1 00:00:33,773 --> 00:00:37,418 September 24th, 1966, 2 00:00:37,477 --> 00:00:40,894 un unknown figure touches down in the streets of London 3 00:00:40,978 --> 00:00:46,150 with only a Fender Stratocaster and a few dollars to his name. 4 00:00:50,792 --> 00:00:52,860 Within days of his arrival, 5 00:00:52,939 --> 00:00:58,010 Jimi Hendrix would turn the world of music upside down. 6 00:01:02,386 --> 00:01:04,264 Jimi changed the sound of the guitar. 7 00:01:04,318 --> 00:01:06,852 I think in many respects he changed 8 00:01:06,891 --> 00:01:08,975 the sound of rock far more than The Beatles. 9 00:01:09,058 --> 00:01:12,111 He called himself a 'voodoo child', 10 00:01:12,150 --> 00:01:15,038 a virtuoso, who in just four short years, 11 00:01:15,118 --> 00:01:17,701 will take the blues from the Mississippi delta 12 00:01:17,768 --> 00:01:21,125 to the psychedelic limits of outer space. 13 00:01:21,369 --> 00:01:23,680 He redefined what it meant to be a guitar player, 14 00:01:23,753 --> 00:01:26,464 what it meant to be a musician, 15 00:01:26,498 --> 00:01:28,454 I think he redefined what it meant to be an artist 16 00:01:28,499 --> 00:01:33,309 and he redefined the whole period in which he existed. 17 00:01:38,014 --> 00:01:40,077 All that stuff that was going on in the 60s 18 00:01:40,136 --> 00:01:42,534 is channeled through Jimi Hendrix's music. 19 00:01:42,613 --> 00:01:46,668 You can hear Martin Luther King being shot in his music, 20 00:01:46,712 --> 00:01:51,264 you can hear bombs falling on Vietnam in his music, 21 00:01:51,317 --> 00:01:55,891 you can hear bombs exploding in the heads of an entire generation on LSD 22 00:01:55,931 --> 00:01:57,872 in the music of Jimi Hendrix. 23 00:02:01,944 --> 00:02:05,076 In the end, he himself will become a victim 24 00:02:05,164 --> 00:02:07,351 of the dark side of the era. 25 00:02:07,431 --> 00:02:10,016 His tragic death bringing a symbolic end 26 00:02:10,095 --> 00:02:13,129 to the tumultuous 60s. 27 00:02:15,713 --> 00:02:19,694 This is a journey into the first Age of Rock 28 00:02:19,767 --> 00:02:23,061 seen through the eyes of his most dazzling icon... 29 00:02:23,139 --> 00:02:25,875 Jimi Hendrix. 30 00:02:42,940 --> 00:02:45,669 When Jimi Hendrix, a left hander 31 00:02:45,733 --> 00:02:48,619 who played a right handed guitar upside down, 32 00:02:48,669 --> 00:02:52,763 made his first explosive appearance in London in 1966, 33 00:02:52,831 --> 00:02:57,254 he sent shockwaves through the aristocracy of British music. 34 00:03:00,616 --> 00:03:04,149 # Purple Haze all in my brain, 35 00:03:04,450 --> 00:03:07,966 # lately things don't seem the same, 36 00:03:09,139 --> 00:03:12,355 # actin' funny but I don't know why 37 00:03:13,501 --> 00:03:16,757 # 'scuse me while I kiss the sky. 38 00:03:19,906 --> 00:03:21,851 I saw him perform with everybody else. 39 00:03:21,900 --> 00:03:24,841 With Eric Clapton, boy, you name it, they were there. 40 00:03:24,846 --> 00:03:27,364 He came on the stage and it was just mindblowing. 41 00:03:27,403 --> 00:03:32,685 And I think Eric's comment after Jimi played was, 42 00:03:32,739 --> 00:03:34,665 "Well, I'm off home to practice." 43 00:03:37,318 --> 00:03:39,880 I was just glad I wasn't a guitarist. 44 00:03:43,974 --> 00:03:47,426 Like Eric Clapton, fellow guitarist Jeff Beck, 45 00:03:47,495 --> 00:03:52,248 was also blown away by Hendrix's guitar pyrotechnics. 46 00:03:56,630 --> 00:04:04,259 The fact that he was doing things so upfront and so wild, unchained. 47 00:04:04,373 --> 00:04:06,984 That's what I wanted to do but being British and 48 00:04:07,253 --> 00:04:10,006 the victim of the class system or whatever... 49 00:04:10,030 --> 00:04:13,008 the poxy old schools I used to go to, I couldn't do what he did. 50 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:15,506 And I just went away from there thinking, 51 00:04:15,574 --> 00:04:17,560 I'd better think of something else to do. 52 00:04:32,552 --> 00:04:34,569 He was doing things that they couldn't do, 53 00:04:34,607 --> 00:04:39,203 because he was picking out a baseline with his thumb, 54 00:04:39,227 --> 00:04:42,653 a lead with his little finger and playing rhythm with the rest of it. 55 00:04:42,986 --> 00:04:46,897 It was a kind of three-man group on one guitar. 56 00:04:52,215 --> 00:04:57,018 The roots of rock lie deep in the blues of the Mississippi delta. 57 00:04:57,207 --> 00:05:01,474 This music cast a powerful spell on Jimi Hendrix. 58 00:05:01,663 --> 00:05:06,319 Growing up in Seattle in the 50s, he got his first guitar aged 12, 59 00:05:06,373 --> 00:05:10,988 spending his teens learning the licks of the twelve-bar blues. 60 00:05:11,705 --> 00:05:15,989 # Well I wait around the train station 61 00:05:16,397 --> 00:05:18,730 # Waitin' for that train 62 00:05:18,954 --> 00:05:24,407 The blues has always been there way before it was ever called the 'blues'. 63 00:05:24,461 --> 00:05:30,891 It's a strand of music... it's a note that resonates throughout the human race. 64 00:05:34,020 --> 00:05:38,081 In order to escape a jail term for riding in a stolen Cadillac, 65 00:05:38,149 --> 00:05:41,826 Hendrix elected to join the 101st Airborne Division. 66 00:05:42,313 --> 00:05:45,085 It was in the Army that Hendrix began experimenting 67 00:05:45,163 --> 00:05:48,691 with the sounds of electric rhythm & blues. 68 00:05:58,226 --> 00:06:03,835 Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and BB King were the godfathers of R&B, 69 00:06:03,909 --> 00:06:07,133 and this electrically charged music would underpin 70 00:06:07,188 --> 00:06:10,178 the early career of Jimi Hendrix. 71 00:06:12,697 --> 00:06:16,904 Hendrix's time in the military was troubled and didn't last long. 72 00:06:17,072 --> 00:06:22,522 The end came not long after he was discovered sleeping with his guitar. 73 00:06:25,795 --> 00:06:30,193 Discharged from the Army in 1962, a pennyless Hendrix 74 00:06:30,261 --> 00:06:34,408 found work as a guitar for hire on the black R&B network 75 00:06:34,471 --> 00:06:36,708 known as the Chitlin' Circuit. 76 00:06:37,303 --> 00:06:41,150 It was this alternate nether universe that happened 77 00:06:41,169 --> 00:06:43,105 that most white people would never experience 78 00:06:43,169 --> 00:06:45,292 or never even know it happened. 79 00:06:45,354 --> 00:06:48,084 It happened when all the white people were asleep, 80 00:06:48,124 --> 00:06:52,581 then in this little town, these bands would come out an put on 81 00:06:52,645 --> 00:06:54,915 these incredible shows. 82 00:06:55,051 --> 00:06:57,532 Hendrix spent almost 4 years on that circuit 83 00:06:57,600 --> 00:06:59,904 playing with a variety of different bands. 84 00:07:00,458 --> 00:07:02,579 All I remember is getting out of the Army 85 00:07:02,647 --> 00:07:03,878 and then trying to get something together, 86 00:07:03,918 --> 00:07:08,752 and then I was playing in different groups all around the States and Canada. 87 00:07:09,406 --> 00:07:11,327 Playing behind people most of the time. 88 00:07:12,587 --> 00:07:20,543 He toured alongside the likes of Ike and Tina Turner, BB King, James Brown... 89 00:07:20,828 --> 00:07:23,369 If he wasn't actually on stage with these people 90 00:07:23,403 --> 00:07:27,483 he would be in the wings watching and learning. 91 00:07:29,153 --> 00:07:32,578 Hendrix did a stint as a sideman to Little Richard 92 00:07:32,637 --> 00:07:36,435 whose flamboyance was an inspiration to the young guitarist. 93 00:07:37,014 --> 00:07:39,602 Hendrix said, "I want to do with the guitar 94 00:07:39,677 --> 00:07:42,304 what Little Richard does with his voice." 95 00:07:45,013 --> 00:07:49,149 Jimi Hendrix's perseverance to go on... he didn't mind looking freaky, 96 00:07:49,609 --> 00:07:53,800 like I don't mind it, 'cause I was doing it before he was. 97 00:07:54,009 --> 00:07:56,469 And I know when he saw me gave him confidence, 98 00:07:56,528 --> 00:07:59,707 and great recompense or reward. My Lord! 99 00:08:04,394 --> 00:08:06,901 4,000 miles away in Britain 100 00:08:06,969 --> 00:08:10,275 the R&B Hendrix was playing on the Chitlin' Circuit 101 00:08:10,299 --> 00:08:12,510 was finding a devoted following. 