Ask any guitarist without an agenda, and they’ll agree. In his tragically shortened career, he produced Mozart-like talent on the six-string that defied imitation, so if he likes your band and respects you as a musician, that is kind of a big deal. It’s like Mr Heinz complimenting your ketchup.
Part of Hendrix’s brilliance was his stunning singularity. This entirely individualistic style, playing off feel, meant that his influences and inspirations were more obfuscated than most. We know that he greatly admired The Beatles, dug Muddy Waters, and said that Bob Dylan’s writing was so good that it was beyond inspiration. But who did he truly love and try to channel?
Well, during a Q&A event as part of Patricia Fripp’s Compelling Stories: The Inside Secrets documentary album, King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp was asked whether it was true that Jimi Hendrix shook his left hand. “Yes, he did,” replied Fripp, trying his best to downplay it before spinning his story of the time when the paths of the two great guitar wizards crossed. As it happens, it is one of the most auspicious stories in all of rock history.
“The single time I met Jimi Hendrix was at The Revolution Club in Mayfair (London) when [King] Crimson were playing in 1969, and it was the first time I sat down [not ever, he’s just referring to the fact he plays on a stool],” Fripp revealed.
“I have always been a seated guitarist,” continued the squatted guitarist who even convinced David Bowie to allow him to drag a rather un-groovy pew onto the playground of the stage, “But to be in a rock group, you couldn’t sit down.” That didn’t seem to bother Jimi, who had grown increasingly uncomfortable with his own imprisoning theatrics.
Nevertheless, Fripp’s decision to defy rock and roll styling standards was met acrimoniously by the band’s frontman, Greg Lake, who apparently yelled, “You can’t sit down; you look like a mushroom!” To which Fripp replied: “[It is my considered opinion] that the mushroom is considered a fertility symbol in many cultures.”
At this point in their career, King Crimson were only a matter of months into their infancy. Fripp had only just turned 23, in fact. Nonetheless, their virtuoso talent and innovative new sound had managed to stir up an excited following within the music industry. The night when Fripp became the eponymous seated musician was June 2nd, a few months before their seminal prog debut record would be released in October.
In the crowd that night, the greatest guitarist of all time was clad all in white, temporarily out of action, with his arm in a sling. After the gig, Hendrix approached Fripp, who described him as looking like one of the most “luminous men” he had ever met. Considering that he collaborated with David Bowie pretty prolifically, Jimi must’ve been a bloody luminous man indeed. Hendrix said to a humble Fripp: “Hey, shake my left hand, man, it’s closer to my heart.”
For a while, that was the gilded punchline to Fripp’s anecdote and, for all intents and purposes, the greatest accolade that any guitarist could wish to receive. Hendrix’s style wasn’t just original. His playing was so revolutionary and skilled to the utmost degree that when he recognised talent in others, it was like Lewis Hamilton complimenting you on your parallel parking. However, the story does not stop there. His praise got even more profound.