James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (November 27, 1942 - September 18, 1970) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist, innovator, and cultural icon. Lauded by music fans and critics alike, Hendrix is considered by many to be the most influential and talented electric guitarist in rock music history. He achieved worldwide fame in 1967, then headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival before his tragic death in 1970 at the age of 27.

A self-taught musician, the left-handed Hendrix played a right-handed Fender Stratocaster guitar turned upside down and re-strung to suit him. As a rock guitarist, Hendrix exploited and integrated the sonic tools of feedback and distortion into his music to an extent that previous pioneers (such as The Kinks' Dave Davies, The Yardbirds' Jeff Beck and The Who's Pete Townshend) had never achieved. He built upon the innovations and influence of blues stylists such as B.B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, T-Bone Walker, and Muddy Waters, as well as rhythm and blues and soul guitarists like Curtis Mayfield, and the traditions of jazz. Hendrix was also inspired by rock pioneer Little Richard, having toured in Richard's back-up band "The Upsetters" before forming his own group in 1966.

Hendrix strived to combine what he called "earth", a blues, jazz, or funk driven rhythm accompaniment, with "space", the high-pitched psychedelic sounds created by his guitar improvisations. He also integrated instruments rarely used in rock, such as the harpsichord, recorder, and glockenspiel. As a record producer, Hendrix was an innovator in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas: he was notably one of the first to experiment with stereophonic and phasing effects during the recording process. Hendrix was also an accomplished songwriter whose compositions have been performed by countless artists.

Jimi Hendrix was inducted into the United States Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6627 Hollywood Blvd.) was dedicated in 1994. In 2006, his debut album Are You Experienced was inducted into the United States National Recording Preservation Board's National Recording Registry. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine named Hendrix number one on their list of the "100 greatest guitarists of all time".

Jimi Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix, the son of Al Hendrix and Lucille Jeter Hendrix, in Seattle, Washington on November 27, 1942. As a toddler and young boy he was known as Buster, a family nickname inspired by the early 20th century comic strip character Buster Brown. In 1946, Al changed the legal name of his son to James Marshall Hendrix, which it remained until his death. As a school-age boy and young adult, he was simply known as Jimmy or James. In his early career, Hendrix used the stage name Maurice James and later Jimmy James. He did not assume the moniker Jimi until after his discovery in 1966, although most writings refer to him as Jimi throughout the timeline of his life for purposes of consistency.

Family origins

Jimi Hendrix was of mixed African American, Caucasian American and Cherokee Native American descent.

Jimi was close to his paternal grandmother, Nora Rose Moore, the daughter of a Cherokee father and mulatto mother who instilled in him a strong sense of pride about his Native American ancestry, which would later become a recurring theme in his music. Jimi's paternal grandfather, Bertran Philander Ross Hendrix, was the son of a former slave and the white merchant who once owned her. They were both vaudeville performers from America's Midwest who met in Chicago and settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, where Al Hendrix (June 10, 1919 - April 17, 2002), Jimi's father, was born the youngest of their four children. Jimi's maternal grandfather, Preston Jeter, also the son of a former slave and slave owner, left Richmond, Virginia at the turn of the century after witnessing a lynching, and settled in the Seattle area. In 1915, he married Clarice Lawson, a woman half his age who was of mixed Cherokee and slave descent. Lucille Jeter, Jimi's mother, was the youngest of their eight children.

Lucille was sixteen years old when she met then twenty-year-old Al Hendrix through a common friend. After a few casual dates, the relationship escalated when Al was hospitalized with a hernia and Lucille volunteered to help care for him. The same week that Lucille realized she was pregnant, Al was drafted to fight in World War II. Three days after they were married, he shipped off to the U.S. Army. It would be three years before Al would see his son, whom Lucille named Johnny Allen. During this time, Lucille endured a number of personal and financial hardships: her father Preston Jeter died months after Jimi was born, nearly two years passed before any of Al's military pay reached her, and a fire destroyed the Jeters' uninsured home. Lucille also led an untamed lifestyle as a waitress in the clubs of Jackson Street, as care of little 'Buster' slipped further into the hands of her mother Clarice, sister Delores Hall, and family friends Dorothy Harding and Freddie Mae Gautier. When Al returned from his military service, his son was living with a church friend of the Jeter family in Berkeley, California, who offered to keep the boy. After some internal debate, Al brought his son back to Seattle, and changed the boy's name from Johnny Allen to James Marshall; he felt the name Johnny referred to John Page, a longshoreman whom Lucille became involved with while Al was away. Despite Lucille's parental neglect and infidelity, Al decided to stay married to her.

Over the next few years, four more children were born into the Hendrix family: Leon in January 1948; Joseph, born with serious birth defects; Kathy, born sixteen weeks premature and blind; and Pamela, also born with health problems. All of Jimi's siblings were eventually moved into foster homes: Lucille and Al gave up their parental rights to Kathy, Pamela, and then Joseph due to the expensive medical care they each required. In December 1951, Lucille left Al and they divorced, with Al retaining custody of the two boys. Three years later, due to parental neglect, social workers placed Leon into a foster home a few blocks away; Jimi frequently visited, and the brothers continued to grow up together. Jimi, by then a teenager, required less care and remained with his father.

