Jimi Hendrix’s works are so generous in beautiful melodies, accelerated rhythms, sonorous demolitions, and vertigo solos.
Short career, Jimi Hendrix’s discography is generous in stellar moments, beautiful melodies and fast-paced rhythms, sonic demolitions, vertigo solos, and blues wonders. Here are 10 Throwback Riffs that can define his greatness.
‘Get that feeling’
A diabolical ten-minute piece of rhythm’n’blues from the recordings Harlem singer Curtis Knight made with Hendrix as a guitarist. It is not known who is faster if Knight singing or Hendrix fingering the six strings.
https://youtu.be/5pJd7bItqik
‘Hey Joe’
His talent for covering other people’s songs is undeniable. This song is written by Billy Roberts, about a southern man who escapes to Mexico after murdering his wife, is so beautiful and personal that it surpasses the original itself – the riffs are fvcking hell, typical Hendrix.
‘Foxy Lady’
Hendrix’s first great guitar riff and the first of many high-pitched solos to come. A definitive theme also because of the way Hendrix sings it, the erotic way of pronouncing the words ‘foxy’ and ‘lady’. Included in the first album of the Experience.
‘Purple haze’
The punch of Hendrix’s singles is undeniable. ‘Purple haze’ was the first to succeed, more in the British market than in the United States. It is the closest thing to a Hendrixian hymn (it has so many!) And is among the 20 best songs of all time according to ‘Rolling Stone’.
‘Wild thing’
The version of The Troggs, with its recorders, is almost child’s play compared to the actual demolition of this Chip Taylor song by Hendrix. Live he would perform her lying on the ground, playing the guitar with his mouth and literally making love to her. High moment of the documentary ‘Monterey Pop’, in which he ends up burning the guitar.
https://youtu.be/E2aQ4gVsSL8
‘Little wing’
A haven of peace in the psychedelic ‘Axis: bold as love’, second album with the Experience, and one of Hendrix’s most delicate compositions. Soft cadence, short duration, very sensual voice, minimalist use of the xylophone and a short final solo reduced to a spasm of melodic beauty.
‘Voodoo chile’
The purest elegy of ‘wah wah’, an authentic ‘jam session’ recorded by the Experience for ‘Electric Ladyland’, with the contribution of Jack Casady on bass and Steve Wimwood on organ. Inspired by Muddy Waters and linked to the Black Panthers, it would give rise to ‘Voodoo Child (Slight return)’.
https://youtu.be/ibJ3VMt6yfU
‘All along the watchtower’
Overtaking the original Bob Dylan is a daunting task, and if Hendrix didn’t pull it off with this version, he was close. His admiration for Dylan makes him interpret her in a reverential way, but bringing new nuances. Wim Wenders made a short built around the two versions, ‘Alabama (2000 light years)’.
‘The star-spangled banner’
Goosebumps, and you don’t have to be an American or love the Stars and Stripes. The American national anthem performed by Hendrix alone, with as many effects and dissonances as respect, early in the morning on the last day of the Woodstock festival.
https://youtu.be/MwIymq0iTsw
‘Machine gun’
Belonging to one of the most overwhelming live albums in rock history, ‘Band of gypsys’, which includes part of the four concerts that Hendrix, the fiery drummer Buddy Miles and the bassist Billy Cox gave on the evenings of the 31st of December 1969 and January 1, 1970. Hendrix evokes with his guitar the sound of submachine guns in Vietnam, in full Christmas epiphany.
https://youtu.be/N3w8SMavasQ