Jimi Hendrix, session guitarist turned solo superstar, was primed to explode when he landed smack in the middle of London’s burgeoning psychedelic rock scene in September 1966. Former Animals bassist Chas Chandler had imported Hendrix into Britain, impressed with his performances in New York, and it had been decided that his first single would be Hey Joe, a traditional song whose authorship was and still remains unclear.
You’ll have heard the stories of such how British guitar potentates as Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton were awe-struck by Hendrix’s otherworldly abilities when they saw this new American kid play his first low-key shows in London. Now imagine what the public at large, most of whom couldn’t tell the front end of a Fender from the back end of a frying pan in…
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Sound + Image (Digital) - 1 Issue, November - December 2021