Blues rock is a musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the twelve-bar blues and extended boogie jams with rock and roll styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, piano, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a tube guitar amplifier, giving it an overdriven character.

The style began to develop in the mid-1960s in Britain and the United States. UK Bands, such as The Rolling Stones and The Animals and American bands such as the Butterfield Blues Band and the Siegel–Schwall Band, experimented with music from the older American bluesmen, like Albert King, Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, and B.B. King.^[3] While the early blues rock bands "attempted to play long, involved improvisations which were commonplace on jazz records",^[3] by the 1970s, blues rock got heavier and more riff-based.^[3] By the "early '70s, the lines between blues rock and hard rock were barely visible",^[3] as bands began recording rock-style albums. In the 1980s and 1990s, blues rock acts returned to their bluesy roots, and some of these, such as the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan, flirted with rock stardom."^[3]

Characteristics[link]

Blues rock can be characterized by bluesy improvisation, the twelve-bar blues, extended boogie jams typically focused on the electric guitar player, and often a heavier, riff-oriented sound and feel to the songs than might be found in traditional Chicago-style blues. Blues rock bands "borrow[ed] the idea of an instrumental combo and loud amplification from rock & roll".^[3] It is also often played at a fast tempo, again distinguishing it from the blues.^[3]

Instrumentation[link]

The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit. The electric guitar is usually amplified through a tube guitar amplifier or using an overdrive effect. Often two guitars are played in blues rock bands, one playing the accompaniment riffs and chords on rhythm guitar and one playing the melodic lines and solos of the lead guitar part.^[3] While 1950s-era blues bands would sometimes still use the upright bass, the blues rock bands of the 1960s used the electric bass, which was easier to amplify to loud volumes. Keyboard instruments such as the piano and Hammond organ are also occasionally used. As with the electric guitar, the sound of the Hammond organ is typically amplified with a tube amplifier, which gives a growling, "overdriven" sound quality to the instrument. Vocals also typically play a key role, although the vocals may be equal in importance or even subordinate to the lead guitar playing as well a number of blues rock pieces are instrumental-only.

Structure[link]

Blues rock pieces normally follow the 12-bar blues structure, but often follow a slightly different structure, as seen in "Stormy Monday", which follows the general format of a 12-bar blues, but which the Allman Brothers played with altered chords:

G⁹ | C⁹ | G⁹ | G⁹ | C⁹ | C⁹ | G⁹ / Am⁷ | Bm⁷ / Bbm⁷ | Am⁷ | Cm⁷ | G⁹ / C⁹ | G⁹ / D augmented

...instead of the traditional G | C | G | G | C | C | G | G | D | C | G | G progression. The progression is usually repeated, with only one section of the song, though there are exceptions, some pieces having a "B" section. The key is traditionally major, but can also be minor, a common technique being the use the minor pentatonic scale, with blue notes, over a major chord progression, as employed by Albert King in nearly all of his pieces. The lead guitar typically uses the pentatonic scale, either major or minor, when soloing.

A classic example of blues rock is Eric Clapton's "Crossroads" first released on Cream's Wheels of Fire album. It was adapted from Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues" and "Traveling Riverside Blues". It fuses some of the lyrical and musical styles of blues with rock-styled tempo and guitar solos.

History[link]

While rock and blues have historically always been closely linked, blues rock as a distinctly recognizable genre did not arise until the late 1960s. In 1963, American Lonnie Mack debuted an idiosyncratic, fast-paced electric blues guitar style which confounded his contemporaries, but which later came to be identified with blues rock. His instrumentals from that period were recognizable as blues or R&B tunes, but he relied heavily upon fast-picking techniques derived from traditional American country and bluegrass genres. The best-known of these are the hit singles "Memphis" (Billboard #5) and "Wham!" (Billboard #24).^[4] However, blues rock was not named as such, or widely recognized as a distinct movement within rock, until several years later, with the advent of such British bands as Free, Savoy Brown and the earliest incarnations of Fleetwood Mac. The musicians in those bands had honed their skills in a handful of British blues bands, primarily those of John Mayall and Alexis Korner.^[5] At that point, Mack's earlier recordings were rediscovered and he soon came to be regarded as a blues rock pioneer. Other American performers, such as Johnny Winter, Paul Butterfield and the group Canned Heat are now also considered blues rock pioneers.

Music critic Piero Scaruffi argues that the blues rock genre was defined when John Mayall released the album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton in 1966, which included guitarist Eric Clapton. Scaruffi defines "blues rock" as a "genre of rhythm'n'blues played by white European musicians." Scaruffi claims that the US "equivalent of John Mayall was Al Kooper." Cream "took the fusion of blues and rock to places where it had never been before" by engaging in a "level of group improvisation that was worthy of jazz." He calls Fleetwood Mac (during the Peter Green period in the late 1960s) "one of the most creative and competent British bands of the blues revival".^[6] Scaruffi argues that the "British blues musicians were true innovators", in that they did a "metamorphosis" on US blues and "turned it into a "white" music" by emphasizing "the epic refrains of the call and response", speeding up the "Chicago's rhythm guitars," smoothing "the vocal delivery to make it sound more operatic" and adding vocal harmony.^[7]

The electric guitar playing of Jimi Hendrix (a veteran of many American rhythm & blues and soul groups from the early-mid 1960s) and his power trios, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys, has had broad and lasting influence on the development of blues rock, especially for guitarists.^[5] Eric Clapton was another guitarist with a lasting influence on the genre; his work in the 1960s and 1970s with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, The Yardbirds, supergroups Blind Faith, Cream and Derek and the Dominos, and an extensive solo career has been seminal in bringing blues rock into the mainstream.^[5] By this time, American acts such as The Doors and Janis Joplin further introduced mainstream audiences to the genre.

In the late '60s Jeff Beck a former member of The Yardbirds, revolutionized blues rock into a form of heavy rock, taking the UK and the USA by storm with his band, The Jeff Beck Group.^[5] Jimmy Page, a third alumnus of The Yardbirds, went out to form The New Yardbirds which would soon become known as Led Zeppelin and would become a major force in the 1970s heavy metal scene.^[5] The Who during their early run was a blues rock standard group, with their posters for their performances including their catch phrase "Maximum R&B". During this period the band covered songs from Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Mose Allison. The Australian band AC/DC were also influenced by blues rock. Other blues rock musicians influential on the scene in the 1970s included Dr. Feelgood, Rory Gallagher and Robin Trower.

Beginning in the early 1970s, American bands such as Aerosmith fused blues with a hard rock edge. Blues rock grew to include Southern rock bands, like the Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd, while the British scene, except for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat, became focused on heavy metal innovation.^[8] Blues rock had a re-birth in the early 1990s - 2000s, with many artists such as Gary Moore, Mad Season, The White Stripes,^[9] The Dead Weather, Them Crooked Vultures, John Mayer,^[10] Blues Traveler, The Black Crowes,^[11] The Black Keys,^[12] Jeff Healey,^[13] Clutch,^[14] The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion^[15] and Joe Bonamassa.^[16]

See also[link]

• List of blues rock performers
• Texas blues

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Bane, Michael. White Boy Singin' the Blues. Penguin, 1982. 270 p. A5, index. ISBN 0-14-006045-6
• Brunning, Bob. Blues : The British Connection. Foreword by Paul Jones. Blandford Press, 1986. 256 p., index. ISBN 0-7137-1836-6. Rev. & upd. ed. in 1995 as Blues in Britain : The history, 1950s-90s (other sub-title : 1950s to the Present), 288 p. ISBN 0-7137-2457-9. Re-publ. w/ original title by Helter Skelter, 2002, 288 p. ISBN 1-900924-41-2
• Fancourt, Leslie. British Blues on Record (1957–1970). Retrack Books, 1989. 62 p. A5.
• Heckstall-Smith, Dick. The Safest Place in the World: A Personal History of British Rhythm and Blues. Preface by Jack Bruce. Quartet, 1989, hb, 178 p. ISBN 0-7043-2696-5. New ed. by Clear Books in 2004, w/ a second part written by Pete Grant, his manager since 2000, now titled as Blowing the blues: Fifty Years Playing the British Blues, w/ a 7-track CD (5 prev. unissued). 256 p. ISBN 1-904555-04-7.
• Hjort, Christopher. Strange Brew: Eric Clapton and the British Blues Boom, 1965-1970. Foreword by John Mayall. Jawbone, 2007. 352 p. ISBN 1-906002-00-2.
• Myers, Paul. Long John Bauldry and the Birth of the British Blues, Greystone Books, 2007, 272 p. ISBN 978-1-55365-200-7
• McStravick, Summer; Roos, John (eds); Foreword by Bob Brunning. Blues-Rock Explosion, Old Goat Publishing, 2001. 286 p A4 + xxxi, index. ISBN 0-9701332-7-8.
• Schwartz, Roberta Freund. How Britain Got the Blues: The Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom. Ashgate (Ashgate Popular and Folk music series), 2007. 282 p., hb. ISBN 0-7546-5580-6.

Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia performing in New Haven, CT at the Jerry Garcia WPLR Show.
Background information
Birth name	Jerome John Garcia
Born	August 1, 1942 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	August 9, 1995(1995-08-09) (aged 53) Forest Knolls, California, U.S.
Genres	Folk rock, bluegrass, country rock, jazz, rock and roll, psychedelic rock, rhythm and blues, blues-rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, pedal steel guitar, banjo, vocals
Years active	1960–1995
Labels	Rhino, Arista, Warner Bros., Acoustic Disc, Grateful Dead
Associated acts	Grateful Dead, Legion of Mary, Reconstruction, Jerry Garcia Band, Old and in the Way, Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, New Riders of the Purple Sage
Website	JerryGarcia.com
Notable instruments
Gibson SGs Guild Starfire 1957 Gibson Les Paul Gold-top Les Paul with P-90 Fender Stratocaster "Alligator" Doug Irwin-modified Alembic "Wolf" Doug Irwin Custom "Tiger" Doug Irwin Custom "Rosebud" Stephen Cripe Custom "Lightning Bolt," Martin D-28, Takamine acoustic-electric guitars

Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician who was best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead.^[1][2] Though he disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader or "spokesman" of the group.^[1][2][3][4]

One of its founders, Garcia performed with the Grateful Dead for their entire three-decade career (1965–1995). Garcia also founded and participated in a variety of side projects, including the Saunders-Garcia Band (with longtime friend Merl Saunders), Jerry Garcia Band, Old and in the Way, the Garcia/Grisman acoustic duo, Legion of Mary, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage (which Garcia co-founded with John Dawson and David Nelson).^[1] He also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician. He was well known by many for his distinctive guitar playing and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" cover story.^[5]

Later in life, Garcia was sometimes ill because of his unstable weight, and in 1986 went into a diabetic coma that nearly cost him his life. Although his overall health improved somewhat after that, he also struggled with heroin and cocaine addictions,^[3][4] and was staying in a California drug rehabilitation facility when he died of a heart attack in August 1995.^[2][4]

Childhood and early life[link]

Jerry Garcia's ancestry was Galician (Spanish), Irish, and Swedish.^[6] He was born in San Francisco, California, on August 1, 1942, to Jose Ramon "Joe" Garcia and Ruth Marie "Bobbie" (née Clifford) Garcia.^[7][8][9] His parents named him after composer Jerome Kern.^[7][10][11] Jerome John was their second child, preceded by Clifford Ramon "Tiff", who was born in 1937.^[12][13] Shortly before Clifford's birth, their father and a partner leased a building in downtown San Francisco and turned it into a bar, partly in response to Jose being blackballed from a musician's union for moonlighting.^[14]

Garcia was influenced by music at an early age,^[15] taking piano lessons for much of his childhood.^[16] His father was a retired professional musician and his mother enjoyed playing the piano.^[7] His father's extended family—who had emigrated from Spain in 1919—would often sing during reunions.^[13]

At age four,^[17][18] while vacationing in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Garcia underwent amputation of two-thirds of his right middle finger.^[19][20] Garcia was given the chore of steadying wood while his elder brother chopped, when he inadvertently put his finger in the way of the falling axe.^[20] After his mother wrapped his hand in a towel Garcia's father drove him over thirty miles to the nearest hospital.^[19] A few weeks later, Garcia—who never looked at the finger after the accident—was surprised to discover most of it missing when the bandage he was wearing came off during a bath.^[21] Garcia later confided that he often used it to his advantage in his youth, showing it off to other children in his neighborhood.

Garcia experienced several tragic events during his youth. Less than a year after losing the segment of his finger, his father died. While on vacation with his family near Arcata in Northern California in 1947, his father went fly-fishing in the Trinity River, part of the Six Rivers National Forest.^[22] Not long after entering he slipped on a rock underfoot, plunging into the deep rapids of the river. The incident was witnessed by a group of boys who immediately sought help, beckoning a pair of nearby fishermen. By the time he was pulled from the water, he had already drowned. Garcia later claimed to have seen his father fall into the river, but Dennis McNally, author of the book A Long Strange Trip: The Inside Story of the Grateful Dead, asserts that he did not, instead forming the memory from hearing the story repeated many times.^[11] Blair Jackson, who wrote the biography Garcia: An American Life, lends weight to McNally's claim, citing that the newspaper article describing Jose's death made no mention of Garcia being at the scene—even misidentifying him as his parents' daughter.^[22]

Following the accident, Garcia's mother took over their late father's bar, buying out his partner for full ownership. As a result, Ruth Garcia began working full-time, sending Jerry and his brother to live just down the road with their maternal grandparents, Tillie and William Clifford. During the five-year period in which he lived with his grandparents, Garcia enjoyed a large amount of autonomy and attended Monroe School, the local elementary school. At the school, Garcia was greatly encouraged in his artistic abilities by his third grade teacher: through her, he discovered that "being a creative person was a viable possibility in life."^[23] According to Garcia, it was around this time that he was opened up to country and to bluegrass by his grandmother, who he recalled enjoyed listening to the Grand Ole Opry. His elder brother, Clifford, however, staunchly believed the contrary, insisting that Garcia was "fantasizing all [that] ... she'd been to Opry, but she didn't listen to it on the radio." It was at this point that Garcia started playing the banjo, his first stringed instrument.^[24]

In 1953, Garcia's mother was remarried to a man named Wally Matusiewicz.^[25] Subsequently, Garcia and his brother moved back home with their mother and new stepfather. However, due to the roughneck reputation of their neighborhood at the time, the Excelsior District, Garcia's mother moved their family to Menlo Park.^[25] During their stay in Menlo Park, Garcia became acquainted with racism and antisemitism, things he disliked intensely.^[25] The same year, Garcia was also introduced to rock and roll and rhythm and blues by his brother, and enjoyed listening to the likes of Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, B. B. King, Hank Ballard, and, in a few years, Chuck Berry.^[26] Clifford often memorized the vocals for his favorite songs, and would then make Garcia learn the harmony parts, a move to which Garcia later attributed much of his early ear training.^[26]

In mid-1957, Garcia began smoking cigarettes and was introduced to marijuana.^[27][28] Garcia would later reminisce about the first time he smoked marijuana: "Me and a friend of mine went up into the hills with two joints, the San Francisco foothills, and smoked these joints and just got so high and laughed and roared and went skipping down the streets doing funny things and just having a helluva time".^[15] During this time, Garcia also took up an art program at the San Francisco Art Institute to further his burgeoning interest in the visual arts.^[17] The teacher there was Wally Hedrick, an artist who came to prominence during the 1960s. During the classes, he often encouraged Garcia in his drawing and painting skills.^[29]

In June of the same year, Garcia graduated from the local Menlo Oaks school. He then moved with his family back to San Francisco, where they lived in an apartment above the newly built bar, the old one having previously been torn down to make way for a freeway entrance.^[30] Two months later, on Garcia's fifteenth birthday, his mother purchased him an accordion, to his great disappointment.^[15] Garcia had long been captivated by many rhythm and blues artists, especially Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley: his one wish at this point was to have an electric guitar.^[30] After some pleading, his mother exchanged the accordion for a Danelectro with a small amplifier at a local pawnshop.^[31] Garcia's stepfather, who was somewhat proficient with instruments, helped tune his guitar to an unusual open tuning.^[27]

After a short stint at Denman Junior High School, Garcia attended tenth grade at Balboa High School in 1958, where he often got into trouble for skipping classes and fighting.^[32] Consequently, in 1959, Garcia's mother again moved the family to get Garcia to stay out of trouble, this time to Cazadero, a small town in Sonoma County, 90 miles north of San Francisco.^[32] This turn of events did not sit well with Garcia. To get to Analy High School, the nearest school, he had to travel by bus thirty miles to Sebastopol, a move which only made him more unhappy.^[33] Garcia did, however, join a band at his school known as the Chords. After performing and winning a contest, the band's reward was recording a song—they chose "Raunchy" by Bill Doggett.^[34]

Recording career[link]

Relocation and band beginnings[link]

Garcia stole his mother's car in 1960, and as punishment, joined the United States Army. He received basic training at Fort Ord.^[15] After training, he was transferred to Fort Winfield Scott in the Presidio of San Francisco.^[35] Garcia spent most of his time in the army at his leisure, missing roll call and accruing many counts of AWOL.^[36] As a result, Garcia was given a general discharge on December 14, 1960.^[37]

In January 1961, Garcia drove down to East Palo Alto to see Laird Grant, an old friend from middle school.^[38] He had purchased a 1950 Cadillac sedan from a cook in the army, which barely made it to Grant's residence before it broke down.^[38] Garcia proceeded to spend the next few weeks sleeping where friends would allow, eventually using his car as a home. Through Grant, Garcia met Dave McQueen in February, who, after hearing Garcia perform some blues, introduced him to local people and to the Chateau, a rooming house located near Stanford University which was then a popular hangout.^[39]

On February 20, 1961, Garcia entered a car with Paul Speegle, a 16-year-old artist and acquaintance of Garcia; Jack Royerton, a poet from Indiana and childhood friend of Garcia; Lee Adams, the house manager of the Chateau and driver of the car; and Alan Trist, a companion of theirs.^[39] After speeding past the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital, the car encountered a curve and, traveling around ninety miles per hour, collided with the guard rail, sending the car rolling turbulently.^[40][41] Garcia was hurled through the windshield of the car into a nearby field with such force he was literally thrown out of his shoes and would later be unable to recall the ejection.^[40] Lee Adams, the driver, and Alan Trist, who was seated in the back, were thrown from the car as well, suffering from abdominal injuries and a spine fracture, respectively.^[40] Royerton suffered a mild concussion and shattered his ulna. Garcia escaped with a broken collarbone, while Speegle, still in the car, was fatally injured.^[41]

The accident served as an awakening for Garcia, who later commented: "That's where my life began. Before then I was always living at less than capacity. I was idling. That was the slingshot for the rest of my life. It was like a second chance. Then I got serious".^[42] It was at this time that Garcia began to realize that he needed to begin playing the guitar in earnest—a move which meant giving up his love of drawing and painting.^[43]

Garcia met Robert Hunter, who would become a long-time lyrical collaborator with the Grateful Dead, in April 1961.^[1][7] Garcia and Hunter began to participate in the local art and music scenes, sometimes playing at Kepler's Books.^[7] Garcia performed his first concert with Hunter, each earning five dollars. Garcia and Hunter also played in a band called the Wildwood Boys with David Nelson, a future contributor to some Grateful Dead albums.^[17]

In 1962 Garcia met Phil Lesh, the eventual bassist of the Grateful Dead, during a party in Menlo Park's bohemian Perry Lane neighborhood (where Ken Kesey lived).^[44] Lesh would later write in his autobiography that Garcia resembled the composer Claude Debussy, with his "dark, curly hair, goatee, Impressionist eyes".^[17] While attending another party in Palo Alto, Lesh approached Garcia to suggest that he record some songs on Lesh's tape recorder (Phil was musically trained, though he did not start playing bass guitar until the formation of the Grateful Dead in 1965) with the intention of getting them played on the radio station KPFA.^[17] Using an old Wollensak tape recorder, they recorded "Matty Groves" and "The Long Black Veil", among several other tunes. Their efforts were not in vain, leading to a spot on the show, a ninety-minute special on Garcia. It was broadcast as: "'The Long Black Veil' and Other Ballads: An Evening with Jerry Garcia".^[17]

Garcia soon began playing and teaching acoustic guitar and banjo.^[17] One of Garcia's students was Bob Matthews, who later engineered many of the Grateful Dead's albums.^[45] Matthews went to high school and was friends with Bob Weir, and on New Year's Eve 1963, he introduced Weir and Garcia.^[45]

Between 1962 and 1964, Garcia sang and performed mainly bluegrass, old-time and folk music. One of the bands Garcia performed with was the Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers, a bluegrass act. The group consisted of Jerry Garcia on guitar, banjo, vocals, and harmonica, Marshall Leicester on banjo, guitar, and vocals, and Dick Arnold on fiddle and vocals.^[46] Soon after this, Garcia joined a local bluegrass and folk band called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, whose membership included Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, a rhythm and blues fan. Around this time, the psychedelic LSD was gaining popularity. Garcia first began experimenting with LSD in 1964; later, when asked how it changed his life, he remarked: "Well, it changed everything [...] the effect was that it freed me because I suddenly realized that my little attempt at having a straight life and doing that was really a fiction and just wasn't going to work out. Luckily I wasn't far enough into it for it to be shattering or anything; it was like a realization that just made me feel immensely relieved".^[15]

In 1965, Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions evolved into the Warlocks, with the addition of Phil Lesh on bass guitar and Bill Kreutzmann on percussion. However, the band discovered that another group was performing under their newly selected name, prompting another name change. Garcia came up with the name by opening a Funk and Wagnall's dictionary to an entry for "Grateful Dead".^[15][16][17] The definition for "Grateful Dead" was "a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial".^[47] The band's first reaction was disapproval.^[15][16] Garcia later explained the group's reaction: "I didn't like it really, I just found it to be really powerful. [Bob] Weir didn't like it, [Bill] Kreutzmann didn't like it and nobody really wanted to hear about it. [...]"^[15] Despite their dislike of the name, it quickly spread by word of mouth, and soon became their official title.

