Philosophizing Rock Performance by Hollingshaus Wade;

Author:Hollingshaus, Wade;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

This description of what was perhaps the first LSD dosing to come from Western laboratory science is representative of the many descriptions that have for decades followed,[24] including those of Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary and other scientists, various popular musicians, and countless others who have chosen to experiment with the chemical. Similarly, Hofmann’s description is representative of the Axis image illustrated above.

Coeval with the counterculture’s rising interest in psychedelic drugs in the second half of the sixties was the rise of psychedelic rock, and many at the time and since have considered Hendrix a prominent figure in that subgenre, even if he himself was ambiguous about his inclusion. [25] On September 12, 1970, two days before his death, Hendrix spoke in an interview with Keith Altham of Radio 1’s rock magazine program. During the interview, Altham asked Hendrix about the common claim that he “invented psychedelic music” (15). In response, Hendrix agreed that he was probably “more [a psychedelic writer] than anything else” (16); although in the next breath, Hendrix protested that he really did not know what that word “psychedelic” means. Noting the many meanings that any one word can have, Hendrix explained that for him it has something to do with the dream-type stuff of an LSD consciousness. He continued to explain that what he would like to do in his performances is create a “total audio-visual environment,” that he wants to install a “geodesic dome” where people could “just lay back and the whole thing blossoms out, with this colour and sound type of scene” (qtd. in Altham 16).

Perhaps what Hendrix was imagining was something akin to Electric Lady Studios, or perhaps it was something else entirely, but in either case it is clear that Hendrix’s activities over the few years prior to this interview had already begun to explore the psychedelic experience he described to Altham. His Axis album cover is only one example. Hendrix’s flamboyant and eccentric manner of dress is another. One representative description comes from journalist Penny Valentine, who upon seeing Hendrix perform at the Saville Theatre, described him as

A resplendent figure. Tall, snakelike in scarlet velvet suit and frilled shirt. His hair like a black halo round his head, his guitar like another limb to be used by his body. . . . On Sunday he topped the bill for the first time to an audience wholly receptive, filled with Hendrix devotees, many of them looking more like Jimi than Jimi. (qtd. in Lawrence 75)

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