We had started hearing a lot about Jimi Hendrix in 1967 and especially after the Monterey Pop Festival that summer and then of course being the opening act for The Monkees tour that year. I actually bought all of the first three Hendrix albums in 1968 but the first one I got was Electric Ladyland. I very much remember hearing that album playing in a neighborhood record store and getting my copy. Then getting home, opening up that double LP set and putting it on the turntable that first time. That amazing first side got to me immediately but of course I would soon discover that every song on all four sides were incredible.
I started working a job at a machine shop when I turned 16 and in 1968 I had money to buy lots of albums... and go to shows. I bought the other two earlier Hendrix albums shortly after getting Electric Ladyland. I got Smash Hits in 1969. Later around 1986, when I first started buying CDs, Electric Ladyland was the first of my vinyl records I replaced on CD along with Rubber Soul although I was still buying some vinyl then too.
One of the biggest regrets of my music life was not going to see Jimi Hendrix when I had the chance. I actually had three opportunities to see him perform but each time I was ready to go with some friends from the string band but for some various reasons I put it off. I always thought there would be another time to go see him perform. In early 1968 He played at the Electric Factory which was the club that I was going to regularly to see bands that year. He played the Spectrum in 1969 and I could have gone to that show but there was something else going on that night. Then he played in May 1970, when I was home on a two week leave, at Temple University stadium along with the Grateful Dead, Cactus and the Steve Miller Band. There again I thought I would catch him the next time.
I did get to see Jim Morrison and The Doors three times during that period and Janis Joplin also three times. None of us at the time thought that Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison would all die so early in their careers.
After I got out of the Navy in 1973 I got a few of the posthumous album releases and then of course much later I got a few of the Hendrix live sets and compilation CDs.
Jimi Hendrix albums in my collection:
- Are You Experienced, 1967
- Axis Bold As Love, 1967
- Electric Ladyland, 1968
- Smash Hits, 1969
- Band of Gypsys, 1970
- Cry of Love, 1971
- Rainbow Bridge, 1971
- Hendrix in the West, 1972
- Crash Landing, 1975
- Jimi Blues, 1994
- First Rays of the New Rising Sun, 1997
- South Saturn Delta, 1997
- Live at the Fillmore East 1969-70 (2 CD), 1999
- The Jimi Hendrix Experience Box Set (4 CD), 2000
- Valleys of Neptune, 2010
- West Coast Seattle Boy: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology (4 CD), 2010
- Live at Winterland 1968 (4 CD), 2011
- People Hell and Angels, 2013
- Machine Gun: Live at the Fillmore East 1969, 2016
- Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival 1970, 2016
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