In late 1957, the years of alcohol abuse began to take its toll on Lucille's health. In December, she was hospitalized twice for cirrhosis of the liver. In January 1958, she married retired longshoreman William Mitchell after a very brief courtship; he was 30 years her elder. Weeks later she was hospitalized again, this time with hepatitis. Jimi and Leon visited her at the hospital and were shocked at her sickly appearance. This would be the last time they would see their mother. On February 1, 1958, Lucille was found unconscious in the back alley of a bar on Yesler Street. She went nearly untreated at the hospital for hours while staff attended to other patients and died of a ruptured spleen, a condition more commonly associated with physical trauma than with liver problems. Her death was never investigated.

In late 1966, Al Hendrix married Ayako June Fujita and adopted her daughter from a previous marriage, Janie, who assumed the name Janie Hendrix. In his 1999 autobiography "My Son Jimi", Al claimed that he was not the father of Joseph, Kathy, and Pamela Hendrix. During a 2004 probate hearing, Janie Hendrix sought to challenge Al's paternity of Leon Hendrix and requested DNA testing. The argument and related motions were denied. No DNA or paternity tests were ever conducted for any of the Hendrix children.

Youth

Jimi grew up as a shy and sensitive boy, deeply affected by the conditions of poverty and neglect he was raised in and by the troubling family events of his childhood, namely his parents' divorce when he was nine, and the death of his mother in 1958. In an unusual experience for African-Americans of his era, Hendrix grew up with children of diverse ethnic origin. Most American inner cities of the 1950s were heavily segregated by race, but Seattle's Central District was a mix of Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, Native American and Asian residents.

Young Hendrix was particularly fond of Elvis Presley; this color drawing (right), showing Elvis armed with a guitar, was made by an impressionable 15-year-old Hendrix two months after attending Presley's concert at Sick's Stadium on September 1, 1957. It can still be seen at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Young Jimi was equally impressed when Little Richard appeared in his Central District neighborhood and he shook hands with the R&B star. Jimi's early exposure to Blues music came from listening to records by Muddy Waters and Lightnin Hopkins with his father. Another impressionable image came from the 1954 western Johnny Guitar, in which the hero carries no gun but instead wears a guitar slung behind his back.

At about age fourteen, Jimi acquired his very first guitar, a severely battered acoustic with one string that he retrieved when another boy had thrown it away. Young Jimi proudly slung his guitar behind his back like the hero in Johnny Guitar, and tried to coax every sound possible from its one string. That same year his only failing grade in school was an F in music class. His first electric guitar was a white Supro Ozark that his father, Al Hendrix, had purchased for him. He learned simply by practicing and watching others play, and he emulated the flashy moves of T-Bone Walker and the duck walk of Chuck Berry.

His first gig was with an unnamed band in the basement of a synagogue. After too much wild playing and showing off, he was fired between sets. The first formal band he played in was The Velvetones, who performed regularly at the Yesler Terrace Neighborhood House without pay. His flashy style and left-handed playing of a right-handed guitar was already a standout. When his guitar was stolen (after he left it backstage overnight), Al bought him a white Silvertone Danelectro which he painted red and emblazoned with the words Betty Jean, the name of his high school girlfriend.

Hendrix completed middle school with little trouble but failed to graduate from Garfield High School; he would later be awarded an honorary diploma. When his fame struck in the late 1960s, Hendrix would punch up his own past by telling reporters that he was expelled from Garfield by racist faculty for holding hands with a white girlfriend in study hall, but Principal Frank Hanawalt insisted that it was simply due to poor grades and attendance problems.

Military service

After getting into trouble with the law over a stolen car, Hendrix traded a two-year jail sentence for enlistment in the U.S. Army, enlisting on May 31, 1961. After boot camp in Fort Ord, California, he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky as a trainee paratrooper. Other paratrooper divisions would later falsely (or mistakenly) claim that he was part of their unit.

His letters home indicate that initially at least, Hendrix was adjusting to Army life and was very excited to be a part of the 101st Airborne, a well respected outfit after their heroic actions in World War II. His military records, however, show that Hendrix was considered an incompetent soldier, repeatedly caught sleeping while on duty and missing at midnight bed-check. Superiors noted that he needed constant supervision even for basic tasks, and lacked motivation. He was described by one supervisor as having "no known good characteristics", and by another that "his mind apparently cannot function while performing duties and thinking about his guitar".

At the post recreation center, he met fellow soldier and bass player Billy Cox, and forged a loyal friendship that would serve Hendrix well during the last year of his life. The two would often play with other musicians at venues both on and off the post as a loosely organized band named The Kasuals.

On May 31, 1962, after exactly one year of service, Hendrix was recommended for discharge for "behavior problems", "little regard for regulations", and for being "apprehended masturbating in platoon area while supposed to be on detail". Hendrix would later tell reporters that he received a medical discharge after breaking his ankle during his 26th parachute jump. The 2005 biography Room Full of Mirrors by Charles Cross claims that Hendrix faked being gay-claiming to have fallen in love with a fellow soldier-and was therefore discharged. According to Cross, Hendrix was an avid anti-communist and did not leave the Army as a protest to the Vietnam War, but simply wanted out so he could focus on playing guitar.

As a celebrity, Hendrix spoke nonchalantly of his military service, but once said that the sound of air whistling through the parachute shrouds was one of the sources of his "spacy" guitar sound. Although discharged from the Army three years before Vietnam saw large numbers of U.S. soldiers arrive, his recordings would become favorites of soldiers fighting there, most notably his version of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower".

