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Originally Posted by FrankHudson
I started, and then thought better about a long, researcher's post on details about Hendrix and business and billings. Not worth anyone's time to read here.
Yes, Hendrix was famous, on par with a lot of other acts in the emerging "Rock" scene that became a big business soon after his death. Here's a couple of things for others who (like me) were alive and around as adults in the time before Hendrix's death to reply to:
It's just a side point to your opinion, but did Hendrix really "Headline" Woodstock? Not in my memory. Headline or Headliner means to me that you're first billed, usually in larger type, because you're the big draw, the one ticket buyers will want to pay to see. Here's the famous Woodstock poster:
Question 1: Did any of us old folks here on the AGP go (or wanted to go) to Woodstock because Jimi Hendrix was going to play? I'm not talking retroactively, but in the summer of '69. Me? There were rumors that unbilled, Bob Dylan was going to play Woodstock. My logistics in 1969 made Woodstock impossible, but I'd have gone for Dylan.
Question 2: I've already asked it, but we've stayed in the relative weeds of what's famous and how famous. Again, it's for those who were adults (or maybe quasi adults willing to think about the flow of time and the future) in let's say 1972, after Hendrix's death was absorbed. Would you have predicted that we'd have this much attention and concern for Jimi Hendrix in 2022, 50 years on? I was writing "rock criticism" (at a low level, I'm not famous) and hanging out at a college radio station in that era. I would not have.
Think about the four most famous "Rock Deaths" near the end of The Sixties: Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Hendrix. Now again, if you're a fan of anyone one of them I'm not saying they weren't significant artists, or that some don't make some notice of them. But how many of them have Hendrix's profile today in terms of publication features (web or the remaining print), song covers, tributes, etc. Jones star was already fading at death, and musically he's never given out as an influence in the 2020's. Joplin, similar, despite being a front-woman. Morrisson? He had a huge bump later in the 20th century, and without being able to measure it to the millimeter, higher than Hendrix for a while. Now? Not-so-much. That's remarkable that Hendrix's value to music and guitar has been retained I think.
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I see this is really all about your personal individual recollection, and nothing else. Which is great! And definitely interesting. Being more of a facts guy, I was quoting those. Not opinions. In response to some earlier point you had made, I forget now, to the effect that Hendrix wasn’t that big of a deal in his day, but only later. But the evidence doesn’t support it. When I said Jimi was the highest paid performer in the world, I was quoting Wikipedia, not offering opinions.
I do love that poster, and I own one of the originals (wedding present.) Michael Lang had really, really wanted Jimi to play the festival (he had booked him the year before in Miami), but the Hendrix people insisted that he close the festival or no deal. We know how that went down. Which should clarify Jimi’s status at that point, about a year before his death.
As for the poster contents, I think the festival was about something much bigger than any single act. Look at the roster. This was like no other event.
Anyway, I agree that Hendrix’s posthumous star rose even higher in the 70s and beyond. This I attribute not only to the moment of his disappearance, but also to the times, and to the much-discussed fact of his being something of a racial outlier, appealing widely to a white audience, but largely ignored by a black one. His sound and voice and message were unique.
His gentle personality, combined with his monster stage presence, was intoxicating. As so many of his peer musicians said at the time, Hendrix was groundbreaking. His embrace of British rock (extending it and marrying it to Muddy Waters) and his creation of something new was breathtaking to those who were paying attention to the music itself — and not just the journalistic hype.