102 00:08:13,793 --> 00:08:16,117 # I love the way you walk 103 00:08:17,264 --> 00:08:19,500 # I love the way you walk 104 00:08:20,305 --> 00:08:22,557 White musicians were interpreting this music 105 00:08:22,634 --> 00:08:26,874 in ways that would in turn prove a key influence on Jimi Hendrix. 106 00:08:26,890 --> 00:08:29,970 # ... I got my eyes on you 107 00:08:30,083 --> 00:08:34,921 It was playing blues that thawed out the emotional permafrost 108 00:08:34,976 --> 00:08:39,904 of 1950s post-war English austerity. 109 00:08:42,058 --> 00:08:50,005 Because of its emphasis on improvisation, it unlocked the creativity 110 00:08:50,056 --> 00:08:52,962 of the young musicians who cut their teeth on it. 111 00:08:55,801 --> 00:09:02,057 Everybody starting out just copied the records they listened to note for note. 112 00:09:02,131 --> 00:09:03,871 I was trying to sing like Howlin' Wolf. 113 00:09:05,152 --> 00:09:08,880 But from this copying we learnt the roads. 114 00:09:09,946 --> 00:09:11,142 Tell us something about him, Brian. 115 00:09:11,207 --> 00:09:15,280 When we first started playing together because we wanted to play R&B 116 00:09:15,314 --> 00:09:18,029 and Howlin' Wolf was one of our greatest idols. 117 00:09:18,092 --> 00:09:20,308 It's a great pleasure to find him booked in this show tonight. 118 00:09:20,333 --> 00:09:22,231 - It really is a pleasure. - Thanks for Howlin's records. 119 00:09:22,267 --> 00:09:25,297 So I think it's better that we shut up and we have Howlin' Wolf on stage. 120 00:09:25,532 --> 00:09:28,122 # How many more years 121 00:09:29,047 --> 00:09:33,103 # Have I got to let you dog me around 122 00:09:35,456 --> 00:09:38,354 # How many more years 123 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:43,541 # Have I got to let you dog me around 124 00:09:43,707 --> 00:09:50,332 We based everything we did from our knowledge of 125 00:09:51,526 --> 00:09:54,311 starting as a blues band. 126 00:09:55,637 --> 00:09:58,239 # If you see my little red rooster 127 00:10:00,351 --> 00:10:04,003 # Please drive him home 128 00:10:04,641 --> 00:10:06,400 Formed in 1962, 129 00:10:06,547 --> 00:10:10,639 The Rolling Stones took their name from a classic Muddy Waters' song. 130 00:10:10,676 --> 00:10:12,859 # If you see my little red rooster 131 00:10:14,911 --> 00:10:17,654 The early shows, their sort of embryonic period, 132 00:10:17,683 --> 00:10:19,303 they just played blues covers. 133 00:10:19,361 --> 00:10:22,808 They had no real material of their own, so to speak, early on. 134 00:10:22,857 --> 00:10:25,659 The key of course was when they began writing. 135 00:10:25,722 --> 00:10:29,576 And when they did, they used these blues influences 136 00:10:29,606 --> 00:10:32,051 and filtered it through their own experience. 137 00:10:35,516 --> 00:10:38,483 'Satisfaction' is really one of the first great Stones' songs. 138 00:10:38,546 --> 00:10:40,929 It's a song that Muddy Waters would have been happy to write. 139 00:10:40,963 --> 00:10:43,522 I think it would rank as a great blues song 140 00:10:43,555 --> 00:10:46,709 even if it had come from one of those guys on Chess Records. 141 00:10:46,850 --> 00:10:53,048 # I can get no satisfaction 142 00:10:53,708 --> 00:11:00,027 # I can't get no girl reaction 143 00:11:00,082 --> 00:11:04,612 'Satisfaction' is basically a blues, you know, it's just a different form. 144 00:11:04,666 --> 00:11:06,603 I was just that... 145 00:11:11,629 --> 00:11:18,219 # I can get no satisfaction 146 00:11:20,242 --> 00:11:26,118 # I can get me know satisfaction 147 00:11:26,152 --> 00:11:31,791 # 'cause I try and I try, yeah I try 148 00:11:34,262 --> 00:11:35,966 # I can get no... 149 00:11:37,052 --> 00:11:39,645 The sexual swagger of 'Satisfaction' 150 00:11:39,719 --> 00:11:42,826 pointed the way to a new direction in music. 151 00:11:44,087 --> 00:11:49,003 Electric blues music was morphing into something distinctly British. 152 00:11:49,060 --> 00:11:51,195 # And I'm tryin' to make some girl 153 00:11:52,966 --> 00:12:00,314 They pretty much adapted pop-art ideas to their blues-based R&B 154 00:12:00,382 --> 00:12:02,486 and, in a way, invented rock music 155 00:12:02,726 --> 00:12:07,972 just by putting pop and R&B together in a cheeky funny way, 156 00:12:08,012 --> 00:12:12,355 with a great backbeat and a blast off of a riff. 157 00:12:13,756 --> 00:12:16,951 Now the blues was being reexported back to America 158 00:12:17,029 --> 00:12:20,575 introducing the mainstream to a music they'd previously ignored. 159 00:12:22,415 --> 00:12:28,282 We, the young kids in London and Newcastle and Liverpool, 160 00:12:28,316 --> 00:12:35,754 were responsible for putting a hand inside America's garbage can 161 00:12:35,808 --> 00:12:43,100 and pulling out culture which they were trying their best to crush. 162 00:12:43,805 --> 00:12:46,350 All this was a revelation to Jimi Hendrix. 163 00:12:46,442 --> 00:12:50,593 In 1965 he left the Chitlin' Circuit and moved to New York 164 00:12:50,648 --> 00:12:54,788 where he discovered a new world of white music coming out of the UK. 165 00:12:58,755 --> 00:13:03,684 Imagine Hendrix walking down somewhere where there's an import record store. 166 00:13:03,743 --> 00:13:07,084 Somebody's just got all these weird records from England, 167 00:13:07,138 --> 00:13:09,621 records by people like the Yardbirds... 168 00:13:11,656 --> 00:13:16,067 where guitar players like Jeff Beck are pursuing many of the same things 169 00:13:16,111 --> 00:13:21,338 that Hendrix himself was working on to do with feedback, distortion, 170 00:13:21,384 --> 00:13:26,360 and in some cases maybe taking it further than Hendrix himself had at that time. 171 00:13:32,136 --> 00:13:34,360 The guitarists that most impressed Hendrix 172 00:13:34,390 --> 00:13:38,165 were Jeff Beck of the Yardbirds and Eric Clapton. 173 00:13:45,232 --> 00:13:47,514 Clapton had gained a formidable reputation 174 00:13:47,572 --> 00:13:50,451 playing with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. 175 00:13:57,077 --> 00:14:02,482 English guitar players showed us, not just how to play the guitar in a certain way, 176 00:14:02,506 --> 00:14:04,365 but they showed us how it looked. 177 00:14:04,418 --> 00:14:07,586 And how it could be sexy, how it could be forceful. 178 00:14:07,630 --> 00:14:10,368 They were clearly taking influences from America 179 00:14:10,617 --> 00:14:12,769 but they were showing us something 180 00:14:12,770 --> 00:14:15,617 that we really didn't know that much about. 181 00:14:24,058 --> 00:14:26,401 It wasn't only British guitar experimentation 182 00:14:26,446 --> 00:14:28,807 that was to shape the music of Jimi Hendrix. 183 00:14:30,475 --> 00:14:34,669 While living in Harlem he fell under the spell of an unlikely hero, 184 00:14:34,708 --> 00:14:36,110 Bob Dylan. 185 00:14:37,132 --> 00:14:41,578 Jimi took a copy of 'Blowin' in the wind' to a Harlem discotheque, 186 00:14:41,642 --> 00:14:44,082 totally African-American experience at the time, 187 00:14:44,130 --> 00:14:46,298 brought this in, went up to the DJ and said, 188 00:14:46,317 --> 00:14:49,345 "I've got this great new track. Let's play it." 189 00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:53,175 So the DJ puts the song and the immediate response, 190 00:14:53,239 --> 00:14:56,328 everyone was dancing and then 'Blowin' in the wind', "How many...", 191 00:14:56,908 --> 00:15:00,067 Everyone stops, they all look at Jimi, 192 00:15:00,102 --> 00:15:04,262 and Jimi literally has to run from the club for his life. 193 00:15:04,573 --> 00:15:05,981 # Johnny's in the basement 194 00:15:06,015 --> 00:15:07,392 # Mixing up the medicine 195 00:15:07,406 --> 00:15:08,755 # I'm on the pavement 196 00:15:08,770 --> 00:15:10,064 # Thinking about the government 197 00:15:10,083 --> 00:15:11,452 # The man in the trench coat 198 00:15:11,481 --> 00:15:12,745 # Badge out, laid off 199 00:15:12,779 --> 00:15:14,191 # Says he's got a bad cough 200 00:15:14,235 --> 00:15:15,574 # Wants to get it paid off 201 00:15:15,598 --> 00:15:16,917 # Look out kid 202 00:15:16,966 --> 00:15:18,259 # It's somethin' you did 203 00:15:18,290 --> 00:15:19,301 # God knows when 204 00:15:19,339 --> 00:15:20,776 # But you're doin' it again 205 00:15:20,810 --> 00:15:22,526 # You better duck down the alley way 206 00:15:22,556 --> 00:15:23,775 # Lookin' for a new friend 207 00:15:23,785 --> 00:15:25,423 # The man in the coon-skin cap 208 00:15:25,442 --> 00:15:26,541 # In the big pen 209 00:15:26,556 --> 00:15:27,815 # Wants eleven dollar bills 210 00:15:27,868 --> 00:15:29,874 # You only got ten 211 00:15:31,958 --> 00:15:34,120 The song that would define Dylan in his prime 212 00:15:34,223 --> 00:15:36,943 and be pivotal in the development of Jimi Hendrix 213 00:15:37,007 --> 00:15:38,775 is 'Like a Rolling Stone', 214 00:15:38,815 --> 00:15:42,388 a tour-de-force that revolutionized rock music. 