The Chitlin Circuit

After leaving Ft. Campbell, Hendrix and Billy Cox moved to nearby Clarksville, Tennessee and formed a new band, The King Kasuals. The group toiled in low-paying gigs at obscure venues, eventually moving to Nashville. There they played and sometimes lived, in the clubs along Jefferson Street, the traditional heart of Nashville's black community, and home to a lively rhythm and blues scene. In November 1962, Hendrix participated in his first studio session, where his wild but still undeveloped playing found him cut from the soundboard.

For the next three years, Hendrix made a precarious living on the Chitlin Circuit, performing in black oriented venues throughout the South with both the King Kasuals and in backing bands for various soul, R&B, and blues musicians including Chuck Jackson, Slim Harpo, Tommy Tucker, Sam Cooke, and Jackie Wilson. The Chitlin Circuit was an important phase of Jimi's career, since the refinement of his style and blues roots occurred there. Unfortunately his work garnered him little fame or profit, and the extremes of racism and poverty that he endured left an indelible mark of hardship on his memories of this era.

Harlem

Frustrated by his experiences in the South, Hendrix decided to try his luck in New York City. In January 1964, he moved to Harlem, where he quickly befriended girlfriend Lithofayne "Faye" Pridgeon and the Allen twins, Albert and Arthur. Pridgeon, a beautiful Harlem native with connections throughout the area's music scene, provided Hendrix with shelter, support, and encouragement during the poorest and most desperate years of his life. The Allen twins quickly became loyal friends who kept Hendrix out of trouble in New York and later helped him foster his relationship with the black community and deal gracefully with radical groups like the Black Panthers. The twins also performed as backup singers on some of his last recordings, most notably the funk anthem "Freedom". In February 1964, Hendrix won first prize in the Apollo Theater amateur contest-the win was encouraging, but in general he found the New York scene difficult to break into.

R&B tours

After only two months in New York, Hendrix earned a spot as the new guitarist for the The Isley Brothers band and joined their national tour, which ironically included the southern Chitlin Circuit. Hendrix played his first successful studio session on the two-part Isley Brothers hit "Testify". In Nashville, he left the Isleys to tour with Gorgeous George Odell. In Atlanta, he earned a spot in the backing band of Little Richard known as The Upsetters. Although Hendrix idolized Richard (He was once quoted as saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice."), he clashed frequently with the star over tardiness, wardrobe, and mostly, Hendrix's flashy stage antics. For a short while, Hendrix quit and toured with Ike and Tina Turner, but was quickly fired for playing wild guitar solos and returned to the Little Richard band. Months later, he was banished from The Upsetters after missing the tour bus in Washington DC.

In the fall of 1965, Hendrix joined a New York based band named Curtis Knight and the Squires, after meeting Knight in the lobby of a seedy midtown hotel where both men were living at the time. Hendrix then toured for two months with Joey Dee and the Starliters before rejoining the Squires in New York. On October 15, 1965, Hendrix signed a 3-year recording contract with entrepreneur Ed Chalpin, receiving $1 and 1% royalty on records with Curtis Knight. The relationship with Chalpin was short-lived, and Hendrix moved on to other opportunities. However, from a legal point of view, his contract remained in force, which caused considerable problems for Hendrix later on in his career. The result was a legal dispute which was eventually settled.

As 1966 dawned, Hendrix toiled in the New York club scene and dreamed of breaking out on his own as a bandleader. Unfortunately, black audiences in Harlem weren't receptive to his progressive style. Hendrix would find a much better reception with the eclectic mix of patrons in the clubs of Greenwich Village.

Greenwich Village

In the summer of 1966, Hendrix formed his own band, Jimmy James and The Blue Flames, comprised of various friends he would casually meet at Manny's Music Shop, including a 15-year old runaway from California named Randy Wolfe. Since there were two musicians named "Randy" in the group, Hendrix dubbed Wolfe "Randy California" and the other "Randy Texas". Randy California would later co-found the band Spirit with Ed Cassidy.

Hendrix and his new band quickly gained local fame and would play throughout New York City, but their primary spot was a residency at the Cafe Wha? on MacDougal Street in the West Village. During this period Hendrix met and worked with singer-guitarist Ellen McIlwaine and guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, who was an employee at Manny's. Hendrix also met iconoclast Frank Zappa during this time. Zappa introduced Hendrix to the newly-invented wah-wah pedal, a tool which Hendrix soon mastered and made an integral part of his sound.

Discovery

In 1965, guitar pioneer and producer Les Paul watched Hendrix audition for a nightclub gig, and was awestruck by his performance. An errand forced Les Paul to leave the club before he had the chance to speak with Hendrix. When he returned later to contact and sign Hendrix, Les Paul found that the club owner had turned him down for being too loud and crazy, and that Hendrix had disappeared.

In early 1966, at the Cheetah Club on West 21st Street, Linda Keith (then girlfriend of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards), befriended Hendrix and couldn't believe that he hadn't been discovered. She recommended Hendrix to Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham and then to producer Seymour Stein, but neither man took a liking to Hendrix's music and they both passed. She even brought the members of the Rolling Stones to a Blue Flames show, but the effort did not yield any results. She then referred Chas Chandler, who was ending his tenure as bassist of The Animals and looking for talent to produce. Chandler was enamored with the "folk" song "Hey Joe" and was convinced that he could create a hit single by remaking it into a rock song. When Hendrix launched into his own rendition of "Hey Joe", at the Cafe Wha?, Chandler became so excited that he spilled a drink on himself.

Chandler brought Hendrix to London, and signed him to a management and production contract with himself and Animals manager Michael Jeffrey. He then helped him form a new band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, with guitarist-turned-bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell.

