Music In My Shoes
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Music In My Shoes
E96 Remembering Jimi Hendrix, Get Smart and The Golden Girls
We remember Jimi Hendrix's final performances and lasting legacy as arguably the greatest guitarist of all time. From his final show in Germany where fans booed him for weather delays to his breakthrough at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, we trace the trajectory of this revolutionary musician.
• Examining Hendrix's final days, including his last performance at the Love and Peace Festival in Germany on September 6, 1970
• Breaking down Hendrix's iconic Monterey Pop Festival performance where he set his guitar on fire
• Analyzing Hendrix's discography, including his debut album "Are You Experienced" and its lasting impact
• Comparing guitar rankings from Rolling Stone and Consequence that both place Hendrix at #1
• Discussing what made Hendrix's guitar playing revolutionary, including his mastery of feedback
• Looking back at hit TV Shows; Get Smart and The Golden Girls
• Highlighting David Bowie's "Fame" and John Lennon's contribution to the track
• Exploring the 1995 charity album "Help" that was recorded, mixed and released in just five days
“Music In My Shoes" where music and memories intertwine.
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Contact us at musicinmyshoes@gmail.com with your own musical memories.
He's got the feeling in his toe-toe.
Speaker 2:He's got the feeling and it's out there growing. Hey everybody, this is Jim Boge and you're listening to Music In my Shoes. That was a big thrill kicking off episode 96. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. So, jimmy, I'm here in Levittown, new York, broadcasting from New York. Once again, you are at the home studio, arcade, 160 Studios, that is, and Atlanta, ga. How are you?
Speaker 1:Doing well. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing good. It's always good to talk to you and be able to do this long distance and not miss an episode and just kind of have a little bit of fun. And then, for those of you at home, when we do this, instead of looking at Jimmy in the studio, I'm looking at him on a screen and it's definitely different from the normal way we do it, but it's always good to see Jimmy's smiling face.
Speaker 1:It's always good to see Jim and Jim's mom's house.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, and of course she is not here. I make sure she's not around when we're trying to do this, but maybe one time I'll have her come on. Maybe we'll do that one time. That'd be fun. Yeah, so three episodes ago I spoke about the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival in England, one of my favorite festivals to listen to. I talked about that in depth.
Speaker 2:Well, Jimi Hendrix, who was scheduled to play August 30th, actually played the early morning hours of August 31st. He was dead 18 days later at the age of 27. Cause of death was asphyxia from choking on his own, vomit after overdosing on sleeping pills that he had taken from his girlfriend. September 6th 1970 was the final show his band played. It was at the Love and Peace Festival in Germany and it was kind of billed as Jimi Hendrix. Some billed it as Jimi Hendrix, Some billed it as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but it was kind of a combination of a couple of different incarnations of Jimi Hendrix's bands. It was not the original band.
Speaker 2:They're the headliners for Saturday night of this three-day festival, but they have these terrible downpours and they're having electrical issues to the point where nobody wants to plug anything in because they're afraid they might get electrocuted. The festival grounds are like a mud fest and theyimmy hendrix is going to play the next day and when they come on stage the crowd starts booing them. Can you imagine? No, that's crazy. That is absolutely. Yeah, it's crazy. It's insane that they would boo jimmy hendrix because he didn't play the night before because of the weather. First thing Jimmy says to them I don't give a if you boo, as long as you boo and key you mothers. And then they went into a song and pretty quickly everything was forgotten. They did Killing Floor and everybody just kind of started jamming and getting into the groove. They ended up the show with Voodoo Child's Slight Return. And then you know what? I still can't believe that they would boo Jimmy. I would just be excited that they finally are playing. It's not like they canceled, they just couldn't play because of the torrential rain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, german fans, you know they wanted their Jimi Hendrix the night before. So September 16th, jimi joined Eric Burden who had been with the Animals. He had a new band, war. He joins them on stage at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London.
Speaker 2:Less than 48 hours later he was goneimmy hendrix is kind of funny, you know he's american but to get popular he had to go over to uh, the uk, over to england, to really form a, you know, a following. So he's popular there, not well known here, and he gets on the Monterey Pop Festival, bill, and that was in June, I believe, 1967. And if you think about that festival, you had the Mamas and the Papas, you had the Association, you had a lot of different types of bands but no real rock bands. The only two really off the top of my head, uh, you know what, I know big brother and the holding company. Uh, they played, but bands like the who and jimmy hendrix where it's kind of like that notch above type rock and roll, if that makes sense. They were really the only bands there and they were probably the two least known bands.
