WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.379 Welcome to the Deep Dive. If you are that listener 00:00:03.379 --> 00:00:05.240 we like to call, you know, the learner, someone 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:07.379 who is just incredibly hungry for knowledge, 00:00:07.480 --> 00:00:10.679 loves those sudden aha moments, but maybe is 00:00:10.679 --> 00:00:13.220 a little short on time today, you are in the 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:15.960 exact right place. Yeah, we are absolutely thrilled 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:18.120 to have you here with us. Today our mission is 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:20.839 a big one. We are looking at a stack of incredibly 00:00:20.839 --> 00:00:25.440 comprehensive notes. historical records, biographical 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:28.800 data, basically detailing the entire life story 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:32.780 of a man widely regarded as rock's greatest instrumentalist. 00:00:33.210 --> 00:00:35.770 We are talking about Jimi Hendrix. Exactly, Jimi 00:00:35.770 --> 00:00:37.429 Hendrix. And this material covers absolutely 00:00:37.429 --> 00:00:39.429 everything. I mean, we are talking about his 00:00:39.429 --> 00:00:42.689 deeply impoverished childhood in Seattle, all 00:00:42.689 --> 00:00:44.850 the way through to his tragic sudden death in 00:00:44.850 --> 00:00:48.729 London at just 27 years old. Right. But we want 00:00:48.729 --> 00:00:50.390 to be very clear about our approach today. I 00:00:50.390 --> 00:00:52.310 want to promise you right up front, we aren't 00:00:52.310 --> 00:00:53.990 just going to sit here and recount a standard 00:00:53.990 --> 00:00:56.759 rock star timeline. No, no typical born here, 00:00:56.840 --> 00:00:59.000 played there, died here biography today. Right. 00:00:59.079 --> 00:01:01.520 Our goal today is to really uncover exactly how 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:04.400 Hendrix completely reengineered the very vocabulary 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:06.480 of the electric guitar. Because whether you are 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:09.340 a professional musician, a weekend hobbyist, 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:11.640 or, you know, someone who has never even picked 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:14.120 up an instrument in your life. Hendrix's approach 00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:17.180 provides an absolute masterclass. It really does. 00:01:17.319 --> 00:01:20.480 It's a study in obsessive experimentation, manipulating 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:24.599 physics, and this is key turning perceived limitations 00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:27.959 into massive innovations. It is essentially a 00:01:27.959 --> 00:01:30.799 blueprint for anyone looking to break the established 00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:34.260 rules in their own field. So let's set the scene 00:01:34.260 --> 00:01:36.359 and figure out where that kind of obsession actually 00:01:36.359 --> 00:01:39.079 starts. We were in Seattle, Washington during 00:01:39.079 --> 00:01:42.939 the mid -1950s. Right. The picture of his early 00:01:42.939 --> 00:01:45.859 life is pretty stark. I mean, his family was 00:01:45.859 --> 00:01:48.680 severely impoverished, constantly moving between 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:51.120 cheap hotels and apartments. Yeah, it was a really 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:53.900 tough, unstable home environment. And young Jimmy, 00:01:54.040 --> 00:01:55.540 who was actually going by the name Jimmy at the 00:01:55.540 --> 00:01:58.219 time, was a shy, sensitive kid navigating all 00:01:58.219 --> 00:02:00.620 of that. And there's this striking detail from 00:02:00.620 --> 00:02:03.239 his elementary school years. He developed a habit 00:02:03.239 --> 00:02:05.599 of carrying a broom around with him everywhere. 00:02:06.170 --> 00:02:08.409 A broom. Like he would literally cling to this 00:02:08.409 --> 00:02:11.229 broom like a security blanket, sweeping it like 00:02:11.229 --> 00:02:13.629 a guitar neck. Just completely lost in his own 00:02:13.629 --> 00:02:16.349 imagination. Wow. And it wasn't just a fleeting 00:02:16.349 --> 00:02:18.830 childhood phase either. It was such an intense, 00:02:18.889 --> 00:02:22.250 constant attachment that a school social worker 00:02:22.250 --> 00:02:24.550 actually took notice of it. Okay, let's unpack 00:02:24.550 --> 00:02:28.030 this. A social worker observing a kid pretending 00:02:28.030 --> 00:02:31.080 to play a broom. And recognizing, hey, this isn't 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:33.060 just a child playing make believe. This is a 00:02:33.060 --> 00:02:36.159 profound psychological necessity. Exactly. I 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:38.599 mean, she spent over a year trying to secure 00:02:38.599 --> 00:02:41.539 school funding intended for underprivileged children 00:02:41.539 --> 00:02:44.379 just to buy him a real guitar. A whole year. 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:47.159 Yeah. She even wrote a formal letter insisting 00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:49.020 that leaving this child without a musical instrument 00:02:49.020 --> 00:02:51.979 might result in genuine psychological damage. 