Career with the Grateful Dead[link]

The corner of Haight and Ashbury, center of the San Francisco neighborhood in which the Grateful Dead shared a house at 710 Ashbury from fall 1966 to spring 1968.

Garcia served as lead guitarist, as well as one of the principal vocalists and songwriters of the Grateful Dead for their entire career. Garcia composed such songs as "Dark Star",^[48] "Franklin's Tower",^[48] and "Scarlet Begonias",^[48] among many others. Robert Hunter, an ardent collaborator with the band, wrote the lyrics to all but a few of Garcia's songs.

Garcia was well-noted for his "soulful extended guitar improvisations",^[2] which would frequently feature interplay between himself and his fellow band members. His fame, as well as the band's, arguably rested on their ability to never play a song the same way twice.^[3] Often, Garcia would take cues from rhythm guitarist Bob Weir on when to solo, remarking that "there are some [...] kinds of ideas that would really throw me if I had to create a harmonic bridge between all the things going on rhythmically with two drums and Phil [Lesh's] innovative bass playing. Weir's ability to solve that sort of problem is extraordinary. [...] Harmonically, I take a lot of my solo cues from Bob."^[49]

When asked to describe his approach to soloing, Garcia commented: "It keeps on changing. I still basically revolve around the melody and the way it’s broken up into phrases as I perceive them. With most solos, I tend to play something that phrases the way the melody does; my phrases may be more dense or have different value, but they’ll occur in the same places in the song. [...]"^[50]

Garcia and the band toured almost constantly from their formation in 1965 until Garcia's death in 1995, a stint which gave credit to the name "endless tour". Periodically, there were breaks due to exhaustion or health problems, often due to unstable health and/or Garcia's drug use. During their three decade span, the Grateful Dead played 2,314 shows.^[3]

Garcia's mature guitar-playing melded elements from the various kinds of music that had enthralled him. Echoes of bluegrass playing (such as Arthur Smith and Doc Watson) could be heard. But the "roots music" behind bluegrass had its influence, too, and melodic riffs from Celtic fiddle jigs can be distinguished.^{[citation needed]} There was also early rock (like Lonnie Mack, James Burton and Chuck Berry), contemporary blues (such as Freddie King and Lowell Fulson), country and western (such as Roy Nichols and Don Rich), and jazz (like Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt) to be heard in Jerry's style. Don Rich was the sparkling country guitar player in Buck Owens's "the Buckaroos" band of the 1960s, but besides Rich's style, both Garcia's pedal steel guitar playing (on Grateful Dead records and others) and his standard electric guitar work, were influenced by another of Owens's Buckaroos of that time, pedal-steel player Tom Brumley. And as an improvisational soloist, John Coltrane was one of his greatest personal and musical influences.

Garcia later described his playing style as having "descended from barroom rock and roll, country guitar. Just 'cause that's where all my stuff comes from. It's like that blues instrumental stuff that was happening in the late Fifties and early Sixties, like Freddie King." Garcia's style varied somewhat according to the song or instrumental to which he was contributing. His playing had a number of so-called "signatures" and, in his work through the years with the Grateful Dead, one of these was lead lines making much use of rhythmic triplets (examples include the songs "Good Morning Little School Girl", "New Speedway Boogie", "Brokedown Palace", "Deal", "Loser", "Truckin'", "That's It for the Other One", "U.S. Blues", "Sugaree", and "Don't Ease Me In").

Side projects[link]

In addition to the Grateful Dead, Garcia had numerous side projects, the most notable being the Jerry Garcia Band. He was also involved with various acoustic projects such as Old and in the Way and other bluegrass bands, including collaborations with noted bluegrass mandolinist David Grisman. The documentary film Grateful Dawg chronicles the deep, long-term friendship between Garcia and Grisman.^[51]

Other groups of which Garcia was a member at one time or another include the Black Mountain Boys, Legion of Mary, Reconstruction, and the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band. Jerry Garcia was also an appreciative fan of jazz artists and improvisation: he played with jazz keyboardists Merl Saunders and Howard Wales for many years in various groups and jam sessions, and he appeared on saxophonist Ornette Coleman's 1988 album, Virgin Beauty. His collaboration with Merl Saunders and Muruga Booker on the Grammy-nominated world music album Blues From the Rainforest launched the Rainforest Band.^[52]

Garcia also spent a lot of time in the recording studio helping out fellow musician friends in session work, often adding guitar, vocals, pedal steel, sometimes banjo and piano and even producing. He played on over 50 studio albums the styles of which were eclectic and varied, including bluegrass, rock, folk, blues, country, jazz, electronic music, gospel, funk, and reggae. Artists who sought Garcia's help included the likes of Jefferson Airplane (most notably Surrealistic Pillow, Garcia being listed as their "Spiritual Advisor"), Tom Fogerty, David Bromberg, Robert Hunter (Liberty, on Relix Records), Paul Pena, Peter Rowan, Warren Zevon, Country Joe McDonald, Ken Nordine, Ornette Coleman, Bruce Hornsby, Bob Dylan and many more. He was also one of the first musicians to really cover in depth Motown music in the early 1970s and probably the most prolific coverer of Bob Dylan songs. In 1995 Garcia played on three tracks for the CD Blue Incantation by guitarist Sanjay Mishra, making it his last studio collaboration.

Throughout the early 1970s, Garcia, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, drummer Mickey Hart, and David Crosby collaborated intermittently with MIT-educated composer and biologist Ned Lagin on several projects in the realm of early electronica; these include the album Seastones (released by the Dead on their Round Records subsidiary) and L, an unfinished dance work.

Garcia also lent pedal-steel guitar playing to fellow-San Francisco musicians New Riders of the Purple Sage from their initial dates in 1969 to October 1971, when increased commitments with the Dead forced him to opt out of the group. He appears as a band member on their début album New Riders of the Purple Sage, and produced Home, Home On The Road, a 1974 live album by the band. He also contributed pedal steel guitar to the enduring hit "Teach Your Children" by Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young. Garcia also played steel guitar licks on Brewer & Shipley's 1970 album Tarkio. Despite considering himself a novice on the pedal steel, Garcia routinely ranked high in player polls. After a long lapse from playing the pedal-steel, he played it once more during several of the Dead's concerts with Bob Dylan during the summer of 1987.

Having studied art at the San Francisco Art Institute, Garcia embarked on a second career in the visual arts. He offered for sale and auction to the public a number of illustrations, lithographs, and water colors. Some of those pieces became the basis of a line of men's neckties characterized by bright colors and abstract patterns. Even in 2005, ten years after Garcia's death, new styles and designs continued to be produced and sold.

Personal life[link]

Garcia met his first wife, Sara Ruppenthal Garcia, in 1963.^[17] She was working at the coffee house in the back of Kepler's Bookstore where Garcia, Hunter, and Nelson performed. They married on April 23, 1963, and on December 8 of that year the only child they had together, their daughter Heather, was born.^[53]

Garcia and his fellow musicians were subjected to a handful of drug busts during their lifetime. On October 2, 1967, 710 Ashbury Street in San Francisco (where the Grateful Dead had taken up residence the year before) was raided after a police tip-off.^[17] Grateful Dead members Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan were apprehended on marijuana charges which were later dropped, although Garcia himself was not arrested.^[54] The following year, Garcia's picture was used in a campaign commercial for Richard Nixon.^[55]

Most of the Grateful Dead were arrested again in January 1970, after they flew to New Orleans from Hawaii.^[17] After returning to their hotel from a performance, the band checked into their rooms, only to be quickly raided by police. Around fifteen people were arrested on the spot, including many of the road crew, management, and nearly all of the Grateful Dead (except Garcia, who arrived later, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, who was not taking drugs at the time).^[17]

During August 1970, Garcia's mother Ruth was involved in a car accident near Twin Peaks in San Francisco.^[17] Garcia, who was recording the album American Beauty at the time, often left the sessions to visit his mother with his brother Clifford. She died on September 28, 1970. That same year, Garcia participated in the soundtrack for the film Zabriskie Point.

Carolyn Adams, also known as 'Mountain Girl', gave birth to Garcia's second and third daughters, Annabelle Walker Garcia (February 2, 1970) and Theresa Adams "Trixie" Garcia (September 21, 1974). Adams and Garcia married in 1981.^[53]

In 1975, around the time Blues for Allah was being created, Garcia met Deborah Koons, the woman who would much later become his third wife and widow.^[17] He began seeing her while he was still involved with Adams, with whom Koons had a less-than-perfect relationship. Garcia and Adams eventually went different ways.

While touring in late 1973 the band began to use cocaine in order to reduce the exhausting effects^{[citation needed]} of constantly being on the road. During the band's hiatus in 1975, Garcia was introduced to a smoke-able form of heroin. Influenced by the stresses of creating and releasing The Grateful Dead Movie in 1977, Garcia's cocaine and heroin use increased. This, combined with the drug use of several other members of the Grateful Dead, produced turbulent times for the band: the band's chemistry began "cracking and crumbling",^[17] resulting in poor group cohesion. As a result, Keith and Donna Godchaux were asked to leave the band in February 1979. With the addition of keyboardist Brent Mydland, the band was reaching new heights. Though things seemed to be getting better for the band, Garcia's health was descending. By 1983, Garcia had lost his "liveliness" on stage. The so-called "endless tour," the result of years of financial risks, drug use and mistakes, also became extremely taxing.

