SAGA - How Hendrix Hypnotized Swinging London - Rolling Stone<

On September 25, 1966, a totally unknown young black American guitarist arrived in London, then in full psychedelic effervescence. And causes a real musical earthquake. By Sophie Rosemont

In the last episode –

Jimi Hendrix meets Eric Clapton and offers him his services. The guitarist, living in London with his group Cream, which was very fashionable at the time, discovered a musician of genius, a true free electron of the guitar.

“On the recommendation of Linda Keith, girlfriend of Keith Richards, [Chas] Chandler went to see him perform at Café Wha. From the first notes, he knows he has a phenomenon. Especially since Jimi Hendrix is ​​in full inner turmoil. He's been touring the chitlin' circuit for years, those gigs exclusively for African-American audiences, like Little Richard and the Isley Brothers, where he can't do too much with his guitar, let alone sing. . "If I don't become rich and famous within a year, I'm going to go crazy," he told his girlfriend Diana in early 1966.

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1:18 AM thought. How to make Corned beef hash and eggs?

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Hendrix feels restrained, underestimated. Chandler gets it quickly. He manages to convince Jimi to follow him to London… on the condition that he introduces him to Eric Clapton. Chandler promises him, and decides to make him a star: “Chandler knows everyone in London, and he takes Jimi everywhere. He makes him play in each club they pass the door, says Yazid Manou, the French specialist in Jimi Hendrix. Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Peter Green, Jeff Beck, Keith Richards… all attend one of these improvised performances under the leadership of Chandler. The buzz is done very quickly. His skin color, his afro haircut, his left-handed game impress enormously.

Far from scaring the crowd away, his exotic physique captivates him. The same week, Hendrix became the lover of Kathy Etchingham, a 19-year-old Englishwoman who had previously had affairs with Keith Moon and Brian Jones. She will become her London anchor, as explained by Olivier Nuc, head of the music section at Le Figaro and author of Jimi Hendrix (Librio): “She is not a groupie, nor a woman erased. She is a DJ, independent, cultured… In short, modern. Unlike the Americans he had known until then.” Kathy fell into his arms after seeing him play in one of these clubs, the Scotch of St James, where Hendrix quickly distinguished himself as the new guy in town.

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This is the beginning of a new freedom. First from the musical point of view: with Chandler and Mike Jeffery, the manager of the Animals, Hendrix recruits Noel Redding and discovers the power of Marshall amps thanks to guitarist Vic Briggs. A few days later, he auditioned drummer Mitch Mitchell, and from October 13 to 18, Hendrix opened for Johnny Hallyday's concerts, from Évreux to the Olympia in Paris. A few days later, he recorded “Hey Joe”, a song attributed to a certain Billy Roberts and which the Byrds, among others, would also cover in that same year of 1966.

On December 16, 1966, the release of the 45-rpm, coupled with his first television appearance, shined the spotlight on Hendrix. In January 1967, “Hey Joe” hit the UK charts. Jimi finally has his first hit, the one he's dreamed of since adolescence. And already has another under his elbow, which Chandler discovered, amazed, a few days before Christmas: “Purple Haze”, which will make a sensational entry into the charts in March 1967.

According to Yazid Manou, the self-revelation of the American guitarist does not stop there, because Hendrix becomes a major figure in Swinging London. “He slips feminine attributes into his folk look: rings, scarves, colorful shirts. He goes to the flea market on Carnaby Street… He becomes a fashion victim. While in the United States, when he wore the same shirts as Little Richard, the latter fell on him because he could not stand this competition, in England, he is now the master. When he gets down on his knees, sticks out his tongue, plays with his teeth, the girls are crazy. This he could never have done in the United States. If he gets arrested by the cops, it's because he's wearing a hussar jacket, not because he's black."

Although the British tabloids refer to him as the "wild man of Borneo", England is not mired in a long segregationist tradition like the United States. The color of his skin is rare, certainly, but not undesirable, and even less susceptible to repression. And his Cherokee origins make him a fascinating character for Europeans. What Olivier Nuc confirms: “Why did it not meet the expectations of the Americans? Because his music is too black for white people and too white for black people, and he is considered a session man. The English have just discovered the blues preached by Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Townshend... There is an established order of all these stars, an order upset by Jimi Hendrix who, a bluesman of their age, shows them that he , unlike them, has been rocked by this music since birth. It is completely authentic. In a way, he is the one we are waiting for, in 1966.