Speaker 2:And I'll tell you what people knew who Jimi Hendrix was by the time the day was done. He played so loud and if you ever watch the Monterey Pop Festival, they have video of it, a documentary, a film, documentary, a film. You could see people's reaction to him playing and the reaction to the way he's dressed and you know just the whole thing about him and people are like man, this is so different. This isn't like what you know love and peace and groovy man. It's a whole different thing. It was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like we said, he was way ahead of his time, so 1967, you know he was playing really heavy rock for back then.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, definitely, without a doubt. So, as a matter of fact, at the end of his performance he takes his guitar, places it down on the the stage and he gets, gets some like butane lighter fluid. You know, people used to have to put butane I think it is Jimmy inside of lighters so that they could smoke cigarettes. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Lighter fluid.
Speaker 2:So before you could buy the throwaway ones I guess disposable you had to actually put the lighter fluid in it. And he had a little can of the lighter fluid and he pours it on his guitar, takes a match and sets his guitar on fire. And there's this really iconic photo taken by a 17 year old kid, where the guitar's on the ground, the flames are coming up and Jimmy kind of raises his hands like he's trying to get the flames to come higher, and it's a really cool photo. Jimmy then picks the guitar up and then just starts to beat you know the garbage out of it on the stage and it breaks and pieces start. You know, going into the crowd he's throwing it. I actually saw part of that guitar at a thing at MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art here in New York, back in 2019. And they had a display case with part of the guitar and they had that picture that that 17-year-old took and it was really cool to be able to see that part of music history. For sure, it is outtakes, but he only released four albums in his lifetime and three of them were the Jimi Hendrix Experience and one was a live album as Jimi Hendrix and the Band of Gypsies. So Jimi Hendrix Experience was Noel Redding on bass, mitch Mitchell on drums and the Band of Gypsies was Billy Cox on bass and buddy miles on drums and a really different kind of feel and sound to the bands.
Speaker 2:So, are you experienced? Came out a month before the Monterey pop festival in 67, jimmy. These are some of the songs on it. This is the U? S. You know this is another one of those albums where they have the U? S version and they have the UK version. Purple ha know this is another one of those albums where they have the US version and they have the UK version. Purple Haze, manic Depression. Hey Joe, may this Be Love. The Wind Cries, mary Fire. Foxy Lady, are you Experienced?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a greatest hits.
Speaker 2:Isn't it? It really is like a greatest hits. I mean that is a fantastic album. Axis Bold as Love came out in December 67. And then the final Electric Ladyland was released in October 1968.
Speaker 2:And that had songs like have you Ever Been to Electric Ladyland, Crosstown Traffic, Voodoo Child Burning of the Midnight L midnight lamp all along the watchtower and then voodoo child slight return, which is a fantastic song. That's one of my favorite jimmy hendrix songs. I mean just so cool and so many people have actually covered that. So four members of Traffic, the band Traffic, Steve Winwood and Dave Mason played on a few songs. Jack Cassidy of Jefferson Airplane played bass on a song and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones played percussion on All Along the Watchtower the Bob Dylan cover that Jimi Hendrix did, that jimmy hendrix did. And what's funny is people that didn't like folk music, that weren't into bob dylan, did not know all along the watchtower was a bob dylan song and they thought it was jimmy hendrix and then they find out that no, bob actually wrote this, you know, years ago. And it's kind of cool for people to be like, oh, wow, wow, maybe this is a good song, Maybe this guy's better than I think, Maybe you know. So I think this kind of opened up some doors for people to start appreciating Bob Dylan.
Speaker 2:In 1969, the US released a best of titled Smash Hits. I had that on cassette and I think that's how me and most of my friends we had the smash hits that we listened to and that was our introduction to Jimi Hendrix. You know, be able to listen. You know from front to back, Hands down. I think Jimi Hendrix is one of the best guitarists of all time, For sure yeah.
Speaker 2:Rolling Stone's magazine's list of the 250 greatest guitarists of all time. Number five Jeff Beck. Number 28 is David Gilmour. I would put David Gilmour over Jeff Beck. That's my own personal opinion. I like David Gilmour more than I like Jeff Beck. I know he was in the Yardbirds. I know he did a lot of solo work and did a lot of cool things. They have him at number five. Number four Eddie Van Halen. Number three Jimmy Page. Number two Chuck Berry. Number one Jimi Hendrix. Now I got to say I'm really glad that they have Chuck Berry, because maybe he didn't do the most, you know, crazy things like some of these other people did, but man, for the time he did some things that were super cool and made the guitar a super cool instrument to play and adding the duck walk while he was playing it and everybody. You know how many times have we talked about how many bands have done covers of Chuck Berry songs?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah People just loved it, you know.
