The Jimi Effect Pt 3

What’s your favourite Hendrix moment, and why? To gain an insight into which of the many sides of Hendrix’s extraordinary range of styles and moods made the most impact on our illustrious group of players, Question 3 is, of course:

JAN AKKERMAN

I still like Hey Joe, Spanish Castle Magic, etc, but I heard some experimental stuff which was pretty out as well. All in all he was one of the greatest artists in any scene.

JENNIFER BATTEN

My favourite Hendrix moment was going to a double or triple bill movie of all Hendrix films. It was total immersion when I was a young teen. My parents wouldn’t let me go see him live at my age, when my sisters went and saw a double bill with Jimi and Joplin. So it was as close as I could get. I’m sure that was a chunk of inspiration that pushed my desire along to continue down the guitar rabbit hole.

JOE BONAMASSA

Jimi at Monterey... Black 1965 Fender Strat, a Marshall stack and a blackface Fender Showman amp covering Bob Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone. A life-changing moment for those lucky enough to witness it in person, and life changing for me.

KIRK FLETCHER

Picking one Hendrix song is like saying which one of your kids you love the most! I would say Are You Experienced. I mean that song is from the first LP. It has poetic, lyrical content. Completely amazingly orchestrated guitar parts. And it still sounds so fresh to my ears. I think I love that album so much because I have often dreamed about hearing it when it first came out in 67. It’s like that great line in that Joan Baez song Diamonds And Rust - “You burst on the scene already a legend!”

MARTY FRIEDMAN

In my first band, Deuce, we covered Purple Haze and I sang and played it. You can believe this or not, but I had never heard Hendrix at this point. The Mahogany Rush Live album was on loop in my world at the time, and could not have cared less that most of that album was cover songs. I adored Marino (still do) and when I discovered him, I probably got the same feeling that many guys in the 60s got when they discovered Hendrix. It’s all good.

ERIC GALES

It’s hard to give a single answer as to what’s my favourite Hendrix song. But I’d have to say my earliest memory of May This Be Love was and still is one of the songs that emotionally moved me, even as a young lad. And as I said it still does.

BRETT GARSED

It’s Jimi’s performance of The Star Spangled Banner from Woodstock. Not because I listen to it constantly for enjoyment but because of what it taught me about the power of music and sound to make an emotional statement. At first I was intrigued with the feedback, whammy bar divebombs and just the overall pyrotechnics of it, but when I discovered that the whammy bar was imitating actual bombs and inside the other sounds were machine gun fire and people screaming; I learned that he was superimposing a song of national pride over the horror of the Vietnam war and all conflict in general. I never listened to that song the same way again and it became so much more powerful to me, as did the man who created it.

DAVID GRISSOM

How do you pick just one? On the more intense side of things, the studio version of Spanish Castle Magic slays me. The moment that nearly brings me to tears every time I hear it is the solo on May This Be Love. I love that softer, melodic side of Jimi.

STEVE HACKETT

I think Purple Haze is my favourite Hendrix song. It’s a very cleverly written tune, and is full of unexpected twists. It defines the term psychedelic. Both the angular guitar riff and the opening dissonant chords give you that feeling of Iron Man Cometh. But there’s vulnerability too in the lyric, with the idea of confusion running through it. Although Purple Haze is a short song, he often played it live with extended moments which sometimes literally did ‘kiss the sky’, to quote the lyric. His impact on music was huge. A man who didn’t need a light show. For me it was just enough to watch the alchemy of his fingers, his dexterity and the way he danced with his instrument.

ALLEN HINDS

For the playing alone I love Band Of Gypsys the most. Listen to his solo in Machine Gun. He was so creative. You could extract some of his improvised phrases and make complete song melodies. He was like a jazz player in that sense and could create something from

nothing. You just waited on the edge of your seat for the next burst of emotion. Still the very best! Some confuse his curiosity and adventurism as sloppy at times, but I don’t hear that at all - he was searching and going where no man had gone before. Just imagine if he were here now!

GREG KOCH

It’s hard to narrow it down to one. Let’s just say if I had to bring one record to a desert island it would be Axis: Bold As Love.

MICHAEL LANDAU

Castles Made Of Sand would be one of my many favourites. Here Jimi was mixing R&B style guitar playing with abbreviated jazz voicings as only he had done, and the tone was just so raw and beautiful. The sentiment of the lyrics on that song are beautiful as well… it’s almost like a nursery rhyme, but for grownups. I also love the out-take of Blue Suede Shoes from the Loose Ends record. You can really hear the joy, the energy, and the fun he was having with Buddy Miles in the studio. Such a great moment.

