In
his brief four-year reign as a superstar, Jimi Hendrix expanded the
vocabulary of the electric rock guitar more than anyone before or
since. Hendrix was a master at coaxing all manner of unforeseen sonics
from his instrument, often with innovative amplification experiments
that produced astral-quality feedback and roaring distortion. His
frequent hurricane blasts of noise, and dazzling showmanship —
he could and would play behind his back and with his teeth, and set
his guitar on fire — has sometimes obscured his considerable
gifts as a songwriter, singer, and master of a gamut of blues, R&B,
and rock styles.
When
Hendrix became an international superstar in 1967, it seemed as if
he'd dropped out of a Martian spaceship, but in fact he'd served his
apprenticeship the long, mundane way in numerous R&B acts on the
chitlin circuit. During the early and mid-'60s, he worked with such
R&B/soul greats as Little Richard, the Isley Brothers, and King
Curtis as a backup guitarist. Occasionally he recorded as a session
man (the Isley Brothers' 1964 single "Testify" is the only
one of these early tracks that offers even a glimpse of his future
genius). But the stars didn't appreciate his show-stealing showmanship,
and Hendrix was straightjacketed by sideman roles that didn't allow
him to develop as a soloist. The logical step was for Hendrix to go
out on his own, which he did in New York in the mid-'60s, playing
with various musicians in local clubs, and joining White blues-rock
singer John Hammond, Jr.'s band for a while.
It
was in a New York club that Hendrix was spotted by Animals bassist
Chas Chandler. The first lineup of the Animals was about to split,
and Chandler, looking to move into management, convinced Hendrix to
move to London and record as a solo act in England. There a group
was built around Jimi, also featuring Mitch Mitchell on drums and
Noel Redding on bass, that was dubbed the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
The trio became stars with astonishing speed in the U.K., where "Hey
Joe," "Purple Haze," and "The Wind Cries Mary"
all made the Top 10 in the first half of 1967. These tracks were also
featured on their debut album, Are You Experienced?, a psychedelic
meisterwerk that became a huge hit in the U.S. after Hendrix created
a sensation at the Monterey Pop Festival in June of 1967.
Are
You Experienced? was an astonishing debut, particularly from a young
R&B veteran who had rarely sung, and apparently never written
his own material, before the Experience formed. What caught most people's
attention at first was his virtuosic guitar playing, which employed
an arsenal of devices, including wah-wah pedals, buzzing feedback
solos, crunching distorted riffs, and lightning, liquid runs up and
down the scales. But Hendrix was also a first-rate songwriter, melding
cosmic imagery with some surprisingly pop-savvy hooks and tender sentiments.
He was also an excellent blues interpreter and passionate, engaging
singer (although his gruff, throaty vocal pipes were not nearly as
great assets as his instrumental skills). Are You Experienced? was
psychedelia at its most eclectic, synthesizing mod pop, soul, R&B,
Dylan, and the electric guitar innovations of British pioneers like
Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, and Eric Clapton.
Amazingly,
Hendrix would only record three fully conceived studio albums in his
lifetime. Axis: Bold as Love and the double-LP Electric Ladyland were
more diffuse and experimental than Are You Experienced? On Electric
Ladyland in particular, Hendrix pioneered the use of the studio itself
as a recording instrument, manipulating electronics and devising overdub
techniques (with the help of engineer Eddie Kramer in particular)
to plot uncharted sonic territory. Not that these albums were perfect,
as impressive as they were; the instrumental breaks could meander,
and Hendrix's songwriting was occasionally half-baked, never matching
the consistency of Are You Experienced? (although he exercised greater
creative control over the later albums).
The
final two years of Hendrix's life were turbulent ones musically, financially,
and personally. He was embroiled in enough complicated management
and record company disputes (some dating from ill-advised contracts
he'd signed before the Experience formed) to keep the lawyers busy
for years. He disbanded the Experience in 1969, forming the Band of
Gypsies with drummer Buddy Miles and bassist Billy Cox to pursue funkier
directions. He closed Woodstock with a sprawling, shaky set, redeemed
by his famous machine-gun interpretation of "The Star-Spangled
Banner." The rhythm section of Mitchell and Redding were underrated
keys to Jimi's best work, and the Band of Gypsies ultimately couldn't
measure up to the same standard, although Hendrix did record an erratic
live album with them.
In
early 1970, the Experience re-formed again — and disbanded again
shortly afterwards. At the same time, Hendrix felt torn in many directions
by various fellow musicians, record-company expectations, and management
pressures, all of whom had their own ideas of what Hendrix should
be doing. Coming up on two years after Electric Ladyland, a new studio
album had yet to appear, although Hendrix was recording constantly
during the period.
While
outside parties did contribute to bogging down Hendrix's studio work,
it also seems likely that Jimi himself was partly responsible for
the stalemate, unable to form a permanent lineup of musicians, unable
to decide what musical direction to pursue, unable to bring himself
to complete another album despite jamming endlessly. A few months
into 1970, Mitchell — Hendrix's most valuable musical collaborator
— came back into the fold, replacing Miles in the drum chair,
although Cox stayed in place. It was this trio that toured the world
during Hendrix's final months.
It's
extremely difficult to separate the facts of Hendrix's life from rumors
and speculation. Everyone who knew him well, or claimed to know him
well, has different versions of his state of mind in 1970. Critics
have variously mused that he was going to go into jazz, that he was
going to get deeper into the blues, that he was going to continue
doing what he was doing, or that he was too confused to know what
he was doing at all. The same confusion holds true for his death:
contradictory versions of his final days have been given by his closest
acquaintances of the time. He'd been working intermittently on a new
album, tentatively titled First Ray of the New Rising Sun, when he
died in London on September 18, 1970, from drug-related complications.
Hendrix
recorded a massive amount of unreleased studio material during his
lifetime. Much of this (as well as entire live concerts) was issued
posthumously; several of the live concerts were excellent, but the
studio tapes have been the focus of enormous controversy for over
20 years. These initially came out in haphazard drabs and drubs (the
first, The Cry of Love, was easily the most outstanding of the lot).
In the mid-'70s, producer Alan Douglas took control of these projects,
posthumously overdubbing many of Hendrix's tapes with additional parts
by studio musicians. In the eyes of many Hendrix fans, this was sacrilege,
destroying the integrity of the work of a musician known to exercise
meticulous care over the final production of his studio recordings.
Even
as late as 1995, Douglas was having ex-Knack drummer Bruce Gary record
new parts for the typically misbegotten compilation Voodoo Soup. After
a lengthy legal dispute, the rights to Hendrix's estate, including
all of his recordings, returned to Al Hendrix, the guitarist's father,
in July of 1995. — Richie Unterberger
