Hendrix Birthday

Jimi Hendrix, the legendary guitarist of the 60s and 70s, was born on this day in 1942. His name shows up in the top 5 of every list of greatest rock guitarists of all time.

He became famous with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame biography for the Experience states: "Jimi Hendrix was arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music. Hendrix expanded the range and vocabulary of the electric guitar into areas no musician had ever ventured before. His boundless drive, technical ability and creative application of such effects as wah-wah and distortion forever transformed the sound of rock and roll."

His most famous songs include All Along the Watchtower, Voodoo Child, Purple Haze, and Hey Joe.

An absolute favorite of mine is The Wind Cries Mary, as its haunting guitar complements the lyrics:

A broom is drearily sweeping

Up the broken pieces

Of yesterday's life

Somewhere, a queen is weeping

Somewhere

A king has no wife

And the wind, it cries

"Mary"

Will the wind ever remember

The names it has blown in the past?

And with this crutch

Its old age and its wisdom

It whispers, "No, this will be the last"

And the wind cries

"Mary"

(I like this "Mary" song better than "Mary Did You Know?")

His most iconic moment is his performance at Woodstock in 1969. A fabulous set, the final set of the festival. He had played the anthem numerous times before, and at Woodstock it was the centerpiece of his Voodoo Child Purple Haze medley.

What made it so meaningful was the setting: a festival of love and peace (including sex, drugs, and rock and roll) set in the turmoil of racial tension and the Vietnam war.

Jimi's rendition of the anthem made us feel the violence of the gunshots, the rockets, the bombs bursting in air, the fighter jets swarming overhead, the terror, confusion and chaos of war.

It stood for what America seemed to stand for at that time: we solve our problems with violence. Violence is our anthem.

Take a listen: