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Mark Cella on Early Years of Jimi Hendrix

How artistically fertile is the Earth that gave birth to innumerate musicians, hundreds of thousands of guitarists and composers and recording artists?

If it can be declared that there is a limit to its resources when it comes to music, it can without-a-doubt be said that it is when Jimi Hendrix emerged on the scene.

Jimi Hendrix, perhaps, the most phenomenal guitarist of all eras was born on November 27, 1942.

Son to a soldier in the US army, he was the eldest of his brothers and sisters who were four in number. Sadly, almost all of his siblings had some health problems.

His father accepted an honorary discharge from the US Army after he participated in the World War 2.

Jimi's father found it difficult to find work in the immediate aftermath of the said war, which caused the whole Hendrix family to face poverty.

Jimi's mother was an alcoholic. Her preference for alcohol resulted in the divorce of Jimi's parents, when he was only nine, before she suffered her demise in February 1958.

This was another emotional blow to the delicate and the quiet kid, which Hendrix was.

He was put under the custody of his paternal grandmother in Vancouver following this.

Luck came to his aid when this emotionally high-strung boy got a place in a school which had a good ethnic combination of a number of races.

His most significant instrument, perhaps the only love of his life, found its way into the lifestyle of the teenager when he was fifteen years old.

He purchased this first guitar for $5 from a friend of his father. This was, more or less, the very time his mother died.

The introvert boy found something to focus on in the shape of this guitar, which he used to practice on for many hours a day.

Not lucky enough to employ a professional guitarist to learn, he taught himself to play this instrument by watching others play it.

The teenager also enjoyed spending a lot of time learning from recordings.

There were a number of things which had a long-term or perhaps a moving influence on the young Hendrix as a child and teenager- something that molded the way he was to be in the years to come.

Johnny Guitar, of 1954, had its hero balancing a guitar on his back in the place of the usual gun; which left a very strong impression on Hendrix.

Another origin of his exposure was the recordings by Muddy Waters and B.B. King which belonged to his father.

Jimi finished his junior high school at Washington Junior high School. He is believed to have faced many difficulties in this school and it was not an easy time for him to achieve his education.

Jimi was unable to graduate from Garfield High School as the young lad was thrown out before he could graduation.

If the early life of this master of art is to be expressed in one line, it can be stated that the famous - and believed to be greatest guitarist, had the most problematic early life filled with numerous complications.

However, it is not entirely baseless to say that Hendrix was a great man who succeeded in having a profound hold over such a popularly used instrument, in such a small period of time in spite of having such great sorrows in his life.

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