I was driving a few weeks ago with my wife in her car, which has a cd player. We’re a little (or I suppose a LOT) behind in media technology for the motor vehicle with my truck only having a tape player. Up until last Thanksgiving that was our primary mode of transportation, so we listened to a lot of radio and silence when my tape player went out a few years back. Fortunately my good buddy hooked me up with an old iPod and adapter that plugs into the cigarette lighter and lets you play on a free radio channel. That is the way I pass time on the long drive to and from work now.
Anyways, back to the drive with my wife in her car. I made some mix cds for her and on one of them was some great Jimi Hendrix b-sides. We both love old Hendrix stuff. I used to be an ardent fan a decade or so ago, collecting the remastered cds when they would be released. I loved not just the music but the liner notes and photos in the cd booklet. It was great flipping through that while listening to the music. Hendrix had this charisma that went beyond the image of a black rock star in an era of mostly white music icons. His music was an experience, and he knew that, hence his band was called “The Jimi Hendrix Experience.” I know there was some hippie drug stuff tied into that experience as well, but the music was something that transcended its time and is still an experience over 4 decades later.
If all you’ve heard from Hendrix is the standard classic rock radio hits, you’ve been highly short-changed. Sure, Jimi’s take on the Dylan track “All Along The Watchtower” is amazing, the solos genuinely phenomenal and awesome. “Purple Haze” is an incredible addition to rock music’s greatest anthems and riffs. “Foxey Lady,” “Fire” and “Crosstown Traffic” are some less well-known tunes that still are radio fodder. But there’s SOOOOO much more to experience that showcases his insane ability to turn a guitar into more than an instrument. That ability to turn a 6 string guitar into an experience all its own can be discovered in tunes like “1983…(A Mermaid I Should Turn To Be)” from Electric Ladyland. At over 13 minutes, it’s a song that media back then and now won’t play for time’s sake. But it encompass’ his jazz and blues background and inspiration as well as kicking into some funk and psychedelic sides. There’s also the classic Bold As Love (the title track from Axis: Bold As Love that John Mayer covered years ago; Jimi’s solo is far better), Burning Of The Midnight Lamp, also on Electric Ladyland, which has one of the best wah-wah themes ever writtern, Third Stone From The Sun on Are You Experienced, and a ton of other great songs.
These songs are more than just music, they’re an experience. Last week on The Appetizer I shared with listeners a revelation I had weeks ago about what life would be like without color, and likewise without music. The challenge and notion presented was to close your eyes and see colors when you listen to music. Hendrix makes that experience easy, which is why this weekend we’ll experience the colors of music with a little big of Jimi Hendrix, as well as Ben Harper, The Light Parade from Abilene, Tx, Dream Theater, new band Resonant Discourse and much more. Join us.



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