jimi's music

...was the water i grew up swimming in, even though i couldn't listen to it for 20 years or so after college because of all the folks i knew back then who ruined their lives trying to emulate his. plus, clear channel radio and srv took away my desire to hear are you experienced?, "little wing," and "voodoo chile (slight return)" ever ever ever again (altho i've quite enjoyed playing "manic depression" and "third stone from the sun" with jam-meister lee allen the past two years). still, what's good is good, in which category i'd include the monterey "like a rolling stone" and "wild thing;" side 3 of electric ladyland; the woodstock "star-spangled banner" and band of gypsys "machine gun." that said, the only hendrix i'd prolly go out of my way to listen to at home is the cry of love stuff, which i've owned at different times in its original, voodoo soup, and first rays of the new rising sun incarnations. and there's a recording i remember of j.h. with curtis knight & the squires taped in some new joisey dive, late '65, that hit like charlie christian at minton's in '41, or ornette at the hillcrest club in '57. i heard it once in the dorm room of a cat i usedta play chess with in college and haven't seen it anywhere since then, altho i understand there was a reish (as drivin' south) on jungle back in y2k -- now deleted, of course. there's a new bit in the 2001 revision of charles shaar murray's crosstown traffic: jimi hendrix and post-war pop wherein the author conducts a millennial "interview" with hendrix-if-he-hadn't-checked-out that brought tears to my eyes reading it on the plane home from jersey yesterday, but then again, it's been an emotional week.