215 00:15:42,553 --> 00:15:45,617 One of the most exciting things about it 216 00:15:45,681 --> 00:15:48,911 is that opening "bang" on the snare. 217 00:15:53,335 --> 00:15:58,724 You know, it's like a gavel, a judge wackin' the gavel on his desk, 218 00:15:58,763 --> 00:16:03,371 saying, "Ok, History is called to order." 219 00:16:03,415 --> 00:16:05,512 # Once upon a time you dressed so fine 220 00:16:05,585 --> 00:16:10,997 # You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you? 221 00:16:12,508 --> 00:16:16,277 That's how special, I think the people involved in that song, 222 00:16:16,412 --> 00:16:22,239 not just only Dylan but the producer, the musicians, everyone knew. 223 00:16:24,048 --> 00:16:27,954 # You used to laugh about 224 00:16:28,264 --> 00:16:30,892 They say it's the greatest record of all times. 225 00:16:30,940 --> 00:16:33,484 It's amazing to have played on that. 226 00:16:33,556 --> 00:16:39,735 I knew that this stuff would be regarded as something other than another record. 227 00:16:40,290 --> 00:16:43,442 # Once upon a time you dressed so fine 228 00:16:43,494 --> 00:16:50,098 # You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you? 229 00:16:51,386 --> 00:16:56,278 # People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall" 230 00:16:57,073 --> 00:17:00,396 The character of Dylan's voice struck a chord with Jimi, 231 00:17:00,430 --> 00:17:04,171 encouraging Hendrix to believe that he too could make it as a singer. 232 00:17:05,415 --> 00:17:08,627 Hendrix had always been very self-conscious about his singing. 233 00:17:08,671 --> 00:17:12,510 He'd worked behind a lot of great singers, 234 00:17:12,549 --> 00:17:14,318 and on the same bill as a lot of great singers, 235 00:17:14,356 --> 00:17:16,671 and he barely considered himself a singer at all. 236 00:17:17,536 --> 00:17:22,986 But when he heard Dylan, he thought, "Well, if this guy can sing, so can I." 237 00:17:23,445 --> 00:17:26,499 # How does it feel 238 00:17:28,248 --> 00:17:31,470 # To be on your own 239 00:17:33,396 --> 00:17:37,038 # With no direction home 240 00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:43,137 Hendrix heard Dylan and realised that if a voice has character 241 00:17:43,211 --> 00:17:48,947 then it really doesn't matter if it's a conventional "good voice" or not. 242 00:17:48,966 --> 00:17:52,784 If you sound like yourself and you sound like you mean it, 243 00:17:52,808 --> 00:17:54,867 then you can sing rock 'n roll. 244 00:18:01,318 --> 00:18:04,032 # Got a feeling inside 245 00:18:04,533 --> 00:18:05,689 It was The Who, 246 00:18:05,733 --> 00:18:08,721 an uncompromising, loud and aggressive London band, 247 00:18:08,761 --> 00:18:12,149 that would feed most directly back into the act of Jimi Hendrix. 248 00:18:12,276 --> 00:18:16,228 Their high octane performances gave rock a harder edge. 249 00:18:18,723 --> 00:18:22,442 I think the first band that I ever truly believed 250 00:18:22,443 --> 00:18:24,921 was and out-and-out rock band 251 00:18:25,375 --> 00:18:27,140 that I saw was The Who. 252 00:18:27,967 --> 00:18:31,451 When I saw The Who play at the Marquee 253 00:18:31,500 --> 00:18:35,424 there was a unity about what they did with the base, guitar and drums... 254 00:18:38,590 --> 00:18:44,267 and it said to me, this is different, this is not blues, it's something else. 255 00:18:44,302 --> 00:18:48,239 I wouldn't have been able to categorise it as 'rock' at that time, 256 00:18:48,289 --> 00:18:50,328 but that's really what it was. 257 00:18:51,696 --> 00:18:54,137 We were doing feedback and all that stuff onstage, 258 00:18:54,202 --> 00:18:58,236 which came out of putting all this stuff in a pot, stirring it up, 259 00:18:58,495 --> 00:19:00,951 getting bored with this bit, doubling up the beat, 260 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:03,680 banging on a note, wanging on a chord 261 00:19:03,758 --> 00:19:06,694 and turning the amp until it fed back and... 262 00:19:07,414 --> 00:19:09,311 away you go. 263 00:19:09,346 --> 00:19:14,341 # People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my generation) 264 00:19:14,370 --> 00:19:19,251 # Just because we get around (Talkin' 'bout my generation) 265 00:19:19,300 --> 00:19:24,016 # Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my generation) 266 00:19:24,060 --> 00:19:26,650 # I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my generation) 267 00:19:26,695 --> 00:19:30,061 In 'My Generation' they had that incredible stutter, you know, 268 00:19:30,075 --> 00:19:31,519 "Why don't you all f-f-f..." 269 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:37,674 # Why don't you all f-fade away (Talkin' 'bout my generation) 270 00:19:37,737 --> 00:19:41,067 # And don't try to d-dig what we all say (Talkin' 'bout my generation) 271 00:19:41,111 --> 00:19:45,879 The stuttering on that record, I thought was brilliant phrasing. 272 00:19:45,964 --> 00:19:50,129 That was their debut in America, so you heard the record and you went, 273 00:19:50,179 --> 00:19:52,526 "He's gotta be putting that on." 274 00:19:53,644 --> 00:19:55,982 That couldn't be a guy that actually stuttered. 275 00:19:56,026 --> 00:19:57,468 It was interesting. 276 00:19:57,530 --> 00:20:01,767 # I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-generation (Talkin' 'bout my generation) 277 00:20:01,778 --> 00:20:07,947 The stutter on 'My Generation' reflects the frustration and the anger 278 00:20:07,997 --> 00:20:09,296 in the attitude of the song. 279 00:20:09,335 --> 00:20:11,187 It's a 'fuck you' moment. 280 00:20:12,346 --> 00:20:18,855 This was a complete homage to the inarticulateness of rebellious youth, 281 00:20:18,884 --> 00:20:21,595 who couldn't speak, they could hardly think. 282 00:20:22,129 --> 00:20:24,904 It's like the old line, "What are you rebelling against?" 283 00:20:24,954 --> 00:20:26,900 "Well, what have you got?" 284 00:20:33,842 --> 00:20:40,742 The Who were actually pivotal in the development of the new rock. 285 00:20:41,023 --> 00:20:46,814 Remember that rock performance was still more or less in its infancy 286 00:20:46,838 --> 00:20:50,266 when the Stones started out in the clubs they were all sitting on stools. 287 00:20:50,537 --> 00:20:53,530 But with The Who there was an element of real danger. 288 00:20:54,036 --> 00:20:59,088 The Who completely altered notions of rock performance, 289 00:20:59,117 --> 00:21:02,621 and also the way that a basic three instrument band 290 00:21:02,660 --> 00:21:05,214 could look and sound. 291 00:21:06,345 --> 00:21:10,877 The Who's total mastery of the stage and somewhat destructive tendencies 292 00:21:10,910 --> 00:21:13,863 anticipated the wilder excesses of rock to come. 293 00:21:14,108 --> 00:21:15,544 Jimi Hendrix, for one, 294 00:21:15,588 --> 00:21:19,574 would borrow heavily from The Who's incendiary style of performance. 295 00:21:20,215 --> 00:21:26,131 He certainly took an awful lot of what The Who were doing. 296 00:21:26,170 --> 00:21:30,510 The feedback stuff from Townsend, he made it his own thing. 297 00:21:30,554 --> 00:21:33,406 But it was kind of weird seeing a black guy come over from America 298 00:21:33,425 --> 00:21:38,693 and look at what we were doing and take it into his own thing. 299 00:21:38,743 --> 00:21:40,490 So the whole thing had gone a circle. 300 00:21:45,018 --> 00:21:48,348 By mid 1966, Hendrix was going it alone, 301 00:21:48,378 --> 00:21:50,500 playing the clubs in Greenwich Village. 302 00:21:51,249 --> 00:21:54,762 He wasn't making much money but he was gathering a cult audience. 303 00:21:54,826 --> 00:21:59,017 Whispers began to circulate about an extraordinary talent. 