The AKA
Blues Connection
Documenting Rock 'n'
Roll's Roots in the Blues
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Featuring
Blues Connection
Copyright © 2002-2004 |
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The Blues Connections OfJimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix played blues. His blues weren't the the kind of blues like if your woman kicked you out of the house, you'd go hop a freight to Chicago or thumb a ride to Memphis out on Highway 61. No, with Jimi playin' the blues, it was more like climbing into a rocket-powered spacemobile for some mind-boggling interplanetary ramblin'!--space-age blues, but blues nonetheless. Hendrix wrote and recorded his own original blues songs, and he also recorded old blues classics giving them his own unique and powerful interpretations. It's been estimated that one out of three of his recordings were blues or strongly blues-based. And Jimi played plenty of blues in concert too. Despite his revolutionary approach to music, Hendrix could most definitely write and play blues in a traditional style. If you don't think so, just listen to the acoustic version of his original composition "Hear My Train A Comin'". But often when Jimi played a blues, he would put his own years-ahead-of-his-time spin on it, kicking things into some kind of hyperspaced overdrive. For example, just take a listen to his reworkings of the blues standards "Catfish Blues" and "Mannish Boy". (All three of the titles mentioned above are available on the album Jimi Hendrix: Blues). On these songs, what you hear is Jimi Hendrix reinventing the blues, which is the same thing that Muddy Waters did in the forties when he moved from Mississippi to Chicago, gave his acoustic guitar a rest, and picked up an electric. Jimi learned to play guitar by listening to blues and rock records. His early blues and blues-based influences included Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, and B.B. King. The great (but much less well-known) bluesman, Guitar Slim, was another prime influence on Hendrix. The work that Jimi did with feedback, distortion, and high-volume levels followed in the footsteps of Guitar Slim and another important but relatively unknown blues guitarist, Pat Hare. Jimi's showboating and guitar tricks (playing the guitar behind his neck or with his teeth, setting it on fire, etc.) are part of a blues tradition that can be traced back to the likes of Buddy Guy, T-Bone Walker, Charley Patton, and the man who is possibly the showman of all showmen!--Guitar Slim. Early in his musical career, Hendrix played guitar in the bands of R&B stars Little Richard, Ike and Tina Turner, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, the Isley Brothers, and Curtis Knight. He also formed a band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, which had a repertoire of mainly blues material from the likes of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Memphis Slim, and Jimmy Reed. In 1966, Hendrix moved to England and became a star there as the leader of a band called the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In 1967, he returned to America--where he was still relatively unknown--and put in a brilliant performance at the Monterey Pop festival. His appearance at Monterey made him an international star. During his short career, he recorded plenty of great blues including originals like "Red House", "Voodoo Chile Blues", and "Jelly 292", and blues standards like "Catfish Blues", "Bleeding Heart", and "Born Under a Bad Sign". In 1970, Jimi died in his sleep, not long after mixing alcohol with barbituates. There is no telling where he might have gone with the blues if he hadn't died so young, but we'll find out when we get to the other side ourselves. Until then, let's pray to God that He will arrange for St. Peter to have some extra special backstage passes waitin' for us when we get to those pearly gates. Man, you just know them amps are gonna be juiced with some REAL thunderbolt lightnin'!!! Read on below for more info on the connections between Hendrix and the blues and you'll see that the Jimi Hendrix experience is really a Blues experience. Because, although Jimi rocked the world in a way that had never been done before, he built his music up from a rock-solid foundation of 3-chord, 12-bar, 22-20, 32-20, 38 pistol packin', 44 pistol slappin', 