Garcia's use of heroin increased heavily over the years, eventually culminating in the rest of the Grateful Dead holding an intervention in January 1985.^[17] Given the choice between the band or the drugs, Garcia readily agreed to check into a rehabilitation center in Oakland, California. A few days later in January, before the start of his program in Oakland, Garcia was arrested for drug possession in Golden Gate Park; Garcia subsequently attended a drug diversion program. Throughout 1985, Garcia fought to kick his habit while on tour, and by 1986, was completely clean.

Precipitated by an unhealthy weight, bad eating habits, and recent drug use, Garcia collapsed into a diabetic coma in July 1986, waking up five days later.^[3][4] Garcia later spoke about this period of unconsciousness as surreal: "Well, I had some very weird experiences. My main experience was one of furious activity and tremendous struggle in a sort of futuristic, space-ship vehicle with insectoid presences. After I came out of my coma, I had this image of myself as these little hunks of protoplasm that were stuck together kind of like stamps with perforations between them that you could snap off."^[16] Garcia's coma had a profound effect on him: it forced him to have to relearn how to play the guitar, as well as other, more basic skills. Within a handful of months, Garcia quickly recovered, playing with the Jerry Garcia Band and the Grateful Dead again later that year.^[17] Garcia frequently saw a woman named Manasha Matheson during this period. Together they produced Garcia's fourth and final child, a girl named Keelin Noel Garcia, who was born December 20, 1987.^[53] (Jerry, Keelin and Manasha toured and shared a home together as a family until 1993.) After Garcia's recovery, the band released a comeback album "In the Dark" in 1987, which became their best ever selling studio album. Inspired by Garcia's improved health and a successful album, the band's energy and chemistry peaked in the late 1980s and 1990.

During the summer of 1990, keyboardist Brent Mydland died of a drug overdose. Mydland's death greatly affected Garcia, leading him to believe that the on and off stage chemistry would never be the same. Before beginning the fall tour, the band acquired keyboardists Vince Welnick and Bruce Hornsby. The power of Hornsby's keys musically drove Garcia to new heights on stage. As the band continued through 1991, Garcia became concerned with the band's future. He was burnt out from four straight years of high powered touring. Jerry thought a break was necessary, mainly so that the band could come back with fresh material. The idea was put off by the pressures of management, and the touring continued. Jerry's decrease in both his stamina and his interest to continue touring, may have caused him to use again. Though his relapse was relatively brief, lasting through the summer, the band was quick to react. Soon after the last show of the tour in Denver, Garcia was confronted by the Grateful Dead with another intervention. After a somewhat disastrous meeting, Garcia invited Phil Lesh over to his home in San Rafael, California, where he explained that after the meeting he would start attending a methadone clinic. Garcia said that he simply wanted to clean up in his own way, and get back to making music.^[17]

After returning from the Grateful Dead's 1992 summer tour, Garcia became extremely sick, evidently a throwback to his diabetic coma in 1986.^[17] Refusing to go to the hospital, he instead enlisted the aid of an acupuncturist named Yen Wei Choong and a licensed doctor to treat him personally at home. Garcia recovered over the following days, despite the Grateful Dead having to cancel their fall tour to allow him time to recuperate. Following this episode, Garcia quit smoking, became a vegetarian, and began losing weight.

Garcia and girlfriend Barbara Meier, who had met in December of the previous year, separated at the beginning of the Dead's 1993 spring tour. In 1994, Garcia renewed acquaintances with Deborah Koons, with whom he had been involved sometime around 1975. They married on February 14, 1994, in Sausalito, California. The wedding was attended by family and friends.^[17] Garcia had divorced Adams in January of that year.

By the beginning of 1995, Garcia's physical and mental condition began a decline. His playing ability suffered to the point where he would turn down the volume of his guitar, and he often had to be reminded of what song he was performing.^[17] Due to his frail condition, he began to use again just to dull the pain.

In light of his second drug relapse and current condition, Garcia checked himself into the Betty Ford Center during July 1995. His stay was limited, however, lasting only two weeks. Motivated by the experience, he then checked into the Serenity Knolls treatment center in Forest Knolls, California.^[4][56]

Death[link]

On August 9, 1995, at 4:23 am, Garcia's body was discovered in his room at the rehabilitation clinic.^[4][56] The cause of death was a heart attack.^[57] Garcia had long struggled with drug addiction,^[4] weight problems, sleep apnea,^[4]a long standing cigarette habit and diabetes all of which contributed to his physical decline. Phil Lesh remarked in his autobiography that, upon hearing of Garcia's death, "I was struck numb; I had lost my oldest surviving friend, my brother."^[17] On the morning of August 10, Garcia was rested at a funeral home in San Rafael, California. Garcia's funeral was held on August 12, at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Belvedere.^[17][56] It was attended by his family, the remaining Grateful Dead members and their friends, including former basketball player Bill Walton and musician Bob Dylan, and his widow Deborah Koons,^[56] who barred Garcia's other two wives from the ceremony.^[17]

On August 13, a municipally sanctioned public memorial took place in the Polo Fields of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and was attended by about 25,000 people.^[17] The crowds produced hundreds of flowers, gifts, images, and even a bagpipe rendition of "Amazing Grace"^[56] in remembrance.

On April 4, 1996, Bob Weir and Deborah Koons spread half of Garcia's cremated ashes into the Ganges River at the holy city of Rishikesh, India,^[17][58] a site sacred to Hindus. Then, according to Garcia's last wishes, the other half of his ashes were poured into the San Francisco Bay. Deborah Koons did not allow one of Garcia's ex-wives, Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Garcia, to attend the spreading of the ashes.^[59]

Musical equipment[link]

Garcia played many guitars during his career, which ranged from Fender Stratocasters and Gibson SGs to custom-made instruments. During his thirty-odd years of being a musician, Garcia used about 25 guitars.^[60]

In 1965, when Garcia was playing with the Warlocks, he used a Guild Starfire,^[60] which he also used on the début album of the Grateful Dead. Beginning in late 1967 and ending in 1968, Garcia played various colored Gibson Les Paul guitars. In 1969, he picked up the Gibson SG and used it for most of that year and 1970, except for a small period in between where he used a Sunburst Fender Stratocaster.

During Garcia's "pedal steel flirtation period" (as Bob Weir referred to it in Anthem to Beauty), from approximately 1969 to 1974, he played a ZB Custom D-10 steel guitar, especially in his earlier public performances. Although this was a double neck guitar, Garcia often would choose not to attach the last 5 pedal rods for the rear or Western Swing neck. Additionally, he was playing an Emmons D-10 at the time of the Grateful Dead's and New Riders of the Purple Sage's final appearances at the Filmore East in late April 1971. Also, he had been given a Fender Pedal Steel (probably a 1000 model) prior to owning the ZB Custom, but did not play it much.^{[citation needed]}

In 1969, Garcia played pedal steel on two notable outside recordings: the track "The Farm" on the Jefferson Airplane album Volunteers; and the hit single "Teach Your Children" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young from their album Déjà Vu, released in 1970. Garcia played on the latter album in exchange for harmony lessons for the Grateful Dead, who were at the time recording their acoustic albums Workingman's Dead and American Beauty.^[61]

In 1972, Garcia used a Fender Stratocaster nicknamed Alligator for its alligator sticker on the pickguard.^[60] The guitar was given to him by Graham Nash. This was due in part to damage to his first custom-made guitar, made by Alembic. This guitar, nicknamed Wolf for a memorable sticker Garcia added below the tailpiece, cost $1500 – extremely high for the time.^[62]

In the late eighties Garcia, Weir and CSN (along with many others) endorsed Alvarez Yairi acoustic guitars. There are many photographs circulating (mostly promotional) of Jerry playing a DY99 Virtuoso Custom with a Modulus Graphite neck. He opted to play with the less decorated model but the promotional photo from the Alvarez Yairi catalog has him holding the "tree of life" model. This hand-built guitar was notable for the collaboration between Japanese luthier Kazuo Yairi and Modulus Graphite of San Rafael. As with most things Garcia, with his passing, the DY99 model is rendered legend and valuable among collectors.

Wolf was made with an ebony fingerboard and featured numerous embellishments like alternating grain designs in the headstock, ivory inlays, and fret marker dots made of sterling silver. The body was composed of western maple wood which had a core of purpleheart. Garcia later had former Alembic employee Doug Irwin replace the electronics inside the guitar, at which point he added his own logo to the headstock alongside the Alembic logo. The system included two interchangeable plates for configuring pickups: one was made for strictly single coils, while the other accommodated humbuckers. Shortly after receiving the modified instrument, Garcia requested another custom guitar from Irwin with the advice "don't hold back."^[62]

During the Grateful Dead's European Tour, Wolf was dropped on several occasions, one of which caused a minor crack in the headstock. Garcia returned it to Irwin to fix; during its two-year absence Garcia played predominantly Travis Bean guitars. On September 28, 1977, Irwin delivered the renovated Wolf back to Garcia.^[62] The wolf sticker which gave the guitar its name had now been inlaid into the instrument; it also featured an effects loop between the pick-ups and controls (so inline effects would "see" the same signal at all times) which was bypassable. Irwin also put a new face on the headstock with only his logo (he later claimed to have built the guitar himself, though pictures through time clearly show the progression of logos, from Alembic, to Alembic & Irwin, to only Irwin). In the "Grateful Dead Movie" Jerry is playing Wolf and this film provides excellent views of Wolf.

Nearly seven years after he first requested it, Garcia received his third custom guitar from Irwin in 1979 (the first Irwin was "Eagle", the second was "Wolf").^[63] The first concert that Jerry played Tiger was August 4, 1979 at the Oakland Auditorium Arena.^[63] It was named Tiger from the inlay on the preamp cover.^[64] The body of Tiger was of rich quality: the top layer was cocobolo, with the preceding layers being maple stripe, vermilion, and flame maple, in that order.^[64] The neck was made of western maple with an ebony fingerboard. The pickups consisted of a single coil DiMarzio SDS-1 and two humbucker DiMarzio Super IIs which were easily removable due to Garcia's preference for replacing his pickups every year or two.^[64] The electronics were composed of an effects bypass loop, which allowed Garcia to control the sound of his effects through the tone and volume controls on the guitar, and a preamplifier/buffer which rested behind a plate in the back of the guitar. In terms of weight, everything included made Tiger tip the scales at 13½ pounds. This was Garcia's principal guitar for the next eleven years, and most played.