RONNIE LE TEKRO

My favourite song is The Wind Cries Mary simply because it was the first track I ever listened to. It’s something about that song that still gives me the shivers. The production is so full of life and feeling. I think his opening guitar line has probably been copied a million times. Of his live performances my favourite is Isle Of Wight festival. You can sense it’s getting closer to the end but little did Jimi know. He is delivering a show out of hell. Later I learned to love Frank Marino and The Mahogany Rush. I think he is the guitar player that developed and carried Jimi’s legacy the best. Check out King Bee from his 77 live album. I think Jimi would have been proud.

STEVE LUKATHER

Impossible. They are all a huge part of my growing up. Kids today might not ‘get it’ but remember this was 1966!!! NOTHNG like it had happened before or indeed after it.

HANK MARVIN

The opening riff on Purple Haze is hard to beat, but then there’s the live version of Red House on Hendrix In The West. I love those deceptive bends.

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN

My favourite piece from Jimi is his interpretation of The Star Spangled Banner. With a guitar, an amp and a wah-wah pedal, he created not only the most amazing interpretation of the American National Anthem, full of irony, but the most powerful anti-war piece of music I’ve heard to this day.

STEVE MORSE

That would be Are You Experienced. In fact, I wrote a ‘in the style of Hendrix’ piece called Well, I Have” as a tribute. The ending part has the backwards solo too!

ORIANTHI

The Star Spangled Banner from Woodstock. It’s just an amazing moment. I also love the acoustic performance of Hear My Train A Coming. My favourite tune is Voodoo Chile though. I cover it a lot.

ULI JON ROTH

There are so many moments that are totally inspired and unique, but if I have to pick one, it would be Axis: Bold As Love. It doesn’t get better than that.

JOE SATRIANI

Every time someone asks me this question I find a new answer. The problem is, I love all of Jimi’s songs! For sheer groundbreaking electric guitar brilliance it has to be Machine Gun from the Band Of Gypsys Live At The Fillmore. For sheer beauty maybe it’s May This Be Love or 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be). But, I can’t ignore the magic captured on film at the Monterey Pop Festival when Jimi talks to the audience and introduces the Bob Dylan song Like A Rolling Stone, and then proceeds to reinvent it, elevate it, and destroy it, along with his guitar! His innocence, boldness, naivety, audacity, musicianship, showmanship, are all gloriously on display in this once-in-alifetime and beautifully captured moment.

KIM SIMMONS (Savoy Brown)

Foxy Lady comes immediately to mind. It was on his 1967 debut album and the song brings back happy memories of London in that time period.

ANDY TIMMONS

Though I have many favourites (Freedom, Angel, May This Be Love), All Along The Watchtower has always stood out as a really special Hendrix recording. It’s at once dark yet beautiful, haunting yet uplifting. An incredible reading of his hero Bob Dylan’s beautiful lyric, Bob’s precedent gives Jimi even more confidence vocally. The guitar tones and incredibly melodic soloing take you into the stratosphere! All that being said, my favourite moment was easy to pick. His performance of The Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock is legendary on so many levels: the tone, approach and arrangement, the protest of the war, the sombreness and finally the beautiful love of his country despite its deep flaws. The moment? Check out the melody that magically appears at 2:10 in the midst of

chaos, anguish, air raids, bombs, missiles and terror. Almost like permutated taps. Sombre yet hopeful.

WALTER TROUT

My favourite track is Voodoo Child. But I mean the long slow jam version, not the Slight Return that everyone plays ad nauseam, every club band. But with that slow blues version, everyone is in the studio and they’re just having this great blues jam. Steve Winwood is on Hammond B3 I think, and they just do this long, slow, 14-minute blues jam. For me, his guitar playing on there is the ultimate of everything that he ever did.

CARL VERHEYEN

It’s really hard to pick one because I love May This Be Love as much as Who Knows from Band Of Gypsies. But the long version of Voodoo Chile stands out for me because Jimi is baring his soul on this record. Tuned down a whole step, his huge Strat sound completely fills the room. When I recorded with Jimi’s engineer Eddie Kramer a few years ago, I asked him how he got that sound on this ‘live in the studio’ recording. Eddie said, “That was Jimi’s amp bleeding into all the mics: Steve Winwood’s Leslie cabinet mic, Mitch Mitchell’s drum overheads, Jack Casady’s bass amp mic, and the vocal mic.” I said, “Weren’t you worried about phasing issues?” He replied, “We got lucky!” I hold this up as one of the greatest Stratocaster sounds of all time. Very lucky indeed!