Posted on 09/18/2020 3:43:19 PM PDT by Rummyfan
Fifty years ago, on Sept. 18, 1970, guitar legend Jimi Hendrix died of asphyxia while intoxicated. He was only 27 years old, and his stint as a superstar lasted less than five years, but he obviously made his indelible mark — being declared by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as “arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music” and by Rolling Stone as the greatest guitarist of all time.
And one of the first mainstream rock acts to recognize Hendrix’s greatness was the Monkees. Unfortunately, the Monkees’ young fans weren’t quite as enthusiastic when that TV band’s Micky Dolenz came up with the seemingly bizarre idea to hire Hendrix as the opening act for the Monkees’ first U.S. tour in 1967.
Hendrix ended up playing only seven of that tour’s 29 dates, dropping out after having to contend nightly with thousands of nasty, impatient, jeering teenyboppers. “Yeah, it was kind of embarrassing,” Dolenz admits to Yahoo Entertainment. “Jimi would go, ‘Purple haze!’ and the kids would be like, ‘We want Davy!’ He’d go, ‘Foxy lady!’ and they’d yell, ‘We. Want. The. Monkees! We. Want. The. Monkees!’ He was coming up against that very typical opening-act dilemma for anyone touring with a big headliner, really.”
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
George Floyd is the second-most famous person from Minneapolis who died of Fentanyl poisoning. Prince was the first.
I remember when Z Z Top was the opening band for Billy Bob Thornton’s band at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth. I seemed so darned wrong.
Peter Grant physically threatened Grand Funk Railroad’s manager, because GFR was blowing Zeppelin off the stage, and subsequent GFR had to leave the tour.
I’ve said it before, that Tanglewood concert is my favorite YT concert video. They were a machine, and Terry was the engine.
I always thought his playing sucked. None of his music was any good; just noise. He came out after I had graduated high school and gone to VN.
And I became a big fan of Santana while there AND served with one of Santana’s guitarists. He taught me how to play the music from their first album.
And Mike Nesmith was a big fan of Frank Zappa who appeared briefly on the show.
And here ‘tis....Hillarious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLXVz5fms10
Little Wing showed what a virtuoso he was. For sure, what Jimi was really really good at was fils and chord melodies. The wind cries Mary is another this aspect of his playing never got the notice it deserved
Neil Schon said Santana kicked him out because Santana knew Schon was better.
How about Led Zeppelin opening up for The Carpenters?
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I think a sub-thread is forming for “weirdest band opening acts you can think of”.
I believe it. GFR was pretty awesome back in the day.
I would have liked to know what Hendrix would have done had he lived, I suspect he may have gone more in the jazz-fusion area, like Jeff Beck did.
Have a listen to Side C of Electric Ladyland. Best guitarist. Best composer. Best ear tuned to the key of C for Cosmos. Then listen to Voodoo Child. Plenty of great guitar players, I love most of them. There’s only one Hendrix like there’s only one Beethoven
I would say, without Hendrix all those other guys probably wouldn’t happen, he totally changed the game.
Machine Gun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw2L_vGUMtE&list=PL6ogdCG3tAWiNVuEYX1igy9HuUUbOc-0I&index=2
Absolutely.
I play it frequently.
I must agree. He’s like the artist who invented perspective drawing. It was a different World after him.
One of those guys was stoned out of his mind, and it wasn’t Frank.
It was the 60s, so I am sure that copious amounts of drugs had an influence on the decision-making process.
I don’t know who’s the best, but my random Top 5 is Jimi, Eddie, Stevie, Carlos, and Eric.
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