Hendrix Exhibit Opens At Hall Of Fame With Star-Studded Concert

09/13/2000 7:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(9/14/00, 7 a.m. ET) - With Tuesday's (September 12) opening of the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's new Jimi Hendrix exhibit, the legendary guitarist has become the first rock icon to be the subject of two major museum exhibits. The Hall Of Fame display, timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Hendrix's death and the release of a new boxed set, follows the June opening of Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen's Seattle shrine to Hendrix, the Experience Music Project (EMP). However, the Cleveland exhibition has something Allen couldn't buy: the active participation of Jimi's dad Al and half-sister Janie, who donated guitars, clothing, family photos, and other memorabilia--including priceless sketches and paintings--that deliver a sense of Hendrix the person as well as Hendrix the star.

The Hall Of Fame also had an opening-party lineup of performers celebrating the music Hendrix made in only four short years. In addition to former Experience sidemen Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell, the event also featured Bernard Allison, Vernon Reid of Living Colour fame, Eric Gales, Kenny Olson, Buckcherry, and Double Trouble (Stevie Ray Vaughan's old rhythm section) with Andy Aledort and Storyville's Malford Milligan, most of whom appear on Blue Haze, a just-released Hendrix tribute album. Also performing was Earth, Wind & Fire singer-guitarist Sheldon Reynolds, who's co-producing an R&B-influenced Hendrix tribute disc. Smiling backstage during all the proceedings were Experience engineer Eddie Kramer, Janie, and 81-year-old Al.

In addition to the usual array of concert posters and rock-star artifacts--including a ratty couch Hendrix crashed on, undoubtedly during some purple haze--the awkwardly named Jimi Hendrix Surround Sound Theater And Exhibit contains such documents as a 1958 pen-and-crayon drawing of Elvis Presley scribbled on notebook paper, which reveals what the then-16-year-old Hendrix daydreamed about in class. The drawing is located not far from a Time magazine story about Hendrix titled "The Black Elvis?"

Under the crinkled sheet of mini-legal-pad yellow paper on which Hendrix hastily jotted down the lyrics of "Purple Haze" (originally titled "Purple Haze, Jesus Saves"), hangs a watercolor of a purple mountain. Before finding religion in a guitar, Hendrix had planned to become a commercial artist. "We really wanted to show who Jimi was as opposed to having a lot of money and going out and buying things," said Jim Henke, the Hall Of Fame vice president of exhibitions and curatorial affairs. "There's sort of a difference. And I think it's a big difference." Henke's comment was a subtle poke at EMP, which is filled with the finest artifacts money can buy, some of which were loaned for this exhibit. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame has no acquisitions budget and relies on loans and donations. A set of "Purple Haze" lyrics--one of the few items in the new exhibit that's part of the Hall Of Fame's permanent collection--is "probably the one, only artifact that we ever bought at auction," Henke said.

The surround-sound theater, a permanent installation, offers another illuminating moment: an interview with Dick Cavett in which Hendrix discusses playing what Cavett refers to as an "unorthodox" version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the original Woodstock festival in 1969. "I'm an American, so I played it," the former Army paratrooper says. Protesting that his treatment of the song isn't unorthodox, Hendrix adds, "I thought it was beautiful." The rendition also altered our perception of how a song could sound, something that could be said of just about every piece of music Hendrix made.

-- Lynne Margolis, Cleveland

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