while I kiss the sky–
It is one of the unforgettable opening riffs in rock: a ferocious, stomping guitar march, scarred with fuzz and built around the dissonant “devil’s interval” of the tritone. And it launched not one but two revolutions: late-Sixties psychedelia and the unprecedented genius of Jimi Hendrix. For the first time, Hendrix, bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell got to show off their acrobatic onstage chemistry on record — and they somehow managed to condense it to an under-three-minute blaze of overdubbed guitar sorcery.
~rollingstone.com
Such a rock ‘n’ roll masterpiece needs to be enjoyed often & loud.
Music is a safe king of high
~Jimi Hendrix
Continue reading Jimi Hendrix: 5 Great 1967 live versions of Purple Haze (videos)
“It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn’t think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day.”
– Bob Dylan (1995)“I liked Jimi Hendrix’s record of this and ever since he died I’ve been doing it that way… Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it’s a tribute to him in some kind of way.”
– Bob Dylan (booklet Biograph)
The Jimi Hendrix Experience began to record their cover version of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” on January 21, 1968, at Olympic Studios in London. According to engineer Andy Johns, Jimi Hendrix had been given a tape of Dylan’s recording by publicist Michael Goldstein, who worked for Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman.
“(Hendrix) came in with these Dylan tapes and we all heard them for the first time in the studio”
– Andy Johns
For me it is the only cover version of a Bob Dylan song that is arguably as good or better than Dylan’s own version.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – All Along The Watchtower (audio):
Continue reading Jan 21: The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded All Along The Watchtower in 1968
Hey joe, where you goin’ with that gun of your hand
Hey joe, i said where you goin’ with that gun in your hand, oh
I’m goin’ down to shoot my old lady
You know i caught her messin’ ’round with another man
Yeah, i’m goin’ down to shoot my old lady
You know i caught her messin’ ’round with another man
Huh! and that ain’t cool
Hey Joe @ Monterey:
Continue reading Dec 16: The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Hey Joe (UK)