UK success

After a number of blockbuster European club appearances, word of the new star spread through the London music community. His showmanship and dazzling virtuosity made instant fans of reigning guitar heroes Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, as well as members of The Beatles and The Who, whose managers signed Hendrix to The Who's record label, Track Records.

Jimi's first single was a cover of "Hey Joe", crafted after folk-singer Tim Rose's slower revision of the song and adapted to Hendrix's emerging style. Backing the first single was Jimi's first songwriting effort, "Stone Free". Further success came with the incendiary and original "Purple Haze", with a heavily distorted guitar sound, and the soulful ballad "The Wind Cries Mary". The three singles were all U.K. Top 10 hits. Onstage, Hendrix was also making a huge impression with fiery renditions of the BB King hit "Rock Me Baby" and an ultra-fast revision of Howlin Wolf's blues classic, "Killing Floor".

Established as a star in the U.K., Hendrix and his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham moved into a flat at 23 Brook Street in central London. The adjacent building at 25 Brook Street was once the home of baroque composer George Frideric Handel. Hendrix, aware of this musical coincidence, bought Handel recordings including Messiah and the Water Music. The two houses currently comprise the Handel House Museum, where both musicians are celebrated.

Are You Experienced

The first Jimi Hendrix Experience album, Are You Experienced, was released in the UK on May 12, 1967. It contained none of the previous UK singles or their B sides ("Hey Joe/Stone Free," "Purple Haze/51st Aniversary" and "The Wind Cries Mary/Highway Chile"). Only The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band prevented Are You Experienced from reaching No. 1 on the UK charts.

At this time, the Experience were touring the United Kingdom and parts of Europe extensively. This allowed Hendrix to develop his stage presence, which reached a high point on March 31, 1967 when he set his guitar on fire. Later, after he had caused damage to amplifiers and other stage equipment at his shows, Rank Theatre management warned him to "tone down" his stage act. On June 4, 1967, the Experience played their last show in England, at London's Saville Theatre, before heading off to America. The Sgt. Pepper's album and single had just been released days prior, and two Beatles (Paul McCartney and George Harrison) were in attendance at the show, along with a roll call of UK rock stardom: Brian Epstein, Eric Clapton, Spencer Davis, Jack Bruce, and pop singer Lulu. In a courageous and brilliant display, Jimi chose to open the show with his own rendition of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", crafted minutes before taking the stage.

Months later, Reprise Records released the US version of Are You Experienced, removing "Red House," "Remember" and "Can You See Me" to make room for the first three UK single A-sides. Where the UK album kicked off with "Foxy Lady," the American one started with "Purple Haze". The UK and US versions both offered a startling introduction to the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the album was a blueprint for what had become possible on the electric guitar.

US success

Although quite popular in Europe at this time, the Experience had yet to crack America. Their chance came when Paul McCartney recommended the group to the organizers of the Monterey International Pop Festival. This proved to be a great opportunity for Hendrix, not only because of the large audience present at the event, but also because the performances were filmed by D. A. Pennebaker and later shown in movie theaters throughout the country as the concert documentary Monterey Pop, which immortalized Hendrix's iconic burning and smashing of his guitar at the finale of his performance.

Following the festival, the Experience played a short-lived gig as the opening act for pop group The Monkees on their first American tour. The Monkees asked for Hendrix because they were fans, but their mostly teenage audience did not warm to his outlandish stage act and he abruptly quit the tour after a few dates. Chas Chandler later admitted that being "thrown" from The Monkees tour was engineered to gain maximum media impact and publicity for Hendrix. At the time, a story circulated claiming that Hendrix was removed from the tour because of complaints made by the Daughters of the American Revolution that his stage conduct was "lewd and indecent". Australian journalist Lillian Roxon, accompanying the tour, concocted the story. The claim was repeated in Roxon's 1969 Rock Encyclopedia but she later admitted it was fabricated.

Meanwhile in England, Hendrix's wild-man image and musical gimmickry (such as playing the guitar with his teeth and behind his back) continued to bring publicity, but Hendrix was already advancing musically and becoming frustrated by media and audience concentration on his stage tricks and hit singles.

Hendrix adapted the Howlin Wolf slow blues classic "Killing Floor" into this wild and fast paced revision, and throughout the first year of his fame, these were usually the first notes concertgoers would hear when witnessing a live Hendrix show. This sample is from the Experience's raucous entrance at the Monterey Pop Festival on June 18, 1967. The Monterey performance included an equally lively rendition of the BB King hit "Rock Me Baby", Tim Rose's "Hey Joe" and the Bob Dylan hit "Like a Rolling Stone". The set ended with Hendrix burning his guitar onstage, then smashing it to bits and tossing pieces out to the audience. The show instantly catapulted Hendrix into US stardom. Today, the charred remnants of Hendrix's psychedelicly painted Stratocaster can now be found at the Experience Music Project in Seattle.

