On September 18, 1970, Jimmy Hendricks, the god of the guitar, died young at the age of 27.
Before him, electric guitars had never exploded so much, and they had never been so sexy, but what was it that made this young man, who was still unknown until 1965, suddenly synonymous with rock and roll?
Today we go back to the 60s and witness the rise of that guitar god.
Jimi Hendrix
When Jimi Hendrix ended the Monterrey Pop Festival in 1967 with a burning Fanta Stratocaster for the performance, it was an eternal scene in the history of rock and roll, and the most brilliant scene of the great psychedelic performer, representing Jimmy's deep affection and gratitude to the guitar god.
"I can sit here all night and keep saying thank you to you thank you thank you... I just want to grab your attention," Hendricks said to the crowd of worshippers in the audience, "but I really can't do it, so I can only sacrifice something that I really love." I don't think I'm crazy, but today, I don't think I've done anything wrong... I don't know what else I can do. ”
Meanwhile, Hendricks made his guitar make a Tarzan-like echo, and then he, along with two other Fellow British bassists, Noel Redding and drummer Mitchell, adapted the Troggs' Wild Thing into the most provocative version, a moment he burned his name into the history of rock and roll.
Twenty-five years later (and 20 years after his death), Jimmy Hendricks finally gained his official recognition as a guitarist, musician, and performer, and on January 15, 1990, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Bobby "Blue" Bland, Johnny Cash, Asuka and other rock and roll predecessors, ironically, his former band, the Isleys, who were also inducted.
For Hendricks, although in exile in the UK for nine months, he and his trio Jimi Hendrix Experience returned to the United States to perform as a huge hit, as evidenced by the warm welcome at the Monterrey Festival. Jimmy, on the other hand, says "thank you" by lighting his guitar, a dramatic but heartfelt act that is rooted in his love of the guitar as an instrument.
It was a move that could only be done by a young man who had just turned 24, during his brief enlistment, often clutching an axe to fall asleep; and then on the touring bus, he was just an entry-edge man for rhythmic blues.
Between conversations, he often showed shyness and strength, he dedicated his life to his dreams and troubles, and in the end he created an explosive new guitar language —rough but as complex as orchestral music, bursting and affectionate.
"The effects' wow pedal is great because it doesn't have any notes," Hendricks said in the middle of a first interview with him by the Rolling Stones in 1968, "as long as you step on the pedal, step on a string of vibrato, and then the drums follow, that's what I like, not depression, but the loneliness and frustration of expecting something." It was as if an emotion was spreading. ”
It was this desire that drove Hendricks to play and sing every note, on stage, in the studio, on countless tours, and those endless guitar passages were like endless passions within him.
Hendricks' creativity stemmed from his combination of his amazing technique and the imagination of his sound, as well as those ingenious guitar effects—backtracking, distortion, and sheer volume—that transformed rock and roll, and made the electric guitar an instrument that was forever synonymous with rock and roll.
Thus, Hendricks left an indelible, intense personal image in the history of popular music, accelerating the dramatic changes in rock 'n' roll in the late '60s, when he revolutionarily synthesized guitar violence, brave improvisation and ethereal melodies, and his ultimate source was Bruce.
Hendricks was also a key figure in the african music heritage of the United States, and although his stage image— the wild rock star— was aimed at a white audience and initially widely rejected by the black world, Hendricks used his efforts to reinvent the music of his grandparents and fathers—Robert Johnson, Moody Waters, Charlie Christian, Chuck Berry— whose music was transformed into a new electronic soul and mournful ballet.
His experience with funk, bruce, and electroacoustic helped him transform romantic pop music, which in turn laid a solid foundation for the innovation of later black rock and rhythm blues, otherwise there would never have been a latecomer like George Clinton, Miles Davis, Prince, and Living Colour.
At the same time, Hendricks' classic stage styling and blatant sexual innuendo also made a good start for those who came after him.
Unfortunately, Hendricks left us in 1970, just three years after his blockbuster Monterrey Festival, and we didn't even have time to see his possible future musical prospects.
Given the immeasurable musical legacy he has left today, and the immense influence his music retains today, it's hard to believe that he released only three albums in his entire lifetime—his monstrous debut are You Experienced?; a second, more lyrical, Axis: Bold As Love, and an epic double album, Electric Ladyland, which spanned just a year and a half.
