Jimi Hendrix
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== Childhood == | == Childhood == | ||
| - | Jimi Hendrix was given the name Johnny Allen Hendrix by his mother, which his father later changed to James Marshall Hendrix to honour his dead brother. Jimi's childhood was unstable, since his mother was an alcoholic, and he grew up partly with his grandmother in Canada. She was very close to Jimi and | + | Jimi Hendrix was given the name Johnny Allen Hendrix by his mother, which his father later changed to James Marshall Hendrix to honour his dead brother. Jimi's childhood was unstable, since his mother was an alcoholic, and he grew up partly with his grandmother in Canada. She was very close to Jimi and lerned him tp be proud of his Afro-American ancestry. He had two younger brothers (Leon & Joseph) and two sisters, but his mother left the family when Jimi was about eight years old, and he grew up beeing a shy and quiet boy. He was attending something so unusal - at that time - as a ethnically mixed school, and he had good grades except for an F in music 1959(!). He was deeply into blues and R & B music and listened a lot to B.B King and Muddy Waters, whose records his father owned. |
[[Image:youngHendrix.jpg|left]] | [[Image:youngHendrix.jpg|left]] | ||
Revision as of 17:13, 16 October 2009
Contents |
Introduction
Jimi Hendrix was an American guitarist and songwriter widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential musicians in history. He was born on November 27, 1942, in Seattle, Washington and was the oldest of five siblings. During the years 1967 to 1970, when he died, he was reforming the way of playing the guitar and also had a huge impact on the other guitarists at that time. He was one of the frontmen in the flower-power movement and also made spectacular show's, the best known is the one when he sat his guitar on fire. (A lot of articles and books have been written on Jimi's life, and the purpose of this article is to focus on the most essential things, rather than write a new biography, which would have taken years to complete.)
Childhood
Jimi Hendrix was given the name Johnny Allen Hendrix by his mother, which his father later changed to James Marshall Hendrix to honour his dead brother. Jimi's childhood was unstable, since his mother was an alcoholic, and he grew up partly with his grandmother in Canada. She was very close to Jimi and lerned him tp be proud of his Afro-American ancestry. He had two younger brothers (Leon & Joseph) and two sisters, but his mother left the family when Jimi was about eight years old, and he grew up beeing a shy and quiet boy. He was attending something so unusal - at that time - as a ethnically mixed school, and he had good grades except for an F in music 1959(!). He was deeply into blues and R & B music and listened a lot to B.B King and Muddy Waters, whose records his father owned.
He did'nt receive his first guitar until he was 15 as a birthday present from his father, although he was given a toy guitar some years back. The guitar replaced the broomstick he was dancing around with imitating Chuck Berry and the other R & B artists at that time. He was also doing the "duckwalk", which he later did on occasion in his career. From then on he practiced almost constantly, and learned from local musicians, the radio and his fathers records. His mother died of cirrhosis 1958, which had less impact on Jimi since he did'nt had much contact with her after the divorce in 1951. He was also a big fan of Elvis Presley, as all kids at that time, and made a painting of Elvis and his guitar after attended an Elvis show in 1957.
Jimi's youth and the army
In 1959 he got his first electric, which was a white Supro Ozark 1560 S (bought at Myers Music shop in Seattle), from his father. Although his father was'nt supporting Jimi's dream of a career in music (since he thought the guitar was frivolous), he was advised by a school counselor to get Jimi a guitar due to Jimi's spur of depression of not getting a guitar. Jimi attended a band and had his first gig in the basement of a synagogue, before he got fired between the sets beeing too wild/showing off. Jimi later joined a band named "The Velvetones", who played for free at a local establishment. He later joined "Rocking Kings", who was a semi-professional band and he was an attraction already back then playing left-handed with aggresive approach. He was also in a band called "The Tomcats", playing whatever that was popular. After his guitar got stolen after a gig, his father bought him a white Danelectro Silvertone, which he painted red and wrote "Betty Jean" on it - his girlfriend at that time.
Jimi's grades was falling in High School, even though he had no problems in Junior High, and he never graduated. He was telling the story about the teachers beeing racial, but the truth was simply that he had'nt the motivation and had bigger interest in playing guitar than attending school. Probably, he also was in bad company, since he was arrested twice for car theft. He was given a choice by the judge of beeing prisoned or attending the army for two years, where he accepted the latter. He joined the army in mid 1961, and were after the boot camp stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
His superiors in the army described him as lazy, he slept while on duty and were not understanding even the simpliest tasks. It was said: ""his mind apparently cannot function while performing duties and thinking about his guitar". Jimi was discharged from the army after only a year by his superiors, even that himself said that was because of a foot injury when he was parachuting. In the army he also met Billy Cox, who became a friend and later also a member of "Band of Gypsy's".
