The Jimi Hendrix Experience

The king of guitar. He revolutionized rock as we have come to know it with his amazing guitar solos, the best I have ever heard, and innovative songs and lyrics. He is my favorite artist of all time because he came up with so many amazing songs that are all excellent. Although some songs are simple, the guitar is always there and his great rythum section involving a bass and drums completes the pure rockability. How Nirvana got $$$$$, I would give this 6 $ because it was and is revolutionary and nobody has been able to come close to his awesome blues influenced talent.

Are You Experienced?: 90

This blew everyone away. There had never been anything so revolutionary before, with guitar laden backup and sounds that were thought to have never been possible. The great thing about Jimi Hendrix is that his songs have so many levels and an ever-present exploration of some weirdly awesome sounds. Give A Merman I Would Be… 1983 a chance. This disc should be for any person in any generation because it shows the complexity of beautiful music. It'll blow you away! People have standards, and Jimi Hendrix jumped generations in a revolution that people are still trying to catch up to. I only have one more question. Are you experienced?

The Ultimate Experience: 90

This is a great compilation of acceptable sound quality. For the less serious Jimi fan, or the fanatic, this is a c.d. for everyone. It's the summation of his stellar career. This is a more than decent compilation, with 20 tracks, it has a lot of music packed into it. You will notice that most of the songs are from Are You Experienced? , but I like it because once I memorize the sequence of a disc, the suspense is ruined. Another reason to buy the new one is because the sound quality kicks ass! The disc has many life performances and variations from the normal studio set for about half of them. For those who can't get enough of this revolutionary guitar player, this is a must have.

Woodstock: 88

Everyone knows about Woodstock as it gets passed on in fables and stories. Well this was the concert that was the 60's, havoc, love, and drugs. Jimi Hendrix was right in the middle of it. In this concert he barely makes flaws compared to bootlegs after this where he forgets the words to his own songs. It's like a sing along for the listener, as you fill him in. In this concert he decided that he would remember the words, and he does much more. It's with The Band of Gypsies, and he basically dominates the set. It's all guitar solos, awesome tunes, and seriously one of the best improvisations I've ever heard. After listening to the improvisation, I basically listened to it every time I turned on my stereo. It's fascinating because little bits of it could be many songs. Any ways, this is an amazing disc, with a high sound quality. Gotta love the compact disc.

The BBC Sessions: 91

This is a great summation of his whole career. Acting spontaniously, he created some amazing music on the spot. Each song has more guitar work than other recordings, and the listener gets to listen to his sense of humor as well. He did this session before he released Are You Experienced?, and this reveals that he already had his career set for him. All of the classics had already been created before he became famous worldwide. It's a strong c.d. that has some interesting new material. Although some tracks are repeated from Radio 1, this Hendrix family endorsed set of two c.ds has superior sound quality and obviously a larger quantity. I think that this c.d. sums up his work, and is a definite must for any Hendrix fan.

NEWS: Al James has released some stellar recordings previously released, but they sound ten times as good. This includes Electric Ladyland and First Rays of the Sun. Very useful additions because of the amazing sound quality.

I’d like to inform all of those Jimi Hendrix fans that a guy called Paul Allen wants his Experience Music Project museum to be great, and I’m sure it will be. It’s being built in Seattle and will be open in 1999. He has 30,000 musical artifacts so far, so this will be a great step. The building sounds really cool with out of this world architecture that is going to border on the point of weirdness. I can’t wait till it’s open so I can drive down there, so just remember that something good is always happening in this world.

The Ultimate Experience: JIMI HENDRIX By: Paul Gettis

Jimi Hendrix’s music was legendary and one of the most important exploration of pop music to start in the 1960’s. His influences were varied, but the music that Jimi truly loved was the blues. Although his career was short, the quality and mere volume of music that he created was extensive. The speed that he played and the melodies created were incomparable to anything made in this time period. These qualities made him one of the greatest guitar players of all time.

Jimi Hendrix was born with the name of Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27 1942 in Seattle, Washington. His Parents names were Al and Lucille. Soon after Jimi’s birth, Al (Jimi’s father) changed his name to James Marshall Hendrix.

