Jimi Hendrix and Philosophy

Jimi Hendrix and Philosophy
Author: Theodore G. Ammon
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2017-11-14
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0812699750

In his brief career Jimi Hendrix transformed rock music, established himself as the greatest guitarist of all time, and left a rich legacy of original songs and dazzling recordings. In Jimi Hendrix and Philosophy, philosophers come to terms with the experience and the phenomenon of Hendrix, uncovering some surprising implications of Hendrix’s life and work. Much of this book is concerned with the restless polarities and dualities that reveal themselves through Hendrix. His compositions display a preoccupation with the tragic nature of life, moving between the polarities of Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Idea and and Platonic philosophy. Jimi’s “guitar-being” has surprising implications for the philosophical relation between mind and body. There is in Hendrix a duality between innovation and tradition—innovation in psychedelic sonic adventures and tradition in the form of the blues. Hendrix exemplifies the interaction of technology and art, as seen in his use of feedback, varieties of noise, and backwards reel-to-reel playing. How much of the Hendrix phenomenon can be explained by the technological situation and how much by his own unique genius? Everyone knows about Hendrix’s use of feedback in the narrow sense, but feedback can also be viewed as a general phenomenon that arises in complex dynamical systems and emerges at the border of chaos and order. Although critics associate Hendrix’s lifestyle and early death with self-destructive patterns of the Sixties, his actual thoughts as revealed in his songs and writings show a more positive and constructive concern with authentic freedom. What did Hendrix mean when he spoke of “the realities” of conflict conveyed in “Machine Gun”? What is a “Voodoo Chile”? When does noise become music? These and other questions are addressed in Jimi Hendrix and Philosophy. Hendrix’s undying popularity following his death in 1970 has led to the release over the years of a large body of material which Hendrix would never have chosen to make public, raising serious questions about what we owe to the dead and how we view the construction of the artist’s public persona.

Hear My Train a Comin'

Hear My Train a Comin'
Author: Kevin Le Gendre
Publisher: Equinox Publishing (UK)
Total Pages:
Release: 2020
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9781800500143

Hear My Train A Comin' investigates the immense creativity of Jimi Hendrix, and his intriguing relationship with the art of song, a platform he used for a multitude of ideas and improvisation.

Midnight Lightning

Midnight Lightning
Author: Greg Tate
Publisher:
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2003
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Incorporating extensive interviews with black Americans who can shed light on Hendrix's complicated racial relationsips, this book explores, among other issues, how Hendirx exploded our complacently segregated world to emerge as an icon for white boys ; why we never hear his songs on black radio ; why black people once viewed him as a hippie Uncle Tom ; his connection to the Black Power movement ; how he electrified soul music and made the electric guitar supplant the human voice ; how he revolutionized the use of technology in popular music ; how he redefined rock fashion ; his sex appeal, especially with black women ; why nobody was mad at him for sleeping with white women ; and how he has subverted and destabilized black masculine stereotypes, changing the way we think not only about black music, but about black identity itself.

Philosophizing Rock Performance

Philosophizing Rock Performance
Author: Wade Hollingshaus
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2013-09-12
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0810884054

Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and David Bowie are among three of the most influential figures in twentieth-century popular music and culture, and innumerable scholars and biographers have explored the history of their influence. However, critical historiography reminds us that such scholarship is responsible not just for documenting history but also for producing it. In brief, there is always some kind of logic underwriting these historiographies, drawing boundaries through and around our thinking. In Philosophizing Rock Performance: Dylan, Hendrix, Bowie, Wade Hollingshaus capitalizes on this notion by embracing a set of historiographical logics that re-imagine these three artists. Noting how Dylan, Hendrix, and Bowie first established their reputations amid the anti-establishment sentiments that emerged in Western counties during the 1960s and early 1970s, he connects them with the concurrent formative phase of Continental philosophy in the work of Giorgio Agamben, Jean-François Lyotard, Michel de Certeau, Jacques Rancière, Guy Debord, and Michel Foucault. In Philosophizing Rock Performance, Hollingshaus draws on the work of these latter Continental thinkers to explore how we might otherwise think about Dylan, Hendrix, and Bowie. This work is ideal for those in the fields of music history, performance studies, philosophy, American and European cultural and intellectual history, and critical theory.

Just Around Midnight

Just Around Midnight
Author: Jack Hamilton
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2016-09-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0674416597

By the time Jimi Hendrix died in 1970, the idea of a black man playing lead guitar in a rock band seemed exotic. Yet a mere ten years earlier, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley had stood among the most influential rock and roll performers. Why did rock and roll become “white”? Just around Midnight reveals the interplay of popular music and racial thought that was responsible for this shift within the music industry and in the minds of fans. Rooted in rhythm-and-blues pioneered by black musicians, 1950s rock and roll was racially inclusive and attracted listeners and performers across the color line. In the 1960s, however, rock and roll gave way to rock: a new musical ideal regarded as more serious, more artistic—and the province of white musicians. Decoding the racial discourses that have distorted standard histories of rock music, Jack Hamilton underscores how ideas of “authenticity” have blinded us to rock’s inextricably interracial artistic enterprise. According to the standard storyline, the authentic white musician was guided by an individual creative vision, whereas black musicians were deemed authentic only when they stayed true to black tradition. Serious rock became white because only white musicians could be original without being accused of betraying their race. Juxtaposing Sam Cooke and Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones, and many others, Hamilton challenges the racial categories that oversimplified the sixties revolution and provides a deeper appreciation of the twists and turns that kept the music alive.

Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix

Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix
Author: Philip Norman
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2020-09-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1631495909

Hailed for its astounding portrait of Jimi Hendrix, Philip Norman’s Wild Thing has become the definitive biography of rock’s most outrageous—and tragic—genius. Today, Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) is celebrated as the greatest rock guitarist of all time. But before he was setting guitars and the world aflame, James Marshall Hendrix was a shy kid in Seattle, plucking at a broken ukulele. Bringing Hendrix’s story to vivid life against the backdrop of midcentury rock, and interweaving new interviews with friends, lovers, bandmates, and his family, Wild Thing vividly reconstructs Hendrix’s remarkable career, from playing segregated clubs on the Chitlin’ Circuit to achieving stardom in Swinging London.

The Final Death of Rock-and-roll

The Final Death of Rock-and-roll
Author: Anthony W. DeAnnuntis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780988924840

Fiction. A.W. DeAnnuntis writes with verve, deep learning, and comedic panache, creating improbable worlds that manage, somehow, to make sense.

The Secret History of Rock 'n' Roll

The Secret History of Rock 'n' Roll
Author: Christopher Knowles
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2010-10-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1573445649

Sex. Drugs. Loud music. Wild costumes. Dazzling light shows. These words can all describe a great rock concert or a hot dance club, but they were also part and parcel of the ancient cultural phenomenon known as the “Mystery religions.” In this book, author Christopher Knowles shows how the Mystery religions got a secular reincarnation when a new musical form called rock 'n' roll burst onto the scene. The Secret History of Rock 'n' Roll traces the history of the Mysteries — their rise, their fall, and their survival through long centuries of repression. Knowles shows how the Mysteries prefigured subcultures as diverse as Santeria, Freemasonry, Mardi Gras and even the Holiness churches of the American frontier, and explains exactly how ancient rituals and music found their way to the New World. In the process, The Secret History of Rock 'n' Roll traces the development of rock's most popular genres such as punk and heavy metal, and reveals how many of rock's most iconic artists play the same archetypal roles as the ancient gods. You'll see how many of the rituals and customs and even musical styles of our postmodern society have stunning ancient parallels. You'll meet history's first pop

Cultural Codes

Cultural Codes
Author: Bill Banfield
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2009-12-10
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0810872870

No art can survive without an understanding of, and dedication to, the values envisioned by its creators. No culture over time has existed without a belief system to sustain its survival. Black music is no different. In Cultural Codes: Makings of a Black Music Philosophy, William C. Banfield engages the reader in a conversation about the aesthetics and meanings that inform this critical component of our social consciousness. By providing a focused examination of the historical development of Black music artistry, Banfield formulates a useable philosophy tied to how such music is made, shaped, and functions. In so doing, he explores Black music culture from three angles: history, education, and the creative work of the musicians who have moved the art forward. In addition to tracing Black music from its African roots to its various contemporary expressions, including jazz, soul, R&B, funk, and hip hop, Banfield profiles some of the most important musicians over the last century: W.C. Handy, Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Mary Lou Williams, John Coltrane, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Wonder, among others. Cultural Codes provides an educational and philosophical framework for students and scholars interested in the traditions, the development, the innovators, and the relevance of Black music.

Starting At Zero

Starting At Zero
Author: Jimi Hendrix
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2013-11-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1408842165

It didn't take long after Jimi Hendrix's death for the artist to become a myth of music. He has been surrounded by a shroud of intrigue since he first came into the public eye, and the mystery has only grown with time. Much has been written and said about him by experts and fans and critics, some of it true and some of it not; Starting at Zero will set the record straight. This is Hendrix in his own words. The lyricism and rhythm of Jimi Hendrix's writing will be of no surprise to his fans. Hendrix wrote prolifically throughout his life and he left behind a trove of scribbled-on hotel stationary, napkins and cigarette cartons. Starting at Zero weaves the scraps and bits together fluidly with interviews and lyrics revealing for the first time a continuous narrative of the artist's life, from birth through to the final four years of his life. The result is a beautifully poetic, charming and passionate memoir as smooth and memorable as Hendrix's finest songs. The pieces of Starting at Zero came together in large part because of the inspiration of Alan Douglas. Douglas first met Jimi Hendrix backstage at Woodstock, and soon after became Hendrix's producer and close friend. In creating the book he joined forces with Peter Neal, who edited Hendrix's writing with the reverence and light touch it deserved.