1.
1960s in Western fashion
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The 1960s featured a number of diverse trends. It was a decade that broke many fashion traditions, mirroring social movements during the time, in the middle of the decade, culottes, go-go boots, box-shaped PVC dresses and other PVC clothes were popular. The widely popular bikini came into fashion in 1963 after being featured in the musical Beach Party, Mary Quant popularised the mini skirt, and Jackie Kennedy introduced the pillbox hat, both becoming extremely popular. False eyelashes were worn by women throughout the 1960s, and their hairstyles were a variety of lengths, people were dressing in psychedelic prints, highlighter colors, and mismatched patterns. The hippie movement late in the decade also exerted an influence on ladies clothing styles, including bell-bottom jeans, tie-dye. Designers were producing clothing more suitable for adults, which led to an increase in interest. Until the 1960s, high-profile designers from Paris and London dictated styles worn by people, however, during and after the 1960s young, common people dictated fashion, and designers would attempt to keep up with the trends that they created. Fashions in the years of the decade reflected the elegance of the First Lady. In addition to the cow, women wore Stiletto heel shoes and suits with short boxy jackets, simple, geometric dresses, known as shifts, were also in style. For evening wear, full-skirted evening gowns were worn, these often had a low décolletage and had close-fitting waists, for casual wear, capri trousers were the fashion for women and girls. The 1960s were an age for fashion innovation for women, the early 1960s gave birth to the drainpipe jeans and capri pants, worn by Audrey Hepburn. Casual dress became more unisex, and often consisted of plaid button down shirts worn with blue jeans, comfortable slacks. Traditionally, trousers had been viewed by society as masculine. These included Levi Strauss jeans, which had previously been considered blue collar wear, the women’s trousers came in a variety of styles, narrow, wide, below the knee, above the ankle, and eventually mid thigh. These mid-thigh cut trousers evolved around 1969, and became the modern shorts, by adapting men’s style and wearing trousers, women voiced their equality to men. Space age happened during the space race era and it is the age of space exploration. Designers, however, seemed to not promote the negative side and it may due to the hope of a better future. In the 1960s, synthetic fabrics were used for making garments, due to the fabric shortage during the Second World War, a lot of synthetic fabrics were invented and introduced in the 1960s
2.
The Beatles
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The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960, with Stuart Sutcliffe initially serving as bass player. The core of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before asking Starr to join them. They acquired the nickname the Fab Four as Beatlemania grew in Britain the next year, from 1965 onwards, the Beatles produced increasingly innovative recordings, including the albums Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles and Abbey Road, after their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed successful musical careers of varying lengths. McCartney and Starr, the members, remain musically active. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in November 2001. The Beatles are the band in history, with estimated sales of over 600 million records worldwide. They have had more number-one albums on the British charts and sold more singles in the UK than any other act, according to the RIAA, the Beatles are also the best-selling music artists in the United States, with 178 million certified units. In 2008, the group topped Billboard magazines list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists, as of 2016 and they have received ten Grammy Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and they were also collectively included in Time magazines compilation of the twentieth centurys 100 most influential people. In March 1957, John Lennon, then aged sixteen, formed a group with several friends from Quarry Bank school. They briefly called themselves the Blackjacks, before changing their name to the Quarrymen after discovering that a local group was already using the other name. Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after he, in February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison to watch the band. The fourteen-year-old auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, after a month of Harrisons persistence, they enlisted him as their lead guitarist. By January 1959, Lennons Quarry Bank friends had left the group, the three guitarists, billing themselves at least three times as Johnny and the Moondogs, were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. They used the name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer. By early July, they had changed their name to the Silver Beatles, allan Williams, the Beatles unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg, but lacking a full-time drummer they auditioned and hired Pete Best in mid-August 1960
3.
Chelsea boot
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Chelsea boots are close-fitting, ankle-high boots with an elastic side panel. They often have a loop or tab of fabric on the back of the boot, the boot dates back to the Victorian era, when it was worn by both men and women. Chelsea boots and some of its variants were considered an element of the 1960s in Britain. The design is credited to Queen Victorias shoemaker Joseph Sparkes-Hall, in his advertising of the period, he refers to the boot as J. Sparkes-Halls Patent Elastic Ankle Boots. The boot became popular for riding as well as walking. Charles Goodyears development of vulcanised rubber enabled the invention of the elastic gusset boot, the advantage of elasticised boots meant they could be easily removed and put on again. By the late 1840s, the fashion began to catch on and this became a prominent style in the West until the onset of World War I. Beatle boots, as were Chelsea boots, were adopted by mods. Some modern versions of the boot have a side zip rather than an elastic panel, side-gusset shoes Beatle boots Riding boot www. blackchelseaboots. co. uk Gentlemans Gazette article showing original Sparkes-Hall advert for boot
4.
