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Jimi Hendrix Reveals What Goes Into Making The Perfect Album In Unearthed Interview

Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Bent Rej

I feel guilty when people say I’m the greatest guitarist on the scene,” Jimi Hendrix shares with the Los Angeles Times on September 7, 1969.

The interview, recently unearthed by music journalism archive Rock’s Backpages, takes place a little over a year before the troubled guitarist’s death from an accidental drug overdose on September 18, 197o.

What’s good or bad doesn’t matter to me,” Hendrix explains, elaborating on his view on music as well as his controversial decision to replace his former bandmates Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding, and Bily Cox with Black American players, “what does matter is feeling and not feeling. If only people would take more of a true view and think in terms of feeling. Your name doesn’t mean a damn, it’s your talent and feeling that matters. You’ve got to know much more than just the technicalities of notes, you’ve got to know sounds and what goes between the notes.”

What it all comes down to,Jim Hendrix adds, “is that albums are nothing but personal diaries. When you hear somebody making music, they are baring a naked part of their soul to you. Are You Experienced? was one of the most direct albums we’ve done. What it was saying was ‘Let us through the wall, man, we want you to dig it.

While Hendrix concedes he hit a sweet spot with his debut, he makes clear that in order to continue to make honest albums he couldn’t repeat himself.

Sure albums come out different,” he confides. “You can’t go on doing the same thing. Every day you find out this and that and it adds to the total you have. Are You Experienced? was where my head was at a couple of years ago. Now I’m into different things.”

Jimi Hendrix then offers his view on the environment: “There’s a great need for harmony between man and earth. I think we’re really screwing up that harmony by dumping garbage in the sea, air pollution and all that stuff.”

He also shared that despite the obvious strain of fame, he couldn’t allow himself to take a break.

A couple of years ago,” he concludes, “all I wanted was to be heard. ‘Let me in’ was the thing. Now I’m trying to figure out the wisest way to be heard.”

You can subscribe to Rock’s Backpages and read the full interview here.

 

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