fly on jimi

on this date in 1970, my mom came and picked me up from middle school and told me that jimi hendrix had died. death was a stranger then, even tho the passing of people in my family (both of her parents, one of her sisters) and famous folk (jfk, mlk, rfk) had already made an impact in my life. my best bud (who'd moved upstate the year before) wrote to say he was sorry "bobby hendrix" had died. it'd be a few yrs yet before i could understand a little bit of what hendrix was doing, but he was definitely the water i was swimming in as a beginning gtrist. after college, when i knew too many ppl who'd crippled themselves with drugs trying to be "like jimi," i couldn't listen to his music for a decade. luckily for me, i rediscovered it in the '80s. his achievement is solid. he changed the sound of his instrument -- how many musos can say that? pity he couldn't have stayed a little longer.