(I just bought the DVD for $9.79 at Amazon, with bonus footage, etc.)

Premieres nationally Tuesday, November 5 at 9 p.m. on PBS
(check local listings)

Hear My Train A Comin’ unveils previously unseen performance footage and home movies taken by Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell while sourcing an extensive archive of photographs, drawings, family letters and more to provide new insight into the musician’s personality and genius.

A pioneering electric guitarist, Hendrix had only four years of mainstream exposure and recognition, but his influential music and riveting stage presence left an enduring legacy. Hear My Train A Comin’ traces the guitarist’s remarkable journey from his hardscrabble beginnings in Seattle, through his stint as a US Army paratrooper, unknown sideman to R&B stars such as Little Richard, Joey Dee and the Isley Brothers and his discovery and ultimate international stardom.

Presented as part of a year-long celebration around his 70th birthday year–the guitarist was born November 27, 1942–the two-hour Hear My Train A Comin’ tells the definitive story, illustrated by interviews with Hendrix and illuminated with commentary from family, well-known friends and musicians including Paul McCartney, Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell, Billy Cox, Eddie Kramer, Steve Winwood, Vernon Reid, Billy Gibbons, Dweezil Zappa and Dave Mason as well as revealing glimpses into Jimi and his era from the three women closest to him Linda Keith (the girlfriend who introduced Jimi to future manager Chas Chandler), Faye Pridgon (who befriended Hendrix in Harlem in the early 1960s) and Colette Mimram, (one of the era’s most influential fashion trendsetters who provided inspiration for Hendrix’s signature look and created such memorable stage costumes as the beaded jacket Hendrix famously wore at Woodstock). The film details the meteoric rise of the Experience, the creation of his groundbreaking music, the building of Electric Lady Studios, his state-of-the-art recording facility in Greenwich Village and concludes with poignant footage from his final performance in Germany in September 1970, just 12 days before his death at age 27.

Filmmaker is Bob Smeaton (Festival Express; The Beatles Anthology; Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child; Hendrix 70: Live at Woodstock)

sounds good

wow, thanks. will check time zone.

It's the anniversary of Hendrix's death today, so raise a glass to him and put on your favorite Jimi CD.

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latebloomer
It's the anniversary of Hendrix's death today, so raise a glass to him and put on your favorite Jimi CD.

i remember that day, when I heard on TV he'd died..really love his music and was a big fan then and now

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duke richardson
i remember that day, when I heard on TV he'd died..really love his music and was a big fan then and now

I was born in 1970 but I have seen the youtube clips of the news reports from that day. It was strange for me to see these grainy black & white clips with the mutton-chopped announcers in early 1970's suits reporting Hendrix's death. Hendrix's music sounds so contemporary -- and at times futuristic -- that I forget it's from decades ago.

I was a fifteen-year-old standing in the kitchen doing dishes when my Mom called me into the front room to see the news report. I don't know why the clips are only in black and white, everything was in color in 1970. News traveled much slower then, and the newspaper didn't give much time to the story. It was a good five days before his death was attributed to drugs. They said heroin at the time but that turned out to be false. It was a terrible day in my lifetime, only topped by 9/11 and 12/8/80.

Worst music tragedy of all time.

I am always of two minds as to whether I should post about Hendrix. Some of you know he was a great friend of mine but there's so much crap out there about his death that it actually made me feel good to read some of the above posts..They would mean a lot to him.

His success made monsters out of his family and his management.

His death created many tears in the musical community...Mick, Clapton etc. But the person I have always felt saddest about was Mitch Mitchell. He was a trueblue friend to Jimi, and I continue to feel grateful for the long talk we had not long before Mitch died. Therapeutic if sad for both of us. I asked him how he felt about the 2005 British Rock Music Hall of Fame awards we had both attended. The phoney sister accepted his award andwas all over the place that night and Mitch said, "I loathe her."

Slash played lead guitar in the musical part of the program and I said: "How did it feel to play with Slash?"

Mitch said: "Every time since he died that I play our songs I sit at the drumkit and think the same thing: "Who is that imposter showing off in front of me? It just seems surreal. No one can replace Jimi. He played with his heart."