Of course, he spent his life preparing for these three albums, and if that wasn't the case, it's hard to imagine things happening like this.
James Marshall Hendrix was born in Seattle on November 27, 1942, his mother Lucille originally named him Johnny Allen Hendrix, but his father, Al, changed his name four years later, and he was born while Al was serving in the military. Hendricks didn't get his first guitar until he was 16, a five-dollar used acoustic guitar.
Hendricks had a not-so-fortunate childhood, his parents' marriage was numb, and the divorce between the two made Hendricks' schooling experience very unstable. His mother died in 1958.
In 1959, after graduating, Hendricks joined the first band, the Rocking Kings, who played electric guitar. Prior to that, he briefly enlisted as a paratrooper, an experience that lasted only a year that ended with Hendricks "failing a medical examination" when he broke his ankle during a skydive.
Hendricks spent the next seven years on tour, working with a large number of club bands, including King Kasuals, who were some of his army companions and later Experience Band's bassist Billy Cox; he also served as an accompanist in a number of other bands, including Sam Cook, Jackie Wilson, Impression Choir, Little Richard, and the Asley Brothers.
Hendricks eventually participated in the recording of the album for the first time in 1963 and '64, and he was an accompaniment to saxophonist Lonnie Youngblood, who participated in the release of the double single. His more important role was in the 1964 Ashley Brothers hit single Testify, where his powerful rhythm guitar and moving solo performance proved that Hendricks had developed the unique style that would later make him famous.
Hendricks also lived with the Ashley brothers for a while in 1964, and they bought Hendricks his first Fanta guitar, and guitarist Ernie Asley can still remember hearing Hendrick practicing in the room, and he can hear Hendricks developing his unique skills step by step.
"He can play great without the speaker. When we were in the restaurant, he would play the piano in the hallway. He turned his back on us and didn't open the speaker, but that sound and that feeling emanated from his body like that, not an idle person. From the eyes of a child, the things he had created at that time were clean, clear, and pure. Ernie Ashley was also young at the time.
In the first half of 1966, Hendricks continued his long march as an accompanist, with Richard Jr., Kim Berger, and others. Curtis and Curtis Knight collaborate.
Hendricks was involved in Curtis Knight's live album, which they recorded in Hackensack, New Jersey, from which we can hear a certain evolution in his voice and stage behavior. In Drivin' South, Hendricks uses his guitar to make jagged sustains, twisting his irff into a blues-flavored French horn, while the treble part is a sharp vibrato.
Somewhere, you can hear Curtis Knight shouting, "Eat that guitar!" Eat it! Eat it! "There are only a few chords there, but the feeling Hendricks recorded will give you a glimpse of how he's going to handle Bruce in the future."
The Jimi Hendrix Experience乐队
By the fall of 1965, Hendricks had signed Curtis Knight's manager and producer, Ed Chaplin, on a three-year contract — a contract that didn't do him much good at a very low price, and it was the summer of 1966 that really turned him around.
Animals bassist Chas Chandler met Hendricks at a show in New York, when Chandler was looking for an opportunity to enter the band's manager and producer business, and he was overwhelmed by Hendricks' fierce voice, wild styling and gymnast-like presence on stage.
On September 23, 1966, under Chandler's patronage, Hendricks flew to England in search of opportunities. After a series of auditions, Hendricks selected two of his future teammates, bassist Noel Reading — who actually wanted to work as guitarist for the Animals , and drummer Mitchell — a child star who had played with the likes of Sketching Lord Sutch, Riot Squad and Georgeie Fame.
Thus was born The Jimi Hendrix Experience, a weird band name that was also Chandler's idea.
Drummer Mitch Mitchell
With Noel Reading and Mitchell, Hendricks finally had a band companion who could compete with his guitar. In fact, Noel Reading had never played bass before joining the band, and this is exactly what Hendricks intended, he just needed such a malleable novice. Noel Reading's steady bass later completely freed drummer Mitchell, a double jazz and rhythm blues drummer who has since taken off.
In performances, Hendricks tends to play his melodies and riffs in his own unique way; Mitchell adds his own unique rhythmic path; and Nord Reading usually maintains a steady bass line.
