The Bird Who Resisted All Cages

When Jimi Hendrix headlined bills he made his music an event,
that would be recalled long after the time he lived his moments
there and moved on to something else.
He was a gypsy, his life was in his fingers.
From family connections broken down early,
his life was restless with subterfuge.
To escape the army he feigned homosexuality.
He was frustrated by backing musicians
more famous than himself, like Little Richard,
than for longer than he was backed
by his idea of a free and loose rhythm section.
Where he found musicians to work with,
they never really kept up with the music in his head.
As a star his management changed, alas not wisely.
Along with Janis Joplin, The Jefferson Airplane
and The Doors he reinvented rock music
for vast and inattentive audiences to consume.
What struck me most was he merely tested the studio
he inspired others to build, for him to work in,
which he then opened and then left. But he died
mere days before he was meant to start mixing his first project there.
44 years after he is gone that studio has since
become a bedrock of modern recorded music.