On St. Patrick's Day 1967, the newly-minted Jimi Hendrix Experience released it's second single in England. "Purple Haze" was a slice of pure psychedelically-shredding guitar meets swinging London and it got all the way up to #3. The song, it's trippy lyrics, and Jimi's mind-blowing technique took the U.K. by storm - and remember, this was 2 & a half months before the Beatles changed life as people knew it with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
It took longer for the Experience to connect in America. "Hey Joe" came out as a single in May '67 and it didn't even chart. When "Purple Haze" finally was released Stateside in June, it struggled to #65. So much for the image of America being hip and groovy and all that. But, eventually Jimi would get his due in his native country; by 1968 folks couldn't get enough of him on the touring circuit and the Experience sold out nearly every date it played.
So, how good is your knowledge of Jimi Hendrix? Here are 20 trivia questions - some easier than others, some harder than the rest. See how you do! Answers are at the bottom.
Hendrix Trivia
1. Who played the flute on “1983 (A Mermaid I Should Turn to Be)” from Electric Ladyland?
2. One of the lesser known songs on Electric Ladyland is “Little Miss Strange.” Who wrote it?
3. In 1965, Jimi Hendrix played guitar with Joey Dee & the Starlighters. The band had a massive #1 hit four years earlier. What was the song?
4. What was Hendrix’s first American hit single after his death?
5. Do you know the next one?
6. Jimi was discovered in New York City by Animals bassist Chas Chandler in 1966, who took him to London and was a key ingredient to making Hendrix a star. In what club was Hendrix discovered?
7. Hendrix lived with Chandler and his wife in London for a time. What board game were they always playing? Sometimes friend Graham Nash would join in.
8. Woodstock was billed as “Three Days of Peace and Love.” On what day did Jimi Hendrix play?
9. Who inducted the Jimi Hendrix Experience into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
10. “Hey Joe” was the first Experience song Jimi recorded. It was also a cover tune. The second song the group recorded was an original. What was it.?
11. In 1969, Jimi Hendrix wrote the liner notes to the album Expressway to Your Skull. It was the debut album of what artist or group?
12. Jimi Hendrix played lead guitar on a track called “Old Times, Good times,” on a solo album by what artist?
13. Jimi lost the master mix tape for the first side of Axis, Bold as Love. His production team had to remix the side in a marathon session to make the delivery deadline. Where did Jimi leave the reel to reel tape?
14. What was name of Jimi’s band at Woodstock?
15. In 1967, Jimi Hendrix played the Saville Theater in London and played a brand-new song that blew away Paul McCartney, who was in the audience. What was the song? (George Harrison was there and he was blown away too)
16. Noel Redding, the bassist of the Experience left and formed his own band. What was its name?
17. In the song “Third Stone From the Sun,” two aliens flying by in a mother ship talk to one another at the beginning of the song. What does one of the aliens conclude about the Earth in the conversation?
18. Axis Bold as Love was actually not Jimi Hendrix’s second album. Another release came out between that and the debut Are You Experienced? What was it?
19. Arthur and Albert Allen were two longtime friends of Jimi’s who sang backup vocals on many Hendrix recordings under what name?
20. How many albums of new material did the Jimi Hendrix Experience release while Hendrix was alive?
Answers:
1. Chris Wood from Traffic
2. Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding
3. “Peppermint Twist.”
4. “Freedom” in 1971. It got to #59.
5. “Dolly Dagger,” which reached #74
6. Club Wha?
7. Risk
8. Day 4! (The festival ran late, Hendrix didn’t actually go on until Monday morning!
9. Neil Young
10. “Stone Free,” the B-side of “Hey Joe.”
11. The Buddy Miles Express
12. Stephen Stills
13. On the backseat of a taxi. The tape was never recovered.
14. Gypsy Sun and Rainbows
15. Jimi covered the Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – which had only been out for days, astonishing McCartney & Harrison.
16. Fat Mattress
17. The Earth is “known to have some form of intelligence.”
18. Get That Feeling – a set of inferior recording Jimi Hendrix had done with Curtis Knight.
19. The Ghetto Fighters
20. Just three: Are you Experienced?, Axis Bold As Love, and Electric Ladyland