Thursday, April 16, 2009

FRG 1: Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall Hendrix (1942-1970) is considered to be the greatest rock guitarist of all time. In my opinion, he is the very first of the electric guitar virtuosos.

He was influenced by blues guitarist such as B.B. King and Muddy Water so his sound is rather bluesy. But he is also experimental, the first one to use stereo "phasing" effects on guitar. Famous of playing "Star Spangled Banner" in Woodstock '69, using drugs especially LSD and amphetamines even on stage and mostly his "lefty" Stratocaster. It was in fact a regular right-handed Strat but he prefers to restring it and use it as a lefty one. This had an important effect on his guitar sound; because of the slant of Strat's bridge pickup, his low-E string has a bright sound while his high-E has a mellow one.

He was a real show-man on stage. Playing his guitar with his teeth or on his back.

Died in London, Notting Hill on September 18, 1970. His reason of death was not revealed. But police found simply red wine in his vomit. Sad story...

5 comments:

Liz said...

Very sad story of a wonderful musician.

amy said...

I seriously wish I was half as cool/groovy/kickass as him! but I am not! I can try, and dream, right? Hahah! Love your blog, love this post! Thanks for coming to my blog, I hope you come and comment again and again and again? :P XOO

Anonymous said...

amazing!

http://the-newface.blogspot.com/

Cara Gray said...

To me when I think Guitar - teh first thing that comes to my head is this man, truly the greatest

Anonymous said...

Love Hendrix.....j'écoute peu de musique !
Kiss suZ