So, in Part I we left Jimi and Chas buying their tickets to London, ready to humbly meet some guitar greats. On September 24^th 1966 then, Jimi lands at Heathrow, holding a bag with some clothes, pink plastic hair curlers, soap, acne cream, a toothbrush, and, his Fender Stratocaster by his side. That first evening, over dinner at one of Chas’s friend’s home, he meets and jams with a very young guitarist called Andy Summers (if you don’t know who Andy Summers is, I swear I will call The Police on you!). 

A week later, it’s time for Chas to fulfil his promise to introduce Jimi to Clapton. It’s Saturday, October 1st 1966 and here’s how it went down. Cream are at their absolute peak at this point. Graffiti on London walls proclaims “Clapton is God”. Cream are playing The Polytechnic that night, and so, guitar in hand, Jimi and Chas show upthere. A few minutes into Cream’s set, Chas quietly asks Clapton if his friend Jimi can sit in. Sure, man, no problemo. Jimi plugs in. Pauses for a breath. And …wham! Jimi starts playing a version of Howlin’ Wolf’s “The Killing Floor” – a song even Clapton hasn’t mastered yet – with such pace and sweet precision that it blows the roof off the place. The Howlin’ Wolf original is a real blues gem, 12 bars that you can bob your head to. Jimi’s version is insane – it makes your head just fall clean off. Jaws hit the floor – including one belonging to a very young Roger Waters, who happens to be in the audience🤯. Clapton looks like he’s been smacked over the head by a truncheon. He wobbles off stage, and puffing a cigarette, turns to Chas and says plaintively “You never told me he was that f****ing good!”. 

Chas realises now that he urgently needs a band to back up Jimi and start recording. And of course, like everything Jimi Hendrix, this is surreal as well. Noel Redding comes in to audition as lead guitarist for the New Animals, but Chandler offers him a chance to play bass with Jimi. Noel has never played bass before, but says “yes” anyway! And to top that – Jimi knows that Noel has never played the bass but agrees to take him on because he likes Noel’s hairstyle (you have got to be bloody kidding me!). And then Mitch Mitchell auditions for and wins the drummer spot – on a coin-toss because Chas and Jimi can’t decide between him and Aynsley Dunbar. That’s just nuts!! Just listen to Jimi and Mitch for even 10 seconds – it’s like they were born to play together. And they came together because someone called “heads”!! Thank God an inspired Chas comes up with the perfect name for the band – “The Jimi Hendrix Experience”. Two weeks later they are in the studio and inevitably, the first track Jimi wants to record is “Hey Joe”! Few days later Chas pitches the demo to Decca Records. They turn it down, flat. But then…. these are the guys who turned down The Beatles. 🤦🏽 🤦🏽 🤦🏽 🤣🤣🤣

Over the next few days, Jimi’s fame rips through London, causing panic across the pantheon of Guitar Gods. On Nov 25th at “The Bag O’Nails”, Jimi plays “ Wild Thing”, throwing out one face-melting solo after another to an audience that includes Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Paul McCartney, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Eric Burdon, John Mayall, Terry Reid …and Eric Clapton, suddenly sporting a Hendrix-esque Afro 😆. And when he’s finished, Pete Townshend, awestruck and demoralised, apparently turned to a numb Clapton standing next to him and said “Is he really that good or did we suddenly become that bad?”. And, right there, a rivalry is born.

The Jimi juggernaut has just crushed the entire rock world 

The legend only needs one final act to make it indelible.

Six months later, June ’67, Jimi is at the Monterey Pop Festival. The Who and The Experience are both scheduled to play on the final day. Neither wants to play second, worried they will be upstaged by the other. Townshend and Hendrix toss a coin, and The Who get to go first. They play a full-on set, closing with a raucous rendition of “My Generation” as Pete smashes his guitar and Keith Moon kicks over his drums. Top that Mr. Hendrix! Jimi, standing in the wings, game face on, is making mental notes. A little later, The Experience go up on stage and instantly launch into one blistering song after another. They reach their final song – “Wild Thing” – which by now is Jimi’s song of choice to get Pete’s goat. Half-way through the song though, Jimi stops. Reverentially lays down his guitar on stage. Opens up a bottle of lighter fluid and douses his guitar in it. And sets it… on fire. 🤯 Minutes later, he picks up the burnt-out husk, chucks it into the audience and walks off the stage. Back at ya Mr. Townshend!

Oh my God! This is genuinely I-can’t-believe-my-eyes stuff! It is right up there with Queen ruling Live Aid against all the other names there. How I wish I had been there – I bet through the purple haze of whatever I was smoking, my reaction would have been a simple “far out man!”.

The Jimi Hendrix legend is now complete.

A year later on 2nd May 1968, Hendrix accidentally records my favourite track – Voodoo Chile (Slight Return). Yes, accidentally.