304 00:22:06,102 --> 00:22:10,948 I once went to the 'Cafe Wha?' in the Village, 305 00:22:10,982 --> 00:22:15,702 that's when I first saw Jimi Hendrix, and I went, Wow! 306 00:22:16,808 --> 00:22:19,185 This guy is good! 307 00:22:21,186 --> 00:22:24,416 Among the early Hendrix fan club was Chas Chandler, 308 00:22:24,444 --> 00:22:27,636 the base player of The Animals, who in the early 60s 309 00:22:27,684 --> 00:22:31,268 had been at the forefront of the British invasion of America. 310 00:22:37,128 --> 00:22:39,465 When Chandler discovered Hendrix in New York 311 00:22:39,524 --> 00:22:41,434 The Animals had already broken up. 312 00:22:41,884 --> 00:22:43,543 Chas had gone into management 313 00:22:43,588 --> 00:22:47,332 and was looking for an artist to cover a Tim Rose folk song, 314 00:22:47,376 --> 00:22:49,170 called 'Hey Joe'. 315 00:22:51,462 --> 00:22:59,251 # Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand 316 00:23:00,007 --> 00:23:02,473 The night Chandler turned up at the Cafe Wha? 317 00:23:02,517 --> 00:23:05,949 he was stunned, not only by Hendrix's virtuosity, 318 00:23:06,023 --> 00:23:08,841 but also by his choice of song. 319 00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:15,939 # Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand 320 00:23:16,088 --> 00:23:18,307 The first song Jimi played was 'Hey Joe', 321 00:23:18,391 --> 00:23:20,008 and I was like, you know, 322 00:23:20,047 --> 00:23:24,510 I wasn't really conscious of the rest of the act. 323 00:23:24,564 --> 00:23:26,049 I saw a master guitar player. 324 00:23:26,074 --> 00:23:27,894 I saw the best guitar player I'd ever seen in my life. 325 00:23:29,506 --> 00:23:32,431 It was that obvious, you know, I just sat there and went, "Puh!" 326 00:23:33,058 --> 00:23:36,838 Let's come to England. Let me bring him to England. 327 00:23:39,176 --> 00:23:42,940 Hendrix would come to London on one condition. 328 00:23:47,299 --> 00:23:50,749 He actually said, "If I go to England with you, 329 00:23:50,783 --> 00:23:53,748 "can you introduce me to Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton?" 330 00:23:53,842 --> 00:23:58,033 And said, "They're pals of me. I've known them 2-3 years." 331 00:23:58,057 --> 00:24:00,602 That was the only question he asked. 332 00:24:12,566 --> 00:24:16,289 When Hendrix landed in England in September 1966, 333 00:24:16,332 --> 00:24:19,330 this was ground central for not just music, 334 00:24:19,385 --> 00:24:24,110 but for fashion, photography, film making, this was... 335 00:24:24,153 --> 00:24:28,183 swinging London in its prime and Jimi showed up 336 00:24:28,222 --> 00:24:33,483 at the single, most opportune moment he could have shown up in history. 337 00:24:33,523 --> 00:24:40,039 # In the white room with black curtains near the station. 338 00:24:41,648 --> 00:24:45,625 When Hendrix arrived in London, Cream were the biggest act in town. 339 00:24:46,889 --> 00:24:51,404 A power trio comprised of blues jamming legends Eric Clapton, 340 00:24:53,110 --> 00:24:55,066 bassist Jack Bruce, 341 00:24:57,949 --> 00:25:00,366 and Ginger Baker on drums. 342 00:25:00,489 --> 00:25:06,841 # Dawn-light smiles on you leaving, my contentment. 343 00:25:07,154 --> 00:25:10,267 We considered ourselves to be 'the cream'. 344 00:25:10,566 --> 00:25:12,539 We were the guys who could play. 345 00:25:12,591 --> 00:25:17,877 Musically we were streets ahead of any of the others. 346 00:25:17,988 --> 00:25:22,656 If we had played music written by Humpty Dumpty and Mickey Mouse, 347 00:25:22,724 --> 00:25:27,453 it would still have been fantastic because of the musicians playing it. 348 00:25:28,922 --> 00:25:35,446 # You said no strings could secure you at the station. 349 00:25:37,290 --> 00:25:43,174 We were very competitive, at that age, we were like gunslingers or something. 350 00:25:43,188 --> 00:25:47,200 I wanted to be the best, most frightening base player in the world, 351 00:25:47,263 --> 00:25:49,662 and I think I was. I think I succeeded in that. 352 00:25:49,706 --> 00:25:51,258 I was certainly the loudest. 353 00:26:01,069 --> 00:26:05,453 We would take the language of the blues and apply it to modern music. 354 00:26:05,645 --> 00:26:08,730 In other words, be very arrogant about it and nick it, 355 00:26:08,809 --> 00:26:10,476 but not nick actual songs, 356 00:26:10,530 --> 00:26:15,128 we just nicked the feeling and the language of the blues and used that. 357 00:26:15,172 --> 00:26:17,519 Which is very much what we ended up doing. 358 00:26:27,897 --> 00:26:30,784 What marked this band as the cream of London, 359 00:26:30,808 --> 00:26:35,966 was their flair for improvisation, playing solos that never seemed to end. 360 00:26:42,465 --> 00:26:44,592 We simply couldn't stop playing. 361 00:26:45,955 --> 00:26:50,357 None of us was the band leader so no one would say "Stop. Enough!" 362 00:26:51,157 --> 00:26:53,995 If one of us took off, let him go. 363 00:26:55,157 --> 00:26:59,169 And we'd just go off that direction, or go off in that direction. 364 00:27:00,531 --> 00:27:05,518 We were very much pioneers of that kind of music. 365 00:27:05,627 --> 00:27:10,449 We built that audience from nothing really, 366 00:27:10,549 --> 00:27:12,982 and the bands that followed us 367 00:27:12,983 --> 00:27:17,280 reaped the benefits of the work that we had done. 368 00:27:19,978 --> 00:27:22,311 Such was Clapton's prowess on the guitar, 369 00:27:22,356 --> 00:27:25,965 fans proclaimed his divinity on the streets of London. 370 00:27:27,121 --> 00:27:31,444 But the guitar god was soon to be challenged by one of his disciples. 371 00:27:33,904 --> 00:27:35,899 Having been in London for just a week, 372 00:27:35,944 --> 00:27:37,771 Jimi went along to a Cream gig, 373 00:27:37,844 --> 00:27:42,080 and put in an audacious request to jam with Clapton. 374 00:27:42,532 --> 00:27:44,432 Nobody gets up to jam with Cream. 375 00:27:44,501 --> 00:27:47,682 Cream is Mount Olympus, Cream is the absolute pinnacle. 376 00:27:47,722 --> 00:27:49,407 Ordinary mortals cannot breathe 377 00:27:49,462 --> 00:27:52,863 that rarified air that exists in this hallowed space. 378 00:27:53,208 --> 00:27:55,759 The very brave person who would do that... 379 00:27:55,813 --> 00:27:58,936 As far as I remember, he plugged in to my base amp 380 00:27:59,384 --> 00:28:04,311 and did a version of 'Killing floor'. A blues all the way of course. 381 00:28:06,178 --> 00:28:09,560 Clapton always loved the song but always thought it was too difficult. 382 00:28:09,609 --> 00:28:12,030 And Hendrix just rages through it, 383 00:28:12,463 --> 00:28:16,890 and does all his tricks and stunts, the kind of things that people like 384 00:28:16,925 --> 00:28:19,271 Little Richard and The Isley Brothers hated him doing. 385 00:28:19,515 --> 00:28:23,171 He plays the guitar behind his head, between his legs, with his teeth... 386 00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:29,569 Feedback, tremolo arm, dive bombs, the whole works. 387 00:28:32,309 --> 00:28:35,361 He just played his arsehole basically. 388 00:28:35,422 --> 00:28:40,318 The first time I saw Eric I thought, "Ah, there's a master guitar player." 389 00:28:40,339 --> 00:28:44,078 But Eric was a guitar player, Jimi was some sort of force of nature. 390 00:28:45,962 --> 00:28:49,642 Eric just stands there and plays and then we got this guy, you know, 391 00:28:49,646 --> 00:28:55,490 on his knees and playing with his teeth and screwing the guitar onstage, 392 00:28:55,519 --> 00:28:58,627 and I thought, "God! What is this?" 393 00:28:58,681 --> 00:29:01,147 It was like, Wow!, that kind of thing. 394 00:29:01,176 --> 00:29:03,313 I know it had a tremendous effect on Eric. 395 00:29:03,376 --> 00:29:05,546 And Eric's hands were like this on the guitar 396 00:29:05,581 --> 00:29:08,040 and they just dropped and he said... 397 00:29:08,114 --> 00:29:12,113 He just stood there looking at Jimi. He walked off the stage 398 00:29:12,162 --> 00:29:15,250 and I thought, "I knew this was gonna happen." 399 00:29:18,269 --> 00:29:20,887 And everybody's just going, "My God!" 400 00:29:20,922 --> 00:29:24,642 It's like word goes around, "This guy got up to jam with Cream 401 00:29:24,687 --> 00:29:27,956 and he cut Clapton, he killed god, man!" 402 00:29:28,421 --> 00:29:32,543 I ran backstage and Eric was standing trying to light a cigarette. 