Jimi Hendrix: The Four Years That Changed Rock Music

When Jimi Hendrix arrived in London in September Nineteen Sixty-Six, he was virtually unknown. Four years later, he was one of the most celebrated musicians in the world.

Between those two moments came an extraordinary transformation. London gave Hendrix the opportunity America had denied him, but success brought relentless touring, fractured relationships and pressures that became increasingly difficult to escape. His entire recording career would ultimately fit into a remarkably short period.

The American Who Stunned London

Former Animals bassist Chas Chandler discovered Hendrix playing in New York and became convinced he had found an exceptional guitarist.

Chandler brought him to Britain, where Hendrix immediately entered a music scene filled with some of the era’s most celebrated players.

Within days, word was spreading.

One of the defining early moments came when Hendrix joined Cream on stage and launched into Killing Floor. Eric Clapton was already regarded as one of Britain’s greatest guitarists, but Hendrix’s combination of speed, showmanship and imagination caught even him by surprise.

London’s musicians suddenly wanted to know who this unknown American was.

Chandler quickly assembled a band around him. Noel Redding switched from guitar to bass, while Mitch Mitchell brought a jazz-influenced approach to the drums.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience was born.

From Unknown to Guitar Hero

The transformation happened extraordinarily quickly.

Hey Joe was followed by Purple Haze and The Wind Cries Mary, while Are You Experienced arrived in May Nineteen Sixty-Seven.

Hendrix wasn’t simply playing blues-rock faster or louder than everyone else. He was exploring feedback, distortion and effects as musical tools, producing sounds that seemed radically different from conventional electric guitar playing.

His concerts were even more startling.

At London’s Finsbury Park Astoria in March Nineteen Sixty-Seven, Hendrix set his guitar on fire. It became one of the images that defined him, although the spectacle sometimes obscured the quieter personality behind it.

Within months of arriving in Britain as an unknown guitarist, Hendrix had become one of London’s most talked-about musicians.

The Private Jimi Hendrix

Away from the stage, Hendrix could be reserved and softly spoken.

His relationship with Kathy Etchingham provided some stability during his rapid rise. They lived together in London, first spending time at Montagu Square and later moving to Brook Street in Mayfair.

Their relationship also found its way into his music.

Following an argument between them, Hendrix wrote The Wind Cries Mary, using Etchingham’s middle name in the title.

For a time, their London home gave Hendrix somewhere to retreat from touring and celebrity. But as his fame increased, that separation between his public and private lives became harder to maintain.

America Finally Discovers Hendrix

By the summer of Nineteen Sixty-Seven, Hendrix was already a star in Britain but remained comparatively unfamiliar in his homeland.

That changed at Monterey.

His appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival culminated with another burning guitar, giving American audiences the spectacle British musicians had been talking about for months.

Hendrix was suddenly an international star.

Axis: Bold as Love followed before the end of the year, and then came the most ambitious recording of his career.

Electric Ladyland pushed Hendrix deeper into studio experimentation. He spent increasingly long sessions searching for sounds, inviting additional musicians into the studio and gradually moving beyond the limitations of the original Experience.

The album reached number one in America.

But the process strained the relationships around him.

The original Experience carried Hendrix from London’s clubs to international stardom in less than three years.

The Experience Falls Apart

Chas Chandler withdrew from Hendrix’s recording sessions as their working methods diverged, while Noel Redding became increasingly frustrated with his reduced role.

In June Nineteen Sixty-Nine, following a chaotic appearance at the Denver Pop Festival, Redding left.

The original Experience was over.

Hendrix responded by moving forward again. Billy Cox, an old friend from his military days, entered his musical world, while Hendrix began exploring a heavier mixture of rock, blues, soul and funk.

Then came Woodstock.

His distorted interpretation of The Star-Spangled Banner became one of the defining performances associated with the festival and demonstrated that Hendrix could communicate something powerful without singing a word.

Band of Gypsys followed with Cox and Buddy Miles, producing another shift in direction and the extraordinary Machine Gun.

Hendrix seemed determined never to remain musically still.

Searching for What Came Next

By Nineteen Seventy, Hendrix was working towards another album and had finally created the recording environment he had long wanted.

Electric Lady Studios opened in New York, giving him a permanent space in which to experiment without constantly watching the studio clock.

New material including Freedom, Ezy Ryder and Room Full of Mirrors suggested another evolution was underway.

Yet Hendrix was exhausted.

Years of touring, recording and the pressures surrounding his success had taken their toll. His final European performances came during the late summer of Nineteen Seventy, including the Isle of Wight Festival and his last full concert on the Isle of Fehmarn in Germany.

He then returned to London.

Four Extraordinary Years

Jimi Hendrix died on the eighteenth of September Nineteen Seventy. He was twenty-seven.

His journey from unknown guitarist arriving in London to international star had lasted only four years.

In that astonishingly compressed period came three Experience studio albums, revolutionary concerts, Monterey, Woodstock, Band of Gypsys and a completely different vocabulary for the electric guitar.

Yet Hendrix was still developing when he died. The music he was making during his final months suggests an artist interested in moving beyond the sound that had already made him famous.

London had given an unknown American guitarist his opportunity.

Hendrix repaid it by changing the possibilities of rock guitar forever.