The battle to save late guitar legend, Jimi Hendrix childhood home in Seattle, Washington has been lost. The house went up for auction in August of 2001 and was sold for over $44,000, but due to the terrorist attacks on September 11th, the buyer backed out. The house was bought and moved from it’s original foundation site where condominiums were going to be built. The purchaser, Pete Sikov, a real estate investor had all intentions on making it a landmark on a trailer park that he purchased in Renton, Washington. The trailer park was in need of a huge renovation and he planned on using the Hendrix house as a centerpiece. The trailer park was incidentally across the street from Greenwood Memorial Park Cemetery, where Jimi Hendrix is buried.

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Not too far back I posted about Jimi Hendrix legendary 1965 Stratocaster that was the first to be burnt onstage. It sold for £280,000, approximately $495,000 U.S. dollars. The guitar was set afire at Astoria in Finsbury Park, north London, in March 1967. The buy? Collector Daniel Boucher who had this to say about his buy:

“I thought I’d have to pay a little bit more for it, actually. I am going to play it, I hope some of it rubs off on me.”

I’m jealous…the rich bastard! I really doubt if he’s actually going to play it.

Note: The dude in the picture is not the guy that bought it. I think that is Tony Garland, the guy who has been holding on to it for all this time. But again, I’m not sure.

Image used with permission from Newscom.com

In an interview with Rollingstone Magazine, Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister, who was aparently friends with Jimi Hendrix (Something most people to include myself, had no knowledge of) say that Jimi was killed by the people he surrounded himself with and that they didn’t take care of him as they should have.

“Hendrix was just a sweet guy — to an extent, he was murdered by the people around him, because they didn’t take care of him.

“They just didn’t watch his back,” he said.

In 1970 Henrix’ lifeless body was found in London. It has been long suspected that he died from an overdose of sleeping pills and alcohol, but it has never been truly explained. All we can do now is remember Jimi for what he was and always will be. A person true to himself and the music he played…and lastly, but certainly not least, a brilliant guitar played and performer.

If you ever get a chance Gibson.com has a lot of great info and stories. go to Gibson.com and click on “Lifstyle”. One of the features lately was an article on left handed guitarists. I’m right handed so this article has no other inspiration to me other than that it’s a cool article. Check out the list of left handed guitarist and an excerpt of the article. Click the link at the bottom to read the entire article.

So uncommon is the phenomenon, you can’t help but be taken aback at the sight of a guitarist playing his instrument in left-hand fashion. Fact is, however, southpaw six-stringers occupy several high spots on the list of all-time guitar greats. The 10 below, listed in no particular order, rank among the best.

• Tony Iommi
• Jimi Hendrix
• Elliot Easton
• Kurt Cobain
• Albert King
• Paul McCartney
• Dick Dale
• Otis Rush
• Tim Armstrong
• Al McKay

10 Great Left Hand Guitarists

In 1967 Jimi Hendrix played a show in London England, where he set a 1965 Fender Stratocaster on fire on stage with some lighter fluid and actually burnt himself in the process. When he was rushed off to the hospital to have his minor burns treated, his press officer, Tony Garland somehow got a hold of the guitar and had stored it in his parents garage where it was found by his nephew last year. I think the nephew should get it since he found it, but they will be auctioning it off.

An auction of of Jimi Hendrix Woodstock guitar went for 1.8 million

No, I’m not talking about the alleged porn tape that no on can confirm that it is or is not Jimi Hendrix. Who cares really. Even if it was Jimi Hendrix, the only reason people want to confirm it is for marketing.

Now, to the subject. If you have been following the news in rock or classic rock lately you would have heard that there is a lost Jimi Hendrix recording that he did with Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, And Nash. Stills found it while looking through some recordings he did in the 70’s.

Graham Nash and Stephen Stills are working on preparing it for release. I’m kind of eager to hear what they have and what they can do with it with today’s technology.

Image details: Jimi Hendrix Performs served by picapp.com

Image details: Jimi Hendrix served by picapp.com

Have you seen this show? Kind of like the MythBusters of music. They take these legends, stories and theories and try to prove if they are practical or just urban legend. I only saw one show. The show where they were trying to figure out if it was possible for Jimi Hendrix to perform an entire show while tripping on lsd.

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Accoring to VirginMedia, Gigwise.com held a poll to let voters decide their Ultimate Fantasy Supergroup in celebration of of the release of the online game Rock Band. Not an original name for a rock band game, but here is what the outcome was. Freddy Mercury, Jimi Hendrix, Flea, Keith Moon.

“In a survey carried out by GigWise.com, the late singer of legendary rock band Queen beat off Mick Jagger and Kurt Cobain for the title.”

~I would have chosen my words a bit better on that line.

“Jimi Hendrix was voted the ultimate guitarist and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea was chosen as the ideal bass player. The Who’s drummer Keith Moon got the majority of votes in the drummer category.”