Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix | |
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_(cropped).jpg) Hendrix in 1967 | |
| Born | Johnny Allen Hendrix November 27, 1942 Seattle, Washington, US |
| Died | September 18, 1970 (aged 27) London, England |
| Other name | James Marshall Hendrix |
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| Years active | 1962–1970 |
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| Website | jimihendrix |
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James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 as a part of his band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience; the institution describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music".[1]
Hendrix began playing guitar at age 15. In 1961, he enlisted in the US Army, but was discharged the following year. Soon afterward, he moved to Clarksville, then Nashville, Tennessee, and began playing gigs on the Chitlin' Circuit, earning a place in the Isley Brothers' backing band and later with Little Richard, with whom he continued to work through mid-1965. He then played with Curtis Knight and the Squires.
Hendrix moved to England in late 1966, after bassist Chas Chandler of the Animals became his manager. Within months, he formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience (with its rhythm section consisting of bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell) and achieved three UK top-ten hits: "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze", and "The Wind Cries Mary". He achieved fame in the US after his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. His third and final studio album, Electric Ladyland (1968), became his most successful release and his only number-one album on the US Billboard 200 chart. The world's highest-paid rock musician,[2] Hendrix headlined the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. He died in London from barbiturate-related asphyxia in September 1970, at the age of 27.
Hendrix was inspired by American rock and roll and electric blues. He favored overdriven amplifiers with high volume and gain, and was instrumental in popularizing the previously undesirable sounds caused by guitar amplifier feedback. He was also one of the first guitarists to make extensive use of tone-altering effects units in mainstream rock, such as fuzz distortion, Octavia, wah-wah, and Uni-Vibe. He was the first musician to use stereophonic phasing effects in recordings. Rolling Stone wrote: "Hendrix pioneered the use of the instrument as an electronic sound source. Players before him had experimented with feedback and distortion, but Hendrix turned those effects and others into a controlled, fluid vocabulary every bit as personal as the blues with which he began."[3]
Ancestry and childhood
![A black and white image (c.1912) of two well-dressed people in their early 20s to late 30s.](https://fufufafafa.pages.dev/bl-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bertran_Philander_Ross_Hendrix_and_Zenora_"Nora"_Rose_Hendrix.jpg)
Hendrix was of African-American and Cherokee descent.[nb 1] His paternal grandfather, Bertran Philander Ross Hendrix, was born in 1866 from an extramarital affair between a woman named Fanny and a wealthy grain merchant.[10][nb 2] Hendrix's paternal grandmother, Zenora "Nora" Rose Moore, was a dancer and vaudeville performer who co-founded Fountain Chapel in Hogan's Alley.[12] Hendrix and Moore relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where they had a son they named James Allen Hendrix on June 10, 1919; the family called him "Al".[13]
In 1941, after moving to Seattle, Washington, Al met Lucille Jeter at a dance; they married on March 31, 1942.[14] Lucille's father (Jimi's maternal grandfather) was Preston Jeter, whose mother was born in similar circumstances as Bertran Hendrix.[15] Lucille's mother, Clarice (née Lawson), had African-American ancestors who had been slaves.[16] Al, who had been drafted by the US Army to serve in World War II, left to begin his basic training three days after the wedding.[17] Johnny Allen Hendrix was born on November 27, 1942, in Seattle; he was the first of Lucille's five children. In 1946, Johnny's parents changed his name to James Marshall Hendrix, in honor of Al and his late brother Leon Marshall.[18][nb 3]
Stationed in Alabama at the time of Hendrix's birth, Al was denied the standard military furlough afforded servicemen for childbirth; his commanding officer placed him in the stockade to prevent him from going AWOL to see his infant son. He spent two months locked up without trial, during which he received a telegram announcing his son's birth.[12][nb 4] During Al's three-year absence, Lucille struggled to raise their son.[22] Hendrix was mostly cared for by family members and friends, especially Lucille's sister Delores Hall and her friend Dorothy Harding.[23] Al received an honorable discharge from the US Army on September 1, 1945. Two months later, unable to find Lucille, Al went to the Berkeley, California, home of a family friend named Mrs. Champ, who had taken care of and attempted to adopt Hendrix; this is where Al saw his son for the first time.[24]
