Posted on 10/04/2023 6:27:25 PM PDT by Mariner
There are multiple moments in Jimi Hendrix’s short but eventful career that are hailed as iconic: his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock, setting his Fender Stratocaster alight at Monterey Pop, blowing Eric Clapton away during his Cream guest spot.
However, ask the Hendrix cognoscenti and they’ll tell you that – from a playing point of view – it’s hard to top his extended version of Machine Gun, recorded live with Band of Gypsys at the Fillmore East on January 1, 1970.
Now, through a quirk of the internet, a fully colorised clip of the 12-minute performance has surfaced on YouTube.
It is, admittedly, intercut with the occasional bit of stock footage for rights reasons, but it brings to vivid life the greatest rendition of Machine Gun ever captured – an event, some would argue, is the single greatest electric guitar performance in rock history.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Genius playing.
That might be the year I saw him.
Hendrix’s fingers are so long and dexterous that it appears to be photo-shopped and manipulated video. I’ve loved listing to his music since I was about 13 or so. My eldest sister was 17 and got me hooked on jazz, soul, southern rock, and Hendrix. That’s been a few years. LOL
....amazing musician........a little-known factoid about this very talented performer......
“....In 1961, Hendrix followed in his father’s footsteps by enlisting in the United States Army. While training as a paratrooper, Hendrix still found time for music, forming a band named the King Kasuals. Hendrix served in the army until 1962 when he was honorably discharged after injuring himself during a parachute jump......”
Incredible performance somewhat inspired by bill graham who got after him for a bit about his showmanship at the expense of musicianship. Hendrix then went on stage played almost stock still without his usual circus act moves.
The band of gypsies album is a result. The pinnacle of his live recordings that was actually well recorded. I’ve heard better Hendrix solos off cassette recordings but they are almost unlistenable.
The best Hendrix, either live or studio. Jimi had it all going on that night, but on this song in particular.
SRV - Fastest fingers and chord changes
JIMI - King of distortion
EDDIE - Discovered the "BROWN SOUND" (look it up!) and made guitar playing look EASY.
Jimi's jams were so much more intense with Buddy Miles as drummer for the Band of Gypsys. Mitch Mitchell lacked the soul needed to foment Jimi's outrageous abilities to jam.
looong time ago, damn...
At the end of one of the songs on the Band of Gypsys album, Hendrix says “thank you” with his guitar.. Pretty cool.
Jimmy Page, fourth best guitarist?
Graham says that Hendrix’s first set on the second night was in fact a disappointing reversion to his showbiz stunts. When Hendrix asked him during intermission what he thought of the set, Graham was brutally frank.
“I said, ‘You’re Jimi Hendrix, and anything you do is taken as gospel because of who you are,’” says Graham. “‘In the first show, you humped the guitar, you played it with your teeth, you stuck it behind your back. You just forgot to play.’” Stunned, Hendrix went back out onstage for the second show and played. The incandescent version of “Machine Gun” on the 1970 live LP Band of Gypsys was recorded during that show.
After the second show, Graham raced backstage to congratulate Hendrix. “He came over, totally drained, full of sweat from top to bottom, right up to my face, and said, ‘All right, motherfu—er? That good enough for you? You gonna let me go now?’” Hendrix then wheeled around back on to the stage for his encore and did, in Graham’s words, “fifteen minutes of the greatest shtick you’d ever want to see” – grinding up against his Strat, picking it with his teeth, the works. Having proved to Graham and the Fillmore crowd the true depth of his musical gift, Hendrix returned to the stage to show ’em all, one more time, that he was still one of rock’s greatest showmen.
“At one point, he looked to the side of the stage and stuck his tongue out at me,” Graham laughs. “It was very, very funny.”
“Jimi was the master of distortion and the second best guitarist of all time. Stevie Ray Vaughn is number one. Eddie Van Halen is third.”
You forgot to state that was merely your opinion.
Thanks for the refresher. I had not read the actual account in many years.
This group of musicians and critics picked Hendrix as #1.
any ideas if the “US bombs baby hospital” was really on the back screen at the time?
or just an asshole dig at the US by the mutt what posted the video...
Those guys are great but I prefer Larry Carlton and Jeff Beck.
He is the guitar.
Soul.
He was there first though’
He was an influence.
No Jimi, No SRV.
Almost every guitarist that came since stands on Jimi’s shoulders.
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