Word: jimi
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...1980s Prince -- yes, he now goes by an incomprehensible glyph, but we're old-fashioned -- became a huge star by ingeniously weaving together two powerful strands of pop music: the guitar-based rock of Jimi Hendrix and the rhythm-heavy funk of George Clinton. With a great gift for melody and a protean instrumental talent, Prince released such commercial and artistic triumphs as Purple Rain and Sign o' the Times. In his persona, meanwhile, he presented himself as a sort of pansexual sprite. Tiny, mascara wearing, lubricious, he gave erotically charged performances and bestowed on his records titles like Lovesexy...
Rock has expanded since 1969 -- as these bands indicate, there are now many thriving subgenres -- but like sports heroes, the performers have gotten smaller. There were no young musicians at Woodstock '94 who compared in sheer potency to Pete Townshend or Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin. Still, some turned in rousing sets. Rapper B-Real of Cypress Hill flouted authority, smoking a marijuana joint onstage and then throwing himself into the crowd to surf on the hands of his fans. Guitarist-singer Melissa Etheridge offered a punchy, joyous version of her pop-rock hit Come to My Window...
...Although coverage of the 25th anniversary of Woodstock may make it seem as if everyone in America under 30 was digging Jimi and Janis in the rain, in reality there were but 400,000 revelers at Max Yasgur's farm. So what was the rest of America doing? A sampling of less historic entertainments enjoyed on the weekend...
...noise in book stores. Rhino Records has issued The Spike Jones Anthology, a handsome, 40- song dose of the band's top tunes, including the chirping, barking, cackling Love in Bloom and the magnificent Hawaiian War Chant, which climaxes with a wail of electric-guitar dissonance that predates Jimi Hendrix by 20 years. A quirkier collection -- Spiked!, on Catalyst -- has some prime oddities, notably a suave, six-part ribbing of The Nutcracker Suite (1945), which must count as one of the earliest "concept albums...
Like most young Americans, Nirvana's leader, Kurt Cobain, sensed the attraction of living out the fantastic myths of his punk heroes. He decoded his simple mission in the booklet for the 1992 compilations album Incesticide. "To pay tribute like an Elvis or Jimi Hendrix impersonator in the tradition of a bar band." Yet, both Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix were rock gods who succumbed early to tragic drug overdoses. So wouldn't chance departure form this life be a pathetic cliche...