Fashion

Hendrix was well known for his unique sense of fashion, and strived to perfect his hairstyle and wardrobe almost to the point of obsession. A set of hair curlers was one of the few posessions that traveled with him to England upon his discovery in 1966. When his first advance check arrived, Hendrix immediately took to the streets of London in search of clothing at obscure fashion haunts like I Was Lord Kitchner's Valet, where he purchased an ages old British military jacket adorned with tasseled ropes. A traffic warden once ordered him to remove the jacket, citing it as an offense to the Queen. Many photographs of Hendrix show him wearing various rings, medallions and brooches, and Hendrix often peppered his attire with pins that professed his support for the hippie movement or his fascination with folk singer Bob Dylan. His only vacation, a month-long excursion to Morocco with friends Colette Mimram and Deering Howe, deeply affected his sense of art and style, and upon his return Hendrix filled his Greenwich Village apartment with Moroccan art and decor. Mimram and Stella Douglas (the wife of producer Alan Douglas) created some of Hendrix's most memorable attire: a Bowler style derby adorned with either an angled feather or a set of silver bangles; a Trilby hat crowned with a purple scarf and adorned with various brooches; the blue dashikis he wore on the Dick Cavett Show, and the blue on white fringed jacket that he wore at Woodstock.

Electric Ladyland

Hendrix's third recording, a double album, Electric Ladyland (1968), was a departure from their previous efforts and is considered by many fans to be the best of the three studio releases.

As the album's recording progressed, Chas Chandler became so frustrated with Hendrix's perfectionism and with various friends and hangers-on milling about the studio that he decided to sever his professional relationship with Hendrix. Chandler's professional and musical education was very business-oriented, and it taught him that songs should be recorded in a matter of hours, and written with a view to releasing them as singles. His influence over the Experience's first two albums is clear in light of the facts that very few of the tracks are more than four minutes long, that both albums were recorded in short times, and that most of the songs on both albums conformed to the structure of a typical pop song. However, as Hendrix began developing his own vision and started to assert more control over the artistic process in the studio, Chandler decided to move to other opportunities and ceded overall control to Hendrix. Chandler's departure had a clear impact on the artistic direction that the recording took.

Jimi began tinkering with different combinations of musicians and instruments, and modern electronic effects. For example, Dave Mason, Chris Wood and Steve Winwood from the band Traffic, drummer Buddy Miles and former Dylan organist Al Kooper, among others, were all involved in the recording sessions. This was one of the other reasons that Chandler cited as precipitating his departure. He described how Hendrix went from a disciplined recording regimen to an erratic schedule, which often saw him beginning recording sessions in the middle of the night and with any number of hangers-on.

Chandler also expressed exasperation at the number of times Hendrix would insist on re-recording particular tracks - the song "Gypsy Eyes" was reportedly recorded 43 times. This was also frustrating for bassist Noel Redding, who would often leave the studio to calm himself, only to return and find that Hendrix had recorded the bass parts himself during Redding's absence.

The effects of these events can clearly be identified in the album's musical style. On a purely superficial level, the tracks no longer conformed to the standard pop song format, often lacked easily identifiable patterns or sections, and would sometimes lack even a recognizable melody. More particularly, however, the themes that the songs addressed, and the music that Hendrix set out to record, went far beyond anything that he had attempted to achieve before.

Electric Ladyland includes a number of compositions and arrangements that Hendrix is still remembered for. These include "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" as well as Hendrix's rendition of "All Along The Watchtower", (written by Bob Dylan). Hendrix's version was a complete departure from the original, and includes one of the most highly praised guitar arrangements in modern music.

Morrison's Lament

Throughout the four years of his fame, Jimi often appeared in impromptu jams with various musicians. A recording exists of Hendrix playing in March 1968 at Steve Paul's Scene Club, with blues legend Johnny Winter and (then) Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles in which a very intoxicated Jim Morrison grabbed an open microphone and contributed a growling, obscenity laced vocal accompaniment. The band continued to play behind him, and Hendrix can be heard on the tape announcing Morrison's presence and offering him a better microphone. The recording, circulated among Hendrix and Doors collectors, is titled Morrison's Lament. Albums of the recording were sold under various titles (originally Sky High, then Woke Up this Morning) falsely claiming the presence of Johnny Winter's band.

Experience breakup

The Jimi Hendrix Experience performed at London's Royal Albert Hall February 18 and February 24, 1969, two sold-out concerts which became the last British appearance of the band. A Gold and Goldstein-produced film titled "Experience" was also recorded at these two shows, but remains to this day unreleased.

Noel Redding felt increasingly frustrated by the fact that he was not playing his original and favored instrument, the guitar. In 1968, he decided to form his own band "Fat Mattress", which would sometimes open for the Experience (Hendrix would jokingly refer to them as "Thin Pillow"). Redding and Hendrix would begin seeing less and less of each other, which also had an effect in the studio, with Hendrix playing many of the basslines on Electric Ladyland.

Redding was also increasingly uncomfortable with the hysteria surrounding Hendrix's performances. The last Experience concert took place on June 29, 1969 at Barry Fey's Denver Pop Festival, a three-day event held at Denver's Mile High Stadium that was marked by rioting and tear gas. The three bandmates were smuggled out of the venue in the back of a rental truck which was crushed by a mob of fans. The next day, Noel Redding announced that he had quit the Experience.

Legal troubles

Throughout 1969, Hendrix also encountered a number of legal difficulties. Firstly, a contractual dispute arose in relation to an unfavorable agreement that Hendrix had entered into with Ed Chalpin, a producer, long before he became successful. The dispute was resolved when the parties agreed that Hendrix would record an album specifically for Chalpin and that it would be released under his auspices. This was the genesis of the live album entitled Band of Gypsys. Then on May 3, 1969 Hendrix was arrested at Toronto's Pearson International Airport after heroin and hashish were found in his luggage. Hendrix argued in his jury trial defense that the drugs were slipped into his bag by a fan without his knowledge, and he was acquitted on that basis.