Speaker 1:And Chuck Berry. Like you said, he kind of was the pioneer of the electric guitar. Like Elvis played a type of electric guitar, but it was really a glorified acoustic guitar. You know people played it the way that you would play an acoustic guitar guitar. You know people played it the way that you would play an acoustic guitar. And and chuck barry uh, he incorporated jazz riffs that he had learned and kind of uh, changed them up to create that signature riff that you hear in a lot of chuck barry songs. That was actually something he had learned from a, from a jazz riff, and then he started playing it with two strings at a time instead of a single string run and the world changed and everybody's been ripping that riff off for the last 75 years.
Speaker 2:Chuck Berry. You know I can hear it all the time. So Consequence had the 100 best guitarist of all time a list that came out a couple of months ago, I believe it was, and at number five they had Prince. Number four, chuck Berry. Number three, tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. Number two, eddie Van Halen. Number one, jimi Hendrix. So two lists, jimi Hendrix, number one. So before I go into my last list, one of the things about Jimi Hendrix to me I know he used the wah-wah pedal and he experimented with feedback, but in a way how to make it melodic and make it like a sound that was part of what was going on. It wasn't part of the art noise kind of what I call at times for some other bands. He really tried to make it part of the song and then you know, when he was in a certain part of it, just be able to play his way right out of that feedback or right out of everything. What are your thoughts on that, jim? Because you're a guitarist, you know better than I.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the best guitar players, they don't just play the guitar, they play the amp, they play the air in the room. They're getting feedback, whether it's what you consider feedback or just the vibe that's coming off their amplifier and that's informing the way that they play and and they're kind of, you know, working that amp along with what they're doing with their fingers. So, yeah, yeah, he was a master of that.
Speaker 2:Definitely, definitely. I couldn't have said that any better. That's why I went to you, jimmy. Thank you, you're welcome.
Speaker 2:So the last list. I have those first two lists so I can clarify those are the best guitarists of, like any genre. Okay, this is just the 10 best guitarists of Guns N' Roses. Number nine Jeff Beck. Number eight Alex Lifeson of Rush. Number seven Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple. Now, this really took me by surprise, with Richie Blackmore making it up to number seven. I guess somebody liked Ritchie Blackmore a lot, because I'm not saying he's bad guitarist, but he's nowhere at number seven. You cannot tell me that. You can't even tell me Jeff Beck's not better than man and I'm not a huge Jeff Beck fan. Number six David Gilmore, pink Floyd. Number five Eric Clapton. Four Eddie Van Halen. Three Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. Number two Jimi Hendrix. Oh, so number one again. I don't think this person is a bad guitarist. I like their guitar work. I don't think they're number one. I don't think they're number one. I don't think they're number 10. I don't think they're 20. I'm not sure where, but Brian May of Queen, oh come on.
Speaker 1:You know, he's a guy that worked the technology for sure. He had a very signature sound and we've talked about that, but putting him above all those other guys, that's, that's rough I agree with you, jimmy.
Speaker 2:There's no way that I would do that, and I know people love queen. I am not saying anything about the band queen. I'm not saying anything about his guitar playing. He was perfect for queen. He Right, he's not better than Jimi Hendrix.
Speaker 1:No, in no way.
Speaker 2:This is why Jimi Hendrix had manic depression, because he looked into the future at a list that said Brian May of Queen, a band that's not even around is going to be ranked higher than you.
Speaker 1:Poor Jimi.
Speaker 2:Yet Smart premiered September 18th 1965, went off the air in May of 1970. Short run on television starring Dot Adams as Agent 86, maxwell Smartara felden as agent 99 and edward platt as the chief. Now this is another one of those tv songs, tv themes, that you know, even though it doesn't have words. You know, everybody kind of knows. Don't done on, you know, and just like how the whole thing goes. And you know he's driving in his car and elevators are closing. And you know, I think everybody knows this song. They worked for control, if you remember, which was a secret us counter intelligence agency, which is funnier to me today as an adult than when I was watching reruns as a kid and they took on Chaos, k-a-o-s, the International Organization of Evil, and you know it had everything from the shoe phone where they literally had like black. You know business shoes.
