Today, September 18th, marks fifty-five years since the death of perhaps the greatest rock guitarist of all time, Jimi Hendrix.
Hendrix’s death in 1970, due to an overdose of barbituates, granted him marquee status in the 27 Club, and also brought about his one and only UK chart-topper. ‘Voodoo Chile’, a previously unreleased track, was released in the wake of his death and spent a week at #1, becoming one of the hardest rocking tracks ever to do so.
It’s fitting that he did manage a posthumous moment on top of the British charts, because he had been consistently more successful in the UK than in his homeland. In fact, Hendrix had moved to London in 1966, after spells in the US Army and then as a backing guitarist for the Isley Brothers and Little Richard. In London he and his manager, Chas Chandler of the Animals, put together a band: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, with Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums. Their first single was a cover of ‘Hey Joe’, making #6 in early 1967.
The origins of ‘Hey Joe’ are disputed, but despite the first released version being by The Leaves just two years earlier, it had fast become a garage-rock classic, with versions by the Surfaris, the Byrds, and Love before Hendrix’s definitive take. Compare its thick chords and raw production with the poppier acts of the day. It must have sounded wild, with its tale of a man on his way to shoot his unfaithful lover. The follow-up single, ‘Purple Haze’, then gave Hendrix the biggest hit of his lifetime.
It made #3 in May of 1967. Sitting above it in the chart were ‘Puppet on a String’ and ‘Somethin’ Stupid’, both classics of the time, but both blown out of the water by the bloodthirsty energy of this record. Anything released in 1967 with ‘haze’ in the title was going to encourage rumours concerning it being about drugs. Hendrix, though, describes it as a love song. The intro in particular is razor sharp, and jarring. Apparently a dissonant interval such as this is known as diabolus en musica i.e. “Devil in music”. Which is pretty much the most aptly rock ‘n’ roll description going.
Hot on ‘Purple Haze’s heels came The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s third Top 10 in less than six months. Jazzy ballad ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ was recorded in twenty minutes, and was allegedly inspired after an argument with Hendrix’s girlfriend Kathy ‘Mary’ Etchingham over lumpy mashed potatoes. Such an innucuous start for a lyrically dense love song, proof that he was more than just a virtuoso guitar player.
The final Top 10 hit of Hendrix’s short life came a year later, with a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’. Despite it being the song most performed by Dylan in concert, it remains synonymous with Hendrix. Here he is performing it at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, just weeks before his death.
Rolling Stone Brian Jones, another rock star not long for this world, contributed to the percussion on this track, including the rattles in the intro played on the brilliantly named ‘vibraslap’. Ever since this cover was released, Dylan has peformed it in the style of a tribute to Hendrix.
‘All Along the Watchtower’ was lead single from the Experience’s third album in fourteen months, ‘Electric Ladyland’. In his recording career of barely four years, Hendrix released a total of three studio albums, a live album, and a greatest hits. The final single to chart in his lifetime was not a huge hit (#37), but is my personal favourite: ‘Crosstown Traffic’.
It’s bluesy, it’s psychedelic, it’s headbanging… and yet it’s got a brilliant pop hook. And despite being the greatest guitarist of his age, Hendrix wasn’t ashamed to go back to basics with a paper and comb to make that distinctive riff. That feels like it sums him up: supremely talented, precocious, lyrically mystical, but with an ear for a simple sledgehammer riff and a Top 40 hook. Who knows where the 1970s would have taken Hendrix, had he been around to enjoy them…
Jimi Hendrix, 27th November 1942 – 18th September 1970
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Fine concise tribute to the man. I always thought ‘Burning of the Midnight Lamp’ was his greatest single, with those touches on harpsichord, wah-wah pedal and backing vocals, and felt it should have charted much higher than a disappointing No. 18
>
I am still discovering much of Hendrix’s music, so writing this post was a good eye-opener away from the hits
good summary, I wasnt that aware of Hendrix until All Along The Watchtower, with that exciting intro, far and away my fave Hendrix song to this day. Topped my charts as an oldie, though I did like it a lot at the time too, aged 10. I probably already did this ancedote on Voodoo Chile, but just in case I didn’t: My introduction to your fave Crosstown Traffic was in October 1989 – after 2 weeks touring North-East USA and Canada, 2 mates & I were at Logan Airport in Boston one morning being informed that we had been bumped by the US airline – apparently they habitually overbooked expecting no-shows on each trip in those days, so were booked on the next flight that evening. Once on board a fault developed, and we just sat there until 3am and they decided they had to fly a part in from Canada, so we disembarked, collected our luggage and got taxi driven to a hotel in the centre of Boston at 4am, jetlagged already – our cabbie was hyper-active, talkative and decided to treat us to Crosstown Traffic at full-blast as he drove like a maniac in order to get back to the airport and pick up more passengers. “Dead Jimi” was his idol, apparently. I had visions we were all going to be joining Jimi at any moment on this white-knuckle rollercoaster ride! So, on the whole, I’ll stick with Watchtower and child-friendly nostalgia! 🙂
Haha I like that story. As terrifying as that must have been, I would like to drive to Crosstown Traffic. Can’t think of many better driving tunes. Just a shame that it’s so short.
