Biopic About Jimi Hendrix

[dadagoboi]

Like Kathy Etchingham said, there will be people walking away thinking this movie is the gospel truth.

I have no problem believing it's just as true as any of the "gospels".

[westen44]

I have no problem believing it's just as true as any of the "gospels".

I, however, have no trouble believing the Gospels and, in fact, base my entire life on them.  Plus, my favorite writer Kierkegaard did the same, even to the point of focusing mostly on the Gospels, while tending not to emphasize the rest of the New Testament as much.  As for this movie, I do have trouble believing it, obviously. 

[Psycho Bass Guy]

If you took the crew who did that movie, turn down the ridiculous factor a couple of notches, and aim them at some historical event to do a documentary and god only knows what they could have the public believing

Be extremely happy that the folks producing the evening news are much lazier and less creative. The unintentional fiction they perpetuate is bad enough.

[westen44]

It's debatable how important all this is; I'm still thinking about it.  But it appears John Ridley got interested in doing this movie when he discovered an obscure, unfinished song by Hendrix called "Send My Love to Linda."  For some reason he was incredibly inspired by it.  He set out to find who Linda was.  I've listened to the song and don't find it too exciting.  It's very rough-sounding to me and Billy Cox was still trying to learn the bass to it.  Be that as it may, Ridley was excited about the song and went on his quest to do something about this.  He found Linda Keith (who he thought the song was about,)  talked to her, etc.  I think everyone knows Linda was the person who introduced Jimi Hendrix to Chas Chandler.  So her pivotal role was significant.  But even today Ridley talks about that song and how it was the movie's inspiration. 

As a personal aside, in case anyone is wondering why Hendrix was bothering working on a song like this in the final months of his life, it's my belief that he was running out of ideas for songs.  He had hoped collaborating with Cox would help with that.  Whether or not that was successful is open to interpretation. 

The problem is the song is actually about Kathy Etchingham.  Hendrix changed the title at her request.  It's about a sick friend of Kathy's who, evidently, was vomiting in a waste basket.  I can see how this might be less appealing than thinking the song is about Linda Keith--the person indirectly responsible for making Jimi Hendrix known to the world.  But Kathy does have the handwritten lyrics to the song; so she may have a valid basis for making her assertions about this. 

Here are some sources.   I've included links that include Ridley, Linda Keith, and Kathy Etchingham. 

http://www.kathyetchingham.com/send-my-love-to-linda/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129855398

http://www.kathyetchingham.com/

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/14/jimi-hendrix-linda-keith

http://filmmakermagazine.com/76081-writerdirector-john-ridley-talks-about-his-hendrix-pic-all-is-by-my-side/#.UxwmyT9dWSp


I might mention that at the bottom of the last article there is a reader's comment by Kathy Etchingham in which she maintains that the movie was built on a false premise, Ridley's mistake in confusing the two Lindas.  I don't have a personal stake in this matter.  If anyone has any info that contradicts any of this, I'd be glad to see it.  I'm more interested in the truth than pushing an agenda. 



I'm not much of a detail person; so this is where the minutiae ends for me. 

[nofi]

quite the soap opera, and just as interesting.

[westen44]

quite the soap opera, and just as interesting.

I prefaced the post by saying it was debatable how important it might be.  It isn't interesting to me, either, but that isn't the point. 

[Pilgrim]

Well, there's truth that needs to be told for the story and truth that doesn't need to be told.

One of my college buds went to high school with Hendrix and said that he needed to bathe a lot more often than he did - said the guy was pretty "whiffy".  Not something that contributes to the story of his musical career, therefore doesn't need to be in a movie.

[westen44]

Well, there's truth that needs to be told for the story and truth that doesn't need to be told.

One of my college buds went to high school with Hendrix and said that he needed to bathe a lot more often than he did - said the guy was pretty "whiffy".  Not something that contributes to the story of his musical career, therefore doesn't need to be in a movie.

The drummer in my first band ended up going on tour with Little Richard.  Not in Little Richard's band itself, but in another band that toured with them.  He told stories that I'm pretty sure wouldn't make it to a movie, either.  Nothing to do with hygiene, but stuff I'd honestly prefer not to know.  Of course, even though I know the drummer well, I do have to admit he may have just been making up some of that.  I don't know. 

[Highlander]

... Nothing is ever going to match hearing Purple Haze on my '53 Ford radio @ 3AM Christmas morning after I almost hit a cow on a Miami expressway.

Nope... you can't just post something like that without some TVP meat-on-the-bones...

[slinkp]

Don't forget Argo. 2013 Best Picture for telling the unknown story of events that never happened. Propaganda worthy of Pravda in the 1950s.

Well, some of it happened.  Certainly hollywoodized.  For one example, the relevant Wikipedia article says they made it "easily" through security at Tehran airport. The movie makes it look like a very narrow escape. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Caper
More egregiously, that page says the "caper" was almost entirely a Canadian operation and the CIA had a much lesser role.

[Dave W]

Well, some of it happened.  Certainly hollywoodized.  For one example, the relevant Wikipedia article says they made it "easily" through security at Tehran airport. The movie makes it look like a very narrow escape. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Caper
More egregiously, that page says the "caper" was almost entirely a Canadian operation and the CIA had a much lesser role.

When I said "events that never happened" I didn't mean that diplomats weren't slipped out of Iran. They were. But it wasn't a CIA operation at all, and the Canadians got the diplomats out with very little trouble.  The film is little more than a pack of lies.

[Pilgrim]

When I said "events that never happened" I didn't mean that diplomats weren't slipped out of Iran. They were. But it wasn't a CIA operation at all, and the Canadians got the diplomats out with very little trouble.  The film is little more than a pack of lies.

That would be a synonym for "based on a true story."

[Dave W]

That would be a synonym for "based on a true story."

They didn't even try to make that stretch. It was presented as a true story.

[uwe]

It was. With vicious two-dimensional Iranians, just like they all are there. When I went there on business (in case you worried: all within the applicable sanctions regime) last year, unfortunately none of them stuck around for confirmation, darn. Sneaky bastards tried to deceive me by being polite, well-mannered, professional and genuinely interested in the west. Also had more women in professional employment positions than I have ever seen in any Muslim country, Turkey maybe excepted.


"Everyone agreed that there was no one else out there who was anything like him" - that sums Hendrix up. And it was what Beck, Clapton and Blackmore all agreed on after they had seen him. All three of them Gibson men at the time, they would later on switch to Strats, Blackmore copped the whole drama thing off Hendrix and Clapton even credited his perm fro in Cream days to him. Beck said "he went straight between the eyes" after having seen him at a gig.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

It was. With vicious two-dimensional Iranians, just like they all are there. When I went there on business (in case you worried: all within the applicable sanctions regime) last year, unfortunately none of them stuck around for confirmation, darn. Sneaky bastards tried to deceive me by being polite, well-mannered, professional and genuinely interested in the west. Also had more women in professional employment positions than I have ever seen in any Muslim country, Turkey maybe excepted.

How common is the French language spoken there in the areas where you were? The episodes of Homeland that were set in Iran in western-style business backdrops made it appear that it is their most common foreign tongue.