It is the final song where things finally go bonkers. He actually makes such complicated playing seem easy as he is completely relaxed while playing (probably thanks to chemicals). He effortlessly swivels and moves his guitar around, yet never misses a beat. Later he plays another solo with the guitar behind his head, and again, it sounds perfectly fine. During “Hey Joe”, he plays a solo while picking with his teeth, and it sounds no different than the brilliant solos he played with his hands. He was ever the showman and pulled out all the stops during his Monterey performance. Covers would be staples in his live shows until the very end, because he somehow transformed them into Jimi Hendrix songs. One great thing about Hendrix is that his own material was not required. This was before he had much of a body of work, like my favorite Axis: Bold as Love, which he would record next, and Electric Ladyland in 1968. He played covers, old blues standards, and a handful of his own hit songs. “ as he liked to say, “laying around and picked up these two cats” as he points toward Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, his Experience bandmates. Others are exuberant, moving to the music.Įven when he talked, he sounded like he was from another world. There are alternating shots of Jimi shredding, nonchalantly playing complicated riffs on his guitar, while making unnatural sounds on his Stratocaster. As Phillips puts it, Jimi “went like a fireball once he hit London.” The Experience was formed and the rest is history. John Phillips narrates the origins of Jimi’s career, including beginning playing in clubs with R&B acts, being discovered and eventually managed by The Animals, who brought him to London and changed many different worlds, including Jimi’s. The core element of this documentary is the performance. When he is finished with his creation, the song is over and the poster boy for late 60s guitar psychedelia is clearly fashioned on the wall. When he gets to the red, he sprays it seemingly randomly, but it becomes Jimi’s trademark bandana. From there he applies other paints and more layers.

He begins with a beige base as the first layer, where we can barely make out the primary features of Jimi’s face.

The documentary is introduced with high-speed graffiti artist painting a picture of Jimi in his element while “Can You See Me?” plays in the background. He had already been immensely popular, but this was when he truly arrived, and he frankly blew people away. His performance at Monterey was still relatively early in his three album career, but it was a monumental moment. He showed up, transformed culture and music as we know it, and then he quickly said goodbye, leaving us to marvel at him nearly half a century later. Jimi Hendrix was like a being from another planet.

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