Hearing Jimi

Jimi Hendrix has been a staple in my ideas about music since my first musical memory. I remember being about three years old and riding in the back of my fathers red convertabile Oldsmobile with the top down. The radio was on and I heard the phrase "The traffic lights turn blue tomorrow" and was wondering how? I never did get a satisfactory answer from my follow up interrogations to my Dad, but I did learn that it was Hendrix who sang it and I wanted to find out more. I bought my first Hendrix LP (In From The Storm) at a Garage sale for a quarter when I was 7. I've listened to everything since then including a nice 27 Minute Jam with John McLaughlin.

The Smoking Gun found Jimi's millitary records. I have read a lot about the man and a central lie that is always retold is that he was kicked out of the 101st Airborne after he wracked his back after a jump. It turns out that it wasn't his back that he was wracking.

This series of reports contains my favorite statement about the man and where authority and structured institutional life rated in his hieracrchy:

Pvt. Hendrix plays a musical instrument in a band off duty and has let this interfere with is military duties in so much as missing bed check and not getting enough sleep. He has no interest whatsoever in the Army

Shocking!