Sunday, October 2
the essentials.
In January 1967, the band had been in the studio in London. It was the session that produced "Purple Haze," which incidentally was originally about a thousand words long. Then...
And that is what is so amazing about Hendrix. He grabbed the guitar and turned it into something almost entirely different from what guitar players at the time were used to. And they knew it. And it changed everything. And he became a star. And three years later, he died."After that long studio session, the band had two shows at the Bag o' Nails. The Bag was a legendary dank basement nightclub that looked like something out of a Charles Dickens novel. The crowd gathered that night was a who's who of London's rock elite: According to most accounts, it included Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Beatles manager Brian Epstein, John Entwhistle, Donovan, Georgie Fame, Denny Laine, Terry Reid, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Lulu, the Hollies, the Small Faces and the Animals.
Singer Terry Reid, the British teen prodigy, had not yet seen the Experience and recalled that at the show, "it was as if all the guitar players in the world had shown up." When Reid sat down, he was surprised to find McCartney sitting next to him. "Have you seen this guy yet? He's amazing," McCartney said.
Jimi started by announcing he was going to cover a song that was Number One on the charts. "We were thinking," said Reid, "if it's Number One on the charts, it's not close to our hearts, because if it was over Number Ten, we hated it." Jimi then introduced "Wild Thing." "'Wild Thing' was a pop throwaway, and it was what everybody stood against!" Reid observed. "And Jimi played it, and banged the shit out of this bloody thing, and takes off into outerspace." Reid went to the bathroom at one point, and coming back, bumped into Brian Jones. "It's all wet down in the front," Jones warned. Reid replied, "What are you talking about? I can't see any water." To which Jones said, "It's wet from all the guitar players crying."" -from Rolling Stone 980/excerpt of "Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix," by Charles R. Cross.
But I just wanted to share that little piece, I love the idea of the guitar players crying. For more of the article (although not the whole thing), click here.
~Currently playing: The Doors-Love Her Madly; Prism-Spaceship Superstar; Robbie Robertson-Showdown at Big Sky; Led Zeppelin-Ramble On~