Gypsy Sun and Rainbows

After the departure of Noel Redding from the group, Hendrix moved into a rented eight-bedroom mansion near the town of Shokan in upstate New York for the duration of the summer of 1969. Manager Michael Jeffery paid for and arranged the stay, with hopes that the respite would produce a new album. To replace Redding, Hendrix immediately tracked down Billy Cox, his old and trusted Army buddy. The trio of Hendrix, Cox, and Mitch Mitchell fulfilled his last commitment at the time, which was an appearance on The Tonight Show. In an effort to expand his sound beyond the power trio format, Hendrix added Larry Lee (another old friend from his R&B days) on rhythm guitar, and percussionists Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez. He dubbed the new band Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, although this was never formally announced by Jimi's management. The cohesion of the group in the relaxed, country atmosphere of the Shokan house inspired fresh material like "Jam Back at the House", "Shokan Sunrise", "Villanova Junction", and the funk driven centerpieces of Hendrix's post-Experience sound: "Message to Love" and "Izabella".

Woodstock

Hendrix's popularity eventually saw him headline the Woodstock music festival on August 18, 1969. Although a number of the world's most talented and popular musicians were invited to the festival, including The Who, The Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane, Hendrix was considered to be the festival's main attraction. The band's $18,000 stipend was the highest of all Woodstock performers, and the group was given the top-billing position, scheduled to perform last on Sunday night.

Due to enormous delays caused by bad weather and other logistical problems, he didn't appear on stage until Monday morning, by which time the audience, which had peaked at over 500,000 people, had depleted to at most 180,000 - many of whom merely waited to catch a glimpse of him before leaving. Hendrix played a two hour set (the longest of his career) that was plagued with administrative and technical difficulties. The group was introduced at the festival as The Jimi Hendrix Experience, but early into the set Hendrix conveyed the correct name of the band as Gypsy Sun and Rainbows. Besides suffering microphone level and tuning problems, it was also apparent that Jimi's new, much larger band was not rehearsed enough, and at times simply could not keep up with him. Despite this, Hendrix managed to deliver an historic performance, which featured his highly-appreciated rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, a solo improvisation which became a defining moment of the 1960s.

The controversial nature of Hendrix's style is epitomized in the sentiments expressed about his renditions of the "Star Spangled Banner", a tune he played loudly and sharply accompanied by simulated sounds of war (machine guns, bombs and screams) from his guitar. His impressionistic renditions have been described by some as anti-American mockery and by others as a generation's statement on the unrest in U.S. society, oddly symbolic of the beauty, spontaneity, and tragedy that was endemic to Hendrix's life.

Hendrix claimed that he did not intend for his performance of the national anthem to be a political statement. His comments show that he simply intended it as a different interpretation of the anthem. When taken to task on the Dick Cavett Show regarding the "unorthodox" nature of his performance of the song at Woodstock, Hendrix replied, "I thought it was beautiful," which was greeted with applause from the audience. Rather, it was his latter-career live favorite "Machine Gun" which he intended as a protest song against war.

Woodstock was not the first time Hendrix played the Star Spangled Banner in concert. It was in fact a setlist staple from fall 1968 through the summer of 1970, and various studio recordings of the song exist as well.

Politics and Racism

Even after achieving worldwide success as a musician, Hendrix could not avoid experiences of racism or political strife, with the former omnipresent whenever he returned to the Southern United States. While on tour with the Experience in the South, Hendrix would often wait in the car or bus during highway restaurant stops, sending Mitch Mitchell or a roadie in to purchase food for the group. His eccentric wardrobe and white friends compounded the offense that southern whites would maintain from his mere presence. At one of his shows in the deep South, police officers hired for concert security drew their guns on Hendrix when he walked into the venue arm-in-arm with a tall blond woman. Before the show began, the entire security force walked off the job in protest.

Jimi was also shunned by much of the black community for playing "white music" and for having white musicians in his band. Weeks after Woodstock, his performance at a Harlem block party became a harrowing experience: Within seconds of arriving at the site, his guitar was stolen from the back seat of his car by two Harlem thugs. When he appeared stageside to watch the early acts with his girlfriend Carmen Borrero, a Puerto-Rican model, the crowd assumed she was white and verbally harassed the pair. When he appeared onstage wearing white pants, he was pelted with bottles and eggs from the crowd. After the show, drummer Mitch Mitchell and roadie Eric Barrett were physically assaulted while dismantling their set.

Hendrix was also constantly harassed by various civil rights oriented activist and extremist groups who wished to use his fame to further their own message or cause. The Black Panthers even went as far as posting signs for his appearance at a benefit concert that Hendrix never even knew existed. Jimi tried to handle these experiences in stride and with as much finesse as he could muster, but this usually meant pandering to whatever was pulling at him at any given time. He would speak in a "jive" tone with his black friends, but in the company of whites, his speech and mannerisms would seem more like those of a British sophisticate.

It has been equally difficult for biographers to discern Hendrix's political views because his opinions on social and political topics varied in step with the company that he kept. To a crowd of hippies, Hendrix would speak about social change and against the Vietnam War; in Europe, however, he would rant in disgust to his British friends about witnessing anti-war protesters riot in Paris.

