So let’s get it out there for people that might not know who Buddy Guy is. Most people now without a shadow of a doubt who Jimi Hendrix is. He’s the guy that set the world on fire with Purple Haze and All Along the Watchtower and many other great hits. But Buddy Guy is the person that inspired Hendrix and a slew of other performers that came along after him. He in turn was seen to play with greats like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Sonny Boy Williamson. If you don’t know any of those names then you might need to broaden your horizons just a little in order to get the full experience of just who Buddy Guy is. He’s a legend in the music business and has been lauded as such throughout his career.
Let’s put it this way, any man that Jimi Hendrix looked up to and tried desperately to jam with is someone worth listening to.
He had a unique style that wasn’t fully appreciated at one time.
Buddy Guy loved to use distortion in his songs but his producers would often tell him it was just noise and wasn’t as desirable as the regular style of play. In the common era distortion is widely used by guitarists to add a bit of depth and even a different sound to their tracks. In Buddy Guy’s era however it wasn’t nearly as popular largely due to the fact that it hadn’t as widely used and was something uniquely different that people just didn’t know how to take as of yet. When it was seen to be popular effect upon English crowds however Buddy’s producers executed a quick turnaround and started to accept the method without hesitation. Since then distortion has been a big part of the game and it’s been enjoyed by legions of fans.
Buddy Guy had no idea who Jimi Hendrix was.
Despite Hendrix’s rise during the time was meteoric and yet to be quite honest Buddy Guy barely knew who he was. It can be stated that even musicians don’t run in the same circles but to think that Guy didn’t know who Hendrix was seems kind of hard to swallow. But the fact remains that Guy didn’t really have a clue about Jimi Hendrix and as a result didn’t know who the kid trying to get his attention was one night when a few of his band members tried to tell him who he was. When Hendrix claimed that he’d been looking for Guy for a long time and would love to record him Guy stated he didn’t care what he did and proceeded to do his set. Not long after that Guy and Hendrix would record a jam session that many people never knew about until today.
Even the greats had to have some sort of influence to guide them along the way. No matter how wondrous or how powerful their music has been, those world famous musicians and performers will almost always have an influence in their lives that helped them to reach the heights that they achieved. Sadly not long after meeting Buddy Guy the world would lose the wonder of Jimi Hendrix. In 1970 he was found dead of asphyxiation that was caused by an accidental overdose of barbiturates. Thankfully he got a chance to jam with one of his major influences and we now have the chance to see it.
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