Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix duped the medical examiners of the US Army during the Viet Nam era.
This can sound upsetting for many of us, but according to the new biography by Charles R. Cross that will hit the bookstores on September 18, Jimi did what many other people at the time did too. He played the gay card, which was an unlikely ruse since his sexual appetite for women was legendary.
He pulled up his stunt in the spring of 1962, probably fearing that JFK would repeat what he has done to the men fighting in a certain exotic beach -Bay of Pigs- on a little island in the sun just a year before. That would be no joke to have the same guy abandoning you in Viet Nam that's for sure!
Jimi wanted to escape the army which has served him right and gave him an opportunity to become somebody. If it weren't for the Army he probably were never become anything else but the car thieve that he was before enlisting. He needed to escape to create the music which he gave us after he was discharged, and also, he needed to escape to live a different live from the lives black men usually were condemned to live in the early sixties. He also was capable of trasspassing the racial barriers erected by no other than the Democrats at that time, not that they don't think in a different way today, they only like blacks during an electoral campaing. He was not ready to die in a war with all that music inside him.
There were other people who also tricked the Army. One of them was Ted Nugent, who also grew up into a rock star and a fervent anticommunist. Jimi Hendrix, according to this new bio, was also a dedicated anticommunist and he didn't feel a tad uneasy about the scalating war in Viet Nam, his song Machine Gun with the Band of Gypsies says it all. I just hope that this pisses off as many liberals as possible!
"Jimi, if you were here now you would be also supporting our troops and you probably would have done a couple of USO tours".
Big difference, though, with so many other traitors who threw their dubiously earned medals, like that guy with the home movie camera, the French guy called Kerry. Or that other guy who invented the internet.... I don't remember his name now, I think it's Bore or something like that. The one who carried the rifle always pointing at his head
I have his music in my mind all the time... In another blog, I wrote a piece called Soundtracks in which I talked about one of his songs, Crosstown traffic. I hear that every time I walk from West to East and back in Manhattan. To my mind come also Purple Haze, Machine Gun, Voodo Chile and so many more at any given time of the day. No, I don't own an I-Pod, I just have those sounds deeply in my soul, because in times of Manic Depression -when I lived in Cuba- Freedom! resonated in my mind everytime that I listened to my bootlegged Jimi records.
Somehow, I always "knew" or "felt" that Jimi was a certified and proud anticommunist. He had to be. His music spoke to me so much and so deeply when I used to live under a communist dictatorship that it could not have been otherwise. I remember this very clearly: kagasstro went to my high school for the commencement of the academic year. I was there, a fourteen year old standing under the sun, and in my head I had Foxie Lady, Machine Gun, Hey Joe, the Watchtower, Third Rock for the Sun and much more and to this day I have no idea what kagasstro had to say!
UPDATE
The combination of having a blues guitar player, a rock drummer and a jazz bassit playing together revolutionized the way rock music was created and played thereafter. Still today, one listens to Jimi and his sound is very contemporary with much more depth and richness than whoever is the fad of the day or the flavor of the week. He was capable of going from the blues mood to the rock mood in the space of a few musical bars seamlessly. His stage antics were not detrimental from his highly polished performance, with amazing lyrics. In other words, he was a rock poet.
This can sound upsetting for many of us, but according to the new biography by Charles R. Cross that will hit the bookstores on September 18, Jimi did what many other people at the time did too. He played the gay card, which was an unlikely ruse since his sexual appetite for women was legendary.
He pulled up his stunt in the spring of 1962, probably fearing that JFK would repeat what he has done to the men fighting in a certain exotic beach -Bay of Pigs- on a little island in the sun just a year before. That would be no joke to have the same guy abandoning you in Viet Nam that's for sure!
Jimi wanted to escape the army which has served him right and gave him an opportunity to become somebody. If it weren't for the Army he probably were never become anything else but the car thieve that he was before enlisting. He needed to escape to create the music which he gave us after he was discharged, and also, he needed to escape to live a different live from the lives black men usually were condemned to live in the early sixties. He also was capable of trasspassing the racial barriers erected by no other than the Democrats at that time, not that they don't think in a different way today, they only like blacks during an electoral campaing. He was not ready to die in a war with all that music inside him.
There were other people who also tricked the Army. One of them was Ted Nugent, who also grew up into a rock star and a fervent anticommunist. Jimi Hendrix, according to this new bio, was also a dedicated anticommunist and he didn't feel a tad uneasy about the scalating war in Viet Nam, his song Machine Gun with the Band of Gypsies says it all. I just hope that this pisses off as many liberals as possible!
"Jimi, if you were here now you would be also supporting our troops and you probably would have done a couple of USO tours".