Speaker 1:Rotary dial phone inside of his shoe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it was just crazy. The cone of silence that they had, where they never wanted to hear him, never worked. They couldn't hear each other. Sometimes how it is when we're trying to get set up for the podcast and, and I'm here in 11th town, sometimes I feel like it is the the cone of silence for us as well. But do you remember some of the catchphrases, jimmy? Sorry about that, chief. You know, whenever something went wrong, missed it by that much? Yep, it's the old blah, blah, blah trick. You know? He would be like oh, it's the old. You know, yeah, banana and uh, whatever trick. Well, yeah, which was?
Speaker 1:used in beverly hills cop, it's the old banana and whatever trick.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, which was?
Speaker 1:used in Beverly Hills Cop. It's the old banana in the tailpipe trick.
Speaker 2:Yes, it was Don't tell me. And then someone tells him something and then he says I asked you not to tell me that, like those are the catchphrases that would happen all the time. And get smart. I really enjoyed that, you know. I know he went on. He did the voice of inspector gadget. Um, was it? Um? Matthew Broderick was in that movie also, wasn't he?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean he played inspector gadget later.
Speaker 2:Wait, so wait, hold on. But was inspector gadget like a cartoon? And then Matthew Broderick did a different one.
Speaker 1:Am I mixing them together? I think you're mixing them together.
Speaker 2:Oh, sorry about that, chief, thank you for being a friend, travel down the road and back again. Your heart is true You're a pal and a confidant. The Golden Girls premiered September 14thth 1985. Everybody knows that song. Jimmy, I'm sure you even know that song I do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it was a song in the 70s years before it was used on the golden girls was it really oh?
Speaker 2:yeah, thank you for being a friend, yeah I never heard it, only heard it through the golden girls I learned something new here on Music in my Shoes. Was it a hit on the radio at all?
Speaker 1:Number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978. It's by Andrew Gold. You know Andrew Gold, really.
Speaker 2:The name sounds familiar, but I do not remember the song other than the Golden Girls, it sounds familiar.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I really know any of his songs, but I did find out that he also wrote the theme to mad about you, the 1990s uh sitcom that was on. You know must see tv along with friends yeah he wrote that theme song uh paul reiser paul reiser, yeah yes, yes, I watched that show.
Speaker 2:I did like that show also yeah, it was all right, it was must see tv to me it was.
Speaker 1:I mean, it wasn't exactly friends in seinfeld, but it did the trick there you go.
Speaker 2:So betty white played rose, nylan, beatrice arthur, dorothy. Betty White played Rose, nyland, beatrice Arthur, dorothy Zbornak, rue McClanahan, blanche Devereaux and Estelle Getty, sophia Petrillo and she was Dorothy's mom on the show and it's kind of like, I think, if I remember correctly, blanche has a home in Miamiami and then one of their husbands dies, I think rose's husband dies, so she moves in and dorothy gets a divorce, so she moves in and, uh, I think the retirement home that sofia was in burnt down and so she was going to come in just until she went to a new place, but then she just ends up staying. All seven seasons the show was on. Yeah, the mom sophia, she was born in sicily and a lot of the episodes would deal with her. You know, reminiscing about the days of yore. Oh, we'll be using that two episodes in a row. I think it is now Jimmy.
Speaker 1:Nice, it's a new catchphrase.
Speaker 2:That is, that's what all the kids are going to be saying in the days of yore. But it's kind of cool bringing up these things about Sicily and it would be funny about different things and kind of talking about what marriage was like back in the super old days, because remember, they're portraying older women in the 1980s and they're talking about many moons before that. But the show was fun. It was always something you could watch. But the show was fun. It was always something you could watch. Usually one of them made a bad decision or got in trouble or was trying to hide something from the others. That was generally kind of the premise. I think Blanche was always in love with a new dude or something. Hey, it wasn't too bad. May 1992, the show went off the air. Let's revisit some more music in my shoes.
Speaker 2:David Bowie, young American single. It peaked at number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 May 10th 1975. Then Fame was released June 2nd, 75. Peaked at number one on Billboard Hot 100, september 20th. And John Lennon played acoustic guitar and was backing vocals on this song. So when David Bowie goes fame, john Lennon says it, but he says it kind of in like a higher voice and if you listen to it, you know most people don't know John Lennon's on the song, but when you listen to it you're like, oh yeah, that's John Lennon. The way John Lennon sounded in the mid-70s early to mid-70s, as his voice changed from becoming a Beatle.
Speaker 1:I never knew that.
