Fifty years ago on this day in rock history Jimi Hendrix released Purple Haze (click here.)
I remember being back in high school, when my buddy Mike Whitson loaned me his copy of Are You Experienced. I took it home, played it and right from the very first notes of the very first song, Purple Haze, was blown away by it. Even on my scratchy little record player, it sounded like nothing else I had ever heard. Hey Joe, Wind Cries Mary, Manic Depression, Are You Experienced, Third Stone From the Sun etc. were all great songs. (I remember playing Third Stone From the Sun repeatedly until I fell asleep that night. To this day the main rif still runs through my head when I’m doing what I’m doing out on life’s busy highway.)
After I returned the album to Whitson, I immediately bought my own copy which I still have stashed away in the attic somewhere. “It ain’t my concern” has also been a go-to-rif I keep cued up in my head for those certain occasions.