✖
MUSIC

Happy Birthday, Jimi Hendrix: Remembering the Legend on His 77th Birthday

Remembering a singular talent.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - How Jimi Hendrix Changed Touring
www.youtube.com

Jimi Hendrix would've turned 77 years old today.

During his short 27 years on earth, he changed the fabric of music forever, leaving behind a body of work that would leave an indelible impression on millions.

Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington, and began playing the guitar at 15. At 16, he received his first acoustic guitar from his father—an acoustic Supro Ozark—and from there, the young prodigy started performing with his first band, called the Rocking Kings.

He kept playing throughout his time in the army, and after being discharged, he started playing as a session musician. Initially gaining traction in Greenwich Village, he eventually formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bass player Noel Redding.

The group's first single, "Hey Joe," came out in 1967, and soon after, the infamous "Purple Haze" was released. Hendrix established himself as a legend with "Wild Thing," and then Electric Ladyland. In 1968 he started his own studio in New York City, Electric Lady Studios. In 1969, he split skulls with his blistering Woodstock rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner," a version that embodied a deep-rooted rage at America and its violent heart.

The Life and Career of Jimi Hendrixwww.youtube.com


Hendrix died in 1970, but his legacy is eternal. Described by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as "the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music" and widely renowned as the world's greatest guitar player ever, he's notorious for his innovative fusion of blues, funk, and psychedelia, blending tradition with visionary use of pedals and various technologies.

What exactly made Hendrix's music so exceptional? In terms of technique, he was endlessly inventive and relied on an ever-expanding wheelhouse of signature skills. For music theory buffs, Hendrix used a chord called the Dominant 7#9 chord. Often called the Hendrix chord, it's notorious for its expressive tension. Hendrix also typically tuned his guitar a semitone below concert pitch, enabling him to perform intense bends (a technique that involves bending a string to change the note, which creates Hendrix's signature wailing guitar tone).

What Makes Jimi Hendrix Such a Good Guitaristwww.youtube.com

But Hendrix's extraordinary technical and musical skills were made transcendent by some unnameable factor, something that had less to do with technique and more with an ability to tap into the energy at the core of music and life.

Regarding Hendrix's cover of his song "All Along the Watchtower," Bob Dylan said, "It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them."

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower (Audio)www.youtube.com

Guitarist John Frusciante perhaps touched on what made Hendrix so truly great when he said, "He's bending sound, taking care of music in every dimension. Where most people think of it in two dimensions, he's thinking of it in four."

Jimi Hendrix - Solo Little Wingwww.youtube.com


The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Hey Joe (Audio)www.youtube.com

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
jimi hendrix
MUSIC

Remembering Jimi Hendrix, 47 Years On

The late, great Jimi Hendrix died 47 years ago today, but his legacy has never faded.

Jimmy Hendrix

Photo by Freddy Kearney (Unsplash)

Jimi Hendrix was the kind of musician whose love for his craft outshone even his virtuosic skill.

His passion endowed everything he created with a kind of transcendent fire, and even now—nearly half a century after his death—you can still hear that ecstasy coming through each note of every one of his recordings.

James Marshall Hendrix died of asphyxia on September 18, 1970, after a whirlwind four-year career that would imprint him on music's legacy forever. He spoke frequently about the extent of his love for his craft, giving new meaning to musicianship and inspiring artists everywhere to pick up the guitar.

He was a major inspiration to guitarists like Elton John, Santana, Joe Satriani, and Orianthi. Freddie Mercury called Hendrix his idol, saying, "He sort of epitomizes, from his presentation on stage, the whole works of a rock star. There's no way you can compare him. You either have the magic or you don't. There's no way you can work up to it. There's nobody who can take his place."

Hendrix also made waves as a protest musician, giving voice to the rage and optimism that defined the 1970s. Perhaps most famously, his cover of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was powerful Vietnam protest and a cry of rage at the state of the nation, as well as a tribute to an America that never existed.

He had a tremendous amount of wisdom to give, too, and he knew how to bridge the gap between humility and liberation, between sadness and joy, between love and independence. "Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours," he once advised.

His style was iconic, emblematic of the counterculture movement's best aesthetics.

Ebay.com


He was also an incredible lyricist. His songs were about love, but they were also about pain, religion, and the passage of time; they bridged the gap between bone-deep weariness and hope. As he once said, "Imagination is the key to my lyrics. The rest is painted with a little science fiction."

Of course, when he started to play the guitar, nothing else compared.

What Makes Jimi Hendrix Such a Good Guitaristwww.youtube.com



From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
jimi hendrix
CULTURE

Are These Artists Actually Clones Created by Greedy Music Industry Executives?

Is Ariana Grande just a renovated Mariah Carey? Are Brendan Urie and Patrick Stump dating—or are they the same person? The truth is out there.

Though all music borrows in some way from other music, sometimes bands or artists just sound and/or look uncannily similar to each other.

These similarities raise pressing questions: how and why do these bands sound so alike? Could there be some dark secret behind their successes, some cloning initiative launched once music industry executives realized they could just repackage the same artist under a different name and double their profits?