But on the album, especially in the three- to four-minute performances of Are You Experienced?, what you can hear is a more resilient trio. In Manic Depression, Mitchell creates tidal drum beats, Hendrix plays intense riffs, and Noel Reading's bass is rather low-key, a waltz-like rhythm reminiscent of Elvin Jones' pattern.
In Hey Joe, their relatively bland debut single, this folk-blue structure ends with Hendricks' trembling chords and Mitchell's impatient accents. Later, although Hendricks also tried to form a band lineup of other people, or expand the composition of the instrument, he would always return to the trio of the Experience period.
Jimmy Hendricks
The frenzy set off by Jimi Hendrix after his arrival in London was unprecedented in the history of British pop music, he was a young black man, not in line with the well-dressed soul gentleman or gray-haired blues cannon image that The British tradition liked, Hendricks played rock guitar in a very aggressive and very avant-garde way.
Soon, Hendricks became the darling of British pop stars— the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, The Who, and Eric Clapton became his most ardent fans. According to Clapton, Cream's hit single, "Sunshine of Your Love," is a hymn to Hendricks, which was actually inspired by a performance by Hendricks and the Band Of Experience at London's Savier Theatre.
Hendricks returned the favor by making the song a repertoire for his subsequent performances.
Hendricks and Eric Clapton
For Hendricks, Reading, and Mitchell, the last months of 1966 and the entire year of 1967 were packed with interviews, events, and ongoing tours, as well as frequent recordings. Hendricks was the leader and soul of his band for the first time, and these frequent musical events can be said to have truly made him.
Over the course of 14 months, Hendricks and The Experience recorded classic singles like "Hey Joe," "Purple Haze, and Burning of the Midnight Lamp," but also two full-length albums, Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love.
In addition, the band recorded a series of studio live songs, which were later broadcast on BBC Radio One and published in 1989.
Overall, hendricks's rich compositions allowed Hendrix to fully bloom his talents for the first time, and in the early singles and the album "Are You Experienced?", Hendricks's unquenchable desire to express himself, and his inner dreams and musical ambitions were unmistakable. And in his trademark blues song "Red House" (included in the earliest British version of "Are You Experienced?"), he made no secret of his pride in his black roots.
This revenge version of pride also appears in Stone Free and Love or Confusion, where he reveals his displeasure with the early rhythmic blues bands with layers of progressive guitar riffs and dizzying guitar effects.
"The Wind Cries Mary" and "May This Be Love" would be more enduring ballet songs, in which Hendricks showed a deep sense of feeling and ambition that is often overlooked because people are more likely to be overwhelmed by the aggression of Purple Haze and Foxey Lady.
Combining idyllic melodies with water-like electronic effects, Hendricks creates a music of unparalleled beauty and poignancy, which also weaves a deeper torment for his inner dreams. The result of this music is rooted in the blues, a contemplation of loneliness and loss.
《Are You Experienced?》
"Burning of the Midnight Lamp" is also a surprisingly melancholy work, it is like a confession, from a person who has been separated from his family and homeland for a long time, and now he is suddenly under the pressure of overnight fame, and the demands from commercialization are like needles.
Hendricks wrote the song on a flight from Los Angeles to New York, after his first performance in the United States in 1967: "Time will soon tell me that there is a chaotic crowd at the Trevi Fountain, some people buying me and betraying me, some people will ring the death knell for me, and yet I can only continue to light the same old lamp, and I can only be alone." 」 ”
At the end of the day, all of Hendrick's songs are blues, and all of his songs are about melancholy. For his many admirers, such as Clapton, Jeff Baker, and Peter Townsend, blues was a religion, an object of worship and desire. For Hendricks, Bruce was the essence of his life.
When Hendricks immigrated to England, the career he had abandoned was more misunderstood and rejected. Banished by the mainstream of R&B, driven too far, and as a rocker he was completely underground, performing in cafes in Greenwich Village—even in the midst of the psychedelic ups and downs of America at the time, Hendricks was an unknown man.
Hendricks was given full freedom on stage, especially in the studio, to liberate him from the inspiration that haunted him, and the abundance of energy and sexual energy in his music fully illustrated his comfort in his new life.
But we can also find that the pain and despair that often arises in his lyrics and guitar performance also reflect the desires and fears of his desperate childhood and long career as an accompanist— physically, emotionally, and musically, which will make him uneasy for the rest of his life.
