The guy described by Tom Moon in that last posting was, of course - James Marshall Hendrix.
Jimi is still everywhere. New product keeps on coming from Janie Hendrix and the Hendrix estate at regular intervals. His image is still everywhere - T shirts and such.
And his influence is everywhere too. When I listen to anything with an electric guitar doing somersaults I hear echoes of Jimi.
I bought the new Mojo in Dubai on the weekend and Bootsy Collins is interviewed to support his new album. Bootsy's all time top 5 leads off with the great If 6Was 9 and his new album even has a Hendrix spoken word sample on it!
My Hendrix experience began when I was about 13 with a single (Stone Free backed with If 6 Was 9) and the Live At The Isle Of Wight single vinyl album. This was music from another place. I gazed at the cover forever and made a huge poster of Hendrix based on the Filmore East cover. It was a forever part of my teenage bedroom in white NZ suburbia.
Forty years later and I'm still buying his work (the teenage bedroom posters are long, long gone).
I recently bought a Hendrix DVD - his appearances on The Dick Cavett Show - and he is sick and tired and absolutely electrifying!
I also recently bought another of the Hendrix's-final-studio-album-as-he-intended-it CDs. I've lost count of how many of these have come out but Valleys Of Neptune is as fraudulent as the others (I still love my Cry Of Love vunyl album though).
Valleys Of Neptune even contains versions of Stone Free, Hear My Train A Comin' and Red House. Although they are great their inclusion is disingenious (at best). And would Jimi have really included a version of Sunshine Of Your Love on a new studio album? I think not!
Let's call it what it is - a cash in and be up front. It STILL contains some great music, by the way. No one ever has or will match his guitar sound.
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