Jimi and Eric

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stonesrule
I am always of two minds as to whether I should post about Hendrix. Some of you know he was a great friend of mine but there's so much crap out there about his death that it actually made me feel good to read some of the above posts..They would mean a lot to him.

His success made monsters out of his family and his management.

His death created many tears in the musical community...Mick, Clapton etc. But the person I have always felt saddest about was Mitch Mitchell. He was a trueblue friend to Jimi, and I continue to feel grateful for the long talk we had not long before Mitch died. Therapeutic if sad for both of us. I asked him how he felt about the 2005 British Rock Music Hall of Fame awards we had both attended. The phoney sister accepted his award andwas all over the place that night and Mitch said, "I loathe her."

Slash played lead guitar in the musical part of the program and I said: "How did it feel to play with Slash?"

Mitch said: "Every time since he died that I play our songs I sit at the drumkit and think the same thing: "Who is that imposter showing off in front of me? It just seems surreal. No one can replace Jimi. He played with his heart."

Thanks for sharing that personal experience stonesrule.

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sanQ
Worst music tragedy of all time.

Really?

I'm looking forward to the Miami Pop Festival release in November.

Worst music tragedy might be Milley on the VMAs.

Duke, thanks for that photo.

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stonesrule
Worst music tragedy might be Milley on the VMAs.

Duke, thanks for that photo.

glad you liked the photo stonesrule..

thanks for your insights..

I've been remembering the enjoyment I got from Jimi's records when I was a kid..also going to see 'A Film About Jimi Hendrix'...seeing that film, that sequence of 'hear my train a comin' on 12-string..

just a phenomenal body of work..wish I'd gotten to see him but never did..

Duke, I am so glad you reminded me of the 12 string...In the Too Much Information department, I first saw that in London not long after Jimi's death. It was shown to me by the very nice guy (whose name I don't quite remember at the moment but it's all in one of my journals) and I loved it. Really captured the real JH.

I called some friends at Warner Bros. in LA and told them they really needed to make short classy documentary that detailed "the real JH". They turned it over to Joe Boyd who had just started working for WB in LA and began courting me for ideas and cassettes of Jimi talking and "contacts." It all got quite out of hand from my point of view. Boyd turned into just another guy who wanted to grab some success off Jimi. "Wow I'm in Hollywood making a...film"

WB and Reprise Records (who had expected that Hendrix would be forgotten six months after his death) suddenly smelled $$$, I said I didn't want anything to do with it. They convinced me to come over and watch some rough footage while the director made jokes about Jimi. I just walked away from the whole thing aafter a couple of the musicians who appeared told me they had similar feelings.

But I still think the "Train" 12 string sequence says it all.

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stonesrule

But I still think the "Train" 12 string sequence says it all.

"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

I just wanted to come out of lurk mode and say to stonesrule that your posts here in this thread are very moving. I've been a fan of Jimi's since 1974. There's an old blog of mine online that I used to work on that has not been in use for quite some time. But if you'd care to read about what it was like when I discoverd Jimi's music and the impact it made on me, please go over to my old OddStonesSods site over at http:rs7273.wordpress.com and look for the post I wrote titled Jimi Hendrix & Shortwave Radio-My Mind Expands-Summer of '74. Barely a day goes by when I don't think of him. Any mention of "Red House" during the course of my daily life will instantly transport me back to that Summer.
And yes, it shocked me back when Mitch died up in Portland. I live down in Eugene (which is only 110 miles south of Portland). I just have a hard time getting over where we are living in a world where only Billy Cox is left from the true core people who played with Jimi. I wish Billy would sit down and write a book about his times with him. I think he'd provide some great insights that regular interviews and book quotes may not.
Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts. You are exposing yourself in a way and there's always a risk involved. I very much appreciate what you've done in sharing your thoughts.

It will be interesting to see how thorough they are about Jimi's early days. He had a few years there as an itinerant musician and traveled around quite a lot, with various outfits. I'm from Indianapolis and I read a timeline that said he was there in 1962, and I can't imagine why. The only other time he was in Indy was to play in May of 1969, a few days after his bust in Toronto. I don't know what the Indy crowd did, but he is no mood to be messed with. At the end he flashed a peace sign and then gave the people there the finger before storming off stage.

