Such effortless showmanship. I think it goes over a lot of people's heads even today because it doesn't even look like he's trying. It just comes out of him naturally. It was just how he felt.
What a legendary virtuoso! Loved how he cut all sound from his amp to end the song! Genius the many different ways Jimi was playing the guitar in this performance!
Watching Jimi play live like this underscores how great he was. Listening to him carry the entire performance on his back while Mitch and Noel are struggling to keep up. He was pissed at his label because they told him he would never be famous. So he hired two mediocre musicians to prove that not only could he be famous he could do it with mediocre musicians
He didn't hire them, his management auditioned them when he came to England in 1966. Mitch Mitchell was a great drummer whose style was perfect for Hendrix. Redding was hired mainly for his look as Hendrix wasn't a musical snob like the members of his contemporaries Cream who thought they were head and shoulders above everyone else when they formed shortly before Hendrix came to London. The Experience still had that 60s charm and humility, Hendrix didn't need puffed up pompous elitist big heads backing him up. Mitch and even Noel were proficient enough and the group is remembered affectionately without that air of prog rock pomposity that came into rock later when everyone started thinking they were the dogs gonads and being told they were virtuosos just because they had long hair and a beard.