51 Highway, 61 Highway, 6 was 9, 7th son of a 7th son, 78 rpm, 88 Rocket, 99 dollar, 100 percent cotton pickin' Mississippi Delta blues! More of the blues connections of Jimi Hendrix:Chuck Berry: You can hear Jimi Hendrix playing Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" on the albums Hendrix in the West and Soundtrack From the Film, Jimi Hendrix. Big Mama Thornton: The Hendrix album Radio One contains Jimi's version of Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog". But you should really hear her version of the song if you want to know how it should be done. She done it first, she done it better than Jimi (Elvis couldn't cut her either), and nobody will ever do it better than Big Mama did! Willie Dixon: See Muddy Waters (below). Guitar Slim: Hendrix's interpretation of Guitar Slim's classic blues "The Things That I Used To Do" is on the Lifelines album (Reprise, 1990). Lifelines is a 4-CD set which includes a lot of non-musical/interview material, but it also has plenty of great music including some nice blues. In addition to "The Things That I Used to Do", this album's got Jimi's interpretations of Muddy Waters's "Hoochie Coochie Man", Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man", B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby", and Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy". Plus it's also got several of Jimi's own blues compositions including the great "Red House". John Lee Hooker: The immortal bluesman John Lee Hooker recorded Hendrix's blues composition "Red House" as a tribute to him. You can find it on John's album Don't Look Back. B.B. King: At the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, Jimi
showed the crowd Albert King: The classic Albert King song "Born Under a Bad Sign" was recorded by Jimi Hendrix; it is included on the album Jimi Hendrix: Blues. Albert King was a major influence on Jimi, and he was the opening act for several Hendrix concerts in San Francisco during 1968. Earl King: R&B songwriter and guitarist Earl King's tune "Come On (Part 1)" was recorded by Hendrix for his Electric Ladyland album. Lloyd Price: Jimi recorded a version of Lloyd Price's 8-bar blues "Lawdy Miss Clawdy"; it appears on the album Lifelines (Reprise, 1990). Muddy Waters: "I'm Your Hooochie Coochie Man", a song written by Willie Dixon and popularized by Muddy Waters, is another classic blues recorded by Jimi Hendrix. You can hear Jimi do his thing with this tune on the albums Radio One (Rykodisc 1988) and Lifelines (Reprise 1990). You can also find Hendrix's version of Muddy's "Catfish Blues" on the albums Jimi Hendrix: Blues (MCA 1994), Radio One, and Stages (Reprise 1991). Some Blue Notes for ya:
The Killin' FloorHow important was the blues to Jimi Hendrix? Well, consider the following. At possibly the two most crucial moments in his guitar-playing life, Jimi chose to play a blues song. In fact, it was the same song on both occassions--Howlin' Wolf's "Killin' Floor". The first time was when he initially met Eric Clapton, shortly after moving to England. One of the main reasons that Hendrix went to England was that he would have a chance to meet Clapton. At that time (1966), Eric was already a major star while Jimi was still relatively unknown. So when Hendrix finally met Clapton and strapped on a guitar to jam with Eric's new band, Cream, you can bet he wanted to impress the guy. The first thing Jimi played was "Killin' Floor", a song which Clapton felt he himself could not play very well. Jimi pulled off an absolutely incredible version of the tune, amazingly playing both the lead and rhythm parts simultaneously. He made Clapton's jaw drop, sending him into shock, and, by humbling England's guitar hero, Hendrix symbolically sent out one giant head-cutting message to all the world's guitar slingers that HE was "the man". The second crucial time that Hendrix played "Killin'
Floor" was when he appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in
1967. Jimi, who was now a star in England, was back in the U.S.A.
for his first American performance since he left. He was
relatively unknown in the states and knew that he had something
to prove. And with his mind set on winning over the U.S. audience,
he kicked off his show at Monterey with a loud, wild, step - into
- my - world - because - I'm - about - to - blow - yours - away
version of "Killin' Floor".