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:54.479 That is wild. But the funding was denied and 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:57.439 his father refused to buy him one. So he is completely 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:00.539 blocked by a certain. But what does he do? In 00:03:00.539 --> 00:03:03.360 1957, he is helping his dad remove garbage from 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:05.719 an older woman's home and he finds a ukulele 00:03:05.719 --> 00:03:08.159 in the trash. Just tossed out. It's thrown away. 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:10.599 And it only has one single string left on it. 00:03:10.759 --> 00:03:13.419 But on that single string, learning entirely 00:03:13.419 --> 00:03:17.180 by ear, he figures out how to play along to Elvis 00:03:17.180 --> 00:03:20.020 Presley's Hound Dog. It perfectly encapsulates 00:03:20.020 --> 00:03:23.000 his inherent musicality. He didn't let the massive 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.780 constraint of a single string stop him. He just 00:03:25.780 --> 00:03:28.819 adapted to the tool he had. Yeah. Finally, in 00:03:28.819 --> 00:03:31.819 mid 1958, when he was 15 years old, he acquired 00:03:31.819 --> 00:03:34.939 his first actual acoustic guitar for five dollars. 00:03:35.219 --> 00:03:37.840 Five dollars. Right. And from that moment on, 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:40.680 the obsession took full hold. He played for hours 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:42.740 every single day, practically sleeping with the 00:03:42.740 --> 00:03:44.639 instrument and obsessively absorbing the records 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:47.300 of blues legends like Muddy Waters. But the road 00:03:47.300 --> 00:03:49.169 to becoming a rock Rock God wasn't exactly a 00:03:49.169 --> 00:03:51.189 straight line. By the time he was a teenager, 00:03:51.469 --> 00:03:53.789 he found himself getting into some serious trouble. 00:03:53.969 --> 00:03:55.789 What's fascinating here is how this apparent 00:03:55.789 --> 00:03:58.509 detour actually laid the foundational groundwork 00:03:58.509 --> 00:04:00.789 for his future sound. Right. Before he turned 00:04:00.789 --> 00:04:03.370 19, authorities caught him riding in stolen cars 00:04:03.370 --> 00:04:06.449 twice. And he was given a stark choice by the 00:04:06.449 --> 00:04:09.830 judge, go to prison or join the military. Wow. 00:04:09.889 --> 00:04:13.050 Okay. So he chose the Army and enlisted in the 00:04:13.050 --> 00:04:15.849 101st Airborne Division as a paratrooper. He 00:04:15.849 --> 00:04:18.699 did. I have to imagine a free -spirited guitar 00:04:18.699 --> 00:04:21.740 -obsessed teenager did not mesh well with the 00:04:21.740 --> 00:04:24.800 strict hierarchy of the 101st Airborne. How did 00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:27.829 he handle the military structure? Terribly. Honestly, 00:04:28.029 --> 00:04:30.129 his obsession with his guitar completely overshadowed 00:04:30.129 --> 00:04:32.550 his duties. His superiors caught him napping 00:04:32.550 --> 00:04:35.009 while on watch, he missed bed checks, and he 00:04:35.009 --> 00:04:38.069 was even deemed an unqualified marksman. His 00:04:38.069 --> 00:04:40.730 peers bullied him constantly for his relentless 00:04:40.730 --> 00:04:43.009 guitar playing, too. At one point, they even 00:04:43.009 --> 00:04:45.029 hid the instrument until he begged for it back. 00:04:45.149 --> 00:04:48.550 But this military stint was crucial for one very 00:04:48.550 --> 00:04:53.079 specific reason. In November 1961, a fellow serviceman 00:04:53.079 --> 00:04:55.439 was walking past an Army club and heard Hendrix 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:57.660 playing inside. And that serviceman was a bass 00:04:57.660 --> 00:04:59.879 player named Billy Cox, right? Exactly. Cox was 00:04:59.879 --> 00:05:02.410 blown away. He later described the playing as 00:05:02.410 --> 00:05:04.750 a bizarre combination of the bluesman John Lee 00:05:04.750 --> 00:05:07.209 Hooker and the classical composer Beethoven. 00:05:07.610 --> 00:05:10.050 What a combination. Right. They immediately started 00:05:10.050 --> 00:05:12.529 jamming together. And that connection is incredibly 00:05:12.529 --> 00:05:15.129 important because it laid the foundation for 00:05:15.129 --> 00:05:17.410 the power trios Hendrix would later make famous. 00:05:17.730 --> 00:05:20.509 Okay, let's explain why a power trio is so demanding 00:05:20.509 --> 00:05:23.350 for the listener. In a standard band, you might 00:05:23.350 --> 00:05:25.819 have a rhythm guitarist. A lead guitarist, a 00:05:25.819 --> 00:05:28.600 keyboardist, a bassist and a drummer. Lots of 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:31.120 layers to fill the sound. Exactly. But in a power 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:35.060 trio, it's just drums, bass and one single guitar. 00:05:35.399 --> 00:05:38.019 That one guitar has to carry the melody, the 00:05:38.019 --> 00:05:40.139 rhythm and the lead all at once so the sound 00:05:40.139 --> 00:05:42.740 doesn't feel empty. Right. And the rhythm section 00:05:42.740 --> 00:05:46.019 of his future power trio was literally born on 00:05:46.019 --> 00:05:49.079 a military base in Kentucky. Precisely. So eventually 00:05:49.079 --> 00:05:51.959 the military realizes Hendrix is not soldier 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:54.300 material and he gets an honorable discharge. 