Kidnapping

In September of 1969, Hendrix was apparently kidnapped and held for two days in New York City by men who appeared to be New York mobsters. The standoff ended when associates of manager Michael Jeffery appeared and peacefully regained custody of the rock star. No police or media reports of the incident exist, but Hendrix himself retold the story often when confiding with friends or associates about his management problems. He believed that Jeffery staged the kidnapping to bolster his role as manager or as a threat of some kind. The incident did occur at a time when Hendrix was at odds with Jeffery over the direction of his career. Most Hendrix biographies make reference to the kidnapping and support the theory that it was staged by Jeffery, notably Noel Redding's autobiographical Are You Experienced? The Inside Story of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Band of Gypsys

The Gypsy Sun and Rainbows band was short-lived: after two post-Woodstock shows, some studio time, and an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, Hendrix disbanded the group, but retained bassist Billy Cox. After attending to the successful defense of his drug possession charges in Toronto, Hendrix added drummer Buddy Miles and formed a new trio: the Band of Gypsys. Rehearsing for ten days at Juggy's sound studio, the group gelled quickly and produced a surprising amount of original material, including the lively "Earth Blues", which featured The Ronettes on background vocals. Four memorable concerts on New Year's Eve 1969-70 at Bill Graham's Fillmore East in New York captured several outstanding pieces, including one of Hendrix's greatest live performances: an explosive 12-minute rendition of his anti-war epic Machine Gun. The release of the Band of Gypsys album-the only official live recording sanctioned by Jimi-brought to an end the contract and legal battles involving Ed Chalpin.

The second and final Band of Gypsys appearance occurred one month later (January 28, 1970) at a twelve-act show in Madison Square Garden dubbed the Winter Festival for Peace. Similarly to Woodstock, set delays forced Hendrix to take the stage at an inopportune 3am, only this time he was obviously high on drugs and in no shape to play. He belted out a dismal rendition of "Who Knows" before snapping a vulgar response at a woman who shouted a request for "Foxy Lady". He lasted halfway through a second song, then simply stopped playing, telling the audience: "That's what happens when earth fucks with space-never forget that". He then sat quietly on the stage until staffers escorted him away. Various angles exist around this bizarre scene-Buddy Miles claimed that manager Michael Jeffrey dosed Hendrix with LSD in an effort to sabotage the current band and bring about the return of the Experience lineup. Blues legend Johnny Winter said it was Hendrix's girlfriend Devon Wilson who spiked his drink with drugs for unknown reasons.

The Cry of Love band

Jeffrey's reaction to the botched Band of Gypsys show was swift and firm: He immediately fired Buddy Miles and Billy Cox, then rushed Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding over from England to begin press for the upcoming tour dates as a reunited Experience. Before the tour began however, Jimi nixed Redding from the band and reinstated Billy Cox. Fans and collectors refer to this final Hendrix/Cox/Mitchell lineup as the Cry of Love band, named after the tour.

Most of 1970 was spent recording during the week, and playing live on the weekends. The "Cry of Love" tour, begun in April, (Los Angeles Forum, April 25, 1970) was structured to accommodate this pattern. Performances on this tour were occasionally uneven in sound quality, but featured Hendrix, Cox and Mitchell playing new material and extended, vibrant versions of older recordings. A show in May at the University of Oklahoma Field House (Norman, Oklahoma) was dedicated to the students killed in the Kent State shootings. The Cry of Love U.S. tour included 30 performances ending at Honolulu, Hawaii on August 1, 1970. A number of these shows were professionally recorded and produced some of Hendrix's most memorable live performances.

Electric Lady Studios

August of 1970 saw the opening of Electric Lady Studios in New York. Two years prior, Hendrix and Jeffery had invested jointly in the purchase of the Generation Club in Greenwich Village. Their initial plans to reopen the club were scrapped when the pair decided that the investment would serve them much better as a recording studio. The studio fees for the lengthy Electric Ladyland sessions were astronomical, and Jimi was constantly in search of a recording environment that suited him.

Construction of the studio took nearly double the amount of time and money as planned: permits were delayed numerous times, the site flooded due to heavy rains during demolition, and sump pumps had to be installed (then soundproofed) after it was determined that the building sat on the tributary of an underground river. A six-figure loan from Warner Brothers was required to save the project.

Designed by architect and acoustician John Storyk, the studio was made specifically for Hendrix, with round windows and a machine capable of generating ambient lighting in a myriad of colors. It was designed to have a relaxing feel to encourage Jimi's creativity, but at the same time provide a professional recording atmosphere. Engineer Eddie Kramer upheld this by refusing to allow any drug use during session work.

Hendrix spent only four weeks recording in Electric Lady, most of which took place while the final phases of construction were still ongoing. An opening party was held on August 26, and the following day Hendrix created his last ever studio recording: a cool and tranquil instrumental known only as "Slow Blues". He then boarded an Air India flight for London (with Billy Cox in tow), joining Mitch Mitchell to perform at the Isle of Wight Festival.

The studio is now a recording industry legend: a near countless list of music stars have practiced their craft inside its walls.

European tour

The group then commenced on a tour of Europe designed to earn money to repay the Warner Brothers loan, temper his mounting back taxes and legal fees, and fund the production of his next album, tentatively titled First Rays of The New Rising Sun. Longing for his new studio and creative outlets, the tour was a requirement by Jeffery that the already restless Hendrix was not eager to perform. Audience demands for the older hits and stage trickery that he had long tired of performing only served to worsen his mood. In Copenhagen, Hendrix abandoned his show after only two songs, remarking: "I've been dead a long time".

On September 6, 1970, his final concert performance, Hendrix was greeted with booing and jeering by fans at the Isle of Fehmarn Festival in Germany in a riot-like atmosphere reminiscent of the failed Altamont Festival. Shortly after he left the stage, it went up in flames during the first stage appearance of Ton Steine Scherben. Billy Cox quit the tour and headed home to Memphis after reportedly being dosed with PCP.

