jimi hendrix Essays (231 words) - Counterculture Of The 1960s

Jimi Hendrix Jimi Hendrix perhaps no other rock-and-roll trailblazer was as original or as influential in such a short span of time as Jimi Hendrix. Widely acknowledged as one of the most daring and inventive virtuosos in rock history, Hendrix pioneered the electric guitar (he played a right-handed Fender Stratocaster-- his "Electric Lady"--upside-down and left-handed) as an electronic sound source capable of feedback, distortion, and a host of other effects that could be crafted into an articulate and fluid emotional vocabulary. And though he was on the scene as a solo artist for less than five years, Hendrix is credited for having a profound effect on everyone from George Clinton and Miles Davis to guitarists Stevie Ray Vaughan and Vernon Reid. Born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942, Hendrix's father, James "Al" Hendrix, later changed his son's name to James Marshall. Young Jimi taught himself to play the guitar during his schoolboy days in Seattle, drawing influence from blues legends like B.B. King and Robert Johnson. He slung his guitar over his back and left home to enlist in the 101st Division of the Air Force (the "Screaming Eagles"), where he served as a parachute jumper until an injury led to his discharge. Hendrix then began working as a session guitarist under the name Jimmy James, playing behind such marquee acts as Sam Cooke, Ike and Tina Turner, and the Isley Brothers. After gigging extensively with Little Richard in 1964, Hendrix became entangle...