Jimi Hendrix: Left-handed Sagittarian

Jimi Hendrix died so young at twenty-seven that if he was alive today, he'd only be sixty-three. Contemporaries like Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Van Morrison and Lou Reed still create and perform in their sixties, and they'll keep going until they drop.

I always remember when it's Jimi's death day because it's always a day before my sister Linda's birthday -- just as I know the date John Lennon was shot because it's the day before my own birthday. Funny, that.

I'm not a big subscriber to top ten lists, greatest this and that labels, but I never have heard anyone who could play guitar like left-handed Hendrix, nor sound anything like him when it comes down to it. Hendrix is one of a handful of musicians I can listen to with headphones to catch more of their nuanaces -- John Coltrane and Miles Davis with their backing musicians are the other regulars. They also sound -- all of them -- most excellent when blasted from a stereo.

Over the years, I've collected a stack of various recordings, the "official" ones and posthumous releases of all kinds; can never get enough and since he's been gone for thirty-six years, that's probably a good thing. The music, as they say, lives on. I've got a ratty vinyl record copy of Are You Experienced? hanging on one of my apartment walls like a little shrine.

Since this is the date on which Jimi Hendrix died, it's worth remembering that he died in London, where his career had really taken off, though he had also maintained a base pad back in Greenwich Village, where he had picked up initial momentum back in 1966, until the end.

There are all sorts of nutty notions about how he died, but the best evidence comes down to this: he mixed red wine and nine Vesparax sleeping tablets (50 mg brallobarbital, 150 mg secobarbital and 50 mg hydroxyzine each, and no longer on the market) before going to bed. Sometime in the night he puked up this lovely combo and, so zonked out he couldn't rouse himself to clear his throat, suffocated and died. A sad end to a creative genius, and nothing romantic about it.

Today's Rune: Possessions.

Viva Jimi Hendrix (11/27/1942-9/18/1970)!