In 1990, Irwin completed Rosebud, Garcia's fourth custom guitar.^[65] It was similar to his previous guitar Tiger in many respects, but featured different inlays and electronics, tone and volume controls, and weight. Rosebud, unlike Tiger, was configured with three humbuckers; the neck and bridge pickups shared a tone control, while the middle had its own. Atop the guitar was a Roland GK-2 pickup which fed the controller set inside the guitar. The GK2 was used in junction with the Roland GR-50 rack mount synthesizer. The GR-50 synthesizer in turn drove a Korg M1R synthesizer producing the MIDI effects heard during live performances of this period as heard on the Grateful Dead recording 'Without a Net'.^[65][66] Sections of the guitar were hollowed out to bring the weight down to 11½ pounds. The inlay, a dancing skeleton holding a rose, covers a plate just below the bridge. The final cost of the instrument was $11,000.^[65]

In 1993, carpenter-turned-luthier Stephen Cripe tried his hand at making an instrument for Garcia.^[60] After researching Tiger through pictures and films, Cripe set out on what would soon become known as Lightning Bolt, again named for its inlay.^[67] The guitar used Brazilian rosewood for the fingerboard and East Indian rosewood for the body, which, with admitted irony from Cripe, was taken from a 19th century bed used by opium smokers.^[67] Built purely from guesswork, Lightning Bolt was a hit with Garcia, who began using the guitar exclusively. Soon after, Garcia requested that Cripe build a backup of the guitar. Cripe, who had not measured or photographed the original, was told simply to "wing it."^[67]

Cripe later delivered the backup, which was known by the name Top Hat. Garcia bought it from him for the price of $6,500, making it the first guitar that Cripe had ever sold.^[67] However, infatuated with Lightning Bolt, Garcia rarely used the backup.

After Garcia's death, the ownership of his Wolf and Tiger came into question. According to Garcia's will,^[53] his guitars were to go to Doug Irwin, who had constructed them.^[68][69] The remaining Grateful Dead members disagreed—they considered his guitars to be property of the band, leading to a lawsuit between the two parties.^[68][69] In 2001, Irwin won the case. Irwin, being a victim of a hit-and-run accident in 1998,^[69] was left nearly penniless. He placed Garcia's guitars up for auction in hopes of being able to start another guitar workshop.^[68]

On May 8, 2002, Wolf and Tiger, among other memorabilia, were placed for auction at Studio 54 in New York City.^[68] Tiger was purchased for $957,500, while Wolf was bought for $789,500. Together, the instruments were bought for 1.74 million dollars, setting a new world record.^[69] Wolf is in a private collection kept in a secure climate controlled room in a private residence at Utica, N.Y., and Tiger is in the private collection of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay.^[70]

Legacy[link]

Garcia appeared in the 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind as an extra during the scenes in India in a crowd shot.^[71] During the following year, the Grateful Dead would occasionally improvise the theme from "Close Encounters" in concert.

In 1987, ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry's came out with Cherry Garcia, which is named after the guitarist and consists of "cherry ice cream with cherries and fudge flakes".^{[72][73][74][75]}

Garcia was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead in 1994.

Famous guitar player and known Jerry fan Warren Haynes wrote the song "Patchwork Quilt" in memory of Jerry.

In the episode titled "Halloween: The Final Chapter" on the show Roseanne, aired shortly after his death on October 31, 1995, a tribute to Jerry Garcia was made, and the character name of the baby was Jerry Garcia Conner.

In 2003, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Jerry Garcia 13th in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.^[5]

In 2005, Rapper Proof from the group D12 released an album named after Garcia, Searching for Jerry Garcia. The album was dedicated to the Grateful Dead and released ten years to the day of Garcia's death.

Ween recorded the song, "So Long Jerry" during the sessions for their 12 Golden Country Greats album, but it was left off the album, eventually appearing on the "Piss Up a Rope" single.

According to fellow Bay Area guitar player Henry Kaiser, Garcia is "the most recorded guitarist in history. With more than 2,200 Grateful Dead concerts, and 1,000 Jerry Garcia Band concerts captured on tape – as well as numerous studio sessions – there are about 15,000 hours of his guitar work preserved for the ages."^[76]

On July 30, 2004, Melvin Seals was the first Jerry Garcia Band member to headline an outdoor music and camping festival called the Grateful Garcia Gathering. The festival is a tribute to the Grateful Dead's guitarist Jerry Garcia. "Jerry Garcia Band" drummer David Kemper, joined Melvin Seals & JGB in 2007. To date, other musicians and friends of Jerry's have also included Donna Jean Godchaux, Mookie Siegel, Pete Sears, G.E. Smith, Barry Sless, and Jackie Greene to name a few musicians. The 3G's festival is still going strong hosting hundreds of fans yearly to see such headliners as Elf Lettuce, The Workshy, and Afternoon Moon at a swinger's campground in Wisconsin.

On July 21, 2005, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission passed a resolution to name the amphitheater in McLaren Park "The Jerry Garcia Amphitheater."^[77] The amphitheater is located in the Excelsior District, where Garcia grew up. The first show to happen at the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater was Jerry Day 2005 on August 7, 2005. Tiff Garcia was the first person to welcome everybody to the "Jerry Garcia Amphitheater." Jerry Day is an annual celebration of Jerry in his childhood neighborhood. The dedication ceremony (Jerry Day 2) on October 29, 2005 was officiated by mayor Gavin Newsom.

On September 24, 2005, the Comes a Time: A Celebration of the Music & Spirit of Jerry Garcia tribute concert was held at the Hearst Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California.^[78] The concert featured Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, Bruce Hornsby, Trey Anastasio, Warren Haynes, Jimmy Herring, Michael Kang, Jay Lane, Jeff Chimenti, Mark Karan, Robin Sylvester, Kenny Brooks, Melvin Seals, Merl Saunders, Marty Holland, Stu Allen, Gloria Jones, and Jackie LaBranch.

Also in 2008, Georgia-based composer Lee Johnson released an orchestral tribute to the music of the Grateful Dead, recorded with the Russian National Orchestra, entitled "Dead Symphony: Lee Johnson Symphony No. 6." Johnson was interviewed on NPR on the July 26, 2008 broadcast of "Weekend Edition", and gave much credit to the genius and craft of Garcia's songwriter. A live performance with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Johnson himself, was held Friday, August 1.^[79]

Seattle rock band Soundgarden wrote and recorded the instrumental song "Jerry Garcia's Finger", dedicated to the singer, which was released as a b-side with their single "Pretty Noose".

The argentinian band Massacre included a song called "A Jerry Garcia" (To Jerry Garcia) on their album "Juguetes para olvidar".

Numerous music festivals across the United States and Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK hold annual events in memory of Jerry Garcia.

Discography[link]

• Jerry Garcia^[80]
  • Garcia – 1972
  • Compliments – 1974
  • Reflections – 1976
  • Run for the Roses – 1982
• Jerry Garcia Band
  • Cats Under the Stars – 1978
  • Jerry Garcia Band – 1991
  • How Sweet It Is – 1997
  • Don't Let Go – 2001
  • Shining Star – 2001
  • After Midnight: Kean College, 2/28/80 – 2004
  • Let It Rock: The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 2 – 2009
• Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band
  • Almost Acoustic – 1988
  • Ragged but Right – 2010
• Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
  • Heavy Turbulence – with Tom Fogerty – 1972 (LP)
  • Fire Up – 1973 (LP)
  • Live at the Keystone – Merl Saunders / Jerry Garcia / John Kahn / Bill Vitt – 1973 (LP)
  • Keystone Encores, Volume 1 – Merl Saunders / Jerry Garcia / John Kahn / Bill Vitt – 1988 (LP)
  • Keystone Encores, Volume 2 – Merl Saunders / Jerry Garcia / John Kahn / Bill Vitt – 1988 (LP)
  • Live at the Keystone Vol. 1 – Merl Saunders / Jerry Garcia / John Kahn / Bill Vitt – 1988 (CD)
  • Live at the Keystone Vol. 2 – Merl Saunders / Jerry Garcia / John Kahn / Bill Vitt – 1988 (CD)
  • Keystone Encores – Merl Saunders / Jerry Garcia / John Kahn / Bill Vitt – 1988 (CD)
  • Fire Up Plus – with John Kahn, Tom Fogerty and Ron Tutt – 1992 (CD)
  • Keystone Berkeley, September 1, 1974 – Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders – 2004 (also listed under Pure Jerry series)
  • Legion of Mary: The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 1 – Legion of Mary – 2005
  • Well Matched: The Best Of Merl Saunders & Jerry Garcia – 2006 (also listed under Compilations)
• New Riders of the Purple Sage
  • New Riders of the Purple Sage – 1971
  • Before Time Began – 1986
  • Vintage NRPS – 1986
• Old and in the Way
  • Old and in the Way – 1975
  • That High Lonesome Sound – 1996
  • Breakdown – 1997
  • Live at the Boarding House – 2008
• Jerry Garcia and David Grisman
  • Garcia/Grisman – 1991
  • Not for Kids Only – 1993
  • Shady Grove – 1996
  • So What – 1998
  • The Pizza Tapes (featuring Tony Rice) – 2000
  • Grateful Dawg – 2001
  • Been All Around This World – 2004
• Compilations
  • All Good Things – 2004 (box set of studio albums Garcia, Compliments, Reflections, Cats Under The Stars, Run For The Roses', as well as outtakes, jams, and alternate versions)
  • Garcia Plays Dylan – 2005
  • The Very Best of Jerry Garcia – 2006
  • Well Matched: The Best Of Merl Saunders & Jerry Garcia – 2006
• Pure Jerry – a series of live concert CDs licensed by the Garcia Family LLC.^[81]
  • Theatre 1839, July 29 & 30, 1977 – Jerry Garcia Band – 2004
  • Lunt-Fontanne, New York City, October 31, 1987 – Jerry Garcia Band and Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band – 2004
        (This album is one of 10 "live jam releases of this century" according to the August issue of Guitar One magazine.)
  • Lunt-Fontanne, New York City, The Best of the Rest, October 15 – 30, 1987 – Jerry Garcia Band and Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band – 2004
  • Keystone Berkeley, September 1, 1974 – Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders – 2004
  • Merriweather Post Pavilion, September 1 & 2, 1989 – Jerry Garcia Band – 2005
  • Warner Theatre, March 18, 1978 – Jerry Garcia Band – 2005
  • Coliseum, Hampton, VA, November 9, 1991 – Jerry Garcia Band – 2006 (with Bruce Hornsby)
  • Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium, February 28, 1986 – Jerry Garcia and John Kahn – 2009
  • Bay Area, 1978 – Jerry Garcia Band – 2009