00:05:54.639 --> 00:05:57.220 Makes sense. Yeah. He and Billy Cox moved to 00:05:57.220 --> 00:05:59.560 Tai Si, which kicks off a grueling period of 00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:02.439 his life where he is paying his dues on the 2BA 00:06:02.439 --> 00:06:04.920 circuit, much more widely known as the Chitlin 00:06:04.920 --> 00:06:07.259 Circuit. And for those who might not know, the 00:06:07.259 --> 00:06:09.740 Chitlin Circuit was a vital network of venues, 00:06:10.060 --> 00:06:12.540 clubs, and theaters throughout the United States 00:06:12.540 --> 00:06:15.800 that provided a safe and acceptable space for 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:18.560 African -American entertainers to perform during 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:20.819 the era of racial segregation. It was essential. 00:06:21.399 --> 00:06:23.579 It was, but the touring schedules were absolutely 00:06:23.579 --> 00:06:26.839 punishing. He's playing backup for absolute legends, 00:06:27.060 --> 00:06:29.220 Little Richard, the Isley Brothers, Ike, and 00:06:29.220 --> 00:06:33.009 Tina Turner. But it's a grind. And it's super 00:06:33.009 --> 00:06:35.490 restrictive. Yeah, it was a highly structured, 00:06:35.709 --> 00:06:37.610 almost corporate environment in terms of rules. 00:06:37.810 --> 00:06:40.329 Band leaders like Little Richard ran a really 00:06:40.329 --> 00:06:42.449 tight ship. Like how strict are we talking? They 00:06:42.449 --> 00:06:44.990 had strict mandates about wardrobe, stage presence, 00:06:45.189 --> 00:06:47.230 where you stood, what you played, and absolute 00:06:47.230 --> 00:06:50.129 punctuality. And Hendrix was naturally flamboyant. 00:06:50.250 --> 00:06:53.990 Very. He dressed loudly. He wanted to push boundaries 00:06:53.990 --> 00:06:56.870 and experiment with solos. And so he constantly 00:06:56.870 --> 00:06:59.290 clashed with these band leaders. He was frequently 00:06:59.290 --> 00:07:01.670 fined or even fired for upstaging the stage. 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:04.560 And to survive in that environment and still 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:07.800 get noticed, he had to find ways to stand out, 00:07:07.899 --> 00:07:11.680 which led to some wild stage gimmicks. There's 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:13.699 this incredible story about him learning how 00:07:13.699 --> 00:07:15.899 to play the guitar with his teeth from a bandmate 00:07:15.899 --> 00:07:18.959 in Tennessee. Yes. Hendrix later talked about 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:21.379 it, basically saying, down there you have to 00:07:21.379 --> 00:07:23.300 play with your teeth or else you get shot. There's 00:07:23.300 --> 00:07:26.540 a trail of broken teeth all over the stage. If 00:07:26.540 --> 00:07:28.639 we connect this to the bigger picture, those 00:07:28.639 --> 00:07:31.079 difficult years on the Chitlin Circuit were Hendrix's 00:07:31.079 --> 00:07:34.000 incubator. He was mastering the deep grooves 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:37.279 of rhythm and blues, learning impeccable stagecraft, 00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:40.420 and building undeniable technical chops. But 00:07:40.420 --> 00:07:42.860 the frustration of being artistically stifled 00:07:42.860 --> 00:07:45.160 by strict band leaders eventually boiled over, 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:47.920 right? Exactly. He felt he had to break free. 00:07:48.060 --> 00:07:50.860 So he makes a massive leap and moves to New York 00:07:50.860 --> 00:07:53.139 City to venture out on his own. And that move 00:07:53.139 --> 00:07:55.959 to New York triggers the massive turning point. 00:07:56.360 --> 00:07:58.519 He's playing a gig in a club, and he catches 00:07:58.519 --> 00:08:00.939 the eye of Linda Keith, who was Keith Richards' 00:08:01.259 --> 00:08:03.759 girlfriend at the time. She was completely mesmerized, 00:08:03.879 --> 00:08:06.439 utterly mesmerized by what he's doing. She tries 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:08.480 to get him signed, and when her first attempts 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:10.720 fall through, she connects him with Chaz Chandler. 00:08:11.180 --> 00:08:13.839 Now, Chaz Chandler was a bass player just leaving 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:16.279 the successful British band The Animals, and 00:08:16.279 --> 00:08:17.939 he was looking to move into management. Right, 00:08:18.060 --> 00:08:20.240 and Chandler watches Hendrix play his arrangement 00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:23.439 of the song Hey Joe, and he immediately sees 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:26.019 the vision. He essentially says, I am taking 00:08:26.019 --> 00:08:30.160 you to London. Wow. So in late 1966, Hendrix 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:32.580 arrives in the UK. And you have to understand 00:08:32.580 --> 00:08:35.539 the London music scene at this time, it is totally 00:08:35.539 --> 00:08:38.220 dominated by blues purists. Right. The reigning 00:08:38.220 --> 00:08:40.679 king is Eric Clapton, who was playing in the 00:08:40.679 --> 00:08:43.519 band Cream. The graffiti on the walls in London 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:46.220 literally says Clapton is God. Which sets up 00:08:46.220 --> 00:08:48.419 one of the most legendary encounters in rock 00:08:48.419 --> 00:08:52.340 history. It's October 1966. Cream is playing 00:08:52.340 --> 00:08:55.210 a show at the London Polytechnic. Okay. Chandler 00:08:55.210 --> 00:08:57.830 brings this completely unknown American guitarist 00:08:57.830 --> 00:09:00.529 backstage, and Hendrix politely asks if he can 00:09:00.529 --> 00:09:02.409 sit in for a song. That takes some nerve. Oh, 00:09:02.409 --> 00:09:04.370 absolutely. He gets up on stage with Cream, plugs 00:09:04.370 --> 00:09:07.610 in, and launches into a frantic, glistering version 00:09:07.610 --> 00:09:10.230 of the Howlin' Wolf song, Killing Floor. Which 00:09:10.230 --> 00:09:13.190 is a notoriously difficult, fast -paced song 00:09:13.190 --> 00:09:15.750 to play. And Clapton's reaction is very telling. 00:09:15.929 --> 00:09:17.789 He later said that Hendrix played just about 00:09:17.789 --> 00:09:20.029 every style you could think of, not in a flashy 00:09:20.029 --> 00:09:23.190 show -off way, but effortlessly. Effortlessly. 00:09:23.570 --> 00:09:26.730 Clapton recalled walking off the stage, his hands 00:09:26.730 --> 00:09:29.929 literally dropping to his sides, thinking, my 00:09:29.929 --> 00:09:32.250 life is never going to be the same again. That 00:09:32.250 --> 00:09:35.090 is amazing. This unknown American had just blown 00:09:35.090 --> 00:09:37.750 the reigning guitar god off his own stage. Here's 00:09:37.750 --> 00:09:39.649 where it gets really interesting, because to 00:09:39.649 --> 00:09:42.669 understand why he blew Clapton's mind, We have 00:09:42.669 --> 00:09:44.570 to look past the showmanship and look at the 00:09:44.570 --> 00:09:47.769 actual gear. Hendrix wasn't just playing the 00:09:47.769 --> 00:09:50.110 guitar better than anyone else. He was fundamentally 00:09:50.110 --> 00:09:52.610 hacking the instrument. Yeah, he really was. 00:09:52.850 --> 00:09:54.230 And if you've never thought about the physical 00:09:54.230 --> 00:09:56.830 engineering of an electric guitar, what he did 00:09:56.830 --> 00:09:59.649 next is fascinating. Hendrix was left -handed. 00:10:00.029 --> 00:10:01.950 But instead of buying a left -handed guitar, 00:10:02.269 --> 00:10:05.649 he took a standard right -handed Fender Stratocaster, 00:10:05.850 --> 00:10:08.830 flipped the entire body completely upside down, 00:10:08.990 --> 00:10:11.450 and restrung it so he could play it left -handed. 00:10:11.710 --> 00:10:14.509 And that might sound like a simple cosmetic quirk, 00:10:14.549 --> 00:10:16.629 you know, just a guy making do with what he has. 00:10:17.009 --> 00:10:20.190 But the physics of that choice physically altered 00:10:20.190 --> 00:10:23.429 the instrument's tone. How so? Well, a Fender 00:10:23.429 --> 00:10:26.590 Stratocaster has a slanted bridge pickup. The 00:10:26.590 --> 00:10:28.769 pickup is the magnetic device that captures the 00:10:28.769 --> 00:10:31.500 vibration of the strings. By flipping the guitar 00:10:31.500 --> 00:10:34.440 upside down, the geometry of that slanted pickup 00:10:34.440 --> 00:10:37.100 is completely reversed in relation to the strings. 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:39.840 Right, because normally the pickup is closer 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:41.820 to the bridge for the high strings, making them 00:10:41.820 --> 00:10:44.100 bright, and further away for the low strings, 00:10:44.299 --> 00:10:47.750 making them warm. But Hendrix reversed it. Exactly. 00:10:47.929 --> 00:10:51.129 This meant that his lowest string now had a brighter, 00:10:51.230 --> 00:10:54.129 more piercing, aggressive sound, and his highest 00:10:54.129 --> 00:10:56.990 string had a darker, warmer, more vocal quality. 00:10:57.250 --> 00:10:59.230 Which is the exact opposite of the guitar's intended 00:10:59.230 --> 00:11:02.090 acoustic design. Exactly. He unintentionally 00:11:02.090 --> 00:11:04.049 re -engineered the frequency balance of rock 00:11:04.049 --> 00:11:06.250 guitar. He also threw out standard classical 00:11:06.250 --> 00:11:09.539 guitar technique. Most players use bar chords, 00:11:09.740 --> 00:11:12.019 which means laying your index finger completely 00:11:12.019 --> 00:11:14.399 flat and rigid across the entire fretboard to 00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:17.200 hold down all the strings. Hendrix rejected that 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:20.759 entirely. He had massive hands, so he used his 00:11:20.759 --> 00:11:23.460 thumb to reach over the top of the neck and fret 00:11:23.460 --> 00:11:26.269 the low sixth string. Which is brilliant because 00:11:26.269 --> 00:11:29.210 it freed up his other four fingers to play intricate 00:11:29.210 --> 00:11:32.370 dancing lead melodies at the exact same time 00:11:32.370 --> 00:11:33.990 he was playing the foundational rhythm chords. 00:11:34.269 --> 00:11:36.690 So he wasn't playing rhythm then lead? No, he 00:11:36.690 --> 00:11:39.019 was playing them simultaneously. It sounded like 00:11:39.019 --> 00:11:41.399 a pianist using a left hand for bass and a right 00:11:41.399 --> 00:11:43.659 hand for melody, giving the audience the illusion 00:11:43.659 --> 00:11:46.220 that two entirely different guitarists were playing 00:11:46.220 --> 00:11:48.440 at once. And he didn't stop with the guitar itself. 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:51.279 He pushed the boundaries of amplification technology, 00:11:51.580 --> 00:11:54.779 too. On the R &B circuit, you used whatever standard 00:11:54.779 --> 00:11:58.259 amps were at the club. But in England, Hendrix 00:11:58.259 --> 00:12:01.080 met Jim Marshall, the creator of Marshall amplifiers, 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:03.820 and demanded unprecedented power. He really wanted 00:12:03.820 --> 00:12:06.129 to push the volume. He did. He started buying 00:12:06.129 --> 00:12:09.029 100 -watt Marshall amps. And he didn't just use 00:12:09.029 --> 00:12:11.429 one. He stacked three of them together, and he 00:12:11.429 --> 00:12:14.769 turned every single control knob, volume, bass, 00:12:15.029 --> 00:12:17.570 treble, middle, to the absolute maximum level. 00:12:17.669 --> 00:12:20.230 This literally became known in the industry as 00:12:20.230 --> 00:12:24.210 the Hendrix setting. Stacking three 100 -watt 00:12:24.210 --> 00:12:27.110 amps cranked to the absolute maximum creates 00:12:27.110 --> 00:12:29.649 a volume that is just earth -shattering. But 00:12:29.649 --> 00:12:31.350 it was deliberate. It wasn't just to be loud. 00:12:31.549 --> 00:12:34.559 No. That extreme volume and gain created what 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:37.100 every audio engineer previously considered an 00:12:37.100 --> 00:12:41.279 undesirable flaw amplifier feedback. That shrieking, 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:44.379 uncontrollable howling sound. But Hendrix didn't 00:12:44.379 --> 00:12:47.779 see feedback as a flaw to be avoided. He harnessed 00:12:47.779 --> 00:12:50.919 it. By moving his guitar closer or further from 00:12:50.919 --> 00:12:53.200 the speakers, he turned that screaming feedback 00:12:53.200 --> 00:12:56.370 into a controlled, fluid vocabulary. And he brought 00:12:56.370 --> 00:12:59.289 that exact same obsessive, rule -breaking experimentation 00:12:59.289 --> 00:13:02.330 into the recording studio. The studio stories 00:13:02.330 --> 00:13:04.950 are incredible. Oh, the studio stories. Chandler 00:13:04.950 --> 00:13:07.370 quickly built the Jimi Hendrix experience with 00:13:07.370 --> 00:13:09.509 Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums, 00:13:09.610 --> 00:13:11.789 and they had massive hits. But by their second 00:13:11.789 --> 00:13:14.909 album... access bold as love hendrix is pushing 00:13:14.909 --> 00:13:16.590 the limits of the studio they were on a strict 00:13:16.590 --> 00:13:19.049 deadline for that one right they were and hendrix 00:13:19.049 --> 00:13:21.669 actually lost the master tape of side one by 00:13:21.669 --> 00:13:23.669 leaving it in the back seat of a london taxi 00:13:23.669 --> 00:13:26.470 the panic must have been unimaginable oh totally 00:13:26.470 --> 00:13:29.470 they had to remix almost the entire first side 00:13:29.470 --> 00:13:32.029 of the album in a single frantic overnight session 00:13:32.029 --> 00:13:35.370 but despite that chaos the album features groundbreaking 00:13:35.370 --> 00:13:39.049 technical work the coda of the title track contains 00:13:39.049 --> 00:13:42.070 the very first recording of stereo phasing and 00:13:42.070 --> 00:13:44.289 rock music. We should define stereophasing for 00:13:44.289 --> 00:13:47.409 everyone. It's an analog effect achieved by manipulating 00:13:47.409 --> 00:13:50.190 two tape machines playing the exact same track 00:13:50.190 --> 00:13:52.789 so they go slightly out of sync. It creates this 00:13:52.789 --> 00:13:55.250 swirling, swooshing sound that actually feels 00:13:55.250 --> 00:13:57.590 like the audio is revolving in physical circles 00:13:57.590 --> 00:14:00.110 around your head. It's incredibly disorienting 00:14:00.110 --> 00:14:02.929 and futuristic. Yeah, and its perfectionism only 00:14:02.929 --> 00:14:05.809 grew from there. By their third album, Electric 00:14:05.809 --> 00:14:09.110 Ladyland, the tension was palpable. He moved 00:14:09.110 --> 00:14:11.029 the sessions to New York and took over the production 00:14:11.029 --> 00:14:13.690 duties himself. He wanted full control. He demanded 00:14:13.690 --> 00:14:16.429 endless, repeated takes of songs. He would make 00:14:16.429 --> 00:14:19.049 the band play a track 50 times to get the exact 00:14:19.049 --> 00:14:21.730 tone he heard in his head, which frustrated his 00:14:21.730 --> 00:14:23.750 manager, Chas Chandler, so much that Chandler 00:14:23.750 --> 00:14:25.980 actually quit. He also started treating the studio 00:14:25.980 --> 00:14:28.539 like a hangout spot, filling the control room 00:14:28.539 --> 00:14:31.100 with partying friends and guests, which deeply 00:14:31.100 --> 00:14:34.419 alienated his bassist Noel Redding. Right. But 00:14:34.419 --> 00:14:36.740 despite all that interpersonal chaos and the 00:14:36.740 --> 00:14:40.019 agonizing perfectionism, Electric Ladyland became 00:14:40.019 --> 00:14:43.299 an undeniable masterpiece. It was his most commercially 00:14:43.299 --> 00:14:45.980 successful release, featuring brilliant covers 00:14:45.980 --> 00:14:48.759 like Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower, and 00:14:48.759 --> 00:14:51.340 it became his one and only number one album in 00:14:51.340 --> 00:14:53.840 the United States. It's remarkable that out of 00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:57.340 that intense party atmosphere came such a meticulous 00:14:57.340 --> 00:15:00.860 visionary record. And as his studio sound expanded, 00:15:00.919 --> 00:15:03.559 his stage presence reached mythical proportions. 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:06.299 Because he had conquered London, but he was still 00:15:06.299 --> 00:15:09.080 largely unknown in America. That changed in 1967 00:15:09.080 --> 00:15:11.139 when he returned to the U .S. to play the Monterey 00:15:11.139 --> 00:15:13.500 Pop Festival, and he got that gig largely because 00:15:13.500 --> 00:15:15.639 Paul McCartney insisted to the organizers that 00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:17.580 the festival would be a joke without Hendrix. 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:20.519 Hendrix knew he had to make an unbelievable impact. 00:15:20.919 --> 00:15:23.779 The band The Who had played earlier in the festival, 00:15:23.820 --> 00:15:25.860 and their trademark was violently destroying 00:15:25.860 --> 00:15:28.399 their instruments on stage. Hendrix realized 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:30.340 he needed to upstage them. He had to go bigger. 00:15:30.700 --> 00:15:33.879 So at the climax of his set, he took theatricality 00:15:33.879 --> 00:15:36.659 to a new level. He literally sacrificed his guitar. 00:15:36.899 --> 00:15:39.559 He laid it on the stage, set it on fire with 00:15:39.559 --> 00:15:42.299 lighter fluid, summoned the flames with his fingers 00:15:42.299 --> 00:15:45.039 like a shaman. And then smashed into pieces. 00:15:45.340 --> 00:15:48.340 It was a shocking, visceral performance art piece. 00:15:48.820 --> 00:15:51.500 And there is a brilliant detail about how that 00:15:51.500 --> 00:15:54.200 specific moment was captured for history. The 00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:57.399 photograph. Yes. There was a 17 -year -old freelance 00:15:57.399 --> 00:15:59.799 photographer named Ed Karef at the festival. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:02.299 He had never even heard of Jimi Hendrix before 00:16:02.299 --> 00:16:04.940 that day. But he is standing on a chair right 00:16:04.940 --> 00:16:07.019 at the edge of the stage, shielding his face 00:16:07.019 --> 00:16:09.980 from the intense heat of the fire. And he realizes 00:16:09.980 --> 00:16:12.740 he only has one single frame of film left in 00:16:12.740 --> 00:16:14.919 his... camera. One frame. With that one remaining 00:16:14.919 --> 00:16:17.200 shot, he captures Hendrix kneeling before the 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:19.580 burning guitar. It became one of the most iconic 00:16:19.580 --> 00:16:21.679 images in the history of rock and roll. That 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:24.480 one performance skyrocketed him to massive fame 00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:29.019 in America, which leads us to August 1969 and 00:16:29.019 --> 00:16:31.700 Woodstock. By this point, Hendrix is the highest 00:16:31.700 --> 00:16:34.379 paid rock musician in the world. He was scheduled 00:16:34.379 --> 00:16:36.840 to be the grand finale, closing the festival 00:16:36.840 --> 00:16:39.690 at midnight on Sunday. But because of massive 00:16:39.690 --> 00:16:42.289 rain delays and logistical nightmares, he didn't 00:16:42.289 --> 00:16:44.490 actually take the stage until 8 a .m. on Monday 00:16:44.490 --> 00:16:47.029 morning. He had been awake for over three days 00:16:47.029 --> 00:16:50.049 straight. And the crowd, which had peaked at 00:16:50.049 --> 00:16:52.710 around 400 ,000 people over the weekend, had 00:16:52.710 --> 00:16:55.669 dwindled down to just 30 ,000 exhausted, mud 00:16:55.669 --> 00:16:58.610 -soaked fans. But it was to that drastically 00:16:58.610 --> 00:17:01.389 reduced morning crowd that he delivered his defining 00:17:01.389 --> 00:17:03.909 live moment, his rendition of the U .S. national 00:17:03.909 --> 00:17:06.569 anthem, the Star -Spangled Banner. The way he 00:17:06.569 --> 00:17:08.829 played it was completely unprecedented. He used 00:17:08.829 --> 00:17:11.170 copious amounts of distortion, sustain and aggressive 00:17:11.170 --> 00:17:13.509 feedback to sonically imitate the sounds of warfare, 00:17:13.730 --> 00:17:16.130 the shrieks of falling rockets, the wailing of 00:17:16.130 --> 00:17:18.589 sirens and the explosions of bombs. And looking 00:17:18.589 --> 00:17:20.529 at this objectively, just reporting on what observers 00:17:20.529 --> 00:17:23.369 noted at the time, contemporary political pundits 00:17:23.369 --> 00:17:25.769 immediately viewed this performance as a massive 00:17:25.769 --> 00:17:28.309 political protest against the Vietnam War. Right. 00:17:28.410 --> 00:17:31.970 It was widely interpreted as a searing anti -war 00:17:31.970 --> 00:17:34.309 statement. But Hendrix himself was actually a 00:17:34.309 --> 00:17:36.250 little more elusive when he was asked directly 00:17:36.250 --> 00:17:38.789 about it. What did he say? A few weeks later 00:17:38.789 --> 00:17:41.069 on a talk show, he said, we're all Americans. 00:17:41.349 --> 00:17:43.869 It was like, go America. We play it the way the 00:17:43.869 --> 00:17:46.009 air is in America today. The air is slightly 00:17:46.009 --> 00:17:49.009 static. The air is slightly static. Yeah. What 00:17:49.009 --> 00:17:51.950 a brilliant, ambiguous answer that refuses to 00:17:51.950 --> 00:17:54.710 be boxed in and lets the music speak for itself. 00:17:55.289 --> 00:17:57.750 He managed to capture the cultural tension and 00:17:57.750 --> 00:18:01.519 the noise of the late 1960s in a single. unaccompanied 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:03.779 guitar solo. He really did. So what does this 00:18:03.779 --> 00:18:06.299 all mean? The fame, the money, the creative genius, 00:18:06.380 --> 00:18:08.460 it all came at an incredibly high and tragic 00:18:08.460 --> 00:18:10.819 price. The records are very candid about the 00:18:10.819 --> 00:18:12.920 darker realities of his life during this peak 00:18:12.920 --> 00:18:15.980 period. Despite all his monumental success, he 00:18:15.980 --> 00:18:18.299 was struggling deeply with severe substance abuse. 00:18:18.539 --> 00:18:21.299 Yes. Alcohol was a particularly dangerous trigger 00:18:21.299 --> 00:18:23.839 for him. Friends and bandmates noted that while 00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:25.960 he was generally a very sweet, soft -spoken, 00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:28.700 and quiet guy, liquor set off a deeply bottled 00:18:28.700 --> 00:18:31.140 up anger. Oh, wow. When intoxicated, he would 00:18:31.140 --> 00:18:33.619 experience violent, out -of -character rages. 00:18:33.799 --> 00:18:36.380 smashing windows in hotel rooms or getting into 00:18:36.380 --> 00:18:39.880 physical altercations. Furthermore, after 1967, 00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:44.019 his reliance on illicit drugs like LSD and amphetamines 00:18:44.019 --> 00:18:46.119 grew significantly as a way to cope with the 00:18:46.119 --> 00:18:48.759 grueling, relentless demands of global touring. 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:51.299 And the stress just kept compounding. In May 00:18:51.299 --> 00:18:54.119 1969, he was passing through customs in Toronto, 00:18:54.259 --> 00:18:56.500 Canada, and authorities found a small amount 00:18:56.500 --> 00:18:59.240 of heroin and hashish in his luggage. He was 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:01.420 formally charged with drug possession. That had 00:19:01.420 --> 00:19:04.839 to be terrifying. Now, he was ultimately acquitted 00:19:04.839 --> 00:19:07.420 by a jury. He testified that a fan had given 00:19:07.420 --> 00:19:09.480 him a vial of what he thought was legal medication, 00:19:09.740 --> 00:19:12.079 and he just slipped it into his bag without looking. 00:19:12.180 --> 00:19:14.940 But even with the acquittal, that trial hung 00:19:14.940 --> 00:19:17.140 over his head for seven months, weighing heavily 00:19:17.140 --> 00:19:19.500 on his mind and his creativity. This raises an 00:19:19.500 --> 00:19:21.859 important question. How did a man so sensitive 00:19:21.859 --> 00:19:24.240 to sound and pressure cope with that kind of 00:19:24.240 --> 00:19:27.059 intense global scrutiny? His answer was to build 00:19:27.059 --> 00:19:30.319 a sanctuary. He and his manager had initially 00:19:30.319 --> 00:19:33.019 purchased a nightclub in Greenwich Village, New 00:19:33.019 --> 00:19:36.779 York. But the bills for Hendrix's constant obsessive 00:19:36.779 --> 00:19:39.940 studio bookings at other facilities were so exorbitant, 00:19:39.940 --> 00:19:43.279 running around $300 ,000 a year, that they decided 00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:45.920 to scrap the nightclub idea and convert the space 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:48.400 into his own personal recording studio. This 00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:51.740 became the legendary Electric Lady Studios. It 00:19:51.740 --> 00:19:54.519 cost an estimated $1 million to build, which 00:19:54.519 --> 00:19:56.779 was double their original budget. Double the 00:19:56.779 --> 00:19:58.990 budget. But he didn't care about the cost because 00:19:58.990 --> 00:20:01.369 he had it custom designed specifically to soothe 00:20:01.369 --> 00:20:03.869 his creativity. He requested that there be no 00:20:03.869 --> 00:20:05.849 harsh right angles in the architecture. It's 00:20:05.849 --> 00:20:08.650 a very specific request. Yeah. The designer installed 00:20:08.650 --> 00:20:11.769 round windows, curved walls, and an ambient lighting 00:20:11.769 --> 00:20:14.710 machine to make it a deeply relaxing womb -like 00:20:14.710 --> 00:20:16.789 environment where he could just create. And he 00:20:16.789 --> 00:20:19.170 absolutely loved that studio. He spent weeks 00:20:19.170 --> 00:20:21.589 there. Yeah. But tragically, he only got to use 00:20:21.589 --> 00:20:24.569 it for a few months in the summer of 1970 before 00:20:24.569 --> 00:20:26.569 his management insisted he leave for a year. 00:20:27.920 --> 00:20:30.640 And that tour was a disaster from the start. 00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:33.640 He was exhausted, he missed his new studio, and 00:20:33.640 --> 00:20:35.640 his bandmates were struggling with their own 00:20:35.640 --> 00:20:39.259 paranoia and drug use. In early September, he 00:20:39.259 --> 00:20:41.480 abandoned a show in Denmark after just three 00:20:41.480 --> 00:20:44.039 songs, stepping up to the microphone and telling 00:20:44.039 --> 00:20:46.819 the crowd, I've been dead a long time. That is 00:20:46.819 --> 00:20:49.420 chilly. A few days later in Germany, he played 00:20:49.420 --> 00:20:52.480 his final concert ever amidst torrential rain 00:20:52.480 --> 00:20:55.900 and a booing crowd. He retreated to London to 00:20:55.900 --> 00:20:59.380 rest. And on the morning of September 18, 1970, 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:02.019 after spending the previous evening with a girlfriend, 00:21:02.279 --> 00:21:04.720 taking a large number of sleeping pills and drinking 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:07.660 wine, he was found unresponsive in her apartment. 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:10.500 That's so sad. He was rushed to the hospital 00:21:10.500 --> 00:21:12.460 but was pronounced dead at the age of just 27. 00:21:12.980 --> 00:21:15.500 The coroner concluded he had aspirated his own 00:21:15.500 --> 00:21:18.400 vomit and died of asphyxia while heavily intoxicated 00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:21.180 with barbiturates. It was a devastating sudden 00:21:21.180 --> 00:21:23.819 end to a mainstream career that really only lasted 00:21:23.819 --> 00:21:26.519 four short years. Four years. But the density 00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:28.740 of those four years fundamentally altered the 00:21:28.740 --> 00:21:31.240 trajectory of modern music. You simply cannot 00:21:31.240 --> 00:21:34.039 overstate his influence. He didn't just inspire 00:21:34.039 --> 00:21:36.799 other rock guitarists. The material highlights 00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:39.339 how his rhythmic innovations shaped the entire 00:21:39.339 --> 00:21:42.160 genre of funk, directly influencing pioneers 00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:45.400 like George Clinton and later Prince. He inspired 00:21:45.400 --> 00:21:48.079 post -punk and grunge too, with players like 00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:50.460 Kurt Cobain citing his raw energy as a major 00:21:50.460 --> 00:21:53.099 influence. Even hip -hop artists like a tribe 00:21:53.099 --> 00:21:56.039 called Quest and the Beastie Boys heavily sampled 00:21:56.039 --> 00:21:58.299 and drew from his rhythmic phrasing. Even the 00:21:58.299 --> 00:22:00.779 jazz legend Miles Davis was deeply impressed 00:22:00.779 --> 00:22:04.000 by him. Davis went so far as to compare Hendrix's 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:06.819 improvisational genius and ability to intuitively 00:22:06.819 --> 00:22:10.019 follow a melody to the legendary jazz saxophonist 00:22:10.019 --> 00:22:12.700 John Coltrane. That is unfathomably high praise 00:22:12.700 --> 00:22:14.799 from one of the most demanding, brilliant musicians 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:17.079 of the 20th century. And it underscores the truth 00:22:17.079 --> 00:22:19.119 that Hendrix wasn't just a rock star playing 00:22:19.119 --> 00:22:22.339 loud music. He was a serious, deeply intuitive 00:22:22.339 --> 00:22:25.029 musical innovator who successfully synthesize 00:22:25.029 --> 00:22:28.369 the history of blues, jazz, R &B, and rock into 00:22:28.369 --> 00:22:30.670 something entirely unprecedented. Which brings 00:22:30.670 --> 00:22:33.490 us to the ultimate takeaway for you, the listener. 00:22:33.750 --> 00:22:36.210 Jimi Hendrix wasn't just born with a supernatural 00:22:36.210 --> 00:22:39.509 magical gift that can't be analyzed. He was a 00:22:39.509 --> 00:22:41.990 creator who looked at a standard piece of wood 00:22:41.990 --> 00:22:45.589 and wire and asked, what else can this do? Exactly. 00:22:45.730 --> 00:22:48.569 He took his physical constraints, like being 00:22:48.569 --> 00:22:51.549 a lefty with a right -handed guitar, and actively 00:22:51.549 --> 00:22:54.849 turned them into acoustic advantages. He took 00:22:54.849 --> 00:22:58.109 the industry's defined mistakes like an amplifier 00:22:58.109 --> 00:23:00.809 screaming with feedback and turned them into 00:23:00.809 --> 00:23:03.470 a completely new musical vocabulary. I want to 00:23:03.470 --> 00:23:04.990 leave you with a final thought to mull over, 00:23:05.170 --> 00:23:07.670 building on the sheer technical innovations we've 00:23:07.670 --> 00:23:10.940 discussed today. Hendrix was a true pioneer of 00:23:10.940 --> 00:23:14.440 electronic soundscapes. He took raw analog gear 00:23:14.440 --> 00:23:17.160 like the Octavia pedal, which automatically generates 00:23:17.160 --> 00:23:19.160 a sound one octave higher than the note being 00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:22.259 played, and the Univibe, which creates a pulsing, 00:23:22.259 --> 00:23:25.140 rotating speaker effect, and he pushed them to 00:23:25.140 --> 00:23:27.160 their absolute physical breaking point. Pushed 00:23:27.160 --> 00:23:28.740 them right to the edge. He did this to create 00:23:28.740 --> 00:23:31.299 sounds that literally did not exist in the human 00:23:31.299 --> 00:23:33.400 experience before he played them. That's incredible 00:23:33.400 --> 00:23:36.190 to think about. Now imagine for a second what 00:23:36.190 --> 00:23:40.069 a mind so obsessed with futuristic sci -fi soundscapes 00:23:40.069 --> 00:23:41.990 would have done if he had lived just a decade 00:23:41.990 --> 00:23:44.490 longer. Oh, man. What would Jimi Hendrix have 00:23:44.490 --> 00:23:47.650 created in the 1980s or 90s when digital synthesizers, 00:23:47.769 --> 00:23:50.289 drum machines, sampling, and modern digital production 00:23:50.289 --> 00:23:53.630 became widely available? What unimaginable sounds 00:23:53.630 --> 00:23:56.390 did we miss out on because he was lost at 27? 00:23:56.750 --> 00:24:00.180 That is a wild, haunting thought. The idea of 00:24:00.180 --> 00:24:02.299 Jimi Hendrix with a digital sampler and modern 00:24:02.299 --> 00:24:05.160 synths, it completely rewrites music history 00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:07.220 in your head. Thank you so much for joining us 00:24:07.220 --> 00:24:08.980 on this deep dive today. We highly encourage 00:24:08.980 --> 00:24:10.920 you to go listen to some of the isolated guitar 00:24:10.920 --> 00:24:13.700 tracks from Axis, Bold as Love, or watch the 00:24:13.700 --> 00:24:15.720 live Woodstock recording of the Star Spangled 00:24:15.720 --> 00:24:17.720 Banner with Fresh Ears today. You will hear the 00:24:17.720 --> 00:24:19.880 physics, the rule breaking, and the sheer genius 00:24:19.880 --> 00:24:22.200 in a completely new way. We'll see you next time.