100 Greatest Songs of the 60’s #16 Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze

Released: 1967

In the relatively unlikely event that Jimi Hendrix was still alive today (Hate the game here, not the player) he’d probably be dining out on the story about when he dismantled one of the decade’s most storied guitarists, in front of him, and also in front of several hundred people.

The event was one of the first gigs by Cream, the blues rock “supergroup” led by a post Yardbirds Eric Clapton along with Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker. It was the autumn of 1966 and Hendrix had arrived from New York with little fanfare, whilst Clapton had by this point assumed messianic status. With both parties introduced by Chas Chandler, Hendrix asked to jam with the trio at the Polytechnic of Central London; Clapton lasted about 10 bars before promptly abandoning the stage, the only question in his mind after posed to Chandler being “Is he that fucking good?”.

London then became the seeding ground, both for the band Hendrix and Chandler co-recruited and as the base in which they would record their debut album Are You Experienced. Purple Haze was a jumping off point though, written after the guitarist had read a book about life on a different planet. The wellspring from which psychedelia, metal, punk funk and grunge would all eventually descend from, it was a take down of much more than Eric Clapton’s blustering ego, but that was where it had begun.