November 4 - Little Wing

Unfortunately, YouTube doesn't have any official versions of Little Wing, but I did find an early live version of this Jimi Hendrix classic. It is also absolutely the mother of yesterday's Yellow Ledbetter - although it's easier to understand what Hendrix is singing. The link between the Seattle scene of the early 90s and Jimi Hendrix crystallized for me when watching the movie Singles, which still is one of my favorite romantic movies of all time. Yeah, the fact that it has a lot of great music in it by most of the "grunge" bands at the time did help my interest in the movie, which was one of Cameron Crowe's early movies (he went on to direct Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous amongst others), helped a lot - but I also enjoy the scene where Campbell Scott's character Steve Dunne is heartbroken and pulls out Blue Train by John Coltrane and plays it. The scene hit very close to home and spurred me to explore Coltrane some more. But there is one scene in the movie, where the lead singer of the fictitious band Citizen Dick (played by Matt Dillon) lays down on Jimi Hendrix's gravesite. Listening to both Hendrix' music and at least Pearl Jam and Soundgarden (especially from Superunknown and out), it is very easy to detect a kinship that goes beyond the fact that they all use distorted guitars. There is no doubt that Hendrix had a direct influence on the later Seattle bands - just listen to Little Wing...

April 12 - Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)

Following yesterday's song, I got to thinking about album closers - you know the songs that some bands hide all the way at the end in hopes that no one remembers that there are more than a handful of good songs on the record - or the ones that deliberately are placed there to place a fitting end to a solid record. I started looking at these songs, and I realized that I have more than enough material for not just one, but two weeks - and that is in addition to the ones I already have shared. Pink Floyd's Brain Damage/Eclipse, Motorpsycho's Big Black Dog, The Doors' The End, U2's Love Is Blindness - and those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head from this year so far.

And since I decided to create another series of it, I had to set one very important rule: No live albums included. Bands tend to top their sets in the beginning to hook you in and in the end so you remember how great the show was - and that means they are much more calculated and often with more material to choose from.

To start us off, I went with a great guitar player - one who took the electric guitar further than it had been before. Jimi Hendrix was a master in playing with the wah-wah pedal as well as controlling the distortion, and today's song is in my opinion his crowning achievement. The year was 1968, and Jimi had just brought his Experience in the studio for what was to become their swan song: Electric Ladyland. At the end of this double album, his guitar starts a wah-wah driven rhythm before the main riff enters, eventually accentuated by Mitch Mitchell's hi hat before the full drum set kicks in and Noel Redding's bass helps set a grove that lasts the next 5 minutes or so. What a fitting way to end the recording career of a huge power trio. This was also the last studio album released while Hendrix was still alive, and what a finale that was.

I really only started listening to Jimi Hendrix because of my mother, who simply had talked about him - I hadn't really heard him. But at one point, I found the tape Smash Hits on sale for 25NOK (about 3 dollars) - at least that is the price I am guessing it was - and I purchased it. When I went home after that trip to Playtime, I took the bus, but it was standing room only, so turning the tape in my Walkman was a challenge - however, it was one I had perfected. I didn't need to turn the tape to realize I had found a new golden nugget of guitar greatness, though. The opening riff of Purple Haze was more than enough to establish just how good Hendrix was.

I first heard Voodoo Child (Slight Return) on a compilation tape of great guitar songs, along with Judas Priest's You've Got Another Thing Coming and George Thoroughgood's Bad To The Bone, and I still consider it one of the best rock songs ever. Please enjoy The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Voodoo Child (Slight Return).