I really think he thought he was from Mars. An abandoned child with all this stuff running around in his brain, surrounded by people who never really comforted him. I can dig it.

72 Stones "Lurk mode" -- love it!

Found your WordPress site, skimmed through dates and columns but haven't yet come up with your Hendrix piece. What year did you put that online? Would enjoy reading it. I hear from people six years old and up and their memories of first knowing about Jimi are often fascinating.

Re Billy, when I first met him after he replaced Noel, he seemed almost like a country boy, shy and out of his depth. Through the years he's changed a lot.
Unfortunately he's very much under Janie's thumb and goes along with the dialogue she prefers. She bought him a house and then a major Harley-Davidson motorcyle with designer leather wardrobe.

He was rather embarassed,he was wearing his new look when I saw him in Nashville several years ago. I was very nice to him but I was surprised because I'd always figured him as a loyal Jimi-person. Mitch and I talked about this the last time I saw him. Mitch hated having anything to do with Janie but he had a family to support and he refused to go along with stuff she and her press agent wanted him to sign. But he needed no gifts from Janie.

Some of the above to me is like a bad dream...it can't be happening.

I'm so glad you posted your comments 72Stones. And I can imagine how you felt, for good and for sad, when Jimi's impact hit you. As I mention in my book about him Mo Ostin head of Reprise Records told me several weeks after Jimi's death -- "Well it's all over...Another year of sales...maybe." I had no reason to doubt him.

What he didn't count on was that people refused to stop listening to Hendrix.

Hi Again stonesrule,
I'm honored that you answered my post. My Hendrix post that I wrote can be found at [rs7273.wordpress.com] and it's at the top of the page. I'm not terribly proficient in my computer use. I hope it doesn't come off as too spacy, but I was a kid in between 6th and 7th Grade that Summer and I was open to taking in so much music back then. I was a sponge as far as that goes.
Though I'm not saying this about anybody here, there are a lot of music fans out there who don't realize the fine line a lot of these people who've had associations with famous people have to walk. I've heard this repeatedly over the years from various people as well as reading about it. I feel sorry that Billy has to toe the line with Janie. I guess he has to put food on his table too. If the situation with Janie's control over the estate ever changes, perhaps that will be the opportunity for Billy to tackle doing a book about his service with Jimi?
The other paradox is that I am grateful that we've had so many great releases during the Janie Era even though Jimi probably would have never wanted a ton of this material out. (Chuckles to himself-) Please don't get me started on the Alan Douglas Era. If he had lived, I would have hoped that he would have been o.k. with it since he, himself, was such a prolific taper. We can be eternally grateful that he was hardwired in this way. I wish the elusive (does it even exist?) tape of him playing at a small place on the evening of Martin Luther King's assassination will pop up someday. I guess the story goes is that Jimi played this long and beautiful instrumental where he left nary a person with a dry eye in the house after he got done playing this piece.
I hope that you will enjoy the upcoming Miami Pop release as well. There's a lot of people who are gearing up for the eventual Royal Albert Hall '69 release. There are also quite a lot of people who are dreaming of a 5.1 Electric Ladyland release as well.
I also wish to invite you to join the Hoffman Forum over at [forums.stevehoffman.tv] . I post as shepherdfan over there. They would greatly appreciate you over there as well as over here at this great gathering place of Stones fans. I've been writing over at Matt Rowe's Musictap.com website. My column is Talia's Overflow Notes. I cover ground for people who don't have the time to peruse all of the threads over at the Hoffman Forum and IMWAN. Also, sometimes both places miss out on some releases that slip by them.
Since this is a Stones forum, I'd be curious to know if you've ever spoken to Mick Taylor about his association with Jimi? Apparently, Mick got to know him fairly well back in the day.
About 10 years ago, and I can't recall how I came to know him for a brief spell online, but I spent a few correspondences with a guy who used to drive Jimi around London back whenever he was there. He told me about how much he enjoyed driving him around and how he worried about him. I guess it's like the old things Keith Richards used to say about Jimi. Jimi was such an accomodating person to so many that he didn't realize that so many bad people were feeding off of him and sucking the life out of him.
Anyway, I'm rambling on too much and I don't want to bore people here. Please keep talking music stuff here. I'd love to know if you have had any associations with the Stones from the Jones and Taylor Era and stories that you might be able to tell.