Big difference, though, with so many other traitors who threw their dubiously earned medals, like that guy with the home movie camera, the French guy called Kerry. Or that other guy who invented the internet.... I don't remember his name now, I think it's Bore or something like that. The one who carried the rifle always pointing at his head
I have his music in my mind all the time... In another blog, I wrote a piece called Soundtracks in which I talked about one of his songs, Crosstown traffic. I hear that every time I walk from West to East and back in Manhattan. To my mind come also Purple Haze, Machine Gun, Voodo Chile and so many more at any given time of the day. No, I don't own an I-Pod, I just have those sounds deeply in my soul, because in times of Manic Depression -when I lived in Cuba- Freedom! resonated in my mind everytime that I listened to my bootlegged Jimi records.
Somehow, I always "knew" or "felt" that Jimi was a certified and proud anticommunist. He had to be. His music spoke to me so much and so deeply when I used to live under a communist dictatorship that it could not have been otherwise. I remember this very clearly: kagasstro went to my high school for the commencement of the academic year. I was there, a fourteen year old standing under the sun, and in my head I had Foxie Lady, Machine Gun, Hey Joe, the Watchtower, Third Rock for the Sun and much more and to this day I have no idea what kagasstro had to say!
UPDATE
The combination of having a blues guitar player, a rock drummer and a jazz bassit playing together revolutionized the way rock music was created and played thereafter. Still today, one listens to Jimi and his sound is very contemporary with much more depth and richness than whoever is the fad of the day or the flavor of the week. He was capable of going from the blues mood to the rock mood in the space of a few musical bars seamlessly. His stage antics were not detrimental from his highly polished performance, with amazing lyrics. In other words, he was a rock poet.
5 Comments:
Hendrix was mistakenly taken as a brit by a great deal of people when he first showed up in NYC
The fact that he had this pseudo brit accent helped the myth.
If you were REALLY into music you KNEW about him and you knew he was NOT a Brit, (he had played lead guitar with James Brown) but he played that "Brit" thing to the hilt.
When I heard the USA national anthem at Woodstock a lot of Hippies thought it was Jimi mocking the USA , I though , Geez I think this is tribute, he is FLAUNTING his Americanism. Like saying "Ok I have made and I am an AMERICAN"
His national anthem was played in virtuoso fashion, respectfully, even lovingly. So although I did not know of his political sentiments i think he wanted the world to know.
There were MANY anti-socialist/communist statements at that time that where muddled up in the haze that was the late 60 and early 70s.
TAXMAN by George Harrison is a BLATANT anti socialist statement. PMs Edward Heath and Harold Wilson were socialist and Labor party members respectably and were DRAINING the British upper class, and squandering the money in utter nonsense social programs.
Hence the exile of the Rolling Stones to France.
When Jagger comes out draped in the Union Jack , a lot of people thought it to be also a mockery I saw it as a symbol of pride in his country. Like saying “Yeah I moved the fuck to france , but I AM A BRIT!”
When the Beatles sing “But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao , you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow” well that speaks for itself
Lennon was known to say “I don’t believe in “isms” which of course does include Capitalism but his life style proves that he may have made an exception on THAT particular “ism”
Besides the music, what I remember most about Hendrix is the contrast between the aggressiveness of his music, and the sweet almost shy personality you witnessed in interviews. To this day, his ripping rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" remains untouched in its patriotic fervor. I still get goose bumps listening.
As a near-geezer, I remember the early days of hippies and the early rock festivals. They didn't tend to be anti-American at all. There was opposition to the war in Vietnam, but mostly to the way it was being fought - as a defensive war, not to win.
I remember several of the smaller festivals at which American flags were prominently displayed.
It seems to me that the anti-Americanism crept in about 1970 with additional communist agents showing up on college campuses and infiltrating other youth and minority organizations.
BTW, Hendrix learned a lot of his guitar playing from a man I knew slightly in Macon, Georgia - Johnny Jenkins.
I think the "anti-war" movemenet was hijacked and became an anti-USA movemenet by the left and by the USSR itself.
It was easy , thousands of teens stoned outta their minds are easy pray to political ideas that to THIS day a LOT of them embrace.
The anti-USA seed was planted then and now we have these fuckers teaching in academia.
I went through HELL as a teen in the early 70s because I (as a Cuban who KNEW communism and as a VERY pro USA kid) took to wearing a Marines jacket every where I went (still have it , size 36 small :) )
It has the name of the marine who first wore it "Henderson" stamped on its collar. Even TEACHERS would tell me that at that point in time we should be ashamed of the USA and not flaunt it !
In my VERY limited English of the time I told him to go fuck himself. The dean agreed with me when I was sent to his office for my "outburst" ( The Dean later became a PROMINENT writer and right winger . Dr. Horowitz), and the teacher was severely reprimended.
I remeber being at at Jack in the BoX with my jacket and a cop came to me looking kindda pissed and asked me , why the FUCK I was wearing that Jacket that a LOT of great men had died for that jacket .. and I told him "Yes I know , I am honoring them!" he was taken aback , and asked if I was pro war .. I told him, "Nah , I am Pro-Peace , they should just nuke those bastards and get it over with"
The cop had a good laugh and paid for my Jack in the box and YUMMY onion rings !
So guys, just imagine the brunt I took in Cuba for liking Jimi and other rockers!!!!
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