Jimi Hendrix History

[Phil Smith]

Are you folks hip to some of this Jimi Hendrix history?

This is a heavily summarized version of Jimi's Chitlin' Circuit years. Many details and juicy tid-bits are missing: The womanizing, the violence, illegitimate children, racism, and all the in-between stuff that gives you the full scope of a persons life. Then there's the meetings he had with Albert King, James Brown, Chuck Berry, and everyone at Chess records in Chicago including Muddy Waters. To sum up a portion of a persons life in detail in a series of highlights is impossible. It's those in between moments that make us who we are. Those things are missing here. If you want detail go to your book store and find "Electric Gypsy" by Harry Shapiro and Caesar Glebbeek. What I wanted to do was shed some light on the past of a great man and to look at some of the events in his life that led up to his fame and worldwide recognition. Jimi Hendrix's success was no fluke. He was there at the right time at the right place rubbing elbows with the music greats, while working diligently to find his own voice. Never stooping to merely copy, but to expand and build on the gifts of his predecessors.

http://www.soul-patrol.com/funk/jh_chitlin.htm

[Rocker949]

I'm a Hendrix fan and know his background pretty well. But I thought that was a very good summary.

[mellowinman]

Ah, Jimi.

For me, he was the best of the best. Not just the best guitar player, but the guy who really understood what rock and roll, and blues were all about. There's an inherent COOLNESS to his music that is often imitated, never duplicated.

I don't get anyone who doesn't dig Jimi.

[dtripoli]

Hendrix didn't just walk out of some garage band and step into fame. By the time he was 22 years old, he was already an accomplished session musician. Listen to his guitar work on Don Covay's 'Mercy, Mercy'. You can hear the beginnings of his signature style.

Mercy, Mercy