I Don't Live Today

The Root has another article on the anniversary of an important album. But this time it's about Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of its release this month. I'll admit that it does seem pretty crazy that this album came out 40 years ago. I have a hard time believing that this record is actually 40 years old. The Joshua Tree is now just over 20 years old, which doesn't surprise me at all; that record sounds very much like it's from the 1980s. 1968 is one of those mythic years though, and Electric Ladyland is supposed to be, apparently, very indicative of its time of origin. I don't hear it, though. To me, it doesn't sound dated at all. I can't imagine an album sounding more contemporary. The White Album also came out in 1968, but--as much as I love the White Album--it's a record that is pretty instantly datable for me. But anyway, those are just my impressions.

The other interesting thing in the article, from my point of view, is the mention of the Experience Hendrix 2008 Tribute Tour, a series of 19 concerts across the country featuring people like Buddy Guy, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and people who played with Hendrix including Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox. Hendrix of course was one of the first artists to have a tribute album, 1993's Stone Free. And the Hendrix estate (whoever it is that is in control after the most recent legal skirmishes, of which there have been many), has never been shy about cranking out new product in an attempt to cash in on Hendrix's legacy. This tour is certainly a part of that impulse, but I also think it's part of the tribute phenomenon more generally that I'm researching these days. (And, to complicate matters, the tribute phenomenon is never just an end unto itself, either. It's about making money off of older music. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. Let's just be honest with ourselves.)

I doubt that the artists on these concerts are playing these Hendrix songs note-for-note. What would that even mean in an improvisatory tradition like blues-rock, anyway? And besides Hendrix, unlike the Beatles or even the Stones or Zeppelin, has a huge number of live performances commercially available, so you'd have to first figure out which performance to play note-for-note. (This profusion of live recordings, by the way, has to do with a couple of things. First and foremost would be the desire to get more product out there, since Jimi only left us with only 3 proper studio albums before his death. But also important, I would guess, is the fact that his live performances were worth having--they were not just note-for-note renditions of his studio recordings).

But the artists on this tribute tour are taking part more generally in the same things that I see characterizing the tribute band scene at large. It's about creating a community in the context of live performances, not just listening to the records at home by yourself. It's about celebrating the past and, in particular, placing oneself within the past, giving oneself a history. Anyway, the tour actually stops in Philly tonight, at the Tower Theater. If I was in town, I'd probably go (though tickets are quite expensive). But as it is, I'm half a world away from home, so I'll have to content myself with watching Game 2 of the World Series and desperately craving a Yuengling (for the first time in history). Go Phillies!