There is a reason he has a statue in Seattle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqvU5CVHHmk

Even by todays standards he was a tremendous guitarist. Very good phrasing, vibrato and he had a command of the instrument that was awe-inspiring.

At 46, Hendrix has been a fixture in music for my entire consciousness. Because of that, I'm not sure I can truly appreciate how mind-blowing his music sounded compared with everything that came before it, to those who heard it for the first time. And for those who are younger than me, I'm sure it's even more difficult to comprehend.

At 46, Hendrix has been a fixture in music for my entire consciousness. Because of that, I'm not sure I can truly appreciate how mind-blowing his music sounded compared with everything that came before it, to those who heard it for the first time. And for those who are younger than me, I'm sure it's even more difficult to comprehend.

If you had only been there. The 60's (as far as the music) was far out, man!

I know all of the music from that era very well, and in fact have probably seen 90% of the major acts from the '65-'75 era in either original or some reconstituted form (excluding those like Hendrix who died before I could see them).

But even as someone who at one point in my life was classic rock obsessed, I still have a difficult time imagining what some of those songs sounded like in the moment to people the first time they heard them. Jimi Hendrix tops my list of what was likely most mind-blowing. Everything during that period tended to be a radical, spiraling departure from everything that came before it, and Hendrix was that x10.

Even though I don't subscribe to the tired and out-of-touch theory that "no good music happened after 197[fill in the blank]," I WILL agree that music doesn't innovate like it did then, because there are fewer if any ways to truly do anything so radically different than what has come before.

I still have a difficult time imagining what some of those songs sounded like in the moment to people the first time people heard them.

Keep in mind, the "moment" was enhanced by a lil bit of this and a lil bit of that. Watched the movie, "Woodstock" (1970) with my friend T.L. What a TRIP!!!!!

One of the first songs I downloaded to my, now dusty, iPod was Foxy Lady.
Yet . . . This one remains one of my favorites.
Even if it is a cover version of an old Dylan (Bob, not Thomas) song,
It is still a Classic

R2CHzTMXfr4

It even beats Manic Depression . . .
without the need for pharmaceuticals . . . =)

At least in my mind . . .
Jimi Hendrix was--musically--to the late '60s as The Beatles were to earlier part of that Decade Matrix.
(even if he harked back to a "Folkie from Minnesota" as inspiration.)

Edited to Add: Thanks, Mr. Ragsdale for the reminder. (no kidding)
I thought this was going to be another political joke about Mary [Fallin] and Wind Crying.
Thank Goodness I Was Wrong.