I despised those releases after Jimi's death, like Crash Landing. Even Cry of Freedom is full of partially complete songs. In fact I think most of the releases in recent years are crap too. If Jimi didn't get a chance to finish it himself, it should have never come out.

I've always been proud of Hendrix being part of rock and roll. He's our ultimate musician, rock and roll's Charlie Parker or Bix Beiderbecke. Of the Stones he seemed closest to Brian. I don't remember reading Jimi commenting on Brian's death.

As for the American Masters documentary, I find it very interesting. Here we are some 43 years down the road from Jimi's death and his reputation continues to grow. Having an American Masters documentary denotes a mainstream acceptance. That probably has to do with the aging audience that grew up with Hendrix. Still, you can walk around the streets of Los Angeles and see teenagers wearing Hendrix t-shirts.

I've never read anyone do a piece on how American rock and roll was decapitated over a 13-month period. It's greatest stars in Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison were gone within 10 months of each other, followed by American rock and roll's future in Duane Allman in October of 1971. Luckily not one major English rock and roll star died in that period, though they were obviously involved in the same risky activities that took the others.

What happened earlier is what was so disturbing about Kurt Cobain. After all the tragic accidental deaths of previous American rock and rollers, he did himself in.

Thanks for the tip. I never realized that he had such a sad life until a month or so ago I watched the documentary on Movies on Demand...Hendrix on Hendrix...as told by Jimi's brother, Leon. I've heard bad things about Jimi's family, etc., but his brother seemed to be very sincere, and I know they were very close growing up. Of course, his death could have been avoided if he had the right people in his life and kept away from the substances...but he was another casuality of that era.

Anyone who is truly interested in Hendrix can go to the library and request "Jimi Hendrix, The Man, The Magic, The Truth" which is my account of the Jimi I knew, with many rare interviews with others who knew him.

Much of the book is in his own words through 1970.it is inhis own words. It covers his life, his death and what happened afterward through 2004.

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stonesrule
Anyone who is truly interested in Hendrix can go to the library and request "Jimi Hendrix, The Man, The Magic, The Truth"

It's very funny, during all those years I never realized who stonesrule is !!!!! And I just woke up today !

YM

There will be a world premiere screening of the documentary "Hear My Train A Comin'" (invitation only) next October 21st in Paris.

YM

Just saw promo clip, Linda Keith is in it and she is looking might fine in old age.

Tired of documentaries like this though, I don't need to hear Eddie Kramer get paid to muse on the genius of Hendrix for 1 millionth time.

Hendrix's story could be easily and better told via His interviews and the footage they have.

This sounds like something I've seen before...

However, I won't know for sure till I've seen it

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His Majesty
Just saw promo clip, Linda Keith is in it and she is looking might fine in old age.

Linda is lovely ! Last time we saw her was in "A Film About Jimi Hendrix" (1973) and BBC2 TV program "The Man They Made God" (1999)...

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His Majesty
I don't need to hear Eddie Kramer get paid to muse on the genius of Hendrix for 1 millionth time.

You'll see Eddie again for sure, on his unavoidable sound engineering !!! But you'll see also two Jimi ex-girlfriends Faye Pridgon and Colette Mimram (name changed, like Linda).

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DandelionPowderman
This sounds like something I've seen before...

However, I won't know for sure till I've seen it

Oh but wait until you see the new live footage (specially Miami) ! Awesome ! Your money will be well spent believe me !

YM



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-10-15 17:58 by Yazid Manou.

I'll reserve judgment until I've seen it. There will probably be some overlap with 'A Film About Jimi Hendrix' from 1973(?) (Is it really that long ago?) But maybe the new one will delve into his childhood a little deeper, and maybe footage unknown at the time has surfaced.

One good thing, time has proven Jimi is an enduring star who is appreciated more by each new generation.