(Credits: Far Out / Storm Thorgerson / Sony Music Entertainment / British Lion Films / Bruce McBr…
Sun 21 September 2025 13:00, UK
How much money has been invested in the music industry? It’s insurmountable, as marketing budgets, grand gigs and the general cost of making music rack up to billions. However, within that figure, buried deep in that plethora of zeroes, are small sums which might not look like much, but made all the difference. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at Jimi Hendrix.
$40 is the small sum attributed to him. A fraction of a fraction when weighed up against the music industry as a whole, but a figure that also led to the music industry changing forever. So, what did Hendrix spend it on? That was $40 he borrowed from a friend, purely so he could hop on a plane and fly to England.
I’ve often wondered if people who are a part of significant moments in music history are aware of it at the time. You see videos of bands playing their biggest hits to unassuming crowds and smirk at the unmoved audience who have no idea they’re witnessing an early version of a classic. How many times have people gone to a gig and watched a musical legend perform, without realising they were in the presence of such a legend? Plenty, I would imagine.
I refuse to believe that those people who saw Hendrix perform for the first time in London weren’t aware they were watching a great. He was an artist whose reputation initially relied solely on people talking about how amazing he was. He was a live performer, someone who put animalistic charisma and improvisation at the heart of his gigs, and subsequently managed to win over the hearts of everyone in the crowd (and beyond). When you read the initial reviews of people who saw him live, it seems there was never an adjustment period: Hendrix played, and the people listened.
Take Jeff Beck, for instance. Beck was one of the most respected guitarists in London before Hendrix came along. People were a fan of what he did in The Yardbirds and also loved the work he was putting out as a solo musician. There was no escaping his musical majesty, and yet, when Beck saw Hendrix play live, he knew he was being outclassed.
(Credits: Far Out / Grant Gouldon / Bent Rej)
“It was probably one of the first shows he did [in London],” recalled Beck, “It was a tiny downstairs club in Queensgate. It was a fashion club, mostly girls, 18 to 25, all dolled up, hats and all. Jimi wasn’t know then […] He came on, and I went, ‘Oh, my God’. He had the military outfit on and hair that stuck out all over the place. They kicked off with [Bob Dylan’s] ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, and I thought, ‘Well, I used to be a guitarist’.”
Beck wasn’t alone in his admiration of Hendrix either. The quick-finger Fender shredding man from Seattle completely dominated the musical world, as he showed just how well the guitar could be used, not only as an instrument, but a showpiece, something that could be improvised with, banged on, smashed and set on fire.
The way that he acted on stage, paired with his dominance over pentatonic scales and his ability to move up and down a guitar fret at a speed that suggested it was five times smaller than it actually was, has continued to inspire guitar players for generations. From the late 1960s to now, when people pick up a guitar and start playing, they do so with the hope that one day they can emulate a fraction of what Hendrix did. Simply put, there are a lot of great songs that wouldn’t exist were it not for Jimi Hendrix, and the music industry continues to owe him a debt which no amount of borrowed $40 will settle.
There are some songs that wouldn’t exist because Hendrix had a direct influence on their creation. For instance, Paul McCartney has previously admitted that he wrote the Beatles ‘Taxman’ with the intention of having a guitar solo that was somewhat comparable to Hendrix.
“George let me have a go for the solo because I had an idea,” recalled McCartney, “It was the early Jimi Hendrix days, and I was trying to persuade George to do something like that, feedback-y and crazy.” Similarly, Ritchie Blackmore admitted that he came up with the riff for Deep Purple’s ‘Speed King’ by combining Hendrix’s songs ‘Stone Free’ and ‘Fire’.
Then there are other songs which were lyrically inspired by Hendrix. For instance, Patti Smith was a big fan of his words, so much so that she decided to quote him on her track ‘Elegie’. “The last lines,” she said, “’I think it’s sad, just too bad, that all our friends can’t be with us today’ – are borrowed from ‘1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)’. I didn’t think Jimi would mind!”
While these songs might have been directly inspired by Jimi Hendrix, the truth is, without him, a lot of guitar music since would sound incredibly different. Every solo, riff, and use of a six-string (near enough) has been shaped by Hendrix in some form. As such, it only seems fitting that 55 years following the date of his death, we highlight 55 songs that wouldn’t exist without the great man himself. There’s been a lot of excellent guitar music since Hendrix, and his fingerprint is faintly implanted on the majority of it.
55 songs that wouldn’t exist without Jimi Hendrix ‘Comfortably Numb’ – Pink Floyd ‘Anemone’ – The Brian Jonestown Massacre ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ – Guns N’ Roses ‘Eruption’ – Van Halen ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – Queen ‘Taxman’ – The Beatles ‘Voodoo Child’ – Stevie Ray Vaughan ‘Hotel California’ – Eagles ‘Free Bird’ – Lynyrd Skynyrd ‘Crazy Train’ – Ozzy Osbourne ‘More Than a Feeling’ – Boston ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ – Guns N’ Roses ‘For the Love of God’ – Steve Vai ‘Layla’ – Derek & The Dominos ‘Let There Be Rock’ – AC/DC ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’ – Thin Lizzy ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ – Eagles ‘Speed King’ – Deep Purple ‘Barracuda’ – Heart ‘Elegie’ – Patti Smith ‘Rock and Roll All Nite’ – Kiss‘Moonage Daydream’ – David Bowie ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ – Nirvana ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ – Def Leppard ‘One’ – Metallica ‘When Doves Cry’ – Prince ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey ‘London Calling’ – The Clash ‘Edge of Seventeen’ – Stevie Nicks ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ – Duran Duran ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’ – The Police ‘Runnin’ Down A Dream’ – Tom Petty ‘Tom Sawyer’ – Rush ‘Ace of Spades’ – Motörhead ‘Born to Run’ – Bruce Springsteen ‘Money for Nothing’ – Dire Straits ‘Panama’ – Van Halen ‘Killing in the Name’ – Rage Against the Machine ‘Cherub Rock’ – Smashing Pumpkins ‘Everlong’ – Foo Fighters ‘Black Hole Sun’ – Soundgarden ‘Give It Away’ – Red Hot Chili Peppers‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’ – Lenny Kravitz‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ – Green Day ‘Seven Nation Army’ – The White Stripes ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’ – Jet ‘When You Were Young’ – The Killers‘No One Knows’ – Queens of the Stone Age‘Woman’ – Wolfmother ‘Figure It Out’ – Royal Blood ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ – Arctic Monkeys ‘Howlin’ for You’ – The Black Keys ‘Misery Business’ – Paramore ‘Flea’ – St Vincent ‘Midas’ – Wunderhorse
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