Jimi's early career
After Jimi left the army, he and Billy Cox moved to Clarksville, Tennessee where they started to play with "The King Casuals", a band they loosely formed during their time in the army. They eventually moved to Nashville, and had regular gigs on Jefferson Street, where the centre of the R & B scene were for the black musicians. Jimi later made a living from doing gigs for "Chitlin' Circuit" (a ring of venues in the south where Afro-American musicians could play safely) with different bands backing up artists like Chuck Jackson, Slim Harpo, Tommy Tucker, Sam Cooke, and Jackie Wilson. This was a very important period in Jimi's career, since he actually got his blues roots from backing these artists.
In 1964 he got tired of playing in the south and moved to N.Y where he won an amateur contest, which led to that he was hired by the Isley Brothers. By this time he also did his first studio session, which was "Testify" with Isley Brothers. (this song was also covered by SRV 20 years later) He left the Isley Brothers to join George Odell on a tour that had Sam Cooke as a headline. In Atlanta he was hired by Little Richard (calling himself Maurice James) and made a recording in L.A on Little Richards single "I Don't Know What You've Got, But It's Got Me". He left the band after a incident when he missed the bus, and rejoined the Isley Brothers and recorded a single containing the songs "Move Over and Let Me Dance" and "Have You Ever Been Disappointed".
In 1965 he met Curtis Knight, who was living in the same hotel as Jimi in N.Y. He joined his band "Curtis Knight and the Squires", and went recording with them. At the same time Ed Chalpin wrote a record deal with Jimi that were suppose to last for three years and gave Jimi $1 and 1% royalty. This led to one of the largest legal disputes between record companys, and is at present time still not settled. (when Jimi became a star, Chalpins company widely sold the demo tapes with Curtis Knight as records in Jimi's name)
While playing with Curtis Knight, Jimi also was touring with King Curtis and Joey Dee and the Starliters, since he could'nt make a living out of the income from Curtis Knight band. He was also appearing as a session musician on recordings with Ray Sharpe and the King Curtis Orchestra, Lonnie Youngblood,The Icemen's and Jimmy Norman. By this time was also Jimi's first "unofficial" child conceived with a runaway/teenage prostitute, but the girl was never approved as Jimi's daughter by court of law.
Jimi formed his first own band in 1966, named "Jimmy James and the Blue Flames", which put himeself in front rather than a backup guitar player. The band did local venues in Greenwich Village, and also worked as backup-band for other artists. By this time he also met Frank Zappa, who is said to have introduced the Wah-wah pedal to Jimi. At one of the gig's , Chas Chandler (who left the Animals at that time) showed up, by recommendation of Keith Richard's girlfriend (Linda Keith) who could't believe that he never had been "discovered". Chandler was looking for an artist to manage, and he brought Jimi with him to the U.K.
The first Experience and fame in Europe
Chandler signed a contract with Jimi, establishing him as Jimi's producer and manager and got him together with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bass player Noel Redding. (who actually was a guitar player from the start) They started to play local venues in London, and Jimi's fame grew fast. Legendary guitar players like Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and even the Beatles has committed to watch his performances, and was highly impressed. Clapton, who remained a friend of Hendrix until his death, has stated in several interviews that Hendrix impact on the music scene at this time was unbelievable. On Chandler's request Jimi also did some performances on Cream's concerts.
The first single that Jimi recorded was for the company "Track Records" (which also was the Who's record company) and was a cover of Tim Rose's version of "Hey Joe" that Jimi and Chandler heard. The following singles "Stone Free" and "Purple Haze" was together with "Hey Joe" in Top 10 of the British charts. The songs were also selling good in Japan, Australia and Europe, but never made any success in the U.S at this point in time.
Are You Experienced?
The first full-length album "Are You Experienced?" was recorded mainly at Olympic Studios in London with Eddie Kramer as engineer and Chandler as producer. The album was released in Europe at Polydor (since Track Records was'nt operational yet) in May 1967, and the songs were recorded during the spring the same year. Worth to mention is that the U.S release left three songs out ("Red House", "Remember" and "Can You See Me") to make room for the single's instead. There was also another cover on the U.S release.
The album quickly reached #2 in the British charts, only owershadowed by the Beatles "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" that was released about the same time.
Jimi was touring in the U.K and all over in Europe. In Stockholm he met Hanson & Karlsson, whom he was a big fan to. He used to start his concerts with their song "Tax-free". He also met a Swedish girl, Eva Sundquist and conceived a child that later was recognized as his by Swedish law. (James Daniel Sundquist)
Jimi and the drugs
The classic performances
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Woodstock
Style
Jimi's style is instantly recognisable.
Equipment
Jimi is famous for using a Fender Stratocaster almost exclusively.