Speaker 2:Yes, take a listen to it and you'll be like, oh yeah, it sounds just like him, wow, so it's kind of cool. We talked last year about how he did Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. He recorded that with Elton John in 1974. And then, you know, he played a few songs with Elton John Thanksgiving 74, and here in 75, he's on a number one song with David Bowie. It's just super cool to be able to, you know, know, mix around with some people that you like and to have some fantastic results.
Speaker 2:Yeah, september 9th 1995, an album help, a charity album for war child by various artists came out. And one thing that I really think is super cool about this you know I heard a lot about it before it came out and I was looking forward to it is that they recorded it all on September 4th 1995, 20 songs Actually there was more than 20 songs. Everybody had to record their own song and they had to ship it. It got mixed on September 5th and September 9th it was out in the stores. It was this super quick, you're in it or you're not in it. There's no. Hey, on September 8th I got this and you've missed the boat. Real strict, you got to hit everything, but it had songs like Oasis and Friends doing Fade Away, the Stone Roses Love Spreads, which was a re-recorded version. Any of the songs that I'm mentioning are re-recorded versions if they're not a new song for them. Radiohead did Lucky, which showed up on OK Computer a few years later.
Speaker 2:Sinead O'Connor Ode to Billy Joe. It is an excellent version If you ever get an opportunity to listen to her sing that. Manic Street Preachers. Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head. We talked about that earlier this year. The Smokin' Mojo filters did come, come together and it included Paul McCartney, paul Weller of the Jam, noel Gallagher of Oasis and a few other people. It is super cool to be able to hear that song. It's a pretty cool album. It's got a bunch of British bands Not for everybody. I really like it.
Speaker 1:What's it called?
Speaker 2:Help it's it called. If you get a chance, help. It's a charity album for War Child. So War Child, they were doing things for Bosnia at the time, different countries that you know were war torn. That's what it is. It's pretty cool. I think you would like it, jimmy. I'll check it out, but I know what else you would like jimmy tick, tick, tick. It's minute with jimmy. It's time for a minute with jimmy. Minute with jimmy. Minute with jimmy. It's time for a minute with jimmy.
Speaker 1:Minute with jimmy so we talked about, uh, chuck berry a minute ago, and one of the people that ripped off chuck berry's licks in a very, you know, admiring way was steve jones of the sex pistols. Steve jones started out as the singer of a group that later became sex pistols. He was too nervous to be the singer, so they did one gig and he's like I need to do something else. They said, well, here's a learn how to play this. And he just hold himself up and he learned how to play guitar in a matter of like a week or something. And in fact, when they went into the studio to record their only album nevermind the bollocks, here's the sex pistols.
Speaker 1:Steve Jones had only been playing guitar for one year, so he of course started out playing, like you know, rhythm guitar, but then he he was the only guitar player in the band. He needed to play some leads and he would play Chuck Berry riffs in his own way, and it really became kind of a punk rock staple to uh to use those Chuck Berry riffs. Steve Jones broke his wrist and they've had to cancel all their North American dates they had, including the one that I was planning to attend at the CBGB festival in New York later this month. So I hope Steve Jones feels better soon and I look forward to seeing them in concert once he recovers.
Speaker 2:Yes, jimmy, I was going to go to that show as well. I'm kind of bummed out about that. It definitely would have been fun, especially in the setting that the festival was going to be in, but we will have to catch them at another point. Speaking of the Sex Pistols, I did see this thing the other day where you can get a Sid Vicious bass. It's a replica bass. You know how musicians, guitarists, bass players, drummers, they'll have, you know, like replica stuff come out and you could buy it. Well, they have this bass and it doesn't have any input things so that you can plug in an amp or anything. I was a joke, but I was just laughing because, you know, sid Vicious really didn't play the bass.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's perfect. I cracked up, yeah.
Speaker 2:I thought it was funny as heck.
Speaker 1:He did play the bass, just really poorly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he would have been better to just shut it down.
Speaker 1:Apparently there was a gig it may even have been the show they played in atlanta in early 1978 that steve jones just walked over to sid's side of the stage and just unplugged his bass I would believe it.
Speaker 2:He had the look, he just did not have the skills he had the look for sure, poor kid hey, but you know what?
Speaker 2:jimmy here has the look and jimmy here has the skills. My name is j Jimmy hey. Unfortunately, that's all we have for this episode of Music of my Shoes. If you want, you can reach us at musicofmyshoes at gmailcom. Please like and follow the Music of my Shoes Facebook and Instagram pages. I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios located in Atlanta, georgia, and Vic Thrill for our podcast music. This is Jim Boge, coming to you from Levittown, new York, and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, live life and keep the music playing. I'll let you go. I'll let you go.
