Jimi & Genius

I enjoy being an iconoclastic individual. Evangelical-Intellectual, Athletic-Beer Drinker/Cigar Smoker, Reformed/Open-Minded. I am a niche personality. Working my way out of and whittling down a prefab ready-made audience, eschewing the type of predictability that Fox News and Rush Limbaugh have made their billions on, as well as the Liberal equivalents.

Perhaps my most illuminating fascination that exhibits my both/and approach is my deep affection for Jimi Hendrix, not just his music, but his personality. Far from only being a drug-addled freak, Jimi Hendrix was a modern day Mozart. Taking the Blues from the Mississippi Delta and expanding it into the Universe. Perhaps one of the few that could legitimately have both the historical roots and the progressive imagination together, making his music a epochal earth-shaking phenom. No other Rock guitarist has had such a lasting legacy.

I just finished the book below: (a very plain and drab cover, that looks more like a passport picture).

I found it at Winding Way in Lancaster City which is a used bookstore. There are a lot of books that still have something to say that never made it onto a New York Times Best-Seller List and don't get to second and third printings. In fact, many great books perish in anonymity while lesser works persist like a plague. So when I came upon it, I seized in an act of serendipity. $ 6.95. 

One of the co-authors, Eddie Kramer, was the sound engineer for most of the albums Hendrix released in his lifetime. Kramer and his co-author are not necessarily greatest writers but they do bear a straightforward witness to the talent and dedication of Jimi Hendrix beyond the stage antics and pyrotechnics. Kramer is however a world-class audio engineer who did much to make the sound of Jimi Hendrix work in the studio.

What does Hendrix teach us about genius? Here are some thoughts.

- He was a Seattle boy, not a hotbed for the blues or soul music.I have no clue what the ethnic make-up of what Seattle was back in the day but it was no Harlem. Jimi grew up as an outsider. Don't let where you have come from define where you go. Being an outsider has its advantages in that you can see things that others cannot because they are too ingrained in the acceptable crowd.   

- He lost his Mom at a very early age. She was a wild child who left Jimi motherless, a deep pain that seemed to create a template of loneliness that drove him to the guitar for companionship and consolation. Sadness and deep hurt trigger a degree of creativity that agreeable times and experiences do not. Wounds make one wonder about the meaning and purpose of life. Prosperity typically stunts inquiry.  

- Jimi never learned to read music and never took music lessons. It shows that a lack of formal training can help an artist avoid the ruts of what has been done and instead chart out new territory. There is a knowledge that exceeds what has been done, it is what could be done. Too much mastery of the past keeps one there.  

- He was very young when he became a star. Dying at 27, when most are just trying to master their first job. Think about having the adulation of millions of people at such an early age. It is a reality that would break almost anyone, so we should be careful about judging his excesses. He was just a kid who rode a rocket but fragmented and fell under the explosive weight of expectations.

This part of a song lyric was found on the table next to where Jimi died: 

The story of life is quicker than the blink of an eye, The story of love is hello and goodbye. Until we meet again.

I don't pretend to know how big God's grace is. I just hope in the world to come, Jimi is there. Playing his guitar...