Jimmy Hendrix
James Marshall Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington in 1942. Hendrix grew up listening to his father’s collection of blues and rhythm-and-blues (R&B) records and showed a keen interest in the guitar from a young age. After dropping out of high school he spent a short time in the United States Army as a paratrooper in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but he quit the military to pursue a musical career. Something that he beleived was his calling.
Hendrix started out as an unknown backing guitarist touring with a number of R&B shows from 1961 to 1966. He moved to New York City and played in the clubs there, eventually coming to the attention of English rock musician Chas Chandler. Chandler was able to persuade Hendrix to move to London, England, and form the Jimi Hendrix Experience, a trio that included drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding. The group made its debut appearance in Paris, France, in 1966 and toured clubs on the European continent and in England over the next two years.
The band’s first album, Are You Experienced? (1967), was an immediate hit, as the singles “Hey, Joe,” “Purple Haze,” and “The Wind Cries Mary” rose to the top of the pop charts in England. Hendrix’s brilliant guitar work and flamboyant, eroticized performance style, including suggestive gyrations and the smashing of (or setting fire to) his guitar, made him controversial but extremely popular. Even elite guitarists on the English rock scene, such as Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend, were awed by Hendrix’s style and abilities.
Returning to the United States, the Experience appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Hendrix’s dramatic performance of the song “Wild Thing” at the festival is documented in the film Monterey Pop (1969), and after the concert he became a superstar. Another notable Hendrix live performance came at the famed Woodstock Festival in 1969, later documented in the movie Woodstock (1970). His version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock, in which Hendrix plucked the guitar with his teeth, became legendary.
Toward the end of his short career Hendrix broke up the Experience and formed the Band of Gypsies, which recorded a live album released in 1970. The same year Hendrix died at age 27 in London after taking an overdose of barbiturates and then choking on his own vomit. He died right at the height of his career and fame. Other albums by Hendrix include Axis: Bold As Love (1967) and Electric Ladyland (1968). Many previously unreleased recordings have been issued since his death, and his musical legacy and legend have only grown in the ensuing decades.