Hendrix classic helped define the era
The sky looms large in the lyrical imagery of Jimi Hendrix, a former paratrooper fascinated by science fiction who for some time worked with a group of musicians he called "the Sky Church".
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Polydor
The sky looms large in the lyrical imagery of Jimi Hendrix, a former paratrooper fascinated by science fiction who for some time worked with a group of musicians he called "the Sky Church".
and are just a few of the original compositions which find the guitarist looking upwards for inspiration, as with his second single, , which contains one of rock's most frequently misheard and misquoted lines. Instead of "'scuse me while I kiss the sky", he is thought by many to have sung "'scuse me while I kiss this guy". Hendrix was something of a joker, and in concert he is said to have occasionally sung the words that way - pointing as he did so towards drummer Mitch Mitchell or bassist Noel Redding, the two musicians with whom he made , one of the most explosive rock albums of the 1960s.
was already a hit single in Britain and, as was the practice at the time, was left off The Jimi Hendrix Experience's debut album, which opened instead with the lascivious .
For the US release different tracks were selected, which meant the American record buyer got three British hit singles - , which opened that version of the LP, , and - but lost the great slow blues number , along with two less essential tracks, and Hendrix protested, but Americans - so the Seattle-born musician was told - weren't interested in the blues.
Most recent CD reissues include all the Experience music officially released either as single or album tracks before their second LP, .
All three albums by the original Jimi Hendrix Experience - and - are classics, and essential listening for anyone interested in 1960s rock. Thanks to producer Chas Chandler's cost-conscious eye on the studio clock though, the first is the most focused and disciplined, and yet paradoxically also the most stylistically diverse.
There are many extended live recordings of but the studio version proves Hendrix could also make his point as a bluesman with feeling and concision in less than four minutes.
blends Wes Montgomery-style jazz guitar lines with sci-fi fantasy, while features a drum part from Mitchell clearly inspired by Elvin Jones' playing with John Coltrane. draws heavily on Hendrix's experience playing funky rhythm guitar on the US chitlin' circuit, and the album also features the gentle melodicism of and the full-on psychedelia of itself.
may be of its time but it remains one of the albums that best defines its era.
Hendrix died 42 years ago on September 18, 1970. He was 27. Shortly before his death he was performing a blues called "We gotta keep movin', keep on groovin', understand both sides of the sky," he sang.