The Killin' Floor (Part 2) With Hendrix playing Howlin' Wolf's "Killin' Floor" at the two most important moments of his guitar-playing life, it's no surprise that the powerful bluesman was one of his heroes. But in a sad bit of irony, after he became a major rock star, he had a chance to play onstage with Wolf at a New York club called The Scene, but his idol angrily put him down. In his book Crosstown Traffic, Charles Shaar Murray points out that the attack on Hendrix was probably due to Wolf's bitterness over his record company (Chess Records) forcing him to record a "psychedlic" blues album in an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the music of Hendrix and other blues-rockers. The mighty Wolf was given the absurd and embarassing task of making an album with a bunch of teen-aged white rock 'n' rollers. He abhorred the record (titled This Is Howlin' Wolf's New Album)--he called it "birdsh*t" and wanted nothing to do with it. Around the same time as Howlin' Wolf's rejection of Hendrix, the young rock star also had a chance to jam onstage with another of his heroes, Muddy Waters, at New York City's Cafe Au Go Go. Waters had also been sent by Chess into the recording studio to produce a psychedelic blues album. Titled Electric Mud, the longplayer consisted mostly of weird new versions of some of Muddy's blues classics including "Mannish Boy" and "I Just Want to Make Love to You". (To blues fans, the record was a desecration, but it was successful enough commercially for Chess to have Waters record a second psychedelic LP, After the Rain.) Muddy was about as thrilled with Electric Mud as Howlin' Wolf was with his own album--once when an interviewer asked Waters about the record, both he and the interviewer agreed that it was "dogsh*t". But, unlike Wolf, Muddy displayed no hard feelings toward Jimi when they jammed together at the Cafe Au Go Go, and it turned out to be a shining moment in Jimi's life. Despite the gracious treatment from Muddy, Jimi must have known that the bluesman had some real reservations about his space-age brand of blues. Before Hendrix had become a star, he met Waters along with another great bluesman, Willie Dixon, at Chess's recording studios, and after Jimi tried to impress them with his wild guitar skills, Waters preached to him about staying true to his musical roots. The lack of acceptance from his idols must have really been hard on Jimi. Wolf's vicious public put down was especially hurtful. Jimi knew that they thought he was not treating the blues with the proper respect. But the stuff that Wolf and Muddy hated about his music--the psychedelia and the electronic gadgetry (wah-wah pedals, fuzz boxes, and whammy bars)--was what helped to make him a star with the rock audience. We will never know exactly how Jimi felt about the conflicting attitudes toward his music, but when he thought about the situation, a line from one of his songs must have crossed his mind once or twice--the line that goes something like "is this love or just confusion?". The Blues of Red House"Red House" was the first blues song written by Jimi Hendrix. It appeared on the British version of the Are You Experienced? album, but it was not included on the US version. Hendrix once pointed out that the reason it was not on the US record was that everyone thought that Americans didn't like the blues. This highlights the fact that it was mainly the blues-loving European people and English rockers (The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Animals, etc.) who were responsible for the resurgence in popularity of the blues during the sixties. Lyrically, "Red House" follows the standard "AAB" blues structure in which the the first line (A) is repeated by the second line (A) and then the verse is completed with a resolving third line (B). Almost all of these songs are what is known as "12-bar blues" (three lines of four bars each). As an example of this AAB structure, here is a verse from Ma Rainey's "Travelling Blues". (A) I'm dangerous and blue, can't stay here no more This AAB blues format, and variations of it, can be heard on many early recordings by rockers such as Elvis ("Hound Dog"), and Little Richard ("Good Golly Miss Molly"), and it is still today occasionally used by pop and rock musicians to compose new songs. A relatively recent example of the AAB structure can be found in Tracy Chapman's hit "Give Me One Reason" from her 1995 album New Beginning. Another recent example is Bob Dylan's "Dirt Road Blues" from his 1997 album Time Out of Mind. Outside Woman BluesJimi Hendrix recorded "Outside Woman Blues", a song composed and originally recorded by an obscure slide guitarist named Blind Joe Reynolds (aka Blind Willie Reynolds). Jimi's performance of this song appears on various albums including Woke Up This Morning, Tomorrow Never Knows, and Live at the Scene Club. The song was also recorded by Cream. Reynolds was a wild and violent man. He carried a gun and apparently used it on an occassion or two as he put together a long criminal record. Not surprisingly, he lost his sight as the result of an argument accompanied by a shotgun blast. You can find the recordings of Reynolds on several albums that collect the works of various bluesmen including: Delta Blues Heavy Hitters, 1927-1931 (Herwin 214) The A.K.A. Blues Connection
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