Al Hendrix had a lavish drinking problem which was the eventual cause of a brutal divorce between Al and Lucille. The divorce finally took place in 1951, after Lucille had finally had enough of Al’s drinking.

In May of 1961, ten years after the divorce of his parents, Jimi enlisted in the United states army. He served as a parachutist in 101st Airborne Division - The Blue Angels. He was discharged from the service on July 2nd after injuring his ankle while parachuting. The only real positive experience in the army was that Jimi met a bassest named Billy Cox. They started a band called the King Kasuals soon after that.

In 1966, Jimi got his first real break in the music business. He started his own band called Jimy James and the Blue Flames Club. During the time that he was involved with this band, he was "discovered" by Chas Chandler (from the Animals). Soon after he was discovered by Chas, they flew down to London in search of more band members. Not long after they arrived in London, Jimi found a drummer named John ‘Mitch’ Mitchell and a bassist named Noel Redding. The trio formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Their first debut was on October 13, 1966 with their hit "Hey Joe." After almost financially being ruined, the band scrambled to get money together through becoming part of the club scene in London. This was the place in which their careers began which resulted in them being one of the hip club bands. After becoming well known by the music industry he got his chance to go on tour. His first big break was in the Monterey Pop Festival where the legend’s image was born. It was here that his trademarks of picking the guitar with his teeth, and lighting his guitar on fire was brought into existence. After this festival he was vaulted into success. He was invited to all the hip parties and became a major part of the scene. His first single that was put out was called Hey Joe which put him into the public spectacle. It did not actually get released until December 16 and it reached 6th on the UK charts.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s first album was Are You Experienced? Which hit the charts in 1966 and remained there for 133 weeks. In total the Jimi Hendrix experience released four albums. They are: 1)Are You Experienced? 2)Axis: Bold as Love 3)Electric Ladyland 4) First Rays of the Sun (not released until recently in full version.)

Soon after the release of these four albums, there were internal problems in the band, so changes had to be made. Noel Redding left and started a solo career. He was replace by Billy Cox, a more steady and reliable bass player. Mitch Mitchell left and was replaced by Buddy Miles to form The Cry of Love Band. This was a short lived experiment which lead up to the Band Of Gypsy’s with Mitch Mitchell’s return.

Jimi played at the Woodstock Festival and that was where he got his big US breakthrough with Gypsy Sun and Rainbows. He did many crazy things in this festival like lighting his guitar on fire and putting tabs of acid underneath his bandanna, so that he would get high during the concert. He was also one of the first musicians to ever use a wah wah pedal.

Jimi Hendrix lived differently compared to any average person. He couldn’t live a stable life with a wife and kids, but moved around from apartment to apartment at his whim. These apartments were maintained and kept by various ladies. Whenever Jimi wanted to, he would go to these apartments and get what most people only dream of (use your imagination).

Due to the frustration of the quality of recordings and lack of sufficient technology for how he wanted people to hear his music he created his own studio called Electric Lady Studios. This included some of the latest technology of the time and let him play and record for extended periods of time. This was a result of him being a perfectionist, which left him broke at the end of his career.

Jimi Died on September 18th 1970 in London, England. Most people have the misconception that Jimi died from overdosing on drugs. That is not true. He did overdose on alcohol and sleeping pills, but that isn’t what killed him. After the paramedics came to try and help him they made the horrible mistake of not putting him on his side. As a result, he died from choking on his own vomit.

Jimi is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in Washington in the USA.

Jimi Hendrix Experience

Cry of Love Band

Jimi Hendrix- Vocals, Lead

Jimi Hendrix- Vocals, Lead

Noel Redding- Bass

Billy Cox- Bass

Mitch Mitchell- Drums

Buddy Miles-Drums

Gypsy sun and Rainbows

Band Of Gypsy’s

Jimi Hendrix- Vocals, Lead

Jimi Hendrix - Vocals, Lead

Billy Cox-Bass

Billy Cox - Bass

Mitch Mitchell- Drums

Mitch Mitchell - Drums

Larry Lee - Rhythm Guitar

Jerry Velez - Percussion

Yuma Sultan - Percussion