Characteristics Of Jimi Hendrix

Musician, singer, and song-writer Jimi Hendrix is not your typical tragic hero. Through his success and downfall, there are many factors that contribute to his heroism.

On November 27, 1942, Johnny Allen Hendrix was born. He was born in Seattle, Washington to Al Hendrix and Lucille Hendrix. When Jimi was born his father was drafted into the Army and missed the first four years of his son’s life. During those years Jimi’s mother had moved out of her parents home only to bounce from one home to another struggling to maintain herself and her son. When Jimi’s mother felt like her son was a burden, she left him in the care of a woman named Mrs. Walls. After she passed away, Jimi went into the care of her sister, Mrs. Champ, who moved to Berkeley,

Hendrix moved to New York and served as a back-up guitarist for artists such as Sam Cooke, B.B. King, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Ike and Tina Turner, and Wilson Pickett (“Jimi Hendrix Biography”). Then after Jimi formed his first band the Isley Brothers from 1964-1965. In 1966 he formed another band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames and later moved onto two other bands called the Jimi Hendrix Experience (1966-1969) and Band of Gypsys (1969-1970).

Hendrix moved on from band to band after having tension rising with his band mates. He finally got his big break with his former band the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Jimi’s career got a kickstart after he played a gig in a Greenwich Village coffeehouse one night. Chas Chandler, soon to be Jimi’s band manager, of the band Animals was on the lookout for new talent. He discovered Jimi and took him to London in 1966 and helped to create the new hot band, the Jimi Hendrix

Over the years Hendrix was awarded for his many achievements. He was named pop musician of the year, voted Billboard artist of the year, named performer of the year and honored for rock album of the year by Rolling Stone. He was also presented the key to city of Seattle, elected to Down Beat Hall of Fame in readers' poll, named rock guitarist of the year, and received the lifetime achievement award. Jimi Hendrix went from Guitar Player inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to a Grammy Award winner for lifetime achievement.

“In the few years between his emergence as a solo artist and his death from a barbiturate overdose at the height of his fame, Jimi Hendrix wrought a slew of radical changes on pop music. Arguably the most innovative electric guitarist of all time, he combined the raw passion of the blues, the sonic aggression of hard rock, the aural adventure of psychedelia and modern jazz, and the symphonic lyricism of progressive soul, melding these disparate inclinations into a style that, even when heard in fragments, remains unmistakably his own,” (“Encyclopedia of World