When writer/director John Ridley’s much anticipated film Jimi Hendrix biopic Jimi: All Is by My Side opens next week, I imagine I’ll be in front of the screen on opening day absorbing the spectacle of André 3000 playing one of my musical heroes. Thankfully, unlike other ambitious feature films that attempt to compact the entire lifetime of an artist into one film, Ridley has wisely chosen to narrow his focus by concentrating on Jimi’s “on the verge” years, when he moved from performing in Greenwich Village coffeehouses to the rock clubs of London.
Under the guidance of his new manager Chas Chandler, it was in the U.K. where Hendrix was befriended by Beatles member Paul McCartney and jealously loathed by Eric Clapton, then recorded (in five months) his solo debut, Are You Experienced. Containing the brilliant songs “Purple Haze,” “Foxy Lady,” and the wonderful title track, the frantic, blues-based, futuristic aural manifesto that is Are You Experienced continues to sell, influence and inspire.
While some folks later tried to say that Hendrix was passive on subjects concerning civil-rights, Are You Experienced was a revolutionary record that didn’t have to chant “Black Power” because it was Black Power electrified, and Hendrix was a psychedelic Malcolm X welding a guitar like a machine gun. The image of this left-handed wildman simply playing his instrument was life changing.
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