Hendrix (continued)

I can't listen to Jimi Hendrix without thinking about college, which is the time and place when Hendrix's music first entered my musical life. 

Of all places, it was at a David Bowie concert in 1987 that I first thought, "hmm, Jimi Hendrix is pretty cool." This was when Bowie's guitarist on that tour, Carlos Alomar, broke into a snippet of "Purple Haze" that was mind-blowingly awesome. In fact, it was the clear highlight of that concert. (I love, love, love David Bowie--and I am grateful that I saw him perform live--but that Glass Spider Tour was subpar).

Fast forward a few months into my sophomore year in college. A bunch of us from Ground Floor/Shaw Hall had piled into a car and driven out to the Meijer store in Okemos. I can't remember why, exactly. Some kind of grocery run? a beer run? (Probably a beer/alcohol run, primarily). On the drive to and from, various cassettes were rotating in the car's sound system. On the way back to campus, on Grand River Avenue somewhere near Hagadorn Road (I have no idea how or why I still so vividly remember the car's exact geographic location when this moment occurred), Dave B. (our resident freshman metalhead who later traded his metal cassettes for rap cassettes) popped in a tape and the first song started with this strange "PFF ... PFF ... PFF ... PFF-PFF-PFF-PFF" sound effect followed by what sounded like a distant and dissonant bell being rung and an immediate electric guitar squall, then this stoned laconic vocal, "If you can just get your mind together...than come across to me..." 

It was one of those "What the fuck am I listening to?!" moments that happen in ever so periodically in life. How has this piece of music existed my entire life and why am I only hearing it now? 

I was fairly confident it was Jimi Hendrix, but as I remember it, I had to blurt out--reflexively blurt out, "WHO IS THIS? WHAT SONG IS THIS?!"

"Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced," Dave replied--or more accurately, shouted above the ear-splitting din of Hendrix's lyrsergic feedback drenched and backwards guitar mindfuck.

I later found out that Dave's cassette was the 1984 hodge podge release, Kiss the Sky. I found a copy of the cassette presumably at WhereHouse Records shortly thereafter and thus my Jimi Hendrix fandom began in earnest. Kiss the Sky was a perfect introduction to Hendrix, as it contained an equal mix of studio tracks and excellent live material, (including a great version of "I Don't Live Today" that I wish I still had. Yes, I got rid of that Kiss the Sky cassette many years ago).  Uh-oh, do I suddenly have an urge to reacquire Kiss the Sky?

Not my actual cassette, but this image--taken from eBay--looks exactly like the one I had.

So that concludes my Jimi Hendrix origin story. I hope you weren't too bored by it.