Michael_Elliott Jimi Hendrix (1973)*** (out of 4)This documentary was made and released three years after the death of Jimi Hendrix and it really shows what a masterful talent he was. When viewing this today people might not get its full impact because it features clips from various concerts that have since been released complete and on their own. With that said, it's important to remember that for a time this here was the only way to see much of this footage. Eric Clapton, Paul Caruso, Billy Cox, Pete Townsend, Mick Jagger, Little Richard and Lou Reed are just some of the people who talk about who Hendrix was and what he was able to do with his guitar. Through the interviews you really get a great sense of what other artists thought of his talent and it's interesting hearing them talk so shortly after his death. Many of the stories are very entertaining and especially the reactions from them in regards to the first time they saw Hendrix and his talent. We also get an interview with Hendrix's own father who discusses his sons early days and how he got to playing guitar to begin with. Overall this is a very entertaining documentary that tells you some good stories about the legend but the majority of the running time come from various concert and television performances. No matter how many times you watch him perform you really can't believe that he was actually human and pulling off all of this music. Fans of Hendrix will probably own many of these shows in a complete form but this documentary is still very good for those unfamiliar with the work of Hendrix or those who just want to kick back and enjoy the music.

bver88 Watched this docu again last night on DVD. Saw it some 30+ years ago on film. I was class of '69 (Jimi's cousin, Nona Hendrix, was in my grade 12 class) and remember when Jimi and his band came through my town(East Van rules). Jimi was from Seattle, some 145 miles south) I always rue the day I DIDN't go to the concert. I went to all the biggies EXCEPT this one, and I have never forgiven myself. WHY? I worked that night. I had every vinyl, worn the grooves off Electric Ladyland twice. The 60's re visited...This '73 docu captures the mood VERy well. Comments from impossibly young Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton (who I saw perform last week in NZ..even BETTER than he was in '69 the last time I saw him)... Jimmy Page, Eric, and JIMI were our holy trinity of guitar gods way back when...this was a T R I P down memory lane for me...the talk of drugs and race issues....subjects which never go away..we're still dealing with it today...but back to the music.....Jimi's fusion of blues/rock/jazz....wondrous to us so long ago, and still sounding 'fresh as a daisy' to this alumnus of the class of '69 see this DVD.... I give it an 8.8

classicsoncall The channel surfing gods must have been watching over me last night, as I came across this documentary on VH1 Classics under their 'RockDocs' format. As I tuned in, Hendrix was into his amazing "Wild Thing" version from 1967's Monterey Pop Festival and it had me hooked for the entire run. Jimi Hendrix was always a favorite of mine back in the Sixties, and when he died in 1970, I became fixated on his 'Electric Ladyland' album, seeming to find comfort in the ethereal strains of 'Moon, Turn The Tides...Gently, Gently', as if he were floating away to a far off better place.Besides the awesome live footage, the blast in watching this biopic has to be seeing rock gods speaking in reverenced tones of the guitar master. Were Mick Jagger, Lou Reed, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton and Little Richard ever really that young? It was revealing to hear Townshend describe how he and Clapton talked about Hendrix and his music, and how they 'decided' that they liked him - as if it had to be a conscious choice. Other revealing insights came from some of the women in Hendrix' life who I didn't know about at the time, like Fayne Pridgon and Pat Hartley. Even feminist Germaine Greer got into the act, with observations on how his music impacted male audiences of the era.An interesting element that worked for the documentary was interspersing scenes of live music and interviews with televised segments from a Dick Cavett TV appearance, where Hendrix' low key manner seemed to belie his vulnerability. I never realized how insecure he felt about himself, and how malleable he was to the pressures of agents and hangers on, eventually leading to his tragic end. One of the Allen Brothers had an interesting twist on Hendrix' passing, stating that the singer might have been experiencing an alpha state in which he consciously decided to experience death, resulting in an 'alpha jerk'.A curious aside to the Dick Cavett appearance - sitting next to Hendrix on the guest couch was Robert Young. I wonder if Hendrix ever watched "Father Knows Best"? Above all though, it's the man and the music that make this rockumentary special. My personal favorites - "Wild Thing" and the amazing Dylan tribute "Like a Rolling Stone". Of course the Woodstock "Star Spangled Banner" version is on display in it's entirety, as are all of the song performances presented, making this picture a unique tribute to the rock legend. Had he lived, Hendrix would be sixty years old today, and oh, what music might have been.

Keith F. Hatcher A recent visit to the UK allowed me to get lost among the shelves and stands of VHS, DVD and CD in a large HMV shop; however, my bank account did not allow me to get too, too lost, and after several hours I managed to emerge into the warm sunlight of high summer clutching a few bargains, among which were the irreplaceable Dame Edith Evans in her 1952 version of `The Importance of Being Ernest', some pieces I had not had by Jacqueline du Pré on CD, William Golding's classic `The Lord of the Flies' in a 1963 film version, and this British version of Jimi Hendrix, the man and his music. This 98 minute documentary is not really biographical in the normal sense, but rather a look at the musician in his concerts in the last few years leading up to his death, together with spoken contributions by people in the music industry and others close to him, as well as his own comments with archive footage from a TV interview carried out in the USA. Including live footage from concerts at Monterey and the Marquee Club (1967), Fillmore East and Woodstock (1969), and Berkeley and the Isle of Wight (1970), the documentary includes testimonies from such well-known musicians as Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, and even Little Richard, as well as by his fellow-musicians Mitch Mitchell (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) and Billy Cox and Buddy Miles (Band of Gypsys), with spoken participations from Fayne Pridgon and erstwhile feminist Germaine Greer.The programme is rather marred by some shoddy editing, unfortunately, and at times the filming seems to give you the feeling that the cameraman was even more stoned than Hendrix himself. However, the end result is a satisfying run through some of his better-known material and lends insight to what made the man and the musician tick.Jimi Hendrix was a rather shy person, basically, and indeed was so pressed by the urgency of everyone in the music business around him that in the end he just could not handle the situation. A trusting man, naïve even, he was rather easily cajoled and misled into being something he might otherwise have avoided being. A similar situation led to the end of Janis Joplin, just a year later. However, on stage, Jimi Hendrix and his Stratocaster became fused into one electrifying element that shattered all notions on what a guitar could and could not do, and thus laid the stage for those who would follow – Clapton and Jagger – and influencing other rock bands of the time, perhaps Big Brother and the Holding Company being one of the most obvious examples. The post-Beatles era left an empty space searching for a new direction to take, and Jimi Hendrix was the man to do it; this ultimately led to such groups as The Who, The Cream, The Nice, Pink Floyd, and what was to become known as `New Age'.Live performance tracks included on this tape are: Purple Haze (two different performances), Hear my train a-comin', Rock me baby, Hey Joe, Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan), his hugely famous Star-Spangled Banner, Machine Gun (two different performances), Johnny B. Goode, In from the storm, and Red House.