February 8, 2016

Now, you can tour the London bedroom where Jimi Hendrix lived in 1969.

"The house, in Mayfair, has now been painstakingly restored to look exactly as it did in 1969, using picture[s] of him inside and recollections of former girlfriend Kathy Etchingham."

Among the details: a bedside tablescape of "Voodoo Child" lyrics, a shell, and Benson and Hedges cigarettes, a fruitbowl on the floor, a silky bed jacket, the board game Monopoly, and the album "Fifth Dimension" by The Byrds (which The Daily Mail inanely calls a record "from Fifth Dimension").



ADDED: Too bad we never got to see a Super Bowl halftime show with The Byrds and The 5th Dimension playing together, in the manner of last night's Coldplay + Beyonce.

26 comments:

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

As I recall it, this house is literally next door to George Frideric Handel's house; in fact, you can walk from one to the other. The thing that struck me about Handel's house at the time was that it was so small. How could all that music have been written in four tiny rooms?

Of course, this might be a different Hendrix house. Despite living in London for most of a year, I don't know from Mayfair.

Michael K said...

Wake me when we get back to something that is important.

Bay Area Guy said...

New Headline:

"Obscure ex-girlfriend, trying to make a buck off Jimi"

FullMoon said...

I met Jimi Hendrix once, stoned on purple haze. ....no, wait, it was Jimi Crackcorn and I don't care. Nevermind.

Curious George said...

"ADDED: Too bad we never got to see a Super Bowl halftime show with The Byrds and The 5th Dimension playing together, in the manner of last night's Coldplay + Beyonce."

Bruno Mars was good. But Coldplay and Beyonce...meh.

jr565 said...

Fifth dimension. The byrds least successful album in their first incarnation (had gene Clark left by then?). It does have some really good stuff. I love their version of John Reilly, very moody. Though how they mix the lyrics on it is very odd.
But it also has a lot of garbage, or at least fair material.


jr565 said...

Curious George wrote:
Bruno Mars was good. But Coldplay and Beyonce...meh.
Well coldplay is always meh. But they were good for a meh band. Beyoncé though. THat was a just a terrible song.

gadfly said...

So would the music of the Byrds mix with the sounds of the 5th Dimension? "Tambourine Man" along side of "Sweet Blindness?" "Last Night I Didn't To Sleep At All" performed after "California Sun?" As Marilyn Macoo sang -"Never My Love."

Heartless Aztec said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Heartless Aztec said...

Drop a tab of Orange Sunshine or Strawberry Fields, grab the 12 string and camp out in the apartment until maybe Dave Mason comes by and see if I can be added into the mix (everyone else was) on the re-imagining of Bob's "All Along the Watchtower". Or just jam with the guys on something silly like "Mr. Spaceman" while we're peaking. Fun times, fun times...

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

For a mere $20 I will allow you to tour the planet that Jimi called home for his entire life!

madAsHell said...

I did not like the Super Bowl half time show. I just assumed that they weren't playing to my demographic.
I've never liked musical acts that depended upon visual effects.

Danno said...

Blogger madAsHell said...
I did not like the Super Bowl half time show. I just assumed that they weren't playing to my demographic.
I've never liked musical acts that depended upon visual effects. 2/8/16, 4:10 PM

I agree totally. Everything today has to be over-the-top "popular" acts and visuals.

Popville said...

I for one would have loved to hear The 5th Dimension sing The Byrds' "Renaissance Fair."

Sun's flash on a soda prism
Bright jewels on the ladies flashing
Eyes catch on a shiny prism

Or if it must be from their 5D time, then make it "Why", the b-side of the Eight Miles High 45, tho of course done Bones Howe/Wrecking Crew style.

Both co-writes of Crosby/McGuinn

eddie willers said...

Most of his music doesn't hold up after all these years, and covers usually pale against the original.

But Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower" is one exception to the rule.

Mark said...

Too bad we never got to see a Super Bowl halftime show

Real football has a marching band for a half-time show (and commercial breaks, etc.). Unfortunately, the NFL is part football, part forced hype, and noise and flash and hot-dogging players that need someone to smash them in the mouth.

Dan Harris said...

I DID see the Fifth Dimension play an NFL halftime. In Oakland, 1969, I think.

jr565 said...

Popville wrote:
I for one would have loved to hear The 5th Dimension sing The Byrds' "Renaissance Fair."

Sun's flash on a soda prism
Bright jewels on the ladies flashing
Eyes catch on a shiny prism

It was very evocative song until I went to The Renaissance Fair in New Jersey.

Paul said...

"Most of his music doesn't hold up after all these years," sez you. Of course pretty much every guitar player on the planet will disagree.

future toothless bum said...

"All Along the Watchtower" was not Hendrix. He sang it of course, he brought a feeling to his guitar and verse that kind of opened a window. If you don't get that then fine.

But if you did get it, his end wasn't unexpected.

Wince said...

Have to admit I love stuff like this.

A while back I tried to trace the source of my favorite rock photo.

This photo of a small boy interrupting the same show, Hendrix's 1969 permanence at Royal Albert Hall (interesting story unto itself), led me to the photographer.

Anyway, when I contacted the photographer, Eric Hayes, I was surprised by two things:

1.) One of the reasons I like the roadie holding the amp photo is the way this rebellious scene is being watched over by the police officer in the lower right foreground. Surprisingly, but like a lot of people, the photographer Hayes himself said he never noticed one aspect of the photo that I found so iconic. (Talk about purple Hayes!)

2.) Here's a video from the 1969 RAH performance. Starting @ 8:15 you can see the scene, including the cop and the photographer Hayes over Hendrix's right shoulder actually taking the picture @ 8:53. Again, Hayes was surprised when I pointed out to him his appearance in the film.

BN said...

Wait. There was a half time show?

I guess I was outside smoking a joint.

BN said...

Can you imagine if our parents and grandparents carried on about how they wished their pop idols 50 years back could have sung in the Packers Super Bowls in the 60s like we are now?

Imagine them imagining Crosby and Ella Fitz at the those Super Bowls. We'd have laughed and laughed!

I brought it up with my mom (she's 85). She said, who's Bing Crosby?

I miss the Packers. Whatever happened to them, anyway?

BN said...

I just realized Crosby could be David Crosby as well as Bing. Now David Crosby and Ella... I'd like to see that at the Super Bowl any damn day.

Two ships on the water. Very free... and easy.

Ann Althouse said...

"One of the reasons I like the roadie holding the amp photo is the way this rebellious scene is being watched over by the police officer in the lower right foreground. Surprisingly, but like a lot of people, the photographer Hayes himself said he never noticed one aspect of the photo that I found so iconic. (Talk about purple Hayes!)"

That's so hard to believe. The cop's hat anchors the lower right corner. How can you be a photographer and not notice the corners?

Mitch H. said...

Well coldplay is always meh. But they were good for a meh band. Beyoncé though. THat was a just a terrible song.

Beyoncé was singing something? I was distracted, wondering how Mummar Quaddafy's Amazonian Guard managed to escape Libya, and why they were working as backup dancers for some random American poptart.

Somebody at my Super Bowl viewing party noted acidly that apparently the last two halftime acts can't manage a fifteen-minute set without supporting pop acts showing up to distract the crowd from their mediocrity. Well, that, and Lady Gaga can apparently sing the National Anthem without embarrassing herself - who knew?