The Left Handed Club; Jimi Hendrix vs Ringo Starr

For those who are natural outsiders,
seeing yourself as scapegoats, black sheep, 
or identifying with more benign creatures, 
the feeling you have as you go through life
is that whatever you do is not just a rehearsal,
or practice. You had to teach it to yourself
because it often seemed nobody else would.

For many this is partly a conflict
where their being left handed
in right handed world marks them
with an awkward dyspraxia
-until they can adapt their world
to make their gaucheness seem elegant.

There are many modern examples
of making a success out being left handed.
One of them is the drummer Ringo Starr,
whose signature economy of style
comes from how his drum kit is set up
to be played by a right handed player,
but he leads from his left when he plays. 

The other example of changing the rules
that others set to develop your creativity,
when you are left handed is Jimi Hendrix.

He was a man whose talent was too big
and lucrative for him to be easily managed.

The biggest difference Starr and Hendrix
was Brian Epstein, who made relatively little
of the money vast wealth there was to be made
from the talent of The Beatles for the band.
But he knew how to keep his clients safe,
the better for them to marshall their talents.

Hendrix had no such figure to cover him
as he hit the heights in the music business. 

Who would not be awe of the dexterity
that Hendrix shared with how he changed
the recording process, and hugely extended
what could be said economically with a guitar? 
I still wish his instincts had been sharper,
and he had been wiser with the contracts he signed,
and set tighter limits in how he should be managed.

He wanted ease and rest from the chaotic place
his musical genius had brought him to.
His death was banal, for being unconscious
from sleeping pills whilst inhaling his own vomit
from being drunk he died of asphyxiation.

He did not die of being left handed, but he might as well have.

So left-handed people understand yourselves
as best you can, to be clearer about how to live
in right handed world and stop it disorganising you,
disposing of your gifts cheaply and devaluing your life. 

Jim Hendrix

Will always be remembered as 'a free spirit',
as a person who tore through the nonsense
of every day life as a talented musician
whilst being himself, as he was put on show
before a world who only saw and heard
what they wanted to, particularly whilst stoned  
Here is Charles Shaar Murray and others
 explaining why he will always matter.
why he will always matter 

 

Remember Him This Way

James Marshall Hendrix (1942-70)
in his first band in the 101st Airborne Division, 1962.
In that first band he was described by one witness
as 'A mix of John Lee Hooker and Beethoven'.

Now he is everywhere, he is free from the limits
of the human body, though his legacy is not free
 of the bootleggers and a creative estate
 that takes a lot of managing.
The studio he built Electric Lady Studios
is his most lasting his mark on popular music.
It is the recording studio that has been
where everyone,  from The Clash to Frank Zappa
and David Bowie have found renewed inspiration.

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.