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Just another sharetime

R_W_B

Senior Member
Well I was sitting around listening to some old YouTube Jimi Hendrix this morning that really brought back some old memories. Jimi (for those of you not that old) was a short lived Black guitarist during the Viet Nam era. He died from a drug overdose while I was in Viet Nam in 1970. Whatever was and can be said about the man, he could play a Fender Stratocaster like nobody's business. Many of you may not remember that he could play a guitar from either hand. In fact most times he performed with it left handed. This is no minor feat beings that reversing a guitar playing position puts the bass strings on the bottom instead of the top as normal guitar books teach. Jimi could not read music at all. He was totally self taught by ear.

When I got out of the Army he was already dead. But my first year as a civilian again while I was wondering around with a few bolts not torqued to specs, I used to love to listen to him sing and play on my 8 track. He had a good blues voice. The Army had a mix of cultures and races, Whites, Blacks, Ricans, Phillipinos, Chicanos and American Indians. In a combat zone you become quite close with each other and you really learn to appreciate another's culture and race differences. In other words you become very good friends and forget about race but still embrace the new facets you never learned from your own race.

Inevitably though during certain off duty times when we would be drinking alcohol, separate groups would sometimes form and trouble could ensure, human nature I suspect. I remember one night there was some trouble and several of us were in this one area. A very large friend of mine (we called Tiny) was in a fight with another guy. (Tiny's first name was Jim and he was a farm boy from Indiana or Illinois can't remember which) The other guy's friend was fixing to attack Tiny from behind, so I quickly jumped him from behind. As I was holding this guy with both his arms locked against my chest, Captain Dunn (our CO) came in with his 45 pistol drawn and pointed in the air. Captain Dunn was an Army Ranger and quite the character.

Anyhow as Dunn approached ground zero of the action, the other guy (who was quite big also) threw Tiny over the edge of a wood table sideways and one of Tiny's boots caught Dunn's 45 and sent it flying straight into the air about 6 feet high. Well I can only try to write this in a way that you can grasp the whole visual nature of what unfolded. It was like everything and everybody froze as we all were glued to that tumbling 45 which seemed like it was moving in slow motion while in real time. Many of us were wondering if it might fire on impact but there was nothing really you could do. We just basically froze and watched as it tumbled down and hit a wooden chair and then somebody caught it and handed it back to Captain Dunn who was still in the process of getting up.

Needless to say we all got a severe in your face chewing from Captain Dunn and certain restrictions on our off duty time the next morning from the First Sergeant. But all in all we were friends across all race barriers and to this day when I talk to Black people I feel I know them better because of my Army service.

So without further boring you of my ramblings here is Jimi Hendrix doing a live performance of Hey Joe.

YouTube - Jimi Hendrix Experience - Hey Joe ( 1967 )
 
Jimi was a great guitar player to short lived, He was in the 101 airborn got discharged after breaking his anxle making jump I belive. My favorite would be one of his bluesyer songs like RED HOUSE. then .............. all of them I guse.
 
Good song, great story. Thanks for sharing. The way you wrote it, it is very vivid and I could see that ".45 slowly tumbling in the air."
As far as Jimi is concerned, yes, even the younger generation is into them. And by younger generation I am not refering to myself at 35, I know of 13-15 year olds that are starting to find his works and are having the same reaction that I did, just 20 years later. He is truly a legend.
Beyond that, I have in recent years, actually the past 10 or so, started listening to some of his final work with Band of Gypsy's. Highly recomended, more of a bluesy thing quite similar to the theme of "Hey Joe." I highly recomend their live version of Machine Gun, and Them Changes. Enjoy, or should I say "PEACE"
 
His military status was dubious at best. I am pretty sure he was discharged under the undesirable status. I still liked his music though.
 
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Had JIMI lived he would have been the best guitar player of all time, IMO he still is:s
 
Jimi was a great guitar player to short lived, He was in the 101 airborn got discharged after breaking his anxle making jump I belive. My favorite would be one of his bluesyer songs like RED HOUSE. then .............. all of them I guse.

His military status was dubious at best. I am pretty sure he was discharged under the undesirable status. I still liked his music though.

Wow I did not know he was in the Original Screaming Eagle. I did not know he was even in the military. Undesirable would be a bad stain in any case. Course by the same token Mohammed Ali is praised as the greatest still while he used big money to get him out of the draft under a consciencious objector.

All normal people who were consciencious objectors were still drafted and given non combatant roles, but he got out of the draft totally because of it. A non combantant mos in a combat zone can still get you killed, you just don't have an mos where you carry a weapon. Usually in medical or clerical units. (for non military people, mos = Main Object of Service )

Many a night on the way back to my apartment I would play Jimi's 8 track listening to 'All Along The Watch Tower' 'Foxy Lady' 'Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire' 'Red House over Yonder' etc etc. That was a long time ago but fond memories.
 
I feel you on the brotherhood Dave. Race never was a thought for me. Now we had certain groups and in fairness the Brothers had to be a bit tighter as the civil rights movement had not given them equality yet. But like I said my brothers were from all different breeds. We fought , We cried, We partied, and shared everything as a family would. Heros come in all colors and I will forever be thankful for the ones I had the pleasure to call my brother! It was the 90 day wonders and the shank and bakes that I didn't much care for. And yes Jimmi will always be the best guitarist in my mind.
 
I feel you on the brotherhood Dave. Race never was a thought for me. .. ... ... ... ... It was the 90 day wonders and the shank and bakes that I didn't much care for. And yes Jimmi will always be the best guitarist in my mind.

I know what you meant Bro, but just in case some don't, sharpscuba's typo on the word ' shank ' was meant to be ' shake ' as in Shake and Bake. This was a slang term in Nam referring to the Army's fast track training of Commissioned officers due to a shortage of them during that time. This fast trac program (jokingly called Shake and Bake by NCOs) would turn out second Lieutenants in a short amount of time. In fact the NCOs in my unit used to joke about the Army having a new toy. It was called the 2nd Leuy. You wind it up, set it down and it takes two steps backward and screws up. It was quite the laugh with enlisted men.

Many Shake and Bakes were dangerous especially to combat units like sharpscuba and rubyred served in, since they simply did not have the experience to be in that position.

But please I don't meant to blast second Leuys of that era across the board since that would be unfounded, unfair and untrue. Many of them were fine soldiers. It was just the logistics of that time. Viet Nam had it's own culture and dogma.

Of all the movies about Nam that I saw, I was embarrassed by all of them EXCEPT Platoon by Oliver Stone. Platoon was a slice right out of Viet Nam and it was pretty much just as Nam was right down to all the little ambiguities like manure burning detail. Not surprisingly Oliver Stone served in Nam. Now I'm not saying that every Platoon in Nam had everything happen to it that the one in the movie did. But it was VERY close to the real thing.
 
Unbelievable talent. It is hard enough to play a guitar right-handed, right side up. There will never be another like Jimi Hendrix...:small3d028:
 
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