Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix – Review

Stone Free

A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix (Reprise)
by Carolyn Gaines

HEY! Whas’sup with all the Jimi Hendrix stuff, lately? I mean, Rykodisc has reissued AXIS:Bold As Love, Electric Ladyland, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience to name a few. And now this. A no holds barred tribute to the man (The Man), including such odd choices for such a project as The Cure, Spin Doctors, and contemporary jazz master, Pat Metheny (I think the guys at Reprise just threw him in for YUP appeal). Such a watered-down version of Hendrix’s classics can only remind one of sipping G & T’s on the deck, while listening to it in surround sound on the built in Bose system. GAG!

My entire long life (whoa, 25! I just bought a funereal plot…) Jimi Hendrix has been grungy (please excuse the term, I just mean dirty), dark music that I could sink my teeth into. Not this alterna-yup shit that has recently flooded the market. All I can think of while listening to this compilation is,”The CURE?!? P.M. DAWN!? Pat fucking METHENY?!? AAARRRGGGHHH! Which one of you money-making idiots at Reprise thought this scandal up? I wanna know!”

Maybe I’m being too hard on this, though, I think to myself. After all, it is Jimi Hendrix. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I have some weird affinity for the man, altho’ he was an excellent musician and lyricist. I mean, the man was just two years older than I am now when he died in 1970. We’re STILL listening to him. Talking about him. Doing cheesy covers of his songs. Maybe this is the perfect vehicle to get Jimi’s enigmatic message to those young’uns of today. Maybe if I play it backwards, it really says “Stop listening to Pearl Jam, you dummies…” Maybe, though, Reprise did this tribute album to let those grungy teens know that Mr. Hendrix did more than just “Foxy Lady” (thank you, Dana Carvey. If I see one more stupid imitation of that scene in Wayne’s World, I think I’ll puke on my plaid shirt).

Enough speculation for the time being, I do believe. As the time wears on and the further I get into this compilation album, the more I like it. I just keep telling myself that it’s not The Cure covering “Purple Haze”. Maybe Reprise will come up with a Sex Pistols tribute album featuring the B-52’s and Edie Brickell.

Hey, do you think Sassy will publish this?