Hendricks often agonized over his inability to reproduce the melodies in his head on the tape. "A lot of times I can't show it on the guitar, you know?" With a unique attitude of humility, he said,
"Most of the time I just lie there daydreaming and listen to all this music... But if I immediately find a guitar and he wants to record them, it feels like it's all ruined... I just can't play the guitar so well..."
Compared to its debut album, Axis: Bold As Love is widely regarded as a masterpiece of small format, but its recording process was fraught with hardship. Hendricks recorded it between May and October 1967, the busiest time of his career, and there were many disagreements between Hendricks and Chandler about the production of the album.
The original mix was lost because the release deadline approached, and Hendricks, Chandler, and engineer Eddie Cramer were forced to remix the entire album in just 11 hours.
《Axis: Bold As Love》
Still, Axis: Bold As Love's adventurous lyrics and compositions make up for its lack of sound. The experiential band full of anger, anxiety and primitiveness gave way to flashes of humor, including both the Moss Allison-esque swing song "Up From the Skies" and the eerie nostalgia "Spanish Castle Magic," based on Seattle's Spanish Castle Club, a black music club that was one of Hendricks' childhood nightmares.
The album also features Hendricks' best ballet, Little Wing, a compact piece of less than two and a half minutes, with a lullaby-like voice and a gorgeous and charming guitar tail solo.
"I wanted to make a double album," Hendricks once said of Axis: Bold As Love, "but it's almost impossible... Because neither the album producer nor the company wanted that. If it were me, I would be willing to spend every penny on it because I think it's worth it. ”
It wasn't until Electric Ladyland, released in the fall of 1968, that Hendricks finally had the time, money, and opportunity to indulge himself in the studio. It was the only time in his life that he had complete control over the artistry and conception of the entire album, and it was also a self-portrait of the young musician for himself— the image of a seeker at that time.
《Rainy Day, Dream Away》、《1983 ... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) and Moon, Turn the Tides ... Gently Gently Away", three songs occupy an entire side of the second album, reflecting his obsession with symphonic guitar effects and his underwater dreams.
He also puts its roots into new scenarios that take Bruce to dark Mars, the bouncy guitar passages in Voodoo Chile, and the psychedelic play in Come On (Part 1). The album featured many lines of experience band classics, such as Crosstown Traffic and Voodoo Child (Slight Return), but Hendricks also made no secret of his growing desire to collaborate with other characters, with many cameo musicians in the expanded lineup, such as Steve Winwood, Al Kooper, and Jefferson aircraft bassist Jack Cassidy.
Hendricks also paid tribute to his favorite musician, Bob Dylan, who gave "All Along the Watchtower" a howling version of the cover, interpreting the satire of Dylan's original songs as his own unique kind of fanatical despair.
《Electric Ladyland》
"His first two albums were great landmarks, but 'Electric Ladyland' is a complete statement." Engineer Eddie Cramer says he's been Hendricks' studio soul mate since the beginning of the Axis: Bold As Love album.
In fact, it's only when we put these three albums together that we get to a complete soul puzzle of Hendricks, the sounds and emotions that Hendricks strives to express, the endless touring experiences and his subsequent successes as a rhythm and blues accompaniment.
In addition to the stage image of the rock guitar god, Hendricks also defined the electric guitar as another instrument in his own unique way, opening up a new possibility for guitar studio recording.
But the Band of Experience was slowly on the brink, and after two years of uninterrupted work, the band members were a little tired. Reading and Mitchell were also unhappy with the financial hardship caused by the band's co-manager, Mike Jeffrey, and eventually, The Experience disbanded in mid-1969, and Hendricks began its next recording journey.
It was a double-album project called First Rays of the New Rising Sun, and because of his conflicts with Mike Jeffrey and other contractual disputes, and in retaliation for the audience's constant demands on him to play the old-fashioned and brutal dangerous moves of the early days, Hendrick spent much of 1969 and 1970 looking for new collaborators and new musical directions.
It was an unprecedented historical period, and the guitar performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Woodstock Festival exploded with great influence due to a national anger and anguish broken by the Vietnam War, and his short-term band Band of Gypsys also contributed a very classic scene.
