Retro pic of the week - Jimi Hendrix

Courtesy of NME.com:

The legend was born during what was left of The Troggs' 'Wild Thing'. Jimi had already humped his guitar, played it behind his head and backward somersaulted over the stage. But now he kneeled over his instrument. Kneeled and leered.

The crowd - 50,000 of them assembled at the Monterey Fairgrounds in California - was already bombed-out by The Who, who'd just smashed their kit to smithereens, when Jimi started squirting lighter fluid onto his wailing guitar. In an instant it was alight, Jimi caressing the flames, enticing them into a squalling inferno. And in that moment, the legend was born.

Jimi Hendrix, the wildman of rock, was Seattle-raised, but found his first recognition as pop's main dandy in Swinging London, where 'Hey Joe', 'Purple Haze' and his 'Are You Experienced?' album were the stoned epitome of peacock hippy cool. The Monterey International Pop Festival was his return home and no bunch of arty mods from Shepherd's Bush were gonna steal his thunder. Sunday, June 18, 1967, Jimi and the burning guitar - a rock'n'roll moment literally unforgettable.

It launched Jimi in America, where his cosmic blues, elasticated into alien terrain on the 'Axis: Bold As Love' and 'Electric Ladyland' albums, has not been reconnoitred by aspiring astronauts even today. He flayed 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at Woodstock, blew out his Experience, and frightened the life out of white Middle America. And he made music the like of which had never been heard on this planet before. Or since.

Jimi died of drug-related complications in mysterious circumstances in London on September 18, 1970, but the film footage of Monterey hasn't withered or aged into ephemera. It's still shocking, still beautiful, still the peak of impertinent sexual showmanship. Laughing while rock'n'roll burns.