Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child (documentary)

I really thought that I had reviewed this before, because I know that I've watched it, but I can't find it if I did. In any case, as Hendrix is one of my all-time fave musicians, I will check out pretty much anything that he is associated with. This documentary is made up of various film clips of Jimi, with the narration - by Bootsy Collins (!) - Jimi's own words, taken from letters and interviews. The story is always familiar, but I enjoy the various takes on it and love to hear about Jimi playing the "Chitlin Circuit" with the likes of the Isley Brothers, Little Richard and many others. He never lasted long as the backing musician for any other act as he always had his own ideas and always wanted to explore different sounds and make a r'n'r spectacle of himself. Of course, his "discovery" by Chas Chandler gave him that chance and rock'n'roll music was never the same again.

As Hendrix talks of his influences, you see them show up blatantly in his music - Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf - but he mixes it all up with the purest essence of the 60's to create his own sound - pure blues, but a blues unlike any ever heard before. They were also one of the most visual bands ever to exist at that point - Jimi's outrageous stage behavior but also their incredible clothes and stellar playing. The story is one that has been told multiple times, but it's always so great to see the footage and always so heartbreaking to think of what this man could have accomplished if only...

This man is one of my biggest influences - I never was able to put together what I wanted, but it would have been a mix of Jimi, Alice and the MC5. Anyway, I will never tire of watching this man's immense talent.