Hendricks at the Woodstock Music Festival
Some of Hendrick's last recordings included 1970's Angle, a song he wrote two years earlier when he remembered his stepmother.
Hendricks even tried his hand at jazz, where he played with guitarist John McLaughlin and all-rounder Roland Kirk, but his dream collaboration with his idol, Miles Davis, never became a reality, and they had planned to form a big band.
In 1970, in order to build his dream studio "Electric Lady" in New York, Hendricks had to be forced to embark on a tour by high expenses. Supported by Billy Cox's line-up of bass players and Mitchell's drummers, Hendricks performed throughout the first half of the year. The day after the studio opened in August, Hendricks was not allowed to embark on a Tour of Europe.
He was never able to come back.
Electric Lady used to drive here
On 18 September 1970, Hendricks was rushed by ambulance from the London hotel to the hospital, but he died before arriving at the hospital. Over the years, Hendricks's friends and colleagues continued to provide conflicting accounts of how and why he died, but there was no evidence that he had died by suicide or by himself. The coroner made the ruling public and listed the cause of death as "inhalation suffocation due to vomit caused by barbiturate acidosis". Hendricks was 27 years old.
Hendricks was a brilliant artist, but his business abilities were so bad that at the time of his death his property was in a terrible mess, a legal and accounting nightmare, and never properly resolved and explained. Albums with his name on it continue to sell well in record stores, with many people making a fortune, and some albums even have Hendricks in name only.
Even his record label Warner Bros. was involved in these disgraceful acts: merging the remnants of the studio into a compilation album War Heroes; the 1970 album Crash Landing and Midnight Lightning was even more outrageous, with producer Alan Douglas bluntly rearranging some of the songs to replace the original background soundtrack.
Of course, there are "new" Hendrix albums with historical and musical value, with the 1971 albums The Cry of Love and Rainbow Bridge containing the new album First Rays of the New Rising Sun, which we mentioned earlier, a compilation of live recordings by the band Experience There is also a four-CD set containing all of Hendricks' live performances in 1967 and 1970.
What's more, Hendricks' legacy continues to expand. Every hard rock band and heavy metal band, from Anthropology to ZZ Top, thanks to Hendricks and The Experience, who provide a huge source of inspiration and influence for their music. Hendricks' powerful performance on the blues is now echoing in performances like Robert Clay and the late Steve Ray Vaughan.
Similarly, Hendricks' jazz concepts and rhythmic ideas later greatly influenced fusion jazz in the 70s (especially Miles Davis's work after Bitches Brew) and the harmonic melodic mixing movement led by Ornett Coeman, as well as the jazz-funk of Koeman's disciples Ronald Shannon Jackson and James "Blood" Ulmer.
In the '70s, funk was carried forward by Parliament-Funkadelic, the Ohio Players, and Hendrix's former bosses, the Asri Brothers, and it has to be said that behind it shines Hendrick's controversial musical roots.
Under Prince's flamboyant style of costume, it was also Hendricks's things that influenced him: the way he wrote songs was Hendricksian, a struggle between his own spirit and the masses, and the screams of his guitar came entirely from Hendricks.
The black rock movement, led by Living Color, also benefited greatly from Hendricks' key achievements. Founded in 1985, The Black Rock Coalition has suffered the same dilemmas in their careers as Hendricks: racial prejudice, the refrigeration of music, the lack of contract, and commercial control over the arts The essence of black music is a re-reclamation of rock and roll.
Hendricks rarely discusses his music from a purely racial perspective, but if you hear his tearing cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" or Chuck Bailey's "Johnny B. Goode," you can't turn a blind eye to his skin color.
Hendricks was also a great songwriter, and his rock and ballet songs have been covered by everyone from Lo Stewart and Eric Clapton to the Pretenders and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The Kronos Quartet adapted Purple Haze into an avant-garde classical, and although Gil Evans never worked with Hendricks, he turned Little Wing and Up From the Skies into new protagonists on stage and in studios in the 70s and 80s.
Shortly after the Monterrey Festival, Hendricks spoke of his future plans in an interview with Newsweek: "In five years, I want to write some plays and then write a few books. I'm going to sit on a small island—my own island—and listen to my beard grow. Then I'll come back like a bee— a queen bee. ”
He never left, he was always king.
reference：
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/jimi-the-man-and-the-music-19920206