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 )
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 )