In the sixties I listened a lot to bands from England and America. In the Netherlands, Rob Hoeke had released his first record ‘Boogie Hoogie’ with his Philicorda organ on the Philips label. In my then still modest record cupboard there was already the ‘Beano’ album by John Mayall. One day I would have almost all his official albums on the shelf. There are now 66 of them. In secondary school, once a month, under the guidance of a music teacher, there was an opportunity to play records taken from the classroom. Sometimes innovative but always refreshing and sometimes a reason to buy an album for 18,50 guilders at record shop Van Boxtel in Helmond.
One day, a sound came out of the speakers that caused the same sensation as when I first heard ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ and ‘Sultans Of Swing’: ‘Foxy Lady’, the first track on the album ‘Are You Experienced’.
This was the debut album of Jimi Hendrix in June 1967, an American guitarist who had already made a big impression six months earlier with the single ‘Hey Joe’. He was persuaded by the former bass player of The Animals, Chas Chandler, to come to England and became a legend ever since.
I still play this record, with only strong songs like the bluesy ‘Red House’ and the jazzy ‘Third Stone From The Sun’. Goosebumps music, that’s what it remains.
A funny detail is that Eric Burdon, on the album ‘Winds Of Change’, with the song ‘Yes I Am Experienced’, answered the question of Hendrix.
