PhotoSynthesis: Jimi Hendrix
Los Angeles, 1967: He had just played at the Monterey Pop Festival, which was produced by John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas. So they had nabbed him to open their show at the Hollywood Bowl, which was soon after Monterey. So being good friends with the Mamas and Papas, I was in the green room right offstage -- the Mamas and Papas and Jimi and a couple other people and I pretty much filled the room up. I was in there for about a half an hour listening to them warm up, just taking pictures, you know, and then Jimi went out to open the show and we all kind of filed out into the wings. So this was taken from the wings at the Hollywood Bowl. It's looking across the stage sideways, so you can see that bass cord going across his leg. We had quite a vantage point to watch him play.
Posted by Henry Diltz on Nov 14th 2007 5:00PM
Filed under: PhotoSynthesis
Reader Comments(1 of 1)
Willowat 11-16-2007
Jimi Hendrix rocked the house down! He will go down in history (in my book, anyway) as the best of the best guitarists. I heard that he was left handed and had his own "left-handed" guitar made. I'm left handed also, took guitar lessons years ago, and realized that I'm actually ambi-dextrous b/c I could play right handed guitar pretty darn good, but of course, never even a small comparison to the great Mr. Hendrix. May his rock and roll soul rest in peace. :)
Poppyat 11-16-2007
Actually, Hendrix had a right hand guitar but strung it to play left handed. If you look at pictures the tuning keys are on the bottom side of the neck. Normally they are on top; meaning he played his guitars "upside down".
Willowat 11-16-2007
Poppy, thank you very much for setting the record straight. I wasn't sure if what I was typing was actually how it was. :)
chas1266at 11-16-2007
i agree to some extent of hendrix being an awesome
guitarist, but as for being the best of the best,
i believe that there are a few out there that could claim the same, but he was an awesome guitarist, i have seen him do things with a guitar
that is truely unbelievable, and i agree, may his soul be rocking to this day, and i believe it is !!!!!!!!!! charles...
mr billat 11-17-2007
aww..hendrix...i loved that whole era ..so many incredible pioneers ..stomping on the system and their controlling ways...!
they were the days of growth..!
and jimi hendrix...wow...so incredible to me..!
his voice...his flamboience...to me..the best song he ever did was;.."like a rolling stone"...at monterey pop festival...!
what a performance...it was like he just pulled that song right off his cuff...!
and what an incredible tribute to "bob dylan"...!
i play that song daily..many times..i must be nuts...but,what a way to go..!
i read where he had longer fingers as to where he could pull notes and melodies that some of the other great guitar players couldn't.
i just loved the sounds/melodies that came from his guitar and his voice was pretty too..!
i can hear his fender ringing in my ears as pretty as i could like to feel..!
thank you jimi..and thank you to all the other bands of that era...!
they were all incredible...and they are and always will be my heroes...and my wish would be for them all to come back out here and stomp this music market like they did before...!
we need you now..!
america..where are you now?..don't you care about your sons and daughters...don't you know..we need you now..we can't fight alone against the monster..!
STEPPINWOLF..."MONSTER"...
and that's what america has turned into..!
thank you for showing us some more jimi and thank you for letting me be able to comment
nightrangerat 11-17-2007
bY THE WAY...jIMI PLAYIED THE GUITAR STRAT UPSIDE DOWN UNTIL HE HAD A LEFT HANDED ONE MADE...JUST MAKES HIM THAT MUCH GREATER FOR HIS TIME...:)
nightrangerat 11-17-2007
I did happen to witness jimi on the last day of Woodstock Aug. 1969...I among maybe 20,000 of 450,000 hung around for the show of a lifetime!
nightrangerat 11-17-2007
I loved the Monster on Steppenwolf Live and all their albums...it was that era with jimi...Steppenwolf etc. that we all cherish...Long Live Winterland, Filmore East and West:)And of course yje Avalon Ballroom*
Davidat 11-17-2007
The last time I saw Hendrix was at the Ventura Fairgrounds. They didn't advertise the show til the morning of the concert. For some reason he opened and we ran into the fairgrounds to Red House. The stage was 6" high and I stood less then 2 feet from him. It was the only time I ever saw him just stand and play. No theatrics. What I loved about Hendrix was that most of his songs weren't released until after his death, so at concerts he would play all sorts of stuff you never heard before. It made it seem special.