• With other artists
  • Surrealistic Pillow – Jefferson Airplane – 1967
  • Volunteers – Jefferson Airplane – 1970
  • Tarkio – Brewer & Shipley – 1970
  • Déjà Vu – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – 1970
  • Blows Against the Empire – Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship – 1970
  • Marrying Maiden – It's a Beautiful Day – 1970
  • Stephen Stills 2 – Stephen Stills – 1971
  • Hooteroll? – Howard Wales and Jerry Garcia – 1971
  • If I Could Only Remember My Name – David Crosby – 1971
  • Sunfighter – Paul Kantner and Grace Slick – 1971
  • Powerglide – New Riders of the Purple Sage – 1972
  • Songs for Beginners – Graham Nash – 1972
  • Graham Nash David Crosby – Graham Nash and David Crosby – 1972
  • Demon in Disguise – David Bromberg – 1972
  • Excalibur – Tom Fogerty – 1972
  • Ace – Bob Weir – 1972
  • Wanted Dead or Alive – David Bromberg – 1973
  • Keith & Donna – Keith Godchaux and Donna Jean Godchaux – 1975
  • Virgin Beauty – Ornette Coleman – 1988
  • Devout Catalyst – Ken Nordine – 1992
  • Astronauts & Heretics – Thomas Dolby – 1992
  • Blue Incantation – Sanjay Mishra and Jerry Garcia – 1994
  • Trios – Rob Wasserman – 1994
  • Side Trips, Volume One – Howard Wales and Jerry Garcia – 1998
  • Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions – Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions – 1999

See also[link]

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jerry Garcia

• The Jerry Site
• Official Grateful Dead Website
• Jerry Garcia discography at deaddisc.com

This article is about the guitarist. For the band, see The Jimi Hendrix Experience. "James Hendrix" redirects here. For the American soldier, see James R. Hendrix.

Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix performing for Dutch television in 1967
Background information
Birth name	Johnny Allen Hendrix
Born	(1942-11-27)November 27, 1942 Seattle, Washington, US
Died	September 18, 1970(1970-09-18) (aged 27) Kensington, London, England
Genres	Psychedelic rock, hard rock, heavy metal, blues rock, acid rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician, producer, recording studio entrepreneur
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, bass, keyboards, percussion
Years active	1963–1970
Labels	RSVP, Track, Barclay, Polydor, Reprise, Capitol, MCA
Associated acts	Little Richard, The Isley Brothers, The Blue Flame, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, Band of Gypsys, Curtis Knight
Website	www.jimihendrix.com
Notable instruments
Fender Stratocaster Jimi Hendrix's Signature

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942^[1][2] – September 18, 1970) was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He is widely considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in music history,^[3][4][5] and one of the most influential musicians of his era despite mainstream exposure limited to just three years.^[6][7][8] After initial success in Europe with his group The Jimi Hendrix Experience, he achieved fame in the United States following his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Later, he headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival and the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. He often favored raw overdriven amplifiers with high gain and treble and helped develop the previously undesirable technique of guitar amplifier feedback.^[9]

Hendrix helped to popularize use of the wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock, which he often used to deliver tonal exaggerations in his solos, particularly with high bends, complex guitar playing, and use of legato. As a record producer, he also broke new ground in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas. He was one of the first to experiment with stereophonic phasing effects for rock recording.^{[citation needed]} He was influenced by blues artists such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Albert King and Elmore James,^{[10][11][12][13]} rhythm and blues and soul guitarists Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper, and the jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. Hendrix began dressing and wearing a moustache like Little Richard when he performed and recorded in his band from March 1, 1964 through to the spring of 1965.^[14][15][16] In 1966, he stated, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice".^[17]

Hendrix won several prestigious rock music awards during his lifetime, and many more posthumously. He was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. An English Heritage blue plaque was erected in his name on his former residence at Brook Street, London, in September 1997. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was dedicated in 1994. In 2006, his debut US album, Are You Experienced, was inducted into the United States National Recording Registry, and Rolling Stone named Hendrix the top guitarist on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all-time in 2003.^[18]

Early life[link]

He was born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942, in Seattle, Washington, the first of five children to James Allen "Al" Hendrix^[19] (June 10, 1919, Vancouver, British Columbia – April 17, 2002, Renton, Washington) and Lucille Jeter (October 12, 1925, Seattle, Washington – February 2, 1958, Renton, Washington).^[20]

Hendrix's ancestry was of mixed African American, European, and Native American origin. His paternal great grandfather was Bertran Philander Ross, a wealthy white grain dealer from Urbana, Ohio, who was of Irish, German, and English descent. Out of wedlock, Bertran Philander Ross and his slave Fanny Hendricks produced Jimi's paternal grandfather Ross Hendricks (Hendrix).^[21] Jimi Hendrix was part Cherokee,^[22] his paternal great-great grandmother being a Cherokee from Georgia.^[23] His parents met at a dance in Seattle in 1941 when Lucille Jeter was 16. When she married Al Hendrix the next year, on March 13, 1942, she was pregnant. Since Al had been drafted into the United States Army due to World War II, he was shipped out three days later.^[24][25] Al Hendrix completed his basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, but was stationed in Alabama when his son was born. Because the commanding officer believed that he would go AWOL to Seattle in order to visit his new son, he was locked up in the stockade as a preventative measure, where he remained to receive the telegram informing him of his son's birth.^[26] The baby that would grow up to become the guitarist Jimi Hendrix was born to a father who had six fingers on each hand.^[27] Al Hendrix spent the war in the South Pacific Theater mostly in Fiji.^[28] During the three years that he was away, Lucille struggled with raising her infant son who was neglected in favor of the nightlife scene.^[29] Thus Hendrix was mostly cared for by family members and others during this period.

His father received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army on September 1, 1945, and retrieved his son from a woman who was caring for him in Berkeley. Al legally changed his son's name to James Marshall Hendrix in memory of his late brother, Leon Marshall Hendrix.^[30][31] He was known as "Buster" to friends and family, from birth.^[32] After his return, Al reunited with Lucille. He found it difficult to gain steady employment after the Second World War, and the family was impoverished. Like Lucille, Al also struggled with alcohol and the couple had frequent fights. At one point a pimp named John Page who had a history with Lucille even tried to commandeer her out of a movie theater while she was with Al. Al objected and a fight ensued, spilling out into the street. Al had been an amateur boxer and stunned the pimp with a first punch, eventually winning the brawl and they never saw the pimp again.^[33]

During the early years of Hendrix's life, the turmoil caused by his parent's fighting would sometimes cause him to withdraw and hide in a closet in their home.^[33] They moved often, staying in cheap hotels and apartments around Seattle. Throughout his childhood Hendrix would periodically be dropped off to be cared for by relatives. This all left an imprint on him as a small child which would remain with him the rest of his life.^[34] In addition to the instability of his home life, Hendrix in later years confided to two different girlfriends that he had been the victim of sexual abuse, although he never elaborated. In one instance while he was living in Harlem, Hendrix broke down crying as his girlfriend related the sexual abuse she had suffered as a child, telling her that the same thing had happened to him.^[35]

Hendrix had two brothers, Leon and Joseph, and two sisters, Kathy and Pamela. Joseph was born with physical difficulties and was placed in foster care at age three. His two sisters were also both placed in foster care at a young age. Kathy was born blind and Pamela suffered lesser physical difficulties.

On December 17, 1951, when Hendrix was nine years old, his parents divorced. His mother developed cirrhosis of the liver and died on February 2, 1958, when the state of her liver caused her spleen to rupture.^[36] On occasion, he was placed in the care of his paternal grandmother in Vancouver, British Columbia because of the unstable household, and his brother Leon was placed in foster care temporarily.^[37] Hendrix was a shy and sensitive boy, deeply affected by the poverty and family disruption he experienced at a young age. Unusual for his era, Hendrix's high school had a relatively even ethnic mix of African, European, and Asian Americans.^[38]

First guitar[link]

At age 15, around the time his mother died, he acquired his first acoustic guitar for US$5 from an acquaintance of his father. This guitar replaced both the broomstick he had been strumming in imitation, and a ukulele which his father had found while cleaning a garage.^[39][40][41] Hendrix learned to play by practicing for several hours a day, watching others play, getting tips from more experienced players, and listening to records. In mid-1959, his father bought Hendrix a white Supro Ozark, his first electric guitar, but there was no available amplifier. According to fellow Seattle bandmates, he learned most of his acrobatic stage moves, a major part of the blues/R&B tradition, including playing with his teeth and behind his back, from a fellow young musician, Raleigh "Butch" Snipes, guitarist with local band The Sharps. Hendrix himself performed Chuck Berry's trademark "duck walk" on occasion.^[42] Hendrix played in a couple of local bands, occasionally playing outlying gigs in Washington State and at least once over the border in Vancouver, British Columbia.^[43]

Hendrix was particularly fond of Elvis Presley, whom he saw perform in Seattle in 1957.^[44] Leon Hendrix claimed in an early interview that Little Richard appeared in his Central District neighborhood and shook hands with his brother, Jimi. This is unattested elsewhere and vehemently denied by his father.^[30] He also claimed that Richard was visiting his mother there at the time, when Richard's mother actually lived in Los Angeles. Hendrix's early exposure to blues music came from listening to records by Muddy Waters and B.B. King which his father owned.^[45] Another early impression came from the 1954 western Johnny Guitar, in which the hero carries no gun but instead wears a guitar slung behind his back.

Hendrix's first gig was with an unnamed band in the basement of a synagogue, Seattle's Temple De Hirsch. After too much wild playing and showing off, he was fired between sets. The first formal band he played in was The Velvetones, who performed regularly at the Yesler Terrace Neighborhood House without pay. He later joined the Rocking Kings, who played professionally at such venues as the Birdland. When his guitar was stolen (after he left it backstage overnight), Al bought him a white Silvertone Danelectro. He painted it red and had "Betty Jean" emblazoned on it—the name of his high school girlfriend.