403 00:29:32,617 --> 00:29:34,258 And his hands were shaking and he just says, 404 00:29:34,313 --> 00:29:36,141 "Is he really that good?" 405 00:29:37,744 --> 00:29:41,373 Chas Chandler was quick to exploit Jimi's sensational appeal, 406 00:29:41,452 --> 00:29:45,543 stealing the thunder of Cream, he put his own power trio together, 407 00:29:45,603 --> 00:29:48,500 flanking Hendrix with two English musicians, 408 00:29:48,544 --> 00:29:51,549 Mitch Mitchell on drums and Noel Reading on base, 409 00:29:51,613 --> 00:29:55,074 to create 'The Jimi Hendrix Experience'. 410 00:30:01,015 --> 00:30:07,429 # Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand 411 00:30:12,719 --> 00:30:18,909 # Hey Joe, I said where you goin' with that gun in your hand 412 00:30:19,377 --> 00:30:23,333 'Hey Joe', the song Chas Chandler had heard Hendrix perform 413 00:30:23,377 --> 00:30:26,431 in obscurity in New York just six months earlier, 414 00:30:26,474 --> 00:30:30,382 entered the UK top ten in December 1966. 415 00:30:30,629 --> 00:30:34,382 It was to be the launchpad for a meteoric career. 416 00:30:55,563 --> 00:30:58,438 The show he played in America before he went to England... 417 00:30:58,487 --> 00:30:59,768 there were 12 people there. 418 00:31:00,011 --> 00:31:03,909 England a month later, he's attracting crowds of several hundred. 419 00:31:04,444 --> 00:31:08,118 Six months later, he's the biggest star in the world. 420 00:31:08,182 --> 00:31:11,481 No artist, I would argue, in the history of rock 421 00:31:11,505 --> 00:31:13,610 has become famous so quickly. 422 00:31:22,355 --> 00:31:25,798 # One pill makes you larger 423 00:31:26,147 --> 00:31:29,990 # And one pill makes you small 424 00:31:30,196 --> 00:31:33,652 By the mid point of the summer of love in 1967, 425 00:31:33,715 --> 00:31:35,995 Jimi Hendrix was the toast of London 426 00:31:36,063 --> 00:31:39,590 and had become the psychedelic dandy of flower-power. 427 00:31:39,810 --> 00:31:42,320 But in his home country he was little known. 428 00:31:42,788 --> 00:31:44,358 All that was about to change 429 00:31:44,437 --> 00:31:47,609 when Hendrix got the chance to play the Monterrey Pop Festival 430 00:31:47,658 --> 00:31:49,956 sharing the bill with The Who. 431 00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:52,345 There was a bit of jockeying between him and The Who 432 00:31:52,389 --> 00:31:55,894 as to who was to go on when, because neither band... 433 00:31:56,042 --> 00:32:00,311 Each band had a very healthy respect for the other's capabilities 434 00:32:00,336 --> 00:32:03,107 and neither of them wanted to follow the other. 435 00:32:03,127 --> 00:32:06,180 I said to Jimi, "Fuck it! We're not going to follow you on." 436 00:32:06,807 --> 00:32:08,839 So he said, "I'm not going to follow you on." 437 00:32:09,103 --> 00:32:12,830 So I said, "Listen. We are not going to follow you on and that's it." 438 00:32:12,864 --> 00:32:16,697 So in the end they resolved the situation by tossing up a coin. 439 00:32:16,731 --> 00:32:19,819 Townsend won and opted to go on first. 440 00:32:24,147 --> 00:32:27,084 We didn't get all this 'peace and love' shit that was going on there. 441 00:32:27,119 --> 00:32:28,616 That was just a load of rubbish. 442 00:32:28,674 --> 00:32:30,126 But the birds were nice. 443 00:32:33,283 --> 00:32:35,258 It was like something from outer space. 444 00:32:35,882 --> 00:32:38,376 Because not only the music was totally different, 445 00:32:38,450 --> 00:32:41,931 it was played with all the aggression of a war. 446 00:32:46,637 --> 00:32:51,346 And I think as a piece of theater, it kind of woke them up. 447 00:32:51,772 --> 00:32:55,526 Only Jimi Hendrix could have followed us, to be honest with you. 448 00:33:05,787 --> 00:33:09,630 # You know you're a cute little heartbreaker 449 00:33:11,066 --> 00:33:11,866 # Foxy 450 00:33:15,094 --> 00:33:18,889 # You know you're a sweet little lovemaker 451 00:33:19,706 --> 00:33:22,138 I think what was so dazzling about Hendrix 452 00:33:22,196 --> 00:33:26,275 was the sounds he was creating and the charismatic spell 453 00:33:26,313 --> 00:33:30,288 that he was casting over the audience was so extreme 454 00:33:30,345 --> 00:33:34,804 that he made everybody else look as if they were almost trying too hard. 455 00:33:35,505 --> 00:33:38,883 I'd like to bore you for about six to do a little a thing, you know... 456 00:33:42,158 --> 00:33:44,774 Excuse me for a minute. Just let me play my guitar, all right? 457 00:33:49,182 --> 00:33:52,220 It was at this point that Hendrix reached for Bob Dylan, 458 00:33:52,244 --> 00:33:54,773 paying homage to his song writing hero 459 00:33:54,808 --> 00:33:58,899 with an electrifying performance of 'Like a Rolling Stone'. 460 00:34:00,551 --> 00:34:03,341 # Once upon a time you dressed so fine 461 00:34:03,385 --> 00:34:09,466 # You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you? 462 00:34:10,931 --> 00:34:13,705 In a way it was almost as audacious a thing to do 463 00:34:13,768 --> 00:34:17,661 as burning Clapton on his own stage was. 464 00:34:17,725 --> 00:34:20,279 Because people left that song alone. 465 00:34:20,299 --> 00:34:23,273 It was one of the all time monuments of the counter culture. 466 00:34:23,313 --> 00:34:25,725 Hendrix comes on playing this amazing guitar licks 467 00:34:25,783 --> 00:34:29,490 sort of drawling the song out in his own inimitable way. 468 00:34:33,803 --> 00:34:38,162 # Look at ya', a complete unknown 469 00:34:39,828 --> 00:34:43,746 # Like a rolling stone 470 00:34:48,015 --> 00:34:49,547 I was a Dylan fan 471 00:34:49,596 --> 00:34:53,454 but 'Like a Rolling Stone' was one of these Dylan songs 472 00:34:53,508 --> 00:34:56,368 that sort of escaped me at the time. 473 00:34:56,437 --> 00:35:00,108 It didn't quite work for me... by Dylan. 474 00:35:00,138 --> 00:35:02,791 But when Jimi played it I understood the song. 475 00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:04,821 It clicked with me for the first time. 476 00:35:13,102 --> 00:35:15,208 The Monterrey audience was stunned 477 00:35:15,252 --> 00:35:18,659 by the sheer explosive power of Hendrix's performance. 478 00:35:19,639 --> 00:35:21,270 But more was to follow. 479 00:35:21,327 --> 00:35:24,460 As the cameras rolled, the voodoo magician 480 00:35:24,500 --> 00:35:27,265 had one final trick up his sleeve. 481 00:35:33,039 --> 00:35:36,103 There's another great moment that I remember. 482 00:35:36,192 --> 00:35:39,673 It was a screening of the Monterey movie, 483 00:35:39,706 --> 00:35:43,343 and happened to be Eric Clapton and myself 484 00:35:43,378 --> 00:35:46,222 in a little room watching this. 485 00:35:46,619 --> 00:35:51,419 When it came time for 'Wild Thing', which he closed with, 486 00:35:51,487 --> 00:35:57,943 Jimi sneaks and listens to the guitar, and it's really not very much in tune, 487 00:36:01,889 --> 00:36:05,191 and Clapton yelled, "Now what are you gonna do?" 488 00:36:06,475 --> 00:36:09,250 And he just turned up the guitar 489 00:36:09,251 --> 00:36:13,065 and showed Clapton what he was gonna do. 490 00:36:21,424 --> 00:36:24,778 I thought it was an incredible moment. 491 00:36:24,925 --> 00:36:32,271 # Wild thing, you make my heart sing 492 00:36:35,125 --> 00:36:39,502 # You make a everything, groovy 493 00:36:40,973 --> 00:36:42,710 He was such a showman, 494 00:36:42,735 --> 00:36:45,442 and his show was so much the highlight of Monterrey, 495 00:36:45,481 --> 00:36:48,393 that it got him in the headlines immediately, 496 00:36:48,467 --> 00:36:52,460 and people were clamouring to see Jimi Hendrix after that point. 497 00:36:58,976 --> 00:37:01,065 Sacrificing the guitar at Monterrey 498 00:37:01,109 --> 00:37:05,670 was the defining moment of an artist who had reached his creative peak. 499 00:37:05,807 --> 00:37:10,630 On that night Jimi Hendrix became a rock legend. 500 00:37:19,004 --> 00:37:22,031 I was standing right next to Robbie Shankle, 501 00:37:22,091 --> 00:37:24,532 and I looked around and his face was like... 502 00:37:25,155 --> 00:37:26,669 in shock. 