Beautiful, Lonesone EJ. Your writing evokes the tenderness, the spiritual vision, and the obsessive musical quest of the man himself. Thank you.

"no bad at playing guitar" is either a rasta cool compliment, or else a typo for the understatement of the era. Hendrix was born left-handed but was forced to write with his right hand as a child by his father. Although he primarily played left-handed, he could chord and play with either hand, with the guitar strung upside-down or right-side up. Of course, he could also play with his teeth, or play with the guitar postitioned virtually anywhere on his body, but that was for theatrics. Hendrix could play a piece of music and then play it backwards, note-for-note.

Hendrix's virtuousity had the effect of making other guitarists feel their talent was cancelled out. When Jeff Beck first heard him, he said, "I think I'll get a job at the post office." Brian Jones told someone in the loo of a club where Hendrix was playing, "Be careful, the floor is wet up there. It's flooded with the tears of all the other guitarists." Mike Bloomfield became so depressed the first time he heard Hendrix he missed his own gig, an important debut in New York.

Elmer