After returning from service, Al reunited with Lucille, but his inability to find steady work left the family impoverished. They both struggled with alcohol, and often fought when intoxicated. The violence sometimes drove Hendrix to withdraw and hide in a closet in their home.[25] His relationship with his brother Leon (born 1948) was close but precarious; with Leon in and out of foster care, they lived with an almost constant threat of fraternal separation.[26] In addition to Leon, Hendrix had three younger siblings: Joseph, born in 1949, Kathy in 1950, and Pamela in 1951, all of whom Al and Lucille gave up to foster care and adoption.[27] The family frequently moved, staying in cheap hotels and apartments around Seattle. On occasion, family members would take Hendrix to Vancouver to stay at his grandmother's. A shy and sensitive boy, he was deeply affected by his life experiences.[28] In later years, he confided to a girlfriend that he had been the victim of sexual abuse by a man in uniform.[29] On December 17, 1951, when Hendrix was nine years old, his parents divorced; the court granted Al custody of him and Leon.[30]
First instruments
At Horace Mann Elementary School in Seattle during the mid-1950s, Hendrix's habit of carrying a broom with him to emulate a guitar gained the attention of the school's social worker. After more than a year of his clinging to a broom like a security blanket, she wrote a letter requesting school funding intended for underprivileged children, insisting that leaving him without a guitar might result in psychological damage.[31] Her efforts failed, and his father, Al, refused to buy him a guitar.[31][nb 5]
In 1957, while helping his father with a side-job, Hendrix found a ukulele among the garbage they were removing from an older woman's home. She told him that he could keep the instrument, which had only one string.[33] Learning by ear, he played single notes, following along to Elvis Presley songs, particularly "Hound Dog".[34][nb 6] By the age of 33, Hendrix's mother Lucille had developed cirrhosis of the liver, and on February 2, 1958, she died when her spleen ruptured.[36] Al refused to take James and Leon to attend their mother's funeral; he instead gave them shots of whiskey and told them that was how men should deal with loss.[36][nb 7] In 1958, Hendrix completed his studies at Washington Junior High School and began attending, but did not graduate from, Garfield High School.[37][nb 8]
In mid-1958, at age 15, Hendrix acquired his first acoustic guitar, for $5[40] (equivalent to $56 in 2025). He played for hours daily, watching others and learning from more experienced guitarists, and listening to blues artists such as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, and Robert Johnson.[41] The first tune Hendrix learned to play was the television theme "Peter Gunn".[42] Around that time, Hendrix jammed with boyhood friend Sammy Drain and his keyboard-playing brother.[43] In 1959, attending a concert by Hank Ballard & The Midnighters in Seattle, Hendrix met the group's guitarist Billy Davis.[44] Davis showed him some guitar licks and got him a short gig with the Midnighters.[45] The two remained friends until Hendrix's death in 1970.[46]
Soon after he acquired the acoustic guitar, Hendrix formed his first band, the Velvetones. Without an electric guitar, he could barely be heard over the sound of the group. After about three months, he realized that he needed an electric guitar.[47] In mid-1959, his father relented and bought him a white Supro Ozark.[47] Hendrix's first gig was with an unnamed band in the Jaffe Room of Seattle's Temple De Hirsch, but they fired him between sets for showing off.[48] He joined the Rocking Kings, which played professionally at venues such as the Birdland club. When his guitar was stolen after he left it backstage overnight, Al bought him a red Silvertone Danelectro.[49]
Military service
Before Hendrix was 19 years old, law authorities had twice caught him riding in stolen cars. Given a choice between prison or joining the Army, he chose the latter and enlisted on May 31, 1961.[50] After completing eight weeks of basic training at Fort Ord, California, he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.[51] He arrived on November 8, and soon afterward he wrote to his father: "There's nothing but physical training and harassment here for two weeks, then when you go to jump school ... you get hell. They work you to death, fussing and fighting."[52] In his next letter home, Hendrix, who had left his guitar in Seattle at the home of his girlfriend Betty Jean Morgan, asked his father to send it to him as soon as possible, stating: "I really need it now."[52] His father obliged and sent to Fort Campbell the red Silvertone Danelectro on which Hendrix had hand-painted the words "Betty Jean."[53] Hendrix's apparent obsession with the instrument contributed to his neglect of his military duties, which led to taunting and physical abuse from his peers who, at least once, hid the guitar from him until he begged for its return.[54] In November 1961, fellow serviceman Billy Cox walked past an army club and heard Hendrix playing inside.[55] Impressed by Hendrix's technique, which Cox described as a combination of "John Lee Hooker and Beethoven", Cox borrowed a bass guitar and the two jammed.[56] Within weeks, they began performing at base clubs on the weekends with other musicians in a loosely organized band called the Casuals.[57]