This is the part of the story where I am old enough to remember when there was no Jimi Hendrix and also when he existed, and when he died. Creepy as it is. He was three years older than I was.
that is a marvelous (and probably accurate) depiction of Boston cabbies. They talk, they will even turn and look at you (maybe just to be sure you’re still alive) while whipping through traffic…
I recently relistened to Are You Experienced? (the far superior US version, sorry UK, way better trackling and album cover, the habit for UK releases excluding singles in the 60s is super annoying) and man, what an absolutely perfect album. A stunning achievement. Every track is amazing. One of the rare albums were every track for me is a 10/10. Even every Beatles albums – as much as I adore The Beatles and overall prefer their albums more to Hendrix – don’t accomplish such a feat. It’s between that, Sgt Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour, The Velvet Underground debut and The Doors self-titled for my favourite of ’67.
“Hey Joe”, yeah, I’ve listened to several versions made before (including The Byrds version which is quite bizarre) and there are some good ones, but Hendrix’s one is by far the best and easily the most iconic and most definitive. It’s perfection. You can’t top it. The drumming by Mitch Mitchell, the arrangement, Hendrix’s vocals, the guitar lines and runs he does, it’s remarkable. It’s the one everyone that comes after bases their version on. “Purple Haze”, “The Wind Cries Mary”, “Foxey Lady”, “Third Stone from the Sun”, “I Don’t Live for Today”, “Fire”, “May This Be Love” and IMO one of his most underrated songs “Manic Depression”, all absolute stone cold bangers.
Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland (I’m surprised it only reached #6 in the UK when it went #1 in the US) are great albums too, but the debut, man, it’s just perfect. I consider it the first pure hard rock album. It was a pretty monumental and hugely impactful album both in the 60s and after. It basically kickstarted the hard rock era of rock music. You don’t get Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, etc without it. I’d rank his Experience albums as debut>Ladyland>Axis.
I really love “Voodoo Child”, “Burning of the Midnight Lamp”, “Crosstown Traffic”, “Little Miss Strange”, “1983”, “Little Wing”, “Come On”, “Castles Made of Sand”, “If Six Was Nine”, “All Along the Watchtower” (though I actually like Dylan’s original, Hendrix’s version is the best and most iconic).
Jimi was a great songwriter, a astonishingly talented musician and underappreciated/underrated singer. I especially love the way he says confusion as “con-fuse-shon”. He says that word the best. He also looked so cool. He looked how a rockstar should look.
He’s probably the most consequential loss of the 27 Club, along with Kurt Cobain. Lord knows what he would have done in the 70s and 80s. From what I’ve read about his future plans, he would have incorporated more funk, jazz, progressive rock, latin, soul, R&B and later disco into his sound. Rock music would look a bit different if he was alive. He was also the most notable black rock musician of the rock era. We might have had more black rock artists if Hendrix lived.
You make a couple of good points. He really did look cool. Say I was to dress up as a rock star for Halloween, I’d probably end up looking a lot like Jimi Hendrix. And yes, his role as a black rock musician/guitarist was important. It’s a shame that many more didn’t follow. Chuck Berry and Prince are the other two that spring to mind, plus in terms of look and sound Phil Lynott was clearly influenced by Hendrix. I’d also argue for Brian Jones as the original and one of the most important 27 clubbers. His influence on the Stones has been forgotten as time (and the Stones themselves) have rolled on, and on, but he was their founder after all.
Part of the reason there were so few prominent Black rock artists after Hendrix was the increasing segregation of rock radio by programmers in the mid-1970s. Rock music came to be marketed primarily to white audiences, and this created barriers for Black musicians. There were still some notable figures, such as Prince, who was essentially his own genre, Lenny Kravitz, Gary Clark Jr., Sly and the Family Stone, War, and Living Colour. However, many of these artists were pushed into funk, R&B, or alternative categories rather than being embraced as part of mainstream rock. Chic is a telling example. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards originally wanted the group to be a rock band, but management and record executives told them they would have little chance of being played on rock radio or gaining a foothold in the rock market. They were encouraged to pursue R&B, funk, and disco instead, which ultimately led to their enormous success with songs like “Le Freak” (my favourite disco song) and “Good Times.” Earlier in the 1970s, artists such as Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, and War had received substantial airplay on rock radio, but by the late 1970s that space had closed. As rock became increasingly defined as white music, many black listeners, especially teenagers, gravitated toward R&B, funk, soul, and disco, and later into hip hop as it emerged in the mid-to-late 1970s. And the rest is history.
Brian Jones definitely was important. I do think Hendrix however is the biggest loss in terms of future potential impact on music in general. Brian God Bless him was basically done creatively by 1967. Hendrix still have much left in the tank. I consider him, Kurt Cobain and Buddy Holly the three greatest losses in rock and roll (among others).
Great post Stewart…not because it’s Hendrix but really…a great post and informative.
I can’t say enough about this man. He took the guitar and sound so far ahead in a short period of time. There are still guitar players out there trying to figure out how he did some of this licks.
I have to wonder what he would have done…my guess is jazz fusion like Miles Davis until he circled back to rock/blues. I think the man recorded every hour he was alive…so many albums have come out since his death.
Music aside, he’s just the coolest man ever to have been born!
Yes he is…I can’t argue with that!
And I’m sorry again to push all of this one you at once. I will get better than this! I’m starting to slow down now at work.