Jimi is Back

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the death of Jimi Hendrix.

Jimi was considered by many to be the greatest electric guitarist of all time, and I'm inclined to agree. Not that others haven't equaled Jimi's works but, had his genius not been lost to the world prematurely I'm all but certain he would have set standards that guitarists like Brian May, Jimmy Page, Robin Trower, and Eric Clapton would have been hard pressed to match.

(Right now College Dude is probably filling out the papers to disown me as a father but I have to call them as I see them.)

I couldn't begin to count the number of evenings I spent listening to the albums Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland, and wishing that Jimi had not left the world before I had a chance to appreciate his artistic abilities in the setting of a live concert.

Every time I listened to one of those 33 1/3rds, I hoped for the impossible. I hoped for the news release announcing Jimi's death had been staged, that he had needed a break in order to recover from the hard life of touring, that he had needed to recharge the creative energies, and that he was now ready for a momentous return.

And in a way that return has occurred, some thirty-five years after I first started hoping, with the recent release of the Valleys of Neptune CD.

It's great to have you back Jimi.