It was 1966-67, Clapton was in the process of leaving John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and getting together with Jack and Ginger who were leaving Graham Bond's band to form the Cream. They were scheduled to play a London club one evening and while they were sitting around practicing, drinking and basically just hanging out before the show, in walks Jimi Hendrix. He had just left Little Richards band because he was getting too popular to be on the same stage with Richard. Little didn't like to share the spotlight, but he couldn't get any with Jimi doing his thing.
So Hendrix asks Clapton if he could jam with them. I don't know if he did it as part of the show or playing some tunes before, but Hendrix did to Clapton what he did to everyone that saw him for the first time. Which was things on the guitar that no one ever thought the guitar could do. Hendrix hit the scene like a freight train. But he had to go to England to do it. Back then, unless you were an LA band or part of the San Francisco sound, you weren't any good unless you came from England.
What made this a big deal was that Clapton was already established as the best axeman in the business. His reputation started to grow when he was in the Yardbirds. Then he left them to join with John Mayal. Who was an established R&B guy. But Clapton did to John what Hendrix did to Richards, after awhile, everyone was showing up to see them! And Clapton was so competitive on the guitar, and created such a buzz because he made hard things look easy, they started spray painting on the walls of England, "Clapton is God".
Now right around that time music was starting to take a dip. Largly because the buzz with the Beatles was starting to die down. Everyone was getting used to them and their bubble-gum rock. The Beatles kind of brought everyone through their teenage years and made it easier to express the feelings one has for the opposite sex. They made okay to talk about wanting to "hold someones hand".
Then 1966 rolls around with Hendrix and Clapton in the club and they start jamming. And as they are riffing back and forth, Clapton looks over at Hendrix and the guy is on the floor, playing the guitar behind his back, behind his head, with his teeth, between his legs and doing somesaults along the stage while he's still playing! Clapton said he had to put his guitar down and just sit back and watch this guy do his thing.
It was around that time Hendrix was introduced to Redding and Mitchell, and the 3 of them started the Experience. But the one thing that I remember more than anything else, was not necessarily the all the visual stunts he did with the guitar, but it was the certain sound he had that no one else had. It was a repeat of when the Beatles hit the scene with a sound that just came out of left field and caught everyone by surprise.
And the rest is history!
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The urban legend with Hendrix was that he was the first black guy that appealed to white women.
