A legend of Sratocaster
Jimmy Hendrix enjoys a cult status that few of his contemporaries match. Atulan Dasgupta talks about the legendary rockstar and his quintessential Stratocaster.
James Marshal Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington, on November 27, 1942; an American of African, European, Cherokee Indian and Mexican descent. An unsettled home environment made Jimmy spend much of his early years staying with his grandmother, a full-blooded Cherokee Indian, in Canada.
Just as young Jimmy had begun taking serious interest in music and playing the guitar, he lost his mother. A year later, at the age of 16, he was thrown out of school- apparently for holding the hand of a white girl in class.
He played rock ‘n’ roll ‘in teenage bands before voluntarily joining the army at 17. After 14 months as a paratrooper and learning a lot about falling and flying, he suffered an injury and was discharged, It was then that he decided to enter the music arena.
The ensuing four years involved hard work; touring the States playing back-up guitar for various R&B bands including Little Richard, Ike and Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, the Isley Brothers and the late King Curtis among others, Then in late 1965, he formed his first band-Jimmy James and the Blue Flames.
Hendrix was a catalyst in the development of modern guitar effects pedals. His high-energy stage act and the high volume at which he played required robust and powerful amplifiers, For the first few rehearsals he used Vox and Fender amplifiers.’ Sitting in with Cream, Hendrix played through a new range of high-powered guitar amps being made by London drummer turned audio engineer Jim Marshall, and they proved perfect for his needs, Along with the Strat, the Marshall stack and amplifiers were crucial in shaping his heavily overdriven sound, enabling him to master the use of feedback as a musical effect.
During the mid 1960s, England was musically ruled by bands such as The Who, The Beatles and Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck bel leading exponents of the electric guitar.
Jimmy acquired cult status in the following years but the beginning of his frenzied fan following could be traced back to the Monterey Pop Festival. He ended spectacular performance there by holding his burning guitar above his head. This instantly made him an American celebrity.
Jimmy is widely known for and associated with the use of hallucinogenic drugs, most notably LSD, as were many other famous musicians of his time. He supposedly had never taken hallucinogens until the night he met Linda Keith; he used to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol. It is also believed that he took amphetamines regularly. But the only actual recorded use of sleeping pills by him ended tragically with his death, and how!
In the early morning hours of September 18, 1970, Jimmy Hendrix was found dead in the basement flat of the Samarkand Hotel at 22 Lansdowne Crescent in London, after, according to girlfriend Monika Danneman’s testimony, drinking white wine (Dr. Bannister: “red wine”), eating tuna fish sandwiches she had made, going to bed (presumably not fully clothed) and, unknown to her, later taking nine of her prescribed Vesperax sleeping pills. All this happened according to her unquestioned (at the time) testimony, although she was not, by her own admission, concious at the time and the number of pills he had taken was her own estimate.
According to Dr. Bannister who intially attended to him, asphyxiating (literally “drowning”) in his own vomit (almost entirely red wine, with auery small amount of Chinese foodrice that was served at the party. Contrary to his girlfriend’s testimony, there was no tuna fish sandwich found. Jimmy’s death still lies shrouded in a veil of mystery, perhaps contributing to his cult status.
