Can you imagine watching a young Jimi Hendrix pick up a guitar and not know what to do with it? If you’re like me, you’d imagine that he came straight out of the womb playing guitar solos for all the nurses.
But when he was 15, Jimi didn’t have a clue how to strum a chord. But he picked up a guitar and started teaching himself.
After a while, he wouldn’t go anywhere without his guitar. Even when he was sent to the army for stealing cars, he brought his guitar along and continued playing until he was discharged. It was his passion and borderline obsession for playing that lead him to become one of the most famous guitar players in the world and one of the most creative songwriters of sixties rock n roll.
Jimi learned through studying his favourite artists and listening to blues. As he grew more confident, he began playing small gigs in New York and ended up working with Curtis Knight & The Squires. With them, he earned his first songwriting credit on ‘Hornet’s Nest’.
In the same year, Jimi borrowed $40 from a friends and flew to England. Depsite not having much money, he found a London flat, formed a band and recorded one of the songs he had written. ‘Stone Free’ was made into a B-Side for his cover version of ‘Hey Joe’. The cover song was released as his very first single.
Hendrix’s cover of ‘Hey Joe’ was a success. But he wasn’t totally content with that. Because he hadn’t written ‘Hey Joe’ he said that the single “wasn’t us”. He then worked hard on creating the follow up single ‘Purple Haze’. When he released his very first original single, it shot up straight to number 3 in the UK charts. He had arrived.
High on success, Jimi and the boys began writing their first album Are You Experienced?. Jimi committed to writing a selection of original songs for the record and became curious of new sounds. He started with feedback techniques which he used on the song ‘I Don’t Live Today’.
The Experience’s debut record became an instant hit AND Jimi got a reputation for being a great live performer. In between tours and festival performances, Jimi began working on the band’s second album. He was now a famous rock star and he felt established enough to push himself further in his music. He combined his love of science fiction and guitar sounds and made ‘Exp’. Now, he wasn’t only making songs for the teenagers to sing along to, he was making art.
Hendrix’s second album wasn’t as successful as the debut. But it did feature a number of songs that allowed him to play around with the sound. The title track featured the first known recording of the technique ‘studio phasing’.
Following Axis, Jimi began to get more involved with drugs. And, in turn, he became a bit of a pain in the studio. He loved bringing a huge entourage in and was turning into a perfectionist when it came to recording. He demanded to record several takes to get the songs perfect. ‘Burning Of The Midnight Lamp’ made it up to his standards and he released it as his fourth UK single which featured on his third album Electric Ladyland.
Jimi began to fall out with his collegues, including the band. So, he started a new band that he called Gypsy Sun & Rainbows. Together they recorded a whole new live album in New York. The most important track on that record was ‘Machine Gun’. Hendrix somehow made the guitar sound like guns and bombs. Something that was totally original for his time.
Jimi began to write some songs for his fourth album but his perfectionism had reached new heights. He released ‘Stepping Stone’ and changed his mind shortly after, claiming that it wasn’t ready. The record was withdrawn from shops and became the last record that he ever released in his lifetime.
Not long after that release, Jimi died from an overdose of drugs. He only made 4 albums but each one had more depth and creativity than most records released today.
There were a lot of records, like Both Sides Of The Sky, that were released after his death. These featured tracks meant for his next album, some covers and songs that were cut from his previous records. Even though we have these, it’s hard not to imagine that Jimi had more records in him.