Hendrix retreated to London, where he reached out to Chas Chandler, Eric Burdon, and other friends in a renewed attempt to divorce himself from manager Michael Jeffery. He caught up with then married Linda Keith, an old flame that he still admired, and gave her a brand new black Fender Stratocaster as a token of his appreciation for her discovery efforts years earlier. Included in the guitar case was a stack of letters - all of their mutually written correspondence. Jimi's last public performance was an informal jam at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in Soho with Burdon and his latest band, War.

Death

In the early morning hours of September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix was found dead in the basement flat of the Samarkand Hotel at 22 Lansdowne Crescent in London. Hendrix died amid circumstances which have never been fully explained, and the exact details of his death will probably never be confirmed. He had spent the night with his German girlfriend, Monika Dannemann, and likely died in bed after drinking wine and taking nine Vesperax sleeping pills, then drowning in his own vomit. For years, Dannemann publicly claimed that Hendrix was alive when placed in the back of the ambulance; however, her comments about that morning were often contradictory and confused, varying from interview to interview. Police and ambulance reports reveal that not only was Hendrix dead when they arrived on the scene, but he had been dead for some time, the apartment's front door was wide open, and the apartment itself empty. Following a libel case brought in 1996 by Hendrix's long-term British girlfriend Kathy Etchingham, Monika Dannemann took her own life.

A sad poem written by Hendrix that was found in the apartment has led some to believe that he committed suicide. More speculative is the belief that Hendrix was murdered-forcibly given the sleeping pills and wine, then asphyxiated with a scarf by professionals hired by manager Michael Jeffery. The most accepted and credible theory, however, is that he simply misjudged the potency of the sleeping pills, and asphyxiated in his sleep due to an inability to regain consciousness when he vomited.

Reports that Hendrix's tapes of the concept album Black Gold had been stolen from the London flat are in fact wrong: the tapes were handed to Mitch Mitchell by Jimi at the Maui concert in July 1970. Hendrix's Greenwich Village apartment, however, was indeed plundered by an unknown series of vandals who stole numerous personal items, tapes, and countless pages of lyrics and poems, some of which have resurfaced in the hands of collectors or at auctions.

Quotations

• "When I die, just keep playin' the records."

• "When the power of love overcomes the love of power... the world will know peace"

• "Music is my religion."

• "It's funny how most people love the dead. Once you're dead you're made for life."

• "Music is a safe type of high. It's more the way it was supposed to be. That's where highness came, I guess, from anyway. It's nothing but rhythm and motion."

• "The time I burned my guitar it was like a sacrifice. You sacrifice the things you love. I love my guitar."

• "Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."

• "The story of life is quicker than the wink of an eye, the story of love is hello and goodbye, until we meet again."

• "When you die you're just getting rid of that old body."

• "You can leave if you want, we're just jammin' that's all."

• "We call it 'Electric Church Music' because to us music is a religion."

• "Technically, I am not a guitar player, all I play is truth and emotion."

• "When I was a little boy, I believed that if you put a tooth under your pillow, a fairy would come in the night and take away the tooth and leave a dime. Now, I believed in myself more than anything. And, I suppose in a way, that's also believing in God. If there is a God and He made you, then if you believe in yourself, you're also believing in Him. So I think everybody should believe in himself. That doesn't mean you've got to believe in heaven and hell and all that stuff. But it does mean that what you are and what you do is your religion. I can't express myself in easy conversation-the words just don't come out right. But when I get up on stage-well, that's my whole life. That's my religion. My music is electric church music, if by 'church' you mean 'religion', I am electric religion."

• "I wouldn't say that I'm the greatest guitarist ever. I'd say probably that I'm the greatest guitarist sitting in this chair."

Discography

This is NOT a comprehensive list since there are many LPs that were released during the 70's and 80's that were never re-released as CDs or in other digital forms

Studio albums

• Are You Experienced? (1967) UK #2; U.S. #5
• Axis: Bold as Love (1967) UK #5; U.S. #3
• Electric Ladyland (1968) UK #5; U.S. #1

Live albums

• Band of Gypsys (1970) UK #5; U.S. #5

Posthumous live albums

• Hendrix in the West (1972)
• Jimi Plays Monterey (1986)
• The Last Experience Concert: Live at the Royal Albert Hall (1990)
• Stages (1991)
• Jimi Hendrix: Live at Berkeley (2003)
• Jimi Hendrix: Live at Maple Leaf Gardens

MCA reissues catalog

• Blues (1994)
• First Rays of the New Rising Sun (1997)
• South Saturn Delta (1997)
• BBC Sessions (1998)
• Live at the Fillmore East (1999)
• Live at Woodstock (1999)
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience (MCA Box) (2000)
• Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight (2002)

Compilations

• Smash Hits (1969) UK #5; U.S. #6
• Kiss the Sky (1982)
• The Ultimate Experience (1993)
• Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix (1998)
• Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection (2001)
• Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Jimi Hendrix (2003)
• Jimi Hendrix - His Greatest Hits (2006)

Others

• Rainbow Bridge Concert (1971)
• The Cry of Love (1971)
• War Heroes (1972)
• Loose Ends (1974)
• Crash Landing (1975)
• Doriella Du Fontaine (Lightnin Rod) (1984)
• Rainy Day, Dream Away (2006)