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GuitarSite.com Guitar News Weekly Edition #124, January 8, 2001 |
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JIMI & MONTEREY "Scuze me while I kiss the sky"
Electric Guitarists worldwide will be forever indebted to the innovative genious of Jimi Hendrix... Here are a collection of thoughts on Jimi... including how he rose to fame at Monterey back in '67... May his spirit & music live forever! "Maybe it was in that moment at the Monterey Pop Festival — and not his death — that he earned immortality, burning his guitar in sacrifice to spirits only he could hear, spirits that perhaps no one has heard from since..." "Hendrix ends his Monterey debut set with Wild Thing, casually chewing gum while he calculatingly coaxes electronic feedback out of his Fender and its tube amplifier. He plays the guitar behind his back, performs a backward somersault across the stage, straddles and rides the guitar like a horse and ultimately sprays lighter fluid on it and sets it on fire..." With the Summer of Love in full flower, the June 16, 17, and 18, 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival changed the music industry forever. For the first time, artists gained creative control, and the biz went along with it, because there was plenty of bread for all to share. Monterey Pop also launched the big-time careers of performers like Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Otis Redding, and Janis Joplin, and spawned a worldwide flurry of other major rock festivals, including Woodstock, Watkins Glen, and the Isle Of Wight. And Monterey Pop was the first true benefit concert, too -- it still generates revenues for the non-profit MIPF Foundation, 30 years later.
THE MONTEREY INTERNATIONAL POP MUSIC FESTIVAL Officially dubbed The First Annual Monterey International Pop Music Festival, the event spanned a weekend filled with amazing new sights, sounds, and unique experiences. Two years before Woodstock, over 200,000 young people gathered in and around the Monterey County Fairgrounds for a three day celebration of music, peace, flower power, and love. All of the performers, except Ravi Shankar, appeared for free, only being furnished travel and lodging expenses. It was a time of reunion and discovery for the performers as well as the audience...
Stan's personal view of the Festival:
Photos of Jimi at the Festival ***** Jimi set more than his guitar on fire that [Monterey] weekend. He revolutionized modern music and brought the guitar blazing into its own as a fiery solo instrument. Jimi's fire was fueled by rock, blues, jazz, and his own inspiration. I don't think many of us who heard him that weekend realized it at the time, but when the smoke cleared, we were looking at a new music world which Jimi had created. ***** "He played left-handed, a trait which became a cornerstone of his trademark guitar style..." *****
Jimi Hendrix and The Press, 1967-1970 The purpose of this essay is to offer a brief glimpse into the relationship between the "rock" press and the brief, meteoric career of guitarist-composer Jimi Hendrix during the years 1967 through 1970. What drew me to this "analysis" was not Hendrix, whose music I am admittedly crazy about, but articles I found in Mark Tucker's recently published "Duke Ellington Reader," whose chronological arrangement of criticism by and about the composer possessed a striking similarity that which I have seen concerning Hendrix.
Both men hated categorization but were at the mercy of the press; which constantly sought to "label" their music and strongly resisted stylistic changes in their artistry. The press obsessed over these performers' on stage persona; and later, raised questions concerning their "blackness." When one considers the fact that Hendrix's heyday occurred during a time in which a black man playing rock and roll ironically was considered an oddity, the critical ante is upped considerably. Ellington at least had the "comfort" of other jazz players for comparison... *****
Jimi Trivea at RollingStone.com *****
The Axis - A Jimi Hendrix EXPERIENCE
30 Years On, We're Still Experienced
Jimi Hendrix see also:
1969 WOODSTOCK FESTIVAL AND CONCERT
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