Born
Jmes Marshall Hendrix in 1942, Hendrix taught himself to play the guitar during
his schoolboy days in Seattle, drawing influence from old blues greats like
B.B. King and Robert Johnson. He slung his guitar ovr
his back and left home to enlist in the Army, where he served as a parachute
jumper until an injury led to his discharge. Hendrix began working as a session
guitarist under the name Jimmy James, supporting such marquee acts as Sam
Cooke, Ike and Tina Turner, and the Isley Brothers. After gigging extensively
with Little Richard in 1964, Hendrix 
became
entangled in a contract dispute with the mercurial artist and left to form
his own band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. With the exception of an obscure
single, "My Diary," with Arthur Lee (later of the L.A. psych band Love), none
of the music Hendrix cut with other artists was made more remarkable by his
presence.
After playing Greenwich Village coffeehouses for the better part of a year (still under the moniker Jimmy James), Hendrix encountered Chas Chandler, of Animals fame, at a New York club. Impressed with his playing, Chandler, who was then looking to switch gears to management, took Hendrix to London in the fall of 1966 and masterminded the creation of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Backed by Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums, the Experience offered Hendrix the wide-open rock-and-roll format he needed to exercise his dazzling skills as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Chandler unleashed the band on the London pop scene, and in short order Hendrix et al became the talk of the town. Hendrix's first single, "Hey Joe," a cover of a song written by the L.A. band the Leaves, hit the U.K. charts in early 1967, followed in quick succession by "Purple Haze," "The Wind Cries Mary," and the trio's ferocious debut album Are You Experienced?, which featured those tracks and the Hendrix staples "Foxy Lady" and "Manic Depression." Hendrix's popularity Stateside was a bit slower in igniting, but Are You Experienced? finally broke through in a major way after a defining moment at the famed Monterey Pop Festival when the notoriously outlandish frontman created a sensation by coaxing flames from his Strat during the band's performance. Throughout the next year, Hendrix's eclectic psychedelia reached a zenith with two albums, Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland — the latter ranks as one of the greatest albums of the rock era. But the Experience at the top didn't last long — Hendrix and bassist Redding grew apart, and muddled by over-indulgence in drugs and groupies, Hendrix came to believe — wrongly — that his management was cheating him. In 1969, the Experience was disbanded.
In the summer of '69, Hendrix played Woodstock with an informal ensemble called the Electric Sky Church, in a performance highlighted by another career-defining moment: a startling, renegade rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner." Hendrix subsequently formed the Band of Gypsies, with old army friend Billy Cox on bass and Buddy Miles (Electric Flag) on drums. The band's New Year's Eve concert at the Fillmore East in New York City provided them with material for their first album, Band of Gypsies (a second album, titled Band of Gypsies 2, was discovered and released in 1986). Hendrix brought Mitch Mitchell back into the fold in mid-1970 to begin work on a new double album Jimi had tentatively titled First Rays of the New Rising Sun. Several tracks were recorded for the project, but the sessions were sandwiched between tour dates, and, sadly, the album was left unfinished when Hendrix died September 18, 1970. The cause of death noted on the coroner's report was inhalation of vomit after barbiturate intoxication. In 1993, the investigation into Hendrix's death was reopened by Scotland Yard, but when no new evidence was unearthed, the matter was dropped.
In 1971, several of the tracks intended for First Rays were compiled and released as The Cry of Love, and the ensuing years have witnessed a flood of releases of Hendrix tributes, books, videos, and albums, including pre-fame barrel-scrapings of Hendrix takes from his pickup guitarist days. In the late '70s, audio engineer Alan Douglas grafted backup instrumentation onto incomplete Hendrix guitar tracks to pale effect. In 1994, M.C.A. released three Hendrix thematic compilations, one (Jimi Hendrix: Blues) devoted to blues, one (Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock) to his Woodstock performance, and a third (Voodoo Soup) that represented an attempt to posthumously recreate Hendrix's unfinished studio album. Despite these transgressions against his nearly faultless musical legacy, Hendrix's innovations and soul live on in the playing of every rock-and roll
#Purple Haze
#Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just don't seem the same
Actin' funny, but I don't know why
'Scuse me while I kiss the sky
Purple Haze all around
#Don't know if I'm comin' up or down #Am I happy or in misery?
#What ever it is, that girl put a spell on me
#Help me, Help me Oh, no, no
#Talkin' 'bout heart 'n'...s-soul
#I'm talkin' about hard stuff If everbodys still around, fluff and ease,
#if So far out my mind
#Somethings happening, somethings happening
#Ooo, ahhh Ooo, ahhh, Ooo, ahhh Ooo, ahhh, YEAH!
#Purple haze all in my eyes, uhh
#Don't know if its day or night
#You got me blowin', blowin' my mind
Is it tomorrow, or just the end of time?
#Ooo Help me Ahh, yea-yeah, purple haze, yeah
#Oh, no, oh Oh, help me
#Purple haze Tell me, baby, tell me I can't go on like this Purple haze
#You're makin' me blow my mind...mama
#Purple haze, n-no, nooo
#Purple haze, no, its painful, baby
JIMI HENDRIX ALBUMS
Are You Experienced? (Track 1967), Axis: Bold As Love (Track 1967), Electric Ladyland (Track 1968), Band Of Gypsies (Track 1970), shared with Otis Redding Monterey International Pop Festival (Reprise 1970), Cry Of Love (Polydor 1971), Experience (Ember 1971), Isle Of Wight (Polydor 1971), Rainbow Bridge (Reprise 1971), Hendrix In The West (Polydor 1971), More Experience (Ember 1972), War Heroes (Polydor 1972), Loose Ends (Polydor 1974), Crash Landing (Polydor 1975), Midnight Lightnin' (Polydor 1975), Nine To The Universe (Polydor 1980), The Jimi Hendrix Concerts (Columbia 1982), Jimi Plays Monterey (Polydor 1986), Live At Winterland (Polydor 1987), Radio One (Castle 1988), Live And Unreleased (Castle 1989), First Rays Of The New Rising Sun (Experience/MCA 1997), South Saturn Delta (Experience 1997), Original Soundtrack To The Motion Picture 'Experience' (Charly 1998), Live At The Fillmore East (MCA 1999), Live At Woodstock (MCA 1999), The Albert Hall Experience (Charly 2001).
Jimi
Hendrix 1942 - 1970