lues, the years he spent as a R&B guitarist, his life in Greenwich Village, his trip to London, the Vietnam War, and the years of rioting and protest against war and racial injustice all infused themselves into Jimi’s albums. The early commerciality and an undeveloped form of Hendrix’ later song-writing and playing are displayed on Are You Experienced? On the second album, Axis: Bold As Love, Jimi expressed his ethnic individuality, he expanded his musical repertoire, and he began his first voicings of malcontent. Electric Ladyland and Axis: Bold As Love mark the apogee of Jimi Hendrix’ short career. Electric Ladyland combines the pure perfect blues found earlier in “Red House” on “Voodoo Chile,” It also shows the pinnacle of his lyrically and musically creative side, with songs like “1983...(A Merman I Should Turn To Be).” Despite the fact that his next album, Band of Gypsys, was a relatively lackluster effort, it does, without a doubt, show a period of Hendrix’ development in which the pressure of being a star and the many social and societal ills that surrounded him caused a major change. His death in 1970 seemed to indicate a feeling of apathy from Hendrix; he died choking on his own vomit (Anonymous 1). Looking back on his albums, there is definite pattern of personal growth and decay, all influenced by everything that happened around, and inside, the legendary musician we know as Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix’ music can serve as an accurate interpretation of what was occurring around him, and inside of him, in the music he made at any given time. He went from a shy R&B sideman to an showboating, behind-the-back- playing guitarist to a man troubled about what was going on around him in the world, societal, cultural, and his own personal forums. The evolution of Jimi Hendrix as an individual contained an increasing acceptance of his racial heritage -- which included culture a...