Hear My Train A Comin’

Nominated for the 2021 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research

Hear My Train A Comin’ investigates the immense creativity of Jimi Hendrix, and his intriguing relationship with the art of song, a platform he used for a multitude of ideas and improvisation.

Although his activity as a recording artist spanned a period of just three years (1967–70) Jimi Hendrix created a body of work that has exerted a significant influence on artists in the twentieth century and beyond. A headline-grabbing, explosive performer, he is widely recognized as an innovative guitarist who broadened the vocabulary of his instrument through his technique and daring use of technology. For several generations of critics and audiences, he remains the archetypal rock star who framed his immeasurable talent with lifestyle excesses inherent to his profession.

Hear My Train A Comin’appraises Hendrix’s legacy in different terms. His ability as a soloist is undeniable, but it is not necessarily the defining aspect of his genius. This book focuses on Hendrix the songwriter, a superlative storyteller who was able to combine melody, lyric and arrangement to create pieces that take pride of place in the pantheon of post-war popular music. Anthems such as ‘Crosstown Traffic’, ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return)’, ‘Purple Haze’ and ‘Foxy Lady’ alchemize word and sound, and still affect us today, a half-century after they were written. Hendrix crafted compositions in the most complete sense of the term, making judicious decisions with regard to mood, texture, contrast and overall orchestral richness, looking at his basic resource, the guitar-bass-drums set up, as a unit to be enhanced by a range of other instruments and studio production.

Deeply rooted in black music — above all the blues, yet drawn to anything and everything that caught his ear — Jimi Hendrix was a unique talent and his songs, produced in a flurry of activity, his glorious legacy. Hear My Train A Comin’ puts these audacious statements under the microscope to pinpoint the verve and attention to detail with which they were were made and why they have stood the test of time.