It’s May 2nd,1968 and after a night out on the town, Jimi, Steve Winwood and Jack Casady (the bassist from Jefferson Airplane) come back into the studio at 7 am and decide to jam. They hit the record button and in three takes, with no music in front of them, they record the 15-minute gorgeous, slow, hypnotic blues jam of “Voodoo Chile.” But wait, it gets better! Next morning The Experience come in to the studio and find a television crew shooting a documentary. They want some shots of the band and the TV producer asks them to pretend as if they’re recording something. Instead, Jimi, with yesterday’s Winwood / Casady jam ringing in his ears, decides they should actually play something for real. So, as he usually does, he calls out the key – E, counts it in, and then totally spontaneously, Jimi, Redding and Mitchell launch into a condensed, fast-and-furious version of Voodoo Chile. No rehearsal. No arrangement. Just, “OK, let’s play this in E, a-one, a-two, a-three…”

That improvisation, born from a TV crew asking them to fake a recording session, became “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”. Possibly the greatest guitar performance ever captured on tape – created because someone wanted fake footage of a band playing. 🤓 The song opens with Jimi’s iconic wah-wah riff – you know the one that’s often rated as one of the greatest guitar riffs of all time. Even the legendary jazz trumpeter, Miles Davis, has admitted to being so influenced by “Voodoo Chile” while making his ground-breaking album “Bitches Brew”, he named one of the tracks on it as “Miles Runs His Voodoo Down.”

“Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” does something extraordinary to me. My favourite Hendrix track, right from the first “chuck-a-chuck-chuck chuck-a-chuck-cha” it brings a smile to my face. Its infectious energy makes me want to get up and dance. It makes me want to go find mountains so I can chop them down with the edge of my hand. I literally feel I can do and be anything or anyone I want to be. As you can imagine it features prominently on the playlist that soundtracks of my life. I can’t wait to meet Jimi in the next world and every time I listen to it, I make a mental note not to be late!

For two years after that, the music world reeled as Jimi delivered one mind-blowing hit after another. The Jimi Hendrix Experience released three incredible albums – “Are You Experienced” , “Axis: Bold As Love” and “Electric Ladyland” – all three of which are listed on “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”. I used to have a cassette of Electric Ladyland on which, annoyingly, “ All Along The Watchtower” and “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” were the last two tracks on Side B. So, I always started listening to end of Side B first, winding and rewinding those last 8 minutes incessantly. Sadly, that meant I missed out listening to “Rainy Day, Dream Away” for a long time. Yes my friend, it exists – there is indeed a soft, laid-back Jimi Hendrix song. This one is a gorgeous song with sax solos, a soft romantic guitar vibe, and Jimi’s fantastic voice, just seducing you to stay under the covers while it’s pouring outside.

Those two years were also marked by incessant tours across the US and Europe, playing 250-260 live shows from Jan 1, 1968 to Sep 17, 1970. In early ’68 alone he played 54 cities in 47 days, travelling in his small chartered plane – dubbed “The Magic Carpet” 😃! He played a concert on the slopes of a volcano in Hawaii, with an audience of 500 lined up according to astrological signs (well, when you’re Jimi Hendrix at your peak 🤷🏽‍♂️….). And of course, he headlined Woodstock in August 1969 – playing the now classic version of “Star-Spangled Banner” on a Monday morning to a half-empty muddy field, turning feedback into falling bombs and distortion into machine-gun fire.

By September 1970 though, Hendrix was bone-tired. It had all finally caught up with him. On September 6th, Jimi played his final live performance at the “Open-Air Love & Peace Festival” in Fehmarn, Germany. Exhausted but still playing with a manic energy, Jimi opens with “Killing Floor” – the song he played almost four years ago to kick off the ‘slaughter of the innocents’ at The Polytechnic. He ends with Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) and the juggernaut comes full circle, shuddering to a stop, to the strains of the songs that defined it all. And on September 18, 1970 – almost four years to the day from when he landed in London – the comet burns out.

Now, I’ve listed lots of Jimi Hendrix songs here and in Part I. But if you really want to hear what genius sounds like – true, once in a generation genius – do yourself a favour, and listen to “The Wind Cries Mary”. This beautiful ballad — written to appease his girlfriend after he criticised her lumpy mashed potatoes — will melt your heart. And, while you’re listening, ask yourself this – why does no one ever talk about Jimi Hendrix’s voice?! It’s sandpaper wrapped in silk. It’s thunder riding a summer breeze. It’s red chilis in chocolate. And it is the perfect vocal instrument to accompany that incredible guitar playing! How can one man have been so gifted?!

Jimi came to London looking to meet Clapton, and, as if fated to meet and bond, they became close friends. The day before Jimi died, his dear friend Clapton had bought a green left-handed Stratocaster as a gift for Jimi. He never got to give it to him. To quote one of my favourite movies – “The circle is now complete” 😭