503 00:37:27,646 --> 00:37:29,196 The audience was shocked too. 504 00:37:29,255 --> 00:37:33,196 That was the whole idea of the act, to outdo The Who. 505 00:37:35,065 --> 00:37:37,872 Robbie was shocked and disgusted, you know, 506 00:37:37,911 --> 00:37:43,930 how can a musician take his instrument and smash it to smithereens. 507 00:37:43,970 --> 00:37:47,479 This is bad karma, man. 508 00:37:55,415 --> 00:37:58,705 To the wide rock audience that saw Jimi at Monterrey pop 509 00:37:58,738 --> 00:38:01,758 this was the most brilliant show anybody had ever put on. 510 00:38:05,851 --> 00:38:08,527 When he lit that guitar on fire, 511 00:38:08,537 --> 00:38:13,123 that became one of the seminal moments of the 60s. 512 00:38:25,304 --> 00:38:27,583 # It was 20 years ago today 513 00:38:27,808 --> 00:38:30,580 # Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play 514 00:38:31,398 --> 00:38:33,724 Hendrix was always looking for a new direction 515 00:38:33,802 --> 00:38:38,022 and when 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' was released in 1967, 516 00:38:38,071 --> 00:38:40,890 he was among the first to hear its significance. 517 00:38:41,375 --> 00:38:45,897 Having stopped touring in '66, The Beatles had taken refuge in the studio 518 00:38:45,966 --> 00:38:51,021 to transform themselves from a pop band into pioneers of psychedelic rock. 519 00:38:51,075 --> 00:38:53,575 What Hendrix saw with 'Sgt. Pepper's' 520 00:38:53,619 --> 00:38:58,977 was a band taking control of its own musical destiny. 521 00:38:59,021 --> 00:39:03,756 EMI ageing studios at Abbey Road played a key role in the process. 522 00:39:03,955 --> 00:39:07,097 # We hope you did enjoy the show 523 00:39:07,239 --> 00:39:10,339 The studio at EMI was basically totally obsolete, 524 00:39:10,388 --> 00:39:14,528 and yet the EMI staff knew everything about it. 525 00:39:14,562 --> 00:39:17,111 Knew how to push it to its limits and how to exploit it. 526 00:39:17,166 --> 00:39:20,612 So it's a very English album. 527 00:39:20,646 --> 00:39:23,867 It's like inventing radar in the potting shed at the end of the garden. 528 00:39:23,881 --> 00:39:26,101 It's very amateurish 529 00:39:26,155 --> 00:39:31,452 and yet they were able to produce something of genius level from it. 530 00:39:31,658 --> 00:39:36,228 # I read the news today, oh boy 531 00:39:38,170 --> 00:39:42,662 # About a lucky man who made the grade 532 00:39:43,322 --> 00:39:45,718 It was like a Heath Robinson sort of situation. 533 00:39:45,744 --> 00:39:48,130 We were tying things together with bits of string, 534 00:39:48,174 --> 00:39:51,033 and bashing things with hammers and taping microphones to this, 535 00:39:51,043 --> 00:39:56,657 and putting microphones in water, you name it, we tried it. 536 00:39:56,687 --> 00:39:59,535 It was always this thing about guitars not sounding like guitars, 537 00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:02,251 and pianos not sounding like pianos and so on. 538 00:40:02,329 --> 00:40:05,057 There's more fun in the record if there's a few sounds 539 00:40:05,116 --> 00:40:06,846 that you don't really know what they are. 540 00:40:06,901 --> 00:40:09,724 Really they're just instruments, only something happens on here, 541 00:40:09,773 --> 00:40:12,493 I couldn't tell you what 'cause we have a special man who sits here 542 00:40:12,547 --> 00:40:13,763 and goes like this... 543 00:40:14,083 --> 00:40:16,725 And the guitar turns into a piano or something, you know. 544 00:40:17,978 --> 00:40:20,267 And then you always say, why don't you use a piano? 545 00:40:20,336 --> 00:40:22,308 Because the piano sounds like a guitar. 546 00:40:22,347 --> 00:40:24,999 # Woke up, got out of bed 547 00:40:25,059 --> 00:40:27,670 # Dragged a comb across my head 548 00:40:28,407 --> 00:40:29,529 They changed everything. 549 00:40:29,593 --> 00:40:31,567 The Beatles were the ones who changed everything. 550 00:40:31,621 --> 00:40:36,405 'Sgt. Pepper', you could argue is the most important album of the 60s. 551 00:40:36,420 --> 00:40:39,283 # Found my coat and grabbed my hat 552 00:40:39,322 --> 00:40:41,442 # Made the bus in seconds flat 553 00:40:41,486 --> 00:40:44,272 There was no question that at the moment it was made, 554 00:40:44,311 --> 00:40:50,551 it was the absolute summation of everything that had come before 555 00:40:50,574 --> 00:40:53,896 in say, the previous 4 or 5 years. 556 00:40:54,077 --> 00:41:00,321 'Sgt. Pepper' is an entire reflection of the society at that time. 557 00:41:00,578 --> 00:41:04,574 # Lucy in the sky with diamonds 558 00:41:05,657 --> 00:41:09,717 # Lucy in the sky with diamonds 559 00:41:09,776 --> 00:41:15,022 They were able to... essentially take drugs without too much censure, 560 00:41:15,105 --> 00:41:17,363 and they could write what they wanted. 561 00:41:17,669 --> 00:41:19,514 The Beatles were tripping out of their heads. 562 00:41:19,543 --> 00:41:23,469 # Lucy in the sky with diamonds 563 00:41:23,498 --> 00:41:28,612 I think that knocks down a lot of barriers in your mind. 564 00:41:28,642 --> 00:41:31,402 You say, "Well, you can't play a C sharp in a C Chord." 565 00:41:32,221 --> 00:41:38,470 But... after you do that, you can play a C sharp in a C chord. 566 00:41:44,089 --> 00:41:47,299 'Sgt. Pepper' is arguably their greatest record. 567 00:41:47,348 --> 00:41:49,211 Certainly their most influential record. 568 00:41:49,235 --> 00:41:51,709 It stunned Jimi Hendrix more than almost anyone else. 569 00:41:51,743 --> 00:41:56,371 He did, what I think, is the most risky move he ever did in his entire career. 570 00:41:56,376 --> 00:42:00,141 It was the day after 'Sgt. Pepper's' had come out, 571 00:42:00,155 --> 00:42:03,493 and Jimi had gotten a copy of it and learned it. 572 00:42:03,534 --> 00:42:07,847 He came backstage at this concert and announced to 'The Experience', 573 00:42:07,910 --> 00:42:12,459 we're gonna start our show with a cover of 'Sgt. Pepper's', the title track. 574 00:42:12,483 --> 00:42:15,807 And Noel Reading told me, "I just was stunned. 575 00:42:15,838 --> 00:42:17,367 "What do you mean? This album just came out. 576 00:42:17,401 --> 00:42:19,396 "We're gonna cover someone else's song?" 577 00:42:19,539 --> 00:42:22,077 And that's what they started that concert with. 578 00:42:22,152 --> 00:42:26,883 And, to add to it, several of The Beatles were in the audience. 579 00:42:26,912 --> 00:42:29,427 # It was twenty years ago today, 580 00:42:29,472 --> 00:42:31,927 # Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play 581 00:42:31,956 --> 00:42:34,306 # They've been going in and out of style 582 00:42:34,335 --> 00:42:36,516 # But they're guaranteed to raise a smile. 583 00:42:37,133 --> 00:42:39,173 The nerve to do that. 584 00:42:39,237 --> 00:42:43,492 Can you imagine anyone having the guts to, 585 00:42:43,535 --> 00:42:44,888 The Beatles' album has just come out, 586 00:42:44,898 --> 00:42:49,372 universally acclaimed the biggest rock band in the world that there ever would be, 587 00:42:49,427 --> 00:42:52,965 and for Jimi then to go, "Ok, the day after it comes out, 588 00:42:52,999 --> 00:42:55,027 "I'm gonna play their song and do it better." 589 00:42:55,110 --> 00:42:59,056 # Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. 590 00:43:13,853 --> 00:43:16,215 Hendrix obviously saw that power. 591 00:43:16,258 --> 00:43:20,502 A band that was actually producing itself now, pretty much. 592 00:43:20,550 --> 00:43:22,766 And said, "Yeah, yeah. That's for me too." 593 00:43:28,266 --> 00:43:30,422 The Beatles had caught Jimi's imagination 594 00:43:30,472 --> 00:43:32,880 just as powerfully as Dylan and The Who. 595 00:43:33,233 --> 00:43:35,869 Through the sonic revolution of 'Sgt. Pepper', 596 00:43:35,932 --> 00:43:38,696 Hendrix saw the potential of the recording studio, 597 00:43:38,725 --> 00:43:42,716 believing it could help take his guitar to a higher level. 598 00:43:44,342 --> 00:43:47,780 # I love your gypsy eyes 599 00:43:55,184 --> 00:43:59,750 In 1968, he started recording 'Electric Ladyland'. 