Hendrix completed his paratrooper training and, on January 11, 1962, Major General Charles W. G. Rich awarded him the prestigious Screaming Eagles patch.[52] By February, his personal conduct had begun to draw criticism from his superiors. They labeled him an unqualified marksman and often caught him napping while on duty and failing to report for bed checks.[58] On May 24, Hendrix's platoon sergeant, James C. Spears, filed a report in which he stated: "He [Hendrix] has no interest whatsoever in the Army... It is my opinion that Private Hendrix will never come up to the standards required of a soldier. I feel that the military service will benefit if he is discharged as soon as possible."[59] On June 29, 1962, Hendrix was granted a general discharge under honorable conditions.[60] Hendrix later spoke of his dislike of the army and that he had received a medical discharge after breaking his ankle during his 26th parachute jump,[61][nb 9] but no Army records have been produced that indicate that he neither received nor was discharged for any injuries.[63]
Career
Early years
In September 1962, after fellow serviceman and bandmate Billy Cox was discharged from the Army, Hendrix and he moved about 20 miles (32 km) across the state line from Fort Campbell to Clarksville, Tennessee, and formed a band, the King Kasuals.[64] In Seattle, Hendrix saw Butch Snipes play with his teeth and now the Kasuals' second guitarist, Alphonso "Baby Boo" Young, was performing this guitar gimmick.[65] Not to be upstaged, Hendrix also learned to play in this way. He later explained: "The idea of doing that came to me ... in Tennessee. Down there you have to play with your teeth or else you get shot. There's a trail of broken teeth all over the stage."[66]
Although they began playing low-paying gigs at obscure venues, the band eventually moved to Nashville's Jefferson Street, which was the traditional heart of the city's black community and home to a thriving rhythm and blues music scene.[67] They earned a brief residency playing at a popular venue in town, the club Del Morocco, and for the next two years Hendrix made a living performing at a circuit of venues throughout the South that were affiliated with the Theater Owners Booking Association (TOBA), widely known as the Chitlin' Circuit.[68] In addition to playing in his own band, Hendrix performed as a backing musician for various soul, R&B, and blues musicians, including Wilson Pickett, Slim Harpo, Sam Cooke, Ike & Tina Turner[69] and Jackie Wilson.[70]
In January 1964, feeling he had outgrown the circuit artistically, and frustrated by having to follow the rules of bandleaders, Hendrix decided to venture out on his own. He moved into the Hotel Theresa in Harlem, where he befriended Lithofayne Pridgon, known as "Faye", who became his girlfriend.[71] A Harlem native with connections throughout the area's music scene, Pridgon provided him with shelter, support, and encouragement.[72] Hendrix also met the Allen twins, Arthur and Albert.[73][nb 10] In February 1964, Hendrix won first prize in the Apollo Theater amateur contest.[75] Hoping to secure a career opportunity, he played the Harlem club circuit and sat in with various bands. At the recommendation of a former associate of Joe Tex, Ronnie Isley granted Hendrix an audition that led to an offer to become the guitarist with the Isley Brothers' backing band, the I.B. Specials, which he readily accepted.[76]
First recordings
In March 1964, Hendrix recorded the two-part single "Testify" with the Isley Brothers. Released in June, it failed to chart.[77] In May, he provided guitar instrumentation for the Don Covay song, "Mercy Mercy". Issued in August by Rosemart Records and distributed by Atlantic, the track reached number 35 on the Billboard chart.[78]
Hendrix toured with the Isleys during much of 1964, but near the end of October, after growing tired of playing the same set every night, he left the band.[79][nb 11] Soon afterward, Hendrix joined Little Richard's touring band, the Upsetters.[81] During a stop in Los Angeles in February 1965, he recorded his first and only single with Richard, "I Don't Know What You Got (But It's Got Me)", written by Don Covay and released by Vee-Jay Records.