NOTE: this blog is no longer active as of 12/07. New one: http://blog.kirchhof.com
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
Wed, 22 Aug 2007
Forty Years Ago Today
August 22nd, 1967 was the last peaceful day for parents in the
summer of love. On the following day, Johnny Allen Hendrix (later to
be rechristened James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix) released "Are You
Experienced?", and parents everywhere realized that their daughters
were no longer going to be safe. Pat Boone and Connie Francis were not
going to be on the radio any more. Half the female population of the
planet were suddenly feeling urges that no one had ever told them
existed.
The guy came out of nowhere with "Purple Haze", "Foxy Lady", "Hey
Joe", "Wind Cries Mary", "Fire", and more. There wasn't a bad song on
the album, and it was all unlike anything ever heard before, anywhere,
period. Taken together, it looked like civilization itself was
crumbling to most of the older generation, not the least reason was
that a "black" man was playing "white" music better than any whitey
could possibly do it. With one phallic thrust of an upside-down guitar
connected to a stack of Marshalls, backed by a white rhythm
section, Jimi swept the gameboard clear, installed
his rules into the new game, and every rock guitarist in the
known universe was scrambling to catch up. They still are, come to
think of it.
I remember hating it at the time. It seemed loud and self-indulgent
and violent and base to this little gentle intellectual proto-geek. Of
course it was, all of that. But when the testosterone of my
adolescence kicked in three years later, I began to understand. Forty
years on, it can be pretty clearly seen that this little
hyper-talented drug addict from Seattle did as much as Martin Luther
King to begin to break down the race barriers of the world, and that
is one of his great legacies.
So. Thanks, Jimi. You streaked through like a short-lived exploding
rainbow comet and changed
everything. You heralded a new day, and provided us with both a
map and a warning, all in one package. It was cool to watch and be a
part of. It all happened just the way it was supposed to. And I am
sure that you simply grinned at St. Peter and said "That was fun."
Posted at 11:07 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
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