Hendrix completed junior high at Washington Junior High School with little trouble but did not graduate from Garfield High School. Later he was awarded an honorary diploma, and in the 1990s a bust of him was placed in the school library. After he became famous in the late 1960s, Hendrix told reporters that he had been expelled from Garfield by racist faculty for holding hands with a white girlfriend in study hall. Principal Frank Hanawalt says that it was due to poor grades and attendance problems.^[46]

In the Army[link]

Hendrix got into trouble with the law twice for riding in stolen cars. He was given a choice between spending two years in prison or joining the Army. Hendrix chose the latter and enlisted on May 31, 1961. After completing basic training at Fort Ord near Monterey in California, he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. His commanding officers and fellow soldiers considered him to be a subpar soldier: he slept while on duty, had little regard for regulations, required constant supervision, and showed no skill as a marksman. For these reasons, his commanding officers submitted a request that Hendrix be discharged from the military after he had served only one year. Hendrix did not object when the opportunity to leave arose.^[47] He would later tell reporters that he received a medical discharge after breaking his ankle during his 26th parachute jump. The rock music journalist Charles Cross contended in his biography of Hendrix, Room Full of Mirrors (2005) that Hendrix feigned being homosexual—claiming to have fallen in love with a fellow soldier—in order to be discharged, but did not produce credible evidence to support this contention.

At the base recreation center, Hendrix met fellow soldier and bass player Billy Cox, and the two forged a loyal friendship that Hendrix would call upon from April 1969 until Billy's breakdown shortly before Hendrix's death. The two would often perform with other musicians at venues both on and off the base as a loosely organized band named the Casuals. As a celebrity in the UK, Hendrix mentioned his military service in three published interviews; one in 1967 for the film See My Music Talking (much later released under the title Experience), which was intended for TV to promote his recently released Axis: Bold as Love LP, in which he spoke very briefly of his first parachuting experience: "...once you get out there everything is so quiet, all you hear is the breezes-s-s-s..." This comment has later been used to claim that he was saying that this was one of the sources of his "spacy" guitar sound. The second and third mentions of his military experience were in interviews for Melody Maker in 1967 and 1969, where he spoke of his dislike of the army.^[48] In interviews in the US, Hendrix almost never mentioned it, and when Dick Cavett brought it up in his TV interview, Hendrix's only response was to verify that he had been based at Fort Campbell.^[49]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

After his Army discharge, Hendrix and Army friend Billy Cox moved to nearby Clarksville, Tennessee and undertook in earnest to earn a living with their existing band. Hendrix had already seen Butch Snipes play with his teeth in Seattle and now Alphonso 'Baby Boo' Young the other guitarist in the band, was featuring this gimmick.^[50] Not to be upstaged, it was then that Hendrix learned to play with his teeth properly, according to Hendrix himself: "... the idea of doing that came to me in a town in Tennessee. Down there you have to play with your teeth or else you get shot. There's a trail of broken teeth all over the stage..."^[51] They played mainly in low-paying gigs at obscure venues. The band eventually moved to Nashville's Jefferson Street, the traditional heart of Nashville's black community and home to a lively rhythm and blues scene.^[52] After they moved to Nashville, upon learning there was already an established band by the name "The Casuals", they amended their name to the "King Kasuals".^[53] While in Nashville, according to Cox and Larry Lee—who replaced Alphonso Young on guitar—they were basically the house band at Club del Morocco.^[54] Hendrix and Cox shared a flat above Joyce's House of Glamor.^[55] Hendrix's girlfriend at this time was Joyce Lucas. Bill 'Hoss' Allen's memory of Hendrix's supposed participation in a session with Billy Cox in November 1962, in which he cut Hendrix's contribution due to his over-the-top playing, has now been called into question; a suggestion has been made that he may have confused this with a later 1965 session by Frank Howard and the Commanders in which Hendrix participated.^[56]

In December 1962, Hendrix visited his relatives in Vancouver, Canada, where as a child he had sometimes lived with his grandmother. It has been claimed that while there, he performed with future members of the Motown band Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, including Tommy Chong (of later Cheech & Chong fame).^[57] Chong, however, disputes this ever happened and that any such appearance is a product of Taylor's "imagination".^[58] In early 1963, Hendrix returned to the South. For the next two years, Hendrix made a living performing on a circuit of venues throughout the South catering to black audiences. These were venues affiliated with the Theater Owners' Booking Association (TOBA), sarcastically known as "Tough on Black Asses" because the audiences were very demanding. The TOBA circuit was also widely known as the Chitlin' Circuit. In addition to performing in his own band, Hendrix performed with Bob Fisher and the Bonnevilles,^[59] and in backing bands for various soul, R&B, and blues musicians, including Chuck Jackson, Slim Harpo, Tommy Tucker, Sam Cooke, and Jackie Wilson. The Chitlin' Circuit was where Hendrix refined his style.

Feeling he had artistically outgrown the circuit and frustrated at following the rules of bandleaders, Hendrix decided to try his luck in New York City and in January 1964 moved into the Hotel Theresa in Harlem,^[60] where he soon befriended Lithofayne Pridgeon (known as "Faye",^[61] who became his girlfriend) and the Allen twins, Arthur and Albert (now known as Taharqa and Tunde-Ra Aleem). The Allen twins became friends and kept Hendrix out of trouble in New York. The twins also performed as backup singers (under the name Ghetto Fighters) on some of his recordings, most notably the song "Freedom". Pridgeon, a Harlem native with connections throughout the area's music scene, provided Hendrix with shelter, support, and encouragement. In February 1964, Hendrix won first prize in the Apollo Theater amateur contest. Hoping to land a gig, Hendrix made the club circuit and sat in with various bands. Eventually, Hendrix was offered the guitarist position with The Isley Brothers' back-up band and he readily accepted.

First recordings[link]

Hendrix' first studio recording occurred in March 1964, when the Isley Brothers, with Hendrix as a member of the band, recorded the two-part single "Testify". Hendrix then went on tour with the Isley Brothers. "Testify" was released in June 1964, but did not make an impact on the charts. After touring as a member of the Isley Brothers until mid-late 1964,^{[62][63][64][65][66][67]} Hendrix grew dissatisfied and left the band in Nashville. There, he found work with the tour's MC "Gorgeous" George Odell.

On March 1, 1964, Hendrix (then calling himself Maurice James) began recording and performing with Little Richard.^[16] Hendrix would later (1966) say, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice".^[68] During a stop in Los Angeles while touring with Little Richard in 1965, Hendrix played a session for Rosa Lee Brooks on her single "My Diary". This was his first recorded involvement with Arthur Lee of the band Love.^[69][70] While in L.A., he also played on the session for Little Richard's final single for Vee-Jay, "I Don't Know What You've Got, But It's Got Me".^[71] He later made his first recorded TV appearance on Nashville's Channel 5 Night Train with "The Royal Company" backing up "Buddy and Stacy" on "Shotgun".^[72] Hendrix clashed with Richard, over tardiness, wardrobe, and, above all, Hendrix's stage antics.^[71] On tour they shared billing a couple of times with Ike & Tina Turner. It has been suggested that Hendrix left Richard and played with the Turners briefly before returning to Richard, but there is no firm evidence to support this. Hendrix mentioned playing with them, and Ike Turner shortly before his death claimed that he did, but this is emphatically denied by Tina. Months later, he was either fired or he left after missing the tour bus in Washington, D.C.^[73] He then rejoined the Isley Brothers in the summer of 1965 and recorded a second single with them, "Move Over and Let Me Dance" backed with "Have You Ever Been Disappointed" (1965 Atlantic 45-2303).

Later in 1965, Hendrix joined a New York–based R&B band, Curtis Knight and the Squires, after meeting Knight in the lobby of the Hotel America, off Times Square, where both men were living at the time.^[74] He performed on and off with them for eight months.^[75] In October 1965, Hendrix recorded a single with Curtis Knight, "How Would You Feel" backed with "Welcome Home" (1966 RSVP 1120) and on October 15 he signed a three-year recording contract with entrepreneur Ed Chalpin, receiving 1% royalty. While the relationship with Chalpin was short-lived, his contract remained in force, which caused considerable problems for Hendrix later on in his career. The legal dispute has continued to the present day.^[76] (Several songs (and demos) from the 1965–1966 Curtis Knight recording sessions, deemed not worth releasing at the time, were marketed as "Jimi Hendrix" recordings after he became famous.)^[77] Aside from Curtis Knight and the Squires, Hendrix then toured for two months with Joey Dee and the Starliters.

In between performing with Curtis Knight in 1966, Hendrix toured and recorded with King Curtis. Hendrix recorded the two-part single "Help Me (Get the Feeling)" with Ray Sharpe and the King Curtis Orchestra (1966 Atco 45-6402) (the backing track was subsequently overdubbed by other vocalists with different lyrics and released as new songs).^[78] Later in 1966, Hendrix also recorded with Lonnie Youngblood, a saxophone player who occasionally performed with Curtis Knight. The sessions produced two singles for Youngblood: "Go Go Shoes"/"Go Go Place" (Fairmount F-1002) and "Soul Food (That's What I Like)"/"Goodbye Bessie Mae" (Fairmount F-1022). Additionally, singles for other artists came out of the sessions: The Icemen's "(My Girl) She's a Fox"/ "(I Wonder) What It Takes" (1966 SAMAR S-111) and Jimmy Norman's "You're Only Hurting Yourself"/"That Little Old Groove Maker" (1966 SAMAR S-112). As with the King Curtis recordings, backing tracks and alternate takes for the Youngblood sessions would be overdubbed and otherwise manipulated to create many "new" tracks.^[79] (Many Youngblood tracks without any Hendrix involvement would later be marketed as "Jimi Hendrix" recordings).^[80] Also around this time in 1966, Hendrix got his first composer credits for two instrumentals "Hornets Nest" and "Knock Yourself Out", released as a Curtis Knight and the Squires single (1966 RSVP 1124).^[81]

Hendrix, now going by the name Jimmy James, formed his own band, The Blue Flame, composed of Randy Palmer (bass), Danny Casey (drums), and a 15-year-old guitarist who played slide and rhythm named Randy Wolfe in June 1966.^[82]

