Thursday, November 13, 2008

Mitch Mitchell, 1947-2008. R.I.P.

Mitch Mitchell, the drummer of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was found dead last night in his hotel room in Portland, Oregon. He was 61. No cause of death has been determined although an autopsy is expected to be performed.

Mitchell had just completed a four week U.S. Experience Hendrix tour.

Now all three original members of the Jimi Hendrix Experience are gone. Jimi Hendrix, of course, died in 1970. Bassist Noel Redding died in 2003.

There are some who are not crazy about '60s music and the drug culture with which it is associated.

But there is a lot of very good music that came out of it. Hendrix' version of the Star Spangled Banner gave our national anthem a brand new sound.

1 comment:

John Imrie said...

I was 13 years old and had just gotten into guitar when a friend of mine made me a tape of Jimi Hendrix stuff. I've moved on now and gotten back into piano, which is really "my" instrument, but I'll never forget lying on the bottom of my parents' Dodge Caravan and listening to "The Wind Cries Mary," as my Dad drove us along the rainy back woods of Maine and New Hampshire that summer.