DOES IT SEEM impossible to you that Jimi Hendrix died 50 years ago? It certainly does to me. In the brief time between his ascent and demise, Jimi made the biggest impact of any guitarist before or since.
Yes, there had been trail-blazing six-string innovators before he came along - Charlie Christian, Eddie Lang, Django Reinhardt, T-Bone Walker, Les Paul, Wes Montgomery, Chet Atkins, Maybelle Carter, Merle Travis, and many more. But Jimi emerged in a decade that was more ripe for new music than ever before, with avid TV audiences, the BBC’s new pop station Radio 1, and of course pirate ships pumping out the songs mainstream radio chose not to play.
I watched The Jimi Hendrix Experience perform Hey Joe, and saw Cream playing I Feel Free on…
