Jimi Hendrix

Hey! I've been busy for some days due to the "crèdit de síntesi". We had to do a project in groups and it was about the environment, sustainable buildings, climate change...It has been quite interesting but we all have got stressed like every year. It's so difficult to do things ok when you have to deal with the opinions of 4 more people which are never the same as yours, you just want them out of your way and do all the work by yourself. But it is not the objective of the project.

And now I'm busy doing my "individual work". You can't forget about the school although you are on holidays. But well...let's bring up today's subject.

Judit has told me an idea for the blog, she has suggested me to write about Jimi Hendrix. So I will.

You might have heard lots of things about him and I suppose that this won't be new for you. I've got to say first that maybe I'll write things which are not true due to, you know, everybody talks about Jimi Hendrix and of course, there are many legends about him. Ok, he is a legend, and legends are around him (I hope you've understood me).

Johnny Allen Hendrix was born the 27 november 1942, he was later renamed James Marshall Hendrix by his father. But we all know him for Jimi not for James neither Johnny. Jimi changed his name when he did Jimi Hendrix Experience.

He was interested in music due to the influence of the artists of the time like B.B. King or Buddy Holly. Jimi was self-taught, he was unable to read music and this made him concentrate on the music he heard.

He started playing an old one-string ukelele which his father gave him. Then his father gave him a five-dollar second-hand guitar and shortly after that, he joined his first band.

The next summer, his father purchased him his first electric guitar, a Supro Ozark 1560S.

(Supro Ozark 1560S)

Let's go on in time. Jimi Hendrix Experience started and did its first single "Hey Joe". This single was followed by an album, Are You Experienced which has remained one of the most popular albums of all time due to tracks like "Purple Haze", "The Wind Cries Mary" (one of my favourites), "Foxey Lady", "Fire" and "Are You Experienced?".

When the Jimi Hendrix Experience ended and he was back to America, he built his own recording studio, Electric Lady Studios in NYC. He was very happy then that he had a place where he was able to do whatever he wanted. There, he did his most demanding musical release: Electric Ladyland.

When he died he had nearly done a new CD which was going to change the story of music. He died in a circumstances which haven't been completely explained yet. He died when he was 27. The cause of the death was asphyxia caused by his own vomit. He mixed his sleeping pills with alcohol.

James Wright published a book in May 2009 where he says that Hendrix's manager, Mike Jeffery, admitted to him that he had Hendrix killed because he wanted to end his management contract.

Other people says that he committed suicide, there are many things said and I don't know which is the correct one or if even there is one correct, stars deaths are always strange and you never know who is telling the truth. The only thing we know for sure is that he was a great guitar player and that he innovated the way of playing and feeling the guitar. His feedback, wah-wah, fuzz-laden soloing and the incorporation of other effects pedals and units designed for him affected music with a big profundity. The music of Jimi Hendrix has influences from a large list of styles: blues, ballads, rock, R&B, jazz.

He was left-handed and he played a right-handed guitar turned upside-down for left-hand playing and re-strung so that the heavier strings were at the standard position.

Jimi hendrix and his Fender Stratocaster

Hello!

Hi.
First of all, a BIG BIG THANK YOU to teacher Truco who is the only one who leaves comments in here.
And yes teacher, I'm really interested in listening to some of this songs. You could tell me those which you like the most and I'll listen to them. To be sincere, I've never listened to any of its songs and I would really like to do it, if you recommend me to do it, of course.
Just one question, do you think I am too radical? Because maybe I am...but you know, once you listen to Stairway to Heaven, Hotel California, Nothing Else Matters, Sultans Of Swing, Little Wing, Red House, House Of The Rising Sun, Cliffs Of Dover, More Than Words (This one is by Extreme, very famous, I will put it here because I think everybody would love it immediatly), Love Of My Life (Queen!!), November Rain (Guns'n'Roses), ok, Let's STOP! What I was trying to say is that once you listen to this songs you cannot listen to commercial pop groups anymore. You just keep on saying (or just thinking for not hurting anyone) that they are shit.
One question, all you people, why do you think youngsters don't like classic music? Because I don't understand. I wake up everyday with Mozart, Beethoven...and more people whose names are so difficult to write and to read that I prefer not to even try to put them here, just because maybe the spelling is not ok...so...well, you understand me, don't you?
Waiting for answers! :)

Here Again...

The only one who has answered the question I told you has been teacher Truco. I won't say how disappointed I am for having just one answer...but that's life.

I haven't found any band, nowadays which completely fits with what I expect a band to be. I like some people who, I do think that sing very well, but music isn't what it used to be. They don't transmit the feelings that older songs do. Now we have just pop or...pop? Every song is about the same, the same feelings, the same types of people, you cannot choose. Rock, how it used to be, does not exist right now, neither the blues nor rock'n'roll. And if you don't like this pop, the logical thing for you is to listen to punk. The people who rocks, listen to SUM 41, Blink 182 (doesn't exist anymore), Linkin Park... Ok, they're not that bad. But they're not like I don't know mmm Lynyrd Skynyrd (they are awesome), The Scorpions, Led Zeppelin (no words to describe it), Queen (just love it), Guns'n'roses (when Slash and Izzy were in it), Pink Floyd (you have to have a special way of feeling music but I love them), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dire Straits, Europe, Extreme, The Eagles, Jimi Hendrix, Metallica, Eric Clapton, Joe Satriani, Iron Maiden, Mago de Oz, Gary Moore, Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson... I'm not going to continue because I'll be here writing until tomorrow and you'll be here reading until new year (those of you who will read it).
But the thing is, where is the new generation of guitarists, singers, drummers, bassists, who are going to continue the work? I don't see in my music classes people who know about Freddie Mercury or Robert Plant(he's not dead!). I don't see guitarists who know about Joe Satriani or Steve Vai (they're not dead!). Maybe I'm strange, but I hope not! We cannot lose the work that this people did. If everybody listened to Joe Satriani (for example), the world would be a better place. And I'm sure about it. I'll try to put some of my favourite songs of each and everyone of the groups I've mentioned but I don't know if I'll be able to do it...if not, I accept getting help from you.

I'd like you to leave some comments please, I think it's a good subject for debating and I want to hear you opinions, I might be wrong!
PLEASE COMMENT!

See you!