♫Outrageous & Electric♫

Tragedy befalls many top performers in the entertainment industry with numerous incidents attributable to long performances back-to-back where lack of sleep leads to total exhaustion. Drugs, alcohol, recklessness all contribute to early deaths leaving behind some of the most memorable songs and performances of all time. Such is the entertainer in the spotlight today who, like Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Pete Hamm and others, remains Forever 27, thus a member of the 27 Club.

Welcome into the Spotlight...

Jimi Hendrix  Guitarist, singer, and songwriter who delighted audiences in the 60s with his outrageous electric guitar playing skills and his experimental sound

By 1966, Jimi Hendrix had his own band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. The band was a short-lived American rock group fronted by Jimi Hendrix, who was then going by the name "Jimmy James". Jimi Hendrix had a unique style partly due to the fact that he was left-handed and played a right-handed guitar upside down, re-strung for left-handed playing. Hendrix owned and used a variety of guitars during his career (including a Gibson Flying V that he decorated with psychedelic designs). However, his guitar of choice, and the instrument that will always be associated with him, was the Fender Stratocaster, or 'Strat'. He bought his first Strat about 1965 and continued to use Strats almost constantly for the rest of his life.

Today in Music History: October 15, 1965

1965 Hendrix signed a three-year recording contract with entrepreneur Ed Chalpin, receiving US$1 and 1% royalty on records with Curtis Knight. The contract was later to cause serious litigation problems with Hendrix and other record labels.  

Released in 1967, the band's first single, "Hey Joe" was an instant smash in Britain, and was soon followed by other hits such as "Purple Haze" and "The Wind Cries Mary."

Blue Wild Angel

Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight is a posthumous live album by Jimi Hendrix released on November 12, 2002, and re-released in 2004 as a 3-disc 'Deluxe Sound & Vision Edition' in a special box and slip cover format as part of Experience Hendrix's plan to re-release most of Jimi Hendrix's recorded material. The album documents Hendrix's last U.K. live performance at the Isle of Wight Festival on August 31, 1970, barely three weeks before his death. Some songs on the album were available on the 1971 release Isle of Wight.

And the music goes on beating to the rhythm of the changing times...