Regardless of how much of the truth you're willing to see, this list exposes pairs of bands or artists that not only sound the same but also seem to occupy the same cultural purpose, performing the same symbolic and emotional roles for fans everywhere.

1. Cage the Elephant and the Black Keys

Cage the Elephant and the Black Keys are different bands. It's a proven fact. And yet are they? They both feature singers with mid-range voices and vaguely Southern drawls. They both use grungy guitars that sound like they've been filtered through a litany of overdrive pedals. They both make songs that have lyrics—but are the songs really about anything, or are they both just kind of sad attempts to fill the hole created by rock and roll's death?

Objective facts tell us that these bands are indeed different—Cage the Elephant opened for the Black Keys on several tours, and Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach produced Cage the Elephant's 2015 album and their new 2019 single. But is it so hard to believe that some rip in the fabric of the time-space continuum created a world in which two slightly different iterations of the exact same band can walk around at the same time? Even some of their biggest hits like "Gold on the Ceiling" and "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" are eerily similar, both relying on ominous bass lines and sparse, punchy guitar hits.

The Black Keys - Gold On The Ceiling [Official Music Video]www.youtube.com

Cage The Elephant - Ain't No Rest For The Wicked (Official Music Video)www.youtube.com

2. Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande

They both have stratospheric ranges, prima donna pop culture royalty and/or meme status, and impressive whistle tones. Sure, Ariana's music is tailored to the ultramodern era, whereas Mariah's occupied a similar space in the late 90's and early 2000's pop canon, but they both embody the image of the magnetic, radiant, super-talented starlet with an only slightly infuriating trail of number one hits.

Mariah Carey Vs. Ariana Grande SAME AGE Vocal Battle! (UPDATED)www.youtube.com


3. America and Neil Young

If you've heard the band America's number one hit, A Horse With No Name, chances are you might have wondered if you were listening to one of Neil Young's early collaborative efforts. But Young and Dan Peek, the late lead singer of America, share little else than a slightly nasal tenor voice, a penchant for dreamy folk rock, and dozens of harmony-laden albums from the 1970s.

America - A Horse With No Name+Lyricswww.youtube.com


Neil Young - Harvest Moonwww.youtube.com

4. Radiohead and Muse

They're both obsessed with technology, paranoia, apocalypses, and thematically complex concept albums. Ultimately Radiohead's breadth and range of sonic textures far outdoes Muse's, but on some of their better-known songs, Thom Yorke and Matt Bellamy's desperate and wailing voices could easily be mistaken for one another, especially when they're both crying on about fear and loneliness in the digital era over dizzying layers of synthesizer. Plus, it would fit well with both of these bands' brands if they were replicants of each other.

How Much Does Muse Sound Like Radiohead: Analysing Composition, Style, and the Radiohead Zeitgeistwww.youtube.com

5. Fleet Foxes and Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear and Fleet Foxes both have a propensity for multi-layered trippy, ambient folk. Their lead singers have high, delicate voices that sound like they're emanating from a distant cabin, wafting towards you on waves of campfire smoke. There's a whole battalion of folk bands that sound like these two, but as pillars of the genre, the similarities between indie's leading foxes and bears are difficult to ignore.

I'm Losing Myself (Feat. Ed Droste) by Robin Pecknoldwww.youtube.com

6. Fall Out Boy and Panic! at the Disco

Patrick Stump and Brendon Urie both have irrationally massive vocal ranges, which they use to create passionate, angsty, climactic jams that have been giving voice to tween girls' pain for decades. They actually have collaborated several times—even on a Coke ad, which you can listen to in its full glory as each of these singers attempts to out-belt the other. Both bands formed within three years of each other (Fall Out Boy in 2001, Panic! in 2004) and occupied similar cultural spaces in their respective golden years. Fans have even shipped the two lead singers together. Plus their specific vocal styles spawned dozens of shaggy-haired copycat frontmen.

Drunk History: Fall Out Boy featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Discowww.youtube.com

Fall Out Boy Ft Brendon Urie from Panic! at the Disco - Don't Stop Believing coverwww.youtube.com

7. Avril Lavigne Pre and Melissa Vandella

Everybody knows that Avril Lavigne died and was replaced by a clone of herself, created by deft industry people who couldn't resist the potential profits of more Sk8r Bois. Still, the clone does sound and look remarkably similar to her predecessor, despite the obvious differences (Melissa prefers dresses and skirts, while Avril favored pants; and Avril would never have married Chad from Nickelback). Very impressive, music industry executives, but we're onto you.

Conspiracies: Did Avril Lavigne Die in 2003? | Pigeons & Planes Updatewww.youtube.com

Eden Arielle Gordonis a writer and musician from New York. Follow her on Twitter @edenarielmusic.

POP⚡DUST | Read More...

The Weird, Heartless Magic of Marie Kondo: The Cleanest Cult To Ever Exist

"Love, Dust, and Robots" Is a Master Class in Short Film

Chet Faker Is Back, But He's Not Chet Faker Anymore

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
artists are music industry clones