PrintMay 17, 2009
Jimi Hendrix, the right-wing flower child?
The Charleston Gazette, page 14, May 17, 1969, shines a spotlight on one of the world's most creative guitarists.
History's Jimi Hendrix digs conservative West Virginia:
"Thank you, West Virginia," he shouted, "you're really out of sight."
Hendrix digs Utah's pro-life Mormon sounds:
Hendrix is interested in television. He also wants to get a book together and do an album on his own "that could include everything from acoustical guitar to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir."
More, Hendrix detests victim-identity politics:
"Music is stronger than politics," he said. "I feel sorry for the minorities, but I don't feel a part of one. And I think the answer lies in music".
Hendrix denounces left-wing clichés. He is more Ayn Rand than Karl Marx:
One of the worst statements people are making is 'no man is an island.' Every man is an island and music is about the only way we can really communicate.
Make love (translation: venereal diseases) not war? No way:
Forget about the mass love scene. That's not where it is. It's not building understanding. And I wish I could say this so strongly that they'd sit up in their chairs.
Revealingly too, some of Hendrix's lyrics appear to promote pro-life values. He sees abortion as a problem:
"MY SONGS speak in different ways, but when I say "I" I don't mean "me" but rather whoever I can relate to. I have a song on abortion and a song on Vietnam and a song on just about any problem...
Hendrix openly resists the groupthink politics infecting America's left-wing universities:
... and my song on the campus thing today says the kids are shouting through a keyhole. They're not being individuals." [emphasis added]
And, most controversially, history's Hendrix rejects the left's America-is-just-evil clichés.
Sure: Red Vietnam's killing machine is the monster, and West Virginians are really "out of sight" Obama.
