Jimi Hendrix, November 27, 1942 - September 18, 1970

redraw said:

A true genius!!!
U are incredibly lucky to have see him live - I am so jealous of u Brian.....

Yes, lucky for sure, very lucky. Part of that luck was having a good friend who kept up on what was coming around and got us tickets to the Winterland show in October, 1968, the first of the two times I saw Jimi. Thank you Paul S.!! Also lucky that my folks were cool with it (I was 17- they could have said "no") and drove us up to the city and back.

bflynn1 said:

My boss got to see Jimi in Memphis at Ellis Auditorium in April of '69. It's a great story because he went with a friend who was really into photography so he of course brought his camera. They got to their seats early and the stage was still being set up. His friend said he was going to go up by the stage and take some pictures of the guitars and such and then he'd be back. Well, the show starts and his friend still isn't back yet. About halfway through the show he finally comes back to his seat and my boss is like "Where the hell have you been? You're missing the show!" His friend replies, "Man, you're not gonna believe it. I was right in front of the stage taking pictures and they start letting the actual media members into the pit with me. They never made me leave because I guess they thought I was supposed to be there!"

So, after the show, his friend develops the pictures that he took and kept a set of 8 for himself and gave my boss a set of 8. His friend has since passed away and my boss now has all of the pictures and they have never been released or published in any way. He brought them in one time for me to see. Pretty amazing stuff.

What a great story! Thanks for sharing it.

The first time I saw Jimi was 1968 at Winterland in S.F. I took a handful or two of 35mm slide film shots from not too far back. They too are unpublished and in fact only a few people have seen them so far. Before I get too old I have to figure out what to do with them. They're color slides which is cool but not many places work with slides. Also, the need to be cropped to cut out the fuzzy heads in the bottom of most frames and if possible, editing for better contrast.

mrussel1 said:

Does anyone have the Monterey show on vinyl?  It's one of my all time favorite live shows but I haven't got it yet.  Curious as to the quality.

Yes, I have the 2014 Experience Hendrix version.  It's numbered so I don't know if it's been re-issued since then but it's excellent.  Yet as much as it sounds fine, I always miss the visuals you get on the Monterey festival film which has been reissued with better sound (can't remember the year on that one, I'll try to remember to dig it out.)

Nine days ago while doing a book fair in Sacramento this guy I ran into noticed that I had some music books in my booth and we started talking about various shows we had been to back in the day.  It turns out he and I were at the exact same  Hendrix Experience/Buddy Miles/Dino Valente show at Winterland, San Francisco in 1968.  That was a trip!  In all these years I had never run into anyone who was at either Hendrix shows I had attended.  We even remembered a number of the same details, especially,  just before the last song, "Foxy Lady",  Jimi apologizing for several equipment problems during the show. In the middle of that number, he flashed the audience the peace sign and turned on his Marshall stack with his Strat and literally charged/rammed into it and completely thrashed all his gear.  We, of course, went ape shit!