{"id":5783,"date":"2014-05-05T11:21:13","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T11:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/?p=5783"},"modified":"2014-07-07T17:25:22","modified_gmt":"2014-07-07T16:25:22","slug":"book-of-the-week-jimi-hendrix-starting-at-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2014\/05\/05\/book-of-the-week-jimi-hendrix-starting-at-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"Book of the week- Jimi Hendrix, Starting at Zero"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was the most unexpected gift I received this past Christmas- both the nature of the gift and the identity of the givers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Jimi-Hendrix-001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-5210\" src=\"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Jimi-Hendrix-001-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"Jimi-Hendrix-001\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Jimi-Hendrix-001-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Jimi-Hendrix-001.jpg 460w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Why the nature? Anyone who knows me well, knows how deeply immersed I was in the music of Jimi Hendrix throughout my teens and early twenties, but although I still love his music unreservedly, it\u2019s been ages and ages since I last bought a Hendrix record or DVD. What\u2019s more, for most of the last decade or so, \u201creading for fun\u201d has been something of an aspiration rather than an avocation. It seems like it\u2019s all I can do to keep on top of reading for work, and with so many unread novels and biographies sitting ignored on my bookshelf, friends and family have pretty well given up on giving me more books.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-5783-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/One-Time-Lover-end1.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/One-Time-Lover-end1.mp3\">http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/One-Time-Lover-end1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>(<em>A short extract of me playing a tune of mine called &#8220;One Time Lover,&#8221; recorded at an unrehearsed Blues Night jam session* at the Bluebird in Bloomington in July 1990. The influence of Jimi on the playing and the writing will be painfully obvious to anyone who knows his music<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>And the identity of the givers? Well, let\u2019s just say I don\u2019t think that it exactly filled my parents\u2019 hearts with joy when their cellist son\u2019s interest in rock music began the progression from listening, to buying an electric guitar, to buying several more guitars, to joining any number of bands that seemed to gravitate towards the not-so-acoustically-insulated confines of their basement, to an undergraduate education wherein my focus was manifestly and painfully split between my cello studies and my guitar ob sessions. I\u2019m sure it was a huge relief for them when the last band floundered and the guitar stopped showing up on visits home. I wouldn&#8217;t have expected my folks to be looking to put me back in a Hendrix state of mind.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=ss_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=aviewfromthep-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=1620403315&amp;asins=1620403315&amp;linkId=PVTKFRMUK6QONW5S&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"http:\/\/rcm-eu.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?lt1=_blank&amp;bc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;fc1=000000&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;t=aviewfromthep-21&amp;o=2&amp;p=8&amp;l=as4&amp;m=amazon&amp;f=ifr&amp;ref=ss_til&amp;asins=1408842149\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, this past Christmas morning, I opened a copy of <em>Starting at Zero<\/em>, the life of Jimi Hendrix in his own words as compiled by Alan Douglas and Peter Neal.<\/p>\n<p>This book is a treasure.<\/p>\n<p>Hendrix was not just a great guitar player, a matchless songwriter or an iconic cultural figure. He was a genius. \u201cGenius\u201d is a word that is used far more often than it is understood. A real genius is not someone who can do what we all do faster and better. A genius is not defined by a photographic memory, perfect pitch and a creative spark. It&#8217;s not defined by how fast you can do the Sunday Times crossword, or whether you can analyze all the tone rows in Boulez in the time it takes your friends to make a pot of tea.<\/p>\n<p>A real genius is almost a member of another species, tethered to the rest of humanity only through their vulnerability, mortality, their need for love and their personal fallibility. There is no explaining or rationalizing the connections and breakthroughs that a genius can make in their thinking. Folks who doubt that William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon was actually the author of the Shakespeare canon (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbcamerica.com\/anglophenia\/2011\/10\/did-shakespeare-really-write-his-plays-a-few-theories-examined\/\" target=\"_blank\">there are many of them<\/a>), base this doubt primarily on the their scepticism that someone of his birth and education could possibility have possessed the breadth of knowledge needed to write those works. The fact is, the author of those works was a genius, and a genius like that comes from nowhere and flies under its own power. Shakespeare no more needed help from teachers and tutors than a blackbird needs flying lessons. Likewise, throughout Starting at Zero, you can see Hendrix making leaps and connections in his thinking that defy our expectations of what someone can learn or do or figure out or create in a given time.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Rock and pop is primarily a commercial entertainment business, but plenty of art, and plenty of great artists, have managed to slip past the accountants and the image makers and make enduringly compelling art. Sadly, the bean-counters have consolidated their power ruthlessly from year to year, and \u00a0the number of great artists (or even just artists) emerging from the great rotting plastic fa\u00e7ade of pop culture has dropped geometrically from decade to decade, with more \u00a0iconic records being made in March 1968 than in all the 2000\u2019s to date.<\/p>\n<p>Of all of the giants and greats to emerge from the rock world since Elvis hit the scene, Hendrix is the greatest of them all, and the only real genius. Explaining why to someone who doesn\u2019t see it is like explaining why Everest is higher than Pike\u2019s Peak to someone who lives at the foot of Pike\u2019s Peak. It&#8217;s nothing against Pike&#8217;s Peak. \u00a0It\u2019s not just about the guitar playing- it\u2019s about his originality of thought as expressed in his music, his world-view and his lyrics. It\u2019s about his uncanny instincts for composition- there\u2019s not a single unconvincing or trite chord change in any of his original songs. It\u2019s about his incredible power of projection and connection as a soloist and singer. And, of course, it&#8217;s about stuff that&#8217;s over my head- he was a genius.<\/p>\n<p>Really, though, the exact nature of genius is impossible to describe, and too big to measure.<\/p>\n<p>This book, however is an important contribution to our understanding of who Jimi was and how he thought, learned and grew. Like most geniuses (and there aren\u2019t many of them) there were many Jimi\u2019s- he could speak in so many voices. There\u2019s his public voice- the idealistic, dreamy flower-power prophet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;I&#8217;d like everybody to see this type of festival, see how everybody mixes together in harmony and communication&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">500,000 halos..OUTSHINED<br \/>\nTHE MUD AND HISTORY<br \/>\nWe washed and drank in God&#8217;s tears of joy<br \/>\nAnd for once&#8230; and for everyone..<br \/>\nThe truth was not a myster.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">We came together&#8230; danced with<br \/>\nthe pearls of rainy weather.<br \/>\nRiding the waves of music and space,<br \/>\nMUSIC IS MAGIC&#8230;MAGIC IS LIFE&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s the thoughtful man trying to make sense of and define his role in epochal political and social changes:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;One of the worst statements people are making is \u201cNo man is an island.\u201d Every man is an island, and music is about the only way we can communicate. It\u2019s a crusade, right.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;A lot of people in America are looking fo a leader in the music field. It\u2019ll take somebody like us to get it together. We\u2019ll be on a truth kick. We want to be completely honest and barefaced. We want to be respected after we\u2019re dead. Who doesn\u2019t want to be remembered in history? But regardless of whether it\u2019s coing to be us, the feeling there, and that\u2019s what counts. If I die tomorrow, the feeling is there. Forget about brand names. We put across the music. The idea is to do it as strongly as possible, to work out a certain physical change.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;The Beatles could do it. They could turn this world around or at least attempt to. The Beatls can be a positive force, and they could really get the people together. They\u2019ve got power because they are performing for the masses. They should use their power. It might make them a little more uncomfortable in their position, but me, I don\u2019t care about my position. I\u2019m trying to use my power.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s the music geek, who had outgrown his times even at the beginning of his career:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cFreak-out, psychedelic and so on, that\u2019s all pretty limited. I don\u2019t want anybody to stick a psychedelic label around my neck. Sooner Bach and Beethoven. Don\u2019t misunderstand me, I love Bach and Beethoven. I have many records by them, also by Gustav Mahler.<\/p>\n<p>(<em>I have to say, the moment I read this line was a pretty cosmic coming together of my musical interests in life<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>And there\u2019s the businessman. One of the most valuable documents in the book is a letter from Jimi to his manager, dated February 5th 1969. It&#8217;s too long to quote usefully here, but it shows a complete different side to Jimi- he comes across as shrewd, clear-headed and completely professional, with a sophisticated understanding of the business. Don&#8217;t be fooled by the purple shirts- behind the smiling public persona, there was an iron will and an incredible sense of purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the book, that sense of purpose in Jimi- his sense of his musical and social destiny- is something that only seems to get clearer and stronger from page to page. Frankly, I&#8217;ve never really found it credible that someone with such focus and sense of duty could die such a pointless death as the result of his own carelessness. So many of the best of his generation were silenced before their work could be finished. It still smells to high heaven of the stinking dark hand of the deep state, but at \u00a0least they couldn&#8217;t silence the music.<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/youtu.be\/gdya-VDdBiA<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________<\/p>\n<p>* Personnel- Christopher &#8220;Chicken&#8221; Weise, drums, Tom Muller, bass, David Biller and Jon Heagle rhythm guitar (they both have solos earlier in the tune) and KW lead guitar and vocals (if vocals they be)<\/p>\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2014\/05\/05\/book-of-the-week-jimi-hendrix-starting-at-zero\/\" send=\"false\" layout=\"box_count\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"true\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was the most unexpected gift I received this past Christmas- both the nature of the gift and the identity of the givers. Why the nature? Anyone who knows me well, knows how deeply immersed I was in the music of Jimi Hendrix throughout my teens and early twenties, but although I still love his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[932,933,934,567,575,935],"class_list":["post-5783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-opion-life-as-a-performing-musician","tag-books","tag-electric-guitar","tag-guitar-solos","tag-jimi-hendrix","tag-rock","tag-starti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5783"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5807,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5783\/revisions\/5807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}