600 00:44:04,626 --> 00:44:08,056 # Way up in my tree I'm sitting by my fire 601 00:44:09,750 --> 00:44:12,923 'Electric Ladyland' is Hendrix the producer, 602 00:44:12,986 --> 00:44:18,161 Hendrix fully embracing the capabilities of the recording studio 603 00:44:18,206 --> 00:44:24,362 and exploring the kind of soundscapes he could create in the studio 604 00:44:24,391 --> 00:44:31,241 to try to realise on tape the extraordinary sonic visions he was hearing in his head. 605 00:44:33,265 --> 00:44:35,596 One of the high points of 'Electric Ladyland' 606 00:44:35,641 --> 00:44:38,675 found Jimi once again acknowledging a musical debt 607 00:44:38,714 --> 00:44:43,417 with an apocalyptic version of Dylan's 'All Along The Watch Tower'. 608 00:44:53,984 --> 00:45:01,572 # "There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief, 609 00:45:02,659 --> 00:45:09,491 # "There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief. 610 00:45:09,545 --> 00:45:12,760 Hendrix had actually created the scenario itself. 611 00:45:12,846 --> 00:45:17,080 Dylan had written the scenario, Hendrix filled in all the colours. 612 00:45:17,128 --> 00:45:21,128 Even Dylan admitted at one point that 'All Along The Watch Tower' 613 00:45:21,163 --> 00:45:27,767 as Hendrix envisioned it was beyond the song he had written and recorded. 614 00:45:30,234 --> 00:45:34,504 That song, it's as if Jimi wrote it. You just get the sense. 615 00:45:34,574 --> 00:45:37,847 It's like the song he was made to play. 616 00:45:41,347 --> 00:45:44,420 Although 'Electric Ladyland' would be acclaimed a masterpiece, 617 00:45:44,503 --> 00:45:47,665 the studio where it was recorded became a curse. 618 00:45:47,857 --> 00:45:51,372 Hendrix's heavy intake of drugs began to take its tall. 619 00:45:51,435 --> 00:45:54,180 Some tracks took over 50 takes, 620 00:45:54,213 --> 00:45:57,729 and the album hundreds of hours of recording time. 621 00:46:01,432 --> 00:46:02,873 Things were getting quite freaky. 622 00:46:02,951 --> 00:46:05,382 This was peculiar times. 623 00:46:05,427 --> 00:46:06,550 There was an awful lot of... 624 00:46:06,677 --> 00:46:11,015 unauthorised substances flying around with different people and all the rest of it. 625 00:46:12,164 --> 00:46:14,763 You were turning up in the studio and try to mix tracks 626 00:46:14,793 --> 00:46:18,270 and there was 30 and 40 people turned up as hangers-on. 627 00:46:19,725 --> 00:46:25,271 It was very difficult to be able to talk about the next step of your life because 628 00:46:27,187 --> 00:46:30,594 most of the people were out of their minds at the time, you know. 629 00:46:30,953 --> 00:46:35,340 I just thought, "This is crazy. I'm spending half my time in the day 630 00:46:35,375 --> 00:46:38,424 "trying to talk common sense to people and... 631 00:46:38,846 --> 00:46:41,159 "all they want to do is get out of their minds." 632 00:46:41,378 --> 00:46:44,230 I said, "Well. I'm off back to England. 633 00:46:44,279 --> 00:46:46,504 "When you come to your senses give us a ring." 634 00:46:48,220 --> 00:46:51,749 Minus his manager, Jimi was left to face the future 635 00:46:51,783 --> 00:46:55,631 without the guiding light that had led him to stardom. 636 00:46:59,907 --> 00:47:05,209 By 1968, the idealism and promise of 'flower-power' had begun to fade. 637 00:47:05,456 --> 00:47:09,788 America was bogged down in Vietnam and at war with itself. 638 00:47:09,980 --> 00:47:13,867 Torn apart by assassinations and the civil rights struggle. 639 00:47:14,601 --> 00:47:17,299 Europe also saw rioting on the streets. 640 00:47:18,795 --> 00:47:22,311 The drugs got heavier and so did the music, 641 00:47:22,347 --> 00:47:26,076 reflecting the paranoia and tension in the air. 642 00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:28,584 You could just feel it. It was very, very different. 643 00:47:28,656 --> 00:47:32,035 The whole atmosphere changed. Became much more politicised, I think. 644 00:47:32,488 --> 00:47:35,572 No longer could you just be a happy flower child skipping through Hyde Park 645 00:47:35,602 --> 00:47:38,371 with your daisy chain and your joss stick 646 00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:40,847 because some cop would come along and bang you on the head. 647 00:47:40,941 --> 00:47:43,456 Whereas in '67 it was all ok, you know. 648 00:47:43,888 --> 00:47:46,305 They'd even light your joint for you. 649 00:47:47,488 --> 00:47:50,453 Mick Jagger and Keith Richard of course have great instincts 650 00:47:50,523 --> 00:47:52,350 for trends and what's going on. 651 00:47:52,425 --> 00:47:57,848 And by 1968 they could see the trend was for this endarkenment. 652 00:47:58,058 --> 00:48:01,254 The music had to turn darker in response 653 00:48:01,255 --> 00:48:04,849 to the darkness of the times, 1968 and '69. 654 00:48:04,878 --> 00:48:11,741 So, to their great credit, The Rolling Stones perfectly synched into that. 655 00:48:12,629 --> 00:48:15,523 # Oh, a storm is threatning 656 00:48:15,607 --> 00:48:19,078 # My very life today 657 00:48:19,250 --> 00:48:23,183 # If I don't get some shelter 658 00:48:23,974 --> 00:48:26,715 # Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away 659 00:48:27,627 --> 00:48:33,376 # War, children, it's just a shot away 660 00:48:33,401 --> 00:48:35,983 # It's just a shot away 661 00:48:36,027 --> 00:48:38,548 The Stones are one of the few bands that 662 00:48:38,852 --> 00:48:43,588 that darkness kind of gives them a new creative zenith. 663 00:48:43,622 --> 00:48:45,260 There was a different world going on there, 664 00:48:45,289 --> 00:48:47,786 but the Stones were not afraid to embrace, 665 00:48:47,787 --> 00:48:50,050 and somewhat make that their mistress. 666 00:48:58,476 --> 00:49:00,157 When you listen to 'Sympathy for the Devil' 667 00:49:00,196 --> 00:49:02,079 it's not like this is a hidden meaning. 668 00:49:02,133 --> 00:49:05,491 You have some people are taking records and playing them backwards 669 00:49:05,516 --> 00:49:08,456 to look for satanic messages. With the Stones it's right there. 670 00:49:09,090 --> 00:49:12,938 They're not afraid to touch on that darkness. 671 00:49:14,287 --> 00:49:17,867 # Please allow me to introduce myself 672 00:49:17,893 --> 00:49:21,769 # I'm a man of wealth and taste 673 00:49:22,771 --> 00:49:25,956 # I've been around for a long, long year 674 00:49:26,014 --> 00:49:29,670 # Stole many a man's soul and faith 675 00:49:30,428 --> 00:49:34,612 They're the band, strangely, that survives and actually feeds off 676 00:49:34,647 --> 00:49:41,627 the dark drug elements that came in and destroyed the rest of the scene. 677 00:49:43,485 --> 00:49:46,889 # Please allow me to introduce myself 678 00:49:46,943 --> 00:49:51,197 # I'm a man of wealth and taste 679 00:49:52,546 --> 00:49:55,973 By the time The Rolling Stones came to play Altamont Festival 680 00:49:56,006 --> 00:49:59,855 in December 1969, heavy drugs and bad trips 681 00:49:59,922 --> 00:50:02,114 were destroying the hippy dream. 682 00:50:02,193 --> 00:50:06,594 And now Hell's Angels touting knives and guns were on the scene. 683 00:50:06,770 --> 00:50:11,000 Hired as security, they turned what was meant to be a peace loving event 684 00:50:11,055 --> 00:50:14,997 into one of the most violent days in rock history. 685 00:50:17,207 --> 00:50:20,693 A Stones fan was stabbed to death by a Hell's Angel. 686 00:50:20,751 --> 00:50:25,021 Never had 'Sympathy for the Devil' seemed a more appropriate song. 687 00:50:29,173 --> 00:50:32,685 We're splitting man if those cats don't stop beating everybody up inside. 688 00:50:32,720 --> 00:50:34,930 I want them out of the way, man! 689 00:50:36,383 --> 00:50:38,011 I don't like you! 690 00:50:38,418 --> 00:50:42,403 I think the closing of that era was probably Altamont. 691 00:50:44,443 --> 00:50:51,489 And that really sort of tied it up with a black bow, 692 00:50:52,343 --> 00:50:53,806 and that's it. 693 00:50:53,840 --> 00:50:57,946 Things got very business-like after that. 694 00:50:58,590 --> 00:51:02,178 That free spirit died at Altamont. 695 00:51:06,995 --> 00:51:09,260 Altamont had been planned to replicate 696 00:51:09,305 --> 00:51:12,156 the utopian spirit of the Woodstock Festival 697 00:51:12,203 --> 00:51:16,123 that had taken place in New York St. just four months before. 698 00:51:16,461 --> 00:51:19,599 It was here that Jimi Hendrix would make history 699 00:51:19,657 --> 00:51:24,057 unleashing a searing rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. 700 00:51:46,600 --> 00:51:48,664 Hendrix climaxed the festival 701 00:51:48,726 --> 00:51:51,875 with this performance of the Star-Spangled Banner 702 00:51:53,010 --> 00:51:59,390 which, I would say, is the greatest American work of art 703 00:51:59,462 --> 00:52:02,120 to deal with the Vietnam War 704 00:52:02,154 --> 00:52:08,056 and the titanic struggles of the civil rights movement, 705 00:52:08,144 --> 00:52:13,065 in any art form by any artist. 706 00:52:18,283 --> 00:52:21,561 Jimi's tortured take on the American National anthem 707 00:52:21,616 --> 00:52:24,763 was seen by many to be a political statement 708 00:52:24,842 --> 00:52:28,092 about the horror the US was inflicting on Vietnam. 709 00:52:28,184 --> 00:52:31,978 His howling guitar echoing the sounds of helicopters, 710 00:52:32,057 --> 00:52:34,660 bombs and machine-guns. 711 00:52:36,803 --> 00:52:40,281 This man was in the 101st Airborne so when you write your nasty letters in... 712 00:52:40,330 --> 00:52:42,791 Nasty letters? Why...? 713 00:52:42,810 --> 00:52:44,026 Well, when you mention the National Anthem 714 00:52:44,100 --> 00:52:46,810 and talk about playing it in any unorthodox way, 715 00:52:47,079 --> 00:52:50,753 immediately get a guaranteed percentage of hate mail from people to say 716 00:52:50,787 --> 00:52:52,771 - how dare...? - But listen, that's not unorthodox. 717 00:52:52,860 --> 00:52:54,634 - It isn't unorthodox? - No, no. 718 00:52:54,674 --> 00:52:57,278 I thought it was beautiful, but then, there you go... 719 00:53:04,941 --> 00:53:08,990 To some critics, the sound of Hendrix's distorted guitar 720 00:53:09,058 --> 00:53:12,764 was also symbolic of the muddy reality of Woodstock. 721 00:53:13,308 --> 00:53:14,963 Drenched by torrential rain, 722 00:53:15,021 --> 00:53:18,624 the event hyped as three days of peace and love 723 00:53:18,648 --> 00:53:20,922 had more the look of a war zone. 724 00:53:22,619 --> 00:53:25,919 We think of this moment as being the great moment of the 60s. 725 00:53:25,959 --> 00:53:28,358 Everyone coming together. Oh here's Jimi Hendrix playing. 726 00:53:28,372 --> 00:53:30,279 Well, while he was playing the Star-Spangled Banner 727 00:53:30,323 --> 00:53:32,996 people are streaming out of the venue. 728 00:53:33,031 --> 00:53:36,433 It's a muddy field. There are only a handful of people left. 729 00:53:37,619 --> 00:53:39,359 That's the difference between, of course, 730 00:53:39,360 --> 00:53:41,761 the reality of what it would have been like to be there, 731 00:53:41,806 --> 00:53:46,315 and the reality of now looking back at the footage and what we remembered as. 732 00:53:46,354 --> 00:53:49,695 But we as pundits and writers and film makers go back 733 00:53:49,710 --> 00:53:52,525 and it's hard not to think of that, in retrospect, 734 00:53:52,579 --> 00:53:54,404 as being the end of a decade. 735 00:53:54,643 --> 00:53:57,967 To Jimi, he left the stage exhausted and collapsed, 736 00:53:57,996 --> 00:54:00,551 and maybe that's a good metaphor 737 00:54:00,580 --> 00:54:03,436 for what the 60s had become for everybody at that point. 738 00:54:04,871 --> 00:54:09,478 Jimi Hendrix would never again match the emotional high of Woodstock. 739 00:54:09,920 --> 00:54:12,283 Burnt out on drugs and exhaustion, 740 00:54:12,322 --> 00:54:15,416 he'd become tired of the attention-grabbing stage tricks 741 00:54:15,471 --> 00:54:18,298 that audiences constantly demanded of him. 742 00:54:19,360 --> 00:54:22,170 I don't care, man. I don't care what they say any more. 743 00:54:22,725 --> 00:54:27,169 It's up to them. If they want to mess up the evening by looking at one thing... 744 00:54:28,027 --> 00:54:30,593 Because all that is included, man, when I feel like with my teeth 745 00:54:30,635 --> 00:54:32,289 I do it. because I feel like it. 746 00:54:33,196 --> 00:54:37,239 When I'm onstage, I'm a complete natural, more so than 747 00:54:37,309 --> 00:54:39,309 talking to a group of people or something. 748 00:54:41,082 --> 00:54:44,838 By August 1970, the sparkle had gone. 749 00:54:44,898 --> 00:54:48,892 Hendrix returned to England to play the Isle of Wight Festival. 750 00:54:48,951 --> 00:54:53,499 Dosed heavily on LSD, he gave a lacklustre performance. 751 00:54:53,603 --> 00:54:58,273 It would be the his last appearance in the country that had made him a star. 752 00:54:59,911 --> 00:55:02,113 I was actually at that show 753 00:55:02,114 --> 00:55:05,702 and I'd been waiting, like everybody else, 754 00:55:05,764 --> 00:55:09,594 for Hendrix to come on and lift our spirits, 755 00:55:09,595 --> 00:55:12,147 set light to the whole event. 756 00:55:12,191 --> 00:55:16,386 But when he came on. it seemed like everything was going wrong. 757 00:55:16,416 --> 00:55:22,154 He seemed exhausted, he was having sort of to drag out all his old songs, 758 00:55:22,254 --> 00:55:24,395 his gear was malfunctioning. 759 00:55:33,400 --> 00:55:35,775 He couldn't get the sound he wanted out of his amps. 760 00:55:35,809 --> 00:55:40,930 You could almost see the life ebbing out of him the longer he's onstage. 761 00:55:51,590 --> 00:55:56,114 There was an awful finale, see, to the whole thing. 762 00:55:56,183 --> 00:56:01,237 Remember Jim Morrison was dead, Janis Joplin was dead, 763 00:56:01,292 --> 00:56:02,860 The Beatles had broke up, 764 00:56:02,913 --> 00:56:05,189 it seemed like all the furniture of the 60s 765 00:56:05,247 --> 00:56:08,070 was being put out on the pavement outside. 766 00:56:15,344 --> 00:56:18,564 On the morning of September 18th, 1970, 767 00:56:18,627 --> 00:56:23,113 almost exactly 4 years to the day he'd first arrived in London, 768 00:56:23,157 --> 00:56:25,503 Jimi Hendrix was found dead 769 00:56:25,543 --> 00:56:29,602 in the basement of the Samarkand Hotel in Notting Hill. 770 00:56:29,705 --> 00:56:34,630 # And the clowns have all gone to bed 771 00:56:36,236 --> 00:56:40,180 His death was undignified, drowned in vomit, 772 00:56:40,235 --> 00:56:43,597 unconscious from a combination of red wine 773 00:56:43,631 --> 00:56:47,033 and an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. 774 00:56:48,341 --> 00:56:50,793 He was 27 years old. 775 00:56:57,034 --> 00:57:00,235 Jimi Hendrix was a weak man, that was his problem. 776 00:57:01,187 --> 00:57:03,285 And the weakness made him vulnerable. 777 00:57:03,614 --> 00:57:06,468 And vulnerable people in rock music don't last long. 778 00:57:07,694 --> 00:57:10,318 There might be good people, there might be nice people, 779 00:57:10,387 --> 00:57:12,298 but they don't last... You've gotta be tough 780 00:57:12,351 --> 00:57:14,633 in the rock music business to survive. 781 00:57:15,294 --> 00:57:17,104 The night that he died, 782 00:57:18,497 --> 00:57:22,743 I was supposed to meet him at the Lyceum to see Sly Stone play, 783 00:57:23,485 --> 00:57:26,614 and I brought with me a left handed Stratocaster, 784 00:57:26,633 --> 00:57:30,638 I'd just found it. I think I bought it at Orange Music. 785 00:57:30,703 --> 00:57:33,845 I'd never seen one before and I was gonna give it to him. 786 00:57:34,626 --> 00:57:38,406 And he was in a box over there and I was in a box over here 787 00:57:38,430 --> 00:57:43,597 and I could see him but we never got together. 788 00:57:43,602 --> 00:57:48,092 The next day he was gone and I was left with that left handed Stratocaster. 789 00:58:05,189 --> 00:58:08,807 The death of Jimi Hendrix was the final curtain. 790 00:58:08,881 --> 00:58:14,081 Drawing to a close an unprecedented period of creativity. 791 00:58:16,052 --> 00:58:20,506 The 60s had given birth to the First Age of Rock. 792 00:58:20,550 --> 00:58:26,138 Presiding over it all, was the genius and showmanship of Jimi Hendrix. 793 00:58:28,975 --> 00:58:32,487 Jimi Hendrix would prove a hard act to follow. 794 00:58:32,520 --> 00:58:35,470 # Well, I stand up next to a mountain 795 00:58:36,310 --> 00:58:39,343 # And I chop it down with the edge of my hand 796 00:58:47,699 --> 00:58:49,734 Next week on Seven Ages of Rock, 797 00:58:49,798 --> 00:58:53,699 rock reinvents itself with Pink Floyd and David Bowie. 798 00:58:58,295 --> 00:59:00,649 To find out more about 'The Seven Ages of Rock' 799 00:59:00,712 --> 00:59:03,711 and see some extra stories featuring artists in the series, 800 00:59:03,775 --> 00:59:07,928 go to "bbc.co.uk/sevenages". 801 00:59:09,771 --> 00:59:13,271 Transcription and synchronization by Fry.