High-heeled footwear
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High-heeled footwear is footwear that raises the heel of the wearers foot significantly higher than the toes. When both the heel and the toes are raised equal amounts, as in a shoe, it is technically not considered to be a high heel, however. High heels tend to give the illusion of longer, more slender legs. High heels come in a variety of styles, and the heels are found in many different shapes, including stiletto, pump, block, tapered, blade. The apparel industry would appear to take a view, the term high heels covers heels ranging from 2 to 5 inches or more. Extremely high-heeled shoes, such as those exceeding 6 inches, strictly speaking, are no longer considered apparel and they are worn for display or the enjoyment of the wearer. High heels are not a modern invention but there is confusion regarding when it was developed, research shows that high heels can be traced back to ancient Egypt. In the middle of the second millennium BC, Egyptians began to frequently uses sandals, retention was obtained generally by the Egyptians by a T or V thong passing through the sole. Egyptian butchers also wore heeled shoes for practical purposes, that is, things started to change when during the European renaissance, the high heel became a status symbol worn by both male and females from the higher social statuses. Catherine de Medici a Franco/Italian noblewomen pioneered the use of heels as a fashion statement, Catherine de Medici is believed to have worn them to impress the French court when she wed the Duke of Orleans, the future king. Two hundred years later King Louis XIV of France decreed that only nobility could wear heels, seventeenth-century portraits of King Louis XIV depict the various intricate heels worn by the king and they were often decorated with miniature battle scenes. During the 16th century, European royalty, such as Catherine de Medici and Mary I of England, by 1580, men wore them, and a person with authority or wealth was often referred to as well-heeled. Since the French Revolution the trend wearing high heels was ended to avoid any associating with the old aristocracy, since people wished to avoid the appearance of wealth, heels were largely eliminated from the common market for both men and women and replace by casual fashion and shoe wear. From the beginning of the Baroque the heel came back to shoes and it is sometimes suggested that raised heels were a response to the problem of the riders foot slipping forward in stirrups while riding. The riders heel, approximately 1 1⁄2 inches high, appeared in Europe around 1600 and these features are evident today in riding boots, notably cowboy boots. Since the Second World War, high heels have fallen in and out of fashion several times, most notably in the late 1990s. Lower heels were preferred during the late 1960s and early 1970s as well, the shape of the fashionable heel has changed from block to tapered, and stiletto. Today, high heels are typically worn with heights varying from a heel of 1.5 inches to a stiletto heel of 5 inches or more
5.
John Lennon
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John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE was an English singer and songwriter who co-founded the Beatles, the most commercially successful and musically influential band in the history of popular music. He and fellow member Paul McCartney formed a songwriting partnership. Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the craze as a teenager, his first band, the Quarrymen, first became the Silver Beatles. After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he added Ono as one of his middle names, Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to raise his infant son Sean, but re-emerged with Ono in 1980 with the new album Double Fantasy. He was murdered three weeks after its release, Lennon revealed a rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music, writing, drawings, on film and in interviews. By 2012, Lennons solo album sales in the United States exceeded 14 million and, as writer, co-writer, or performer, he is responsible for 25 number-one singles on the US Hot 100 chart. In 2002, a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted him eighth and, in 2008, Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer of all time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, in 1988 as a member of the Beatles and in 1994 as a solo artist. Lennon was born in war-time England, on 9 October 1940 at Liverpool Maternity Hospital, to Julia and Alfred Lennon, a merchant seaman of Irish descent and his parents named him John Winston Lennon after his paternal grandfather, John Jack Lennon, and then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill. When he eventually came home six months later, he offered to look after the family, after her sister, Mimi Smith, twice complained to Liverpools Social Services, Julia handed the care of Lennon over to her. In July 1946 Lennons father visited Smith and took his son to Blackpool, Julia followed them—with her partner at the time, Bobby Dykins—and after a heated argument his father forced the five-year-old to choose between them. Lennon twice chose his father, but as his mother walked away, he began to cry and followed her, according to author Mark Lewisohn, Lennons parents agreed that Julia should take him and give him a home as Alf left again. A witness who was there that day, Billy Hall, has said the scene often portrayed with a young John Lennon having to make a decision between his parents never happened. It would be 20 years before he had contact with his father again, Throughout the rest of his childhood and adolescence he lived at Mendips,251 Menlove Avenue, Woolton with his aunt and uncle, Mimi and George Smith, who had no children of their own. His aunt purchased volumes of stories for him, and his uncle. In September 1980, Lennon commented about his family and his rebellious nature, Part of me would like to be accepted by all facets of society, but I cannot be what I am not. I was the one who all the other boys parents—including Pauls father—would say, the parents instinctively recognised I was a troublemaker, meaning I did not conform and I would influence their children, which I did. I did my best to disrupt every friends home, partly out of envy that I didnt have this so-called home
6.
The Beatles in Hamburg
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The Beatles booking agent, Allan Williams, decided to send the group to Hamburg when another group he managed, Derry and the Seniors, proved successful there. Having no permanent drummer at the time, they recruited Best a few days before their departure, after breaking their contract by playing at another club, Harrison was deported for being under-age, and McCartney and Best were arrested and deported for attempted arson. The Beatles first met Astrid Kirchherr in Hamburg, who was instrumental in their adoption of the famous Beatle haircut, during their time in Hamburg, Sutcliffe decided to leave the group to continue his studies. In April 1962, less than a year after leaving the group, Hamburg had once been Germanys main seaport, the fourth largest in the world, but in 1943 virtually the entire city had been reduced to rubble by World War II bombing raids. By 1960, when they arrived, the Hamburg that had grown up from the ruins of WWII had established its reputation throughout Europe as a city of vice, in contrast to an economically depressed post-war Liverpool, Hamburg was a wealthy city. Williams, a 29-year-old Liverpool businessman and promoter, had sent his leading group, Derry and the Seniors to Hamburg, where they were enjoying success, and wanted to send an additional group. He initially tried to send Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, but Storm and his group were committed to a Butlins holiday camp and turned Williams offer down, as did Gerry and the Pacemakers. Williams started promoting concerts for The Beatles in May 1960, