In 1966, England was the perfect place for Hendrix. But the three men soon got comfortable, and their first single, a cover of the song "Hey, Joe," was released that November and quickly became a hit in England. And drummer Mitch Mitchell, whose background was jazz, was chosen by a coin toss. Bassist Noel Redding had never actually played the bass before. At first, it had nothing to do with experience. "I think what Chandler realized is that with some parameters, this man is a tremendous artist, and I think he was smart enough to recognize 'I need to get this rhythm section around him, we need to be in a good studio,' and it'll all take care of itself."Ĭhandler insisted Hendrix return with him to England, where they immediately held auditions for a backing band to be called The Jimi Hendrix Experience. "It's all about facilitating Hendrix's talent," says Hendrix biographer John McDermott. In Jimi Hendrix, he saw his first potential client. Chandler had recently left the popular British band The Animals to try his hand at producing. But not many people were listening, until one night when Chas Chandler stopped by. It was there that he developed the foundations of his style, a loud fast mix of blues and R&B. Hendrix quickly lost patience with this.įor Hendrix, this style of playing got old fast, so he quit and moved to New York, where he tried to survive by playing small clubs in Greenwich Village. But a sideman has to play exactly what he's told. He played in high school band and, later, after a stint in the Army, found work as a backup musician, touring with rock and rhythm and blues artists Little Richard, King Curtis and the Isley Brothers. What are you going to do? What are you going to do with your life?'"Īs a kid in Seattle, Jimi Hendrix taught himself to play by listening to blues greats Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. "I think the big challenge with him is: 'This is what I've done. "I'd say a lot of people take up the chance to do it in terms of trying to sound like him or trying to play like him, which is really daunting," says Reid. For Vernon Reid, a guitarist and record producer who played with the rock band Living Color, Hendrix challenged him to think, "What's next?"
From the first time blues-rock guitarist Mike Bloomfield saw Hendrix play, he didn't want to pick up his guitar for a year. But if you want to hear "Purple Haze" on the instrument it was written for, there's really only one place to go: Hendrix's original.įor more than three decades, this music has inspired and humbled guitar players everywhere. or even classical guitarist? They've all been done. So how about "Purple Haze" for a string quartet. Jimi Hendrix once said, "When I die, I want people to just play my music, go wild and freak out, do anything they want to do." OK. But Hendrix was also a gifted musician and one of the most innovative and influential electric guitarists in history. Hendrix's music and on-stage antics, loud, turbulent and sexual, came to symbolize the 1960s.
Thirty years ago today, Jimi Hendrix died of a drug overdose in London. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and is included on lists of the greatest guitar songs, including at number two by Rolling Stone and number one by Q magazine.Jimi Hendrix during his performance at the Isle of Wight Festival, August 1970. The song featured regularly in concerts and each of Hendrix's group configurations issued live recordings.
"Purple Haze" is one of Hendrix's best-known songs and appears on many Hendrix compilation albums. Because of ambiguities in the lyrics, listeners often interpret the song as referring to a psychedelic experience, although Hendrix described it as a love song.
The song features his inventive guitar playing, which uses the signature Hendrix chord and a mix of blues and Eastern modalities, shaped by novel sound processing techniques. As a record chart hit in several countries and the opening number on the Experience's debut American album, it was many people's first exposure to Hendrix's psychedelic rock sound. "Purple Haze" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and released as the second record single by the Jimi Hendrix Experience on March 17, 1967.
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