I learned a LOT about Hendrix and his career, and in retrospect, it was pretty amazing to watch how his sound evolved from 1967 through 1970. His later work became more complex and highlighted not only his guitarmanship, but his voice.
As a Fender guitar fan, I enjoyed watching the documentary and seeing his right hand guitars played as a leftie. Of course, his appearance in 1967 at the Monterey International Pop Festival was his real return to the U.S. and his popularity took off like wildfire ... much like his Fender Strat did at the end of his set.
It's a famous image of Hendrix setting fire to his strat, dousing it with lighter fluid and kneeling over it like a ceremonial sacrifice. The real story is that this was the second time Hendrix set a guitar on fire; he had done so during a performance in England sometime earlier.
According to the individuals in the documentary, Hendrix decided to pull the stunt after The Who's
Hendrix played his beloved black Fender Strat during most of his set, switching late from the black strat to another guitar, which is the one he doused with lighter fluid and set ablaze. While it burned, he grabbed the Strat by the neck and began slamming it against the stage until it broke into pieces, which he subsequently threw to the crowd.
Interesting history sidebar -- The Beach Boys were originally scheduled to headline Monterey, but they canceled after the Smile album crashed and burned. They didn't believe the crowd would appreciate a setlist of surfing and hot rod songs. They were probably right.
Anyway, no one knows exactly what happened to the pieces of Hendrix's Monterey strat, but his earlier burned strat is out there, and was sold at auction a number of years ago.
Enough of the trip down memory lane, I have a bathroom to paint. Sigh.
Rock on!
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