Saturday, January 18, 2014

The Jimi Hendrix Movie




   This documentary was made three years after Jimi Hendrix's untimely death. It's by no means the definitive tale of Seattle's favorite son, but it's still engaging and highly recommended. Jimi Hendrix comes to vivid life in funny and touching recollections by family, friends and other legends of rock like Eric Clapton, and Mick Jagger.

  Oh yeah, and there's Lou Reed, interviewed in his all-white leisure style suit with his tight 'fro.  Yes, this film was definitely made in the 70s.

   And, there's also priceless and hyperactive Little Richard footage where he talks about how he never got to tell Hendrix he knew he'd make it.  Check it out here, guaranteed to crack you up:




  This movie is fantastic because of all these memories and stories that paint Jimi Hendrix as an actual person-- not just an axe-wielding, drug addicted God.  Some of the musical footage in the film we've seen a zillion times now, but if you get your head back to 1973, when the movie was made, you realize footage was not as readily available as it is now. 

  Movie crowds back then were eager to take in Hendrix' spectacular guitar work at Monterey and Isle of Wight, which sadly for many of us has paled only because in our era of instant gratification we have been completely oversaturated with it.  Watching this movie made me wish I had lived during that time and also brought new depth to Hendrix's genius.


   The musical portions of the film show Hendrix at Monterey ("Rock Me Baby," "Hey Joe," "Like a Rolling Stone," "Wild Thing"), Berkeley Community Theater ("Johnny B. Goode," "Purple Haze"), Woodstock ("Star Spangled Banner" again), Fillmore East ("Machine Gun" with the Band of Gypsies), Isle of Wight ("Red House," "In From the Storm"), the Marquee Club in London ("Purple Haze") and a fine acoustic solo on 12-string guitar ("Hear My Train a-Coming") filmed in London in 1967.

  and here it is here for your viewing pleasure, enjoy.





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Monday, January 13, 2014

Answers.com




I'm officially a guest author on www.guitar.answers.com. I've written my first article on whether or not parents should buy a cheap or expensive guitar for their child. 

here's a link to the article

http://guitar.answers.com/beginner/buying-that-first-guitar-for-your-child 

 If you read it be sure to give it a good rating. 

  I'm not sure if I'm going to keep writing for them. When I was first approached, I was told that my writing was unique and my original input would be appreciated. However, my writing was immediately criticized for being too opinionated, and sounding more like a blogger than a serious writer. 
  The final article that emerged was extremely edited and all of the images I submitted were rejected except for the one image that you see with the article.

  I like the fact that I can write whenever I want and there are no expectations of me as to how much I want to write and when I want to write it. I'm more of a binge writer and I'm not really one to write on a consistent basis. The thing is I don't like being edited so I'm not sure if I will write anything else. 

  They really want informative articles that are uncontroversial, politically correct and un-opinionated. Not really my style but I might try it again in the future. 


  Perhaps being forced to write in a more conventional format will improve my writing and maybe open doors for me that would not have been opened otherwise. Who knows?



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