the audience applauded

Simply Perfect

How sad is this?

From my favorite movies..

... a nice sentiment about Hendrix.http://cchronicle.com/2010/07/jimi-hendrix-was-not-godJimi closes his eyes with raised eyebrows that arch with heaven and steeples. His left arm reaching for breath and guidance from the angel; a purpled wing. My eyes now close with the aromas of someplace, of exploration and eruptions. From sleepy dreams and wisps of smoke that curl my hands, Purple Haze finds its way back. A piece of life in my corner of memories and favorites; my mantra of home to my heart.By the time of his Band of Gypsys, the sound that exhaled my Star Spangled Banner disappeared. Anthem maker and Bold as Love warrior, Jimi slipped under. He died September 18, 1970 from massive amounts of wine, vomit and suspicion. James Marshall Hendrix lay in London deceased and I accepted another, just like the ones before and the ones in line... and so on.

Made several years after the death of Jimi Hendrix, this film looks back at his career through the eyes of his family, peers, friends and fans. Recollections and anecdotes are broken up by various live performances and interviews with Hendrix himself.I have never taken the time to find out whether I am a fan of Hendrix or not; sure I like everything I have heard but that is different from being a fan. However watching this film made me more interested in hearing more from him because of how well put together it is. Ignoring the subject for a minute, the strength of the film is in the structure and delivery. The film is not trying to factually capture Hendrix from cradle to grave but rather look at him as an entertainer and a man. To do this we get live footage of him mixed with plenty of contributions from others who knew him. To make the point that these contributions are good, the edit overlaps several people telling the same stories and I liked the way this worked.The film also manages to keep focused while also allowing the contributors to speak personally and from their own experiences of him – not in glib sound bites but mostly in natural chatting and recollections. These are worked well to produce a narrative flow, building on what we know about the man and his music. Structure wise it is an impressive biography and you could nearly watch the film for this alone. Of course the film itself is not about the way it is put together but rather about the title character. Here the film is also strong as we see him on stage and instantly get what it was that people like/liked about him. He has a great stage presence and is recognisable as being a creative force. However the use of interviews etc also shows him to be quite a quiet and shy type and I liked this aspect of his character and the way the way the film brought it out.For fans then, it is a given that you will enjoy this but it will also work for the casual viewer with a passing interest in his music; this is what I was and the film drew me into the man more than I had been. I think it is unlikely anyone would watch it for structure alone, but I must comment that it is this that is another reason why the film works as well as it does.

A recent visit to the UK allowed me to get lost among the shelves and stands of VHS, DVD and CD in a large HMV shop; however, my bank account did not allow me to get too, too lost, and after several hours I managed to emerge into the warm sunlight of high summer clutching a few bargains, among which were the irreplaceable Dame Edith Evans in her 1952 version of `The Importance of Being Ernest', some pieces I had not had by Jacqueline du Pré on CD, William Golding's classic `The Lord of the Flies' in a 1963 film version, and this British version of Jimi Hendrix, the man and his music. This 98 minute documentary is not really biographical in the normal sense, but rather a look at the musician in his concerts in the last few years leading up to his death, together with spoken contributions by people in the music industry and others close to him, as well as his own comments with archive footage from a TV interview carried out in the USA. Including live footage from concerts at Monterey and the Marquee Club (1967), Fillmore East and Woodstock (1969), and Berkeley and the Isle of Wight (1970), the documentary includes testimonies from such well-known musicians as Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, and even Little Richard, as well as by his fellow-musicians Mitch Mitchell (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) and Billy Cox and Buddy Miles (Band of Gypsys), with spoken participations from Fayne Pridgon and erstwhile feminist Germaine Greer.The programme is rather marred by some shoddy editing, unfortunately, and at times the filming seems to give you the feeling that the cameraman was even more stoned than Hendrix himself. However, the end result is a satisfying run through some of his better-known material and lends insight to what made the man and the musician tick.Jimi Hendrix was a rather shy person, basically, and indeed was so pressed by the urgency of everyone in the music business around him that in the end he just could not handle the situation. A trusting man, naïve even, he was rather easily cajoled and misled into being something he might otherwise have avoided being. A similar situation led to the end of Janis Joplin, just a year later. However, on stage, Jimi Hendrix and his Stratocaster became fused into one electrifying element that shattered all notions on what a guitar could and could not do, and thus laid the stage for those who would follow – Clapton and Jagger – and influencing other rock bands of the time, perhaps Big Brother and the Holding Company being one of the most obvious examples. The post-Beatles era left an empty space searching for a new direction to take, and Jimi Hendrix was the man to do it; this ultimately led to such groups as The Who, The Cream, The Nice, Pink Floyd, and what was to become known as `New Age'.Live performance tracks included on this tape are: Purple Haze (two different performances), Hear my train a-comin', Rock me baby, Hey Joe, Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan), his hugely famous Star-Spangled Banner, Machine Gun (two different performances), Johnny B. Goode, In from the storm, and Red House.

This documentary will give you the heart and soul of James M Hendrix, from the people who loved him to the thoughts and performances of the man himself. The performances are predominately taken from The Monterey Pop Festival, widely regarded as the best set Jimi ever played. Unlike most music biopics that seem to be afraid of the music they chronicle, this one gives you nice long stretches of performance, never cutting off a solo to give some little pearl of wisdom. Songs are played in their entirety.The interviews are engaging and sometimes enlightening; such as The Who's Pete Townshend explaining how the appearance order at Monterey was decided, and Jimi's long-time girlfriend Fayne Pridgon retelling tales of Jimi turning her on to such new experiences as LSD and a strange little folk singer named Bob Dylan.I HIGHLY recommend this movie to anyone who loved Hendrix for his amazing contributions to the halls of rock history. He truly was the impresario of his generation, and maybe all others, before and since. Turn the speakers way up, sit back, and ENJOY! You will not be disappointed.