Posted on 12/29/2025 5:49:52 PM PST by nickcarraway
Chicago had a loud, and profane, reaction when Jimi Hendrix invited them on tour.
It was 1969 and the band, then known as Chicago Transit Authority, was turning heads with a style that infused a dynamic horn section with rock. In a recent appearance on the Broken Record podcast, co-founding members Lee Loughnane and Jimmy Pankow recalled crossing paths with Hendrix.
“We were at the Whisky a Go-Go on the Sunset Strip,” Pankow remembered. “We were opening for Albert King. And we were in the dressing room waiting to go back on. There was a knock on the door. And we opened the door and Hendrix is standing there. And we're going, ‘Whoa, is that Jimi Hendrix?’”
Like many fellow rockers, Chicago adored Hendrix, even mixing covers of “Purple Haze” and “Foxy Lady” into their sets. Coming face-to-face with the guitar god was exciting, yet unexpected. To their surprise, Hendrix was familiar with their music.
“He came to the dressing room," Pankow continued. “He said, ‘You guys have a guitar player that's better than me and a horn section that sounds like one set of lungs. Do you guys want to go on the road?”
The band responded with two words: “XXXX yeah!”
“Next thing you know, we opened for his summer tour,” Pankow recalled, adding that the experience gave Chicago a “foot in the door to the business." “And we never took our foot out of the door.”
A Chicago and Jimi Hendrix Collaboration?
Asked what Hendrix was like behind the scenes, Pankow was forthright.
“He was very introspective, very shy, quiet," he explained. "And it was funny because, you know, we traveled together. Terry [Kath, Chicago’s guitarist] was nervous around him and he was nervous around Terry. They didn't know how to approach each other. Eventually, they got comfortable and they started trading ideas.”
“Terry would love to have played with him,” added Loughnane. “He would have joined Jimi Hendrix’s band in a flash and left us.”
At one point, it even looked like Chicago and Hendrix may join forces.
“There was actually some chatter amongst us about maybe doing a project together with him, with Jimi,” Pankow revealed. “And of course, he left us too early. And then Terry left us too early.” Hendrix died in 1970, while Kath passed away in '78.
My guitar teacher was a very talented rocker from the late 50's, early 60'. He told me guitar pickers were similar to gunslingers back in the old west. They always watching the other guy and never want to show their best stuff thinking "he may be better than me."
Those blaring horns ruined it for me.
Thanks.
L
“I think a person had to be high on dope to appreciate his so called music.”
There is always a different thought on the sound versus the ability to play it. I didn’t like his music as much as his ability on the instrument. And the legend added to it is that he didn’t play a left handed guitar, he turned a right handed one over so the low E string was at the bottom of the neck and not the top when being played. So all of the fingerings would be upside down and fingered totally opposite. That would be like playing a piano with the high notes to your left and the black keys towards you in the front of the ivories. Figure that one out.
wy69
I must respectfully disagree.
I read that there is no universally accepted piece of writing. That must apply to music, also.
Jimi Hendrix was a gift to popular music. As Al Kooper said: “Jimi Hendrix brought out the sounds that were there all along in the guitar but waited for him to uncover them.”
A genius. One of a kind. A pioneer. Irreplaceable.
Thanks for posting this.
I saw Jimi Hendrix including his setting his guitar on fire. Had the feeling he was trapped into a routine of doing that to please the audience again and again. An assistant brought a different Stratocaster to hand to him and we knew that meant the show was ending soon.
Eric Clapton said just before Hendrix died he had brought a special guitar as a gift and tribute and was going to hand it to him but the stage was set up with no stairs on the left near his front row seat. Only the right had stairs. The security and crowd cut him off. So he thought, darn it, I’ll have to give it to him tomorrow. But he had died by then.
You’re turning off the soundtrack of my youth when you do that.
Just the list of musicians making cameo appearances on that recording is wild.
And the free-flowing style of "Voodoo Chile" and "1983" is similar to what CTA did with "I'm a Man" and "beginnings".
Of course, "you'll never hear surf music again..."
Well..you know what they say about opinions. I thought he was awesome and he inspired a hell of a lot of guitarist.
We had some great music in that era, but that whole demographic congregated on the basis of dope. And nearly has ruined an entire generation.
Now, thanks to stupid libertarians and woke trash, the hippy's grandkids are having to deal with it.
another clickbait headline ...
"Relax you guys, it's ain't even loaded, see?"
Most unfortunate for all involved.
You might like this thread.
Even Eric Clapton applauded Prince’s solo on George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps
My favorite concert vid of all-time
Chicago Live at Tanglewood (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oAoSZ2y1cw
And Danny Seraphine was a monster on drums.
Dude have you seen Leonid & Friends?
They prefer east of the Mississippi, but worth the travel if you happen to cross paths.
They went ballad. Horns disappeared.
They made the sound. Loved it.
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