Jimi Hendrix
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 playing at "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
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Woodstock
Style
Jimi's style is instantly recognisable.
Equipment
Jimi is famous for using a Fender Stratocaster almost exclusively.