Since there were two musicians named "Randy" in the group, Hendrix dubbed Wolfe "Randy California" (as he had recently moved from there to New York City) and Palmer (a Tejano) "Randy Texas". Randy California would later co-found the band Spirit with his stepfather, drummer Ed Cassidy. It was around this time that Hendrix's only daughter Tamika was conceived with Diana Carpenter (also known as Regina Jackson), a teenage runaway and prostitute that he briefly stayed with. Her claim has not been recognized by the US courts where, after death, she may not have a claim on his estate even if she could legally prove he was her father, unless recognized previously as such by him or the courts.^[83]

Hendrix and his new band played at several places in New York, but their primary venue was a residency at the Cafe Wha? on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. The street runs along "Washington (Square) Park" which appeared in at least two of Hendrix's songs. Their last concerts were at the Cafe au Go Go, as John Hammond Jr.'s backing group, billed as "The Blue Flame". Singer-guitarist Ellen McIlwaine and guitarist Jeff Baxter also claim to have briefly worked with Hendrix in this period.^[84]

The Jimi Hendrix Experience[link]

Early in 1966 at the Cheetah Club on Broadway at 53rd Street, Linda Keith, the girlfriend of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, befriended Hendrix and recommended him to Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham and later, producer Seymour Stein. Neither man took a liking to Hendrix's music, and they both passed. She then referred Hendrix to Chas Chandler, who was ending his tenure as bassist in The Animals and looking for talent to manage and produce. Chandler liked the song "Hey Joe" and was convinced he could create a hit single with the right artist.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience performing on Dutch television in 1967

Impressed with Hendrix's version, Chandler brought him to London in September 1966 and signed him to a management and production contract with himself and ex-Animals manager Michael Jeffery. It was Chandler who came up with the spelling change of "Jimmy" to "Jimi".^[85] Chandler then helped Hendrix form a new band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, with guitarist-turned-bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, both English musicians.^[86] Shortly before the Experience was formed, Chandler introduced Hendrix to Brian Auger, Eric Burdon, Pete Townshend and to Eric Clapton, who had only recently helped put together Cream. At Chandler's request, Cream let Hendrix join them on stage for a jam. Hendrix performed two songs, one of which was the song "Killing Floor". Hendrix and Clapton remained friends up until Hendrix's death. The first night Hendrix arrived in London, he began a relationship with Kathy Etchingham that lasted until February 1969. She later wrote an autobiographical book about their relationship and the sixties London scene in general.^[87]

Hendrix sometimes had a camp sense of humour, specifically with the song "Purple Haze". A mondegreen had appeared, in which the line "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" was misheard as "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy". In a few performances, Hendrix humorously used this, deliberately singing "kiss this guy" while pointing to Mitch or Noel, as he did at Monterey.^[88] In the Woodstock DVD he deliberately points to the sky at this point,^[89] to make it clear. A volume of misheard lyrics has been published, using this mondegreen itself as the title, with Hendrix on the cover.

UK success[link]

After his enthusiastically received performance at France's No. 1 venue, the Olympia theatre in Paris on the Johnny Hallyday tour, an on-stage jam with Cream, a showcase gig at the newly opened, pop-celebrity oriented nightclub Bag O'Nails and the all important appearances on the top UK TV pop shows Ready Steady Go! and the BBC's Top of the Pops, word of Hendrix spread throughout the London music community in late 1966. His showmanship and virtuosity made instant fans of reigning guitar heroes Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, as well as Brian Jones and members of The Beatles and The Who, whose managers signed Hendrix to their new record label, Track Records.

Hendrix's first single was a cover of "Hey Joe", using Tim Rose's slower arrangement of the song including his addition of a female backing chorus. Backing this first 1966 "Experience" single was Hendrix's first songwriting effort, "Stone Free". Further success came in early 1967 with "Purple Haze" which featured the "Hendrix chord" and "The Wind Cries Mary". The three singles were all UK Top 10 hits and were also popular internationally including Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan (though failed to sell when released later in the US).

Onstage, Hendrix was also making an impression with sped up renderings of the B.B. King hit "Rock Me Baby" and Howlin' Wolf's hit "Killing Floor".

[edit] Are You Experienced

The first Jimi Hendrix Experience album, Are You Experienced, was released in the United Kingdom on May 12, 1967, and shortly thereafter internationally, outside of the United States and Canada. It contained none of the previously released (outside the United States and Canada) singles or their B sides ("Hey Joe"/"Stone Free", "Purple Haze"/"51st Anniversary" and "The Wind Cries Mary"/"Highway Chile"). Only The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band prevented Are You Experienced from reaching No. 1 on the UK charts.

At this time, the Experience extensively toured the United Kingdom and parts of Europe. This allowed Hendrix to develop his stage presence, which reached a high point on March 31, 1967, when, booked to appear as one of the opening acts on the Walker Brothers farewell tour, he set his guitar on fire at the end of his first performance, as a publicity stunt. This guitar has now been identified as the "Zappa guitar" (previously thought to have been from Miami), which has been partly refurbished.^{[clarification needed]} Later, as part of this press promotion campaign, there were articles about Rank Theatre management warning him to "tone down" his "suggestive" stage act, with Chandler stating that the group would not compromise regardless.^[90] On June 4, 1967, the Experience played their last show in England, at London's Saville Theatre, before heading off to America. The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album had just been released on June 1 and two Beatles (Paul McCartney and George Harrison) were in attendance, along with a roll call of other UK rock stardom, including: Brian Epstein, Eric Clapton, Spencer Davis, Jack Bruce, and pop singer Lulu. Hendrix opened the show with his own rendering of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", rehearsed only minutes before taking the stage, much to McCartney's astonishment and delight.^[91]

Hendrix on stage in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1967

While on tour in Sweden in 1967, Hendrix jammed with the duo Hansson & Karlsson, and later opened several concerts with their song "Tax Free", also recording a cover of it during the Electric Ladyland sessions.^[92] He played there frequently throughout his career, and his only son James Daniel Sundquist was born there in 1969 to a Swede, Eva Sundquist, recognized as such by the Swedish courts and paid a settlement by Experience Hendrix LLC.^[93] He wrote a poem to a woman there (probably Sundquist). Sundquist had sent Hendrix roses on each of his opening nights in Stockholm, and began – according to the Swedish courts – a sexual relationship from then until conceiving Daniel with him, after his third visit in January 1969. Hendrix also dedicated songs to the Swedish-based Vietnam deserters organization in 1969.^[94]

Months later, Reprise Records released the US and Canadian version of Are You Experienced with a new cover by Karl Ferris, removing "Red House", "Remember" and "Can You See Me" to make room for the first three single A-sides. Where the (Rest of the World) album kicked off with "Foxy Lady", the US and Canadian one started with "Purple Haze". Both versions offered a startling introduction to the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the album was a blueprint for what had become possible on an electric guitar, basically recorded on four tracks, mixed into mono and only modified at this point by a "fuzz" pedal, reverb and a small bit of the experimental "Octavia" pedal on "Purple Haze", produced by Roger Mayer in consultation with Hendrix. A remix using the mostly mono backing tracks with the guitar and vocal overdubs separated and occasionally panned to create a stereo mix was also released, only in the US and Canada.

US success[link]

Although very popular in Europe at this time, The Jimi Hendrix Experience had yet to crack the United States.c Their first single there, "Hey Joe" c/w "51st Anniversary" (Reprise 0572, released May 1, 1967), failed to reach the Billboard chart.

Their chance came when Paul McCartney recommended the group to the organizers of the Monterey International Pop Festival. This proved to be a great opportunity for Hendrix, not only because of the large audience present at the event, but also because of the many journalists covering the event who wrote about him. The performances were filmed by D. A. Pennebaker and later shown in some movie theaters around the country in early 1969 as the concert documentary Monterey Pop, which immortalized Hendrix's iconic burning and smashing of his guitar at the finale of his performance.

The opening song was Hendrix's very fast arrangement of Howlin' Wolf's 1965 R&B hit "Killing Floor". He played this frequently from late 1965 through 1968, usually as the opener to his shows. The Monterey performance included an equally lively rendering of B.B. King's 1964 R&B hit "Rock Me Baby", Tim Rose's arrangement of "Hey Joe" and Bob Dylan's 1965 pop hit "Like a Rolling Stone". The set ended with The Troggs' "Wild Thing" and Hendrix repeating the act that had boosted his profile in the UK (and internationally) with him burning his guitar on stage,^[95] then smashing it to bits and tossing pieces out to the audience. This show finally brought Hendrix to the notice of the US public. A large chunk of this guitar was on display at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, along with the other psychedelically painted Stratocaster that Hendrix smashed (but did not burn) at his farewell concert in England before he left for the US and Monterey.

At the time Hendrix was playing sets in the Scene club in NYC in July 1967, he met Frank Zappa, whose Mothers of Invention were playing the adjacent Garrick Theater, and he was reportedly fascinated by Zappa's recently purchased wah-wah pedal.^[96] Hendrix immediately bought one from Manny's and starting using it right away on the sessions for both sides of his new single, and slightly later, on several jams recorded at Ed Chalpin's studio.^[97]

Following the festival, the Experience played a series of concerts at Bill Graham's Fillmore replacing the original headliners Jefferson Airplane at the top of the bill. It was at this time that Hendrix became acquainted with future musical collaborator Stephen Stills, and reacquainted himself with Buddy Miles who introduced Hendrix to his future partner, Devon Wilson. She had a turbulent on/off relationship with him, right up to the night of his death, and was the only one of his partners to record with him. She died only six months after Hendrix under mysterious circumstances, apparently falling from an upper window in the Chelsea Hotel.

Following this very successful West Coast introduction, which also included two open air concerts (one of them a free concert in the "panhandle" of Golden Gate Park) and a concert at the Whisky a Go Go, they were booked as one of the opening acts for pop group The Monkees on their first American tour. The Monkees asked for Hendrix because they were fans,^[98] but their (mostly early teens) audience sometimes did not warm to their act, and he quit the tour after a few dates. Chas Chandler later admitted that being thrown off the Monkees tour was engineered to gain maximum media impact and publicity for Hendrix,^[99] similar to that gained from the manufactured Rank Theatre's indecency dispute on the earlier UK Walker Brothers tour. At the time, a story circulated claiming that Hendrix was removed from the tour because of complaints made by the Daughters of the American Revolution that his stage conduct was "lewd and indecent". This report was concocted by a journalist accompanying the tour, the Australian Lillian Roxon.