Had he survived the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, Jimi Hendrix – the man who gave birth to a whole new way of hearing music – would have been 65 today. 65. Damn, can you imagine that? The guy who brought us Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love would would have reached retirement age.
In terms of pure music (please forgive the grim nature of this thought), it might have been fortuitous that Jimi passed away when he did. Looking at the careers of superstars that survived the 60s (Grace Slick, Bob Dylan, or to a lesser degree Elvis), one wonders if Jimi’s untimely death might have saved the world from a slow descent into disco, then New Wave, and possibly a trainwreck of bizarre eccentricity. Imagine how much differently the world would remember Michael Jackson had he passed away just after releasing Thriller.
Also, it’s American Thanksgiving, or alternatively, it’s Don’t-Buy-Anything Eve. Remember not to buy anything tomorrow. As if. Try anyway. Maybe even just think about not buying stuff tomorrow. Think of it as Be-Kind-To-Your-Credit-Card Day or something – at least for as long as it takes you to climb over all the other shoppers to get at all that crap you’ve been brainwashed into thinking you need.
Anyway, happy birthday Jimmy James. You were missed. I wonder what you would have thought of the world today.
There would have been a lot of head shaking and smiling, I suspect.
That and a lot of “I said KISS THE SKY! Not KISS THIS GUY! FUG!”