Jimi Hendrix The Legend Essay Research Paper

Jimi Hendrix: The Legend Essay, Research Paper

Jimi Hendrix Jimi Hendrix perhaps no other rock-and-roll trailblazer was as original or as

influential in such a short span of time as Jimi Hendrix. Widely acknowledged as one of

the most daring and inventive virtuosos in rock history, Hendrix pioneered the electric

guitar (he played a right- handed Fender Stratocaster– his “Electric Lady”–upside-down

and left- handed) as an electronic sound source capable of feedback, distortion, and a host

of other effects that could be crafted into an articulate and fluid emotional vocabulary.

And though he was on the scene as a solo artist for less than five years, Hendrix is

credited for having a profound effect on everyone from George Clinton and Miles Davis to

guitarists Stevie Ray Vaughan and Vernon Reid. Born Johnny Allen Hendrix on

November 27, 1942, Hendrix’s father, James “Al” Hendrix, later changed his son’s name to

James Marshall. Young Jimi taught himself to play the guitar during his schoolboy days in

Seattle, drawing influence from blues legends like B.B. King and Robert Johnson. He

slung his guitar over his back and left home to enlist in the 101st Division of the Air Force

(the “Screaming Eagles”), where he served as a parachute jumper until an injury led to his

discharge. Hendrix then began working as a session guitarist under the name Jimmy

James, playing behind 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 Rosa Lee Parks, 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 City 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