When I was about 14 in the early 1980s, I had a cassette tape with Prince’s music on it, the song Purple Rain. I also knew from the magazines pictures of him dressed in purple with wide blouse, collar and puff sleeves, the fashion at that time. It had something Hendrix-like about it that I had also seen in pictures but I didn’t know his music then. Actually, I was confusing two artists.
Now my brother played in a band and with its drummer I was talking about that Prince cassette tape. I said to him ‘This is a nice song by Prince but I think his name used to be Jimi Hendrix’ to which the drummer said that Jimi Hendrix made very different music.
‘Give me that cassette tape and I’ll put Jimi Hendrix music on the rest of it.’This became the album The Jimi Hendrix Concerts.
I bought this record myself shortly afterwards. I played a little guitar myself but after hearing this album I thought ‘what the hell is this?’The record was recorded live with all that feedback, and banging against the amp, smashing the amps and with songs like I Don’t Live Today and Red House. That last song starts out as blues but ends up very wild on the record. I didn’t understand it at all, live and then so rough and crude
But the more I listened, I found this quite different and wonderful. Especially the song Little Wing, what a sound, full-bodied! This tasted like more and then I also bought Are You Experienced? This was a studio album and a bit more manageable and easier to sort out as a guitarist but by then I was already captivated by live performances of Hendrix. And I’ve always loved him.
A word about the album, its cover is a true work of art, a painting with vague outlines in yellow and blue but unmistakably the image of Jimi with his guitar.