if all you bruces and shielas were reckoning i'd been a bit quiet on the writing stakes because i was off celebrating 'Stralia Day i recokn you'd be dead set right in the fair dinkum stakes. 'Stralia Day, known as Australia Day in other, lesser, non-'Stralia nations, was, is and always will be January 26, and is a day on which the day is spent celebrating all things 'Stralia.
other than that, look you see, i've been listening to some vibes. nothing quite unusual in this as such, except to say that they were some vibes off of arguably America's greatest musician, coming at me via the neighbour (every body needs good ones, according to a song i heard on Thursday that i had not heard for a while) of Australia.
yes, dear reader. as you can see quite clearly there above in the quality precision of Commodore 64 mode, three albums - made up of four digital compact discs - of the master of the guitar, Jimi Hendrix.
which albums? well, there's the compilation South Saturn Delta, which appears to contain alternate and slightly different versions of tunes such as Little Wing, All Along The Watchtower and The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice, among some other gems. then there is, which i am listening to now, Machine Gun, featuring as it does the complete set of Jimi and the Band of Gypsies at the Fillmore East, Dec 31 1969. finally, for now, there's the 2 CD set of Freedom, which is Jimi and the Experience at the Atlanta Pop Festival, July 1970.
indeed yes, they are all awesome recordings. provenance of my newly acquired copies of these recordings? Dad, off of next door to Australia.
cheers Dad.
i was speaking to him during the course of the week, as i am so prone to do thanks to the wonders of international telecommunications, and he asked if i was still at all partial to the sounds of James Marshall Hendrix. i assured him that yes, i most decidedly was. and so these discs, which he had come across, were sent to me as a gesture of support of this.
my understanding is that there are yet more discs of Jimi coming my way, but one can only play the hand they are dealt, and so for now i am just digging these. i shall dig the others as and when they come along.
my first encounter, or if you will experience, with Jimi Hendrix came, oddly enough, in Australia. i'm not going to make any bold or brave claim to have discovering him at an early age, but i can recall, in our home in Sydney, Dad and his mate Albie having a listen to the celebrated Electric Ladyland album. well, a listen to the album and an observed appreciation of the somewhat controversial cover for it.
at that time it would still have been all Queen and Adam Ant on my walkman, of course, with a bit of Mental As Anything. after that followed Frankie Goes To Hollywood, but Jimi was someone i would ultimately gravitate towards. this was in particular true after so many references to him in the things that i liked in the 80s. like, for instance, the fact that Lemmy out of Motorhead was a Hendrix roadie, and Bad News frequently referenced Jimi as a reason why you didn't need O Levels to be a rock god.
the newly obtained Jimi Hendrix discs with a most fitting purple hue? of course.
i'm usually reticent or reserved when it comes to declaring something or someone as "the greatest ever". whatever works best for you, in your own experience, as the best, is then the best for you and it doesn't matter what anyone else says. that said, it would be brave to suggest anyone did anything more for the rock guitar that we all adore than what Hendrix did. i would suggest most guitarists in the world today first picked up their weapon of choice after being inspired to do so from hearing what Hendrix did, and the amazing music they produce is all down to trying to create that sense of feeling Jimi oozed out of the strings.
right, well, obviously i have some top level Hendrix listening to be getting on with, so let me go off and do that.
i would appear to be a bit thin on the ground for things to post here, dear regular reader. well, i have been doing this for 12 or so years - more, maybe. it is inevitable that from time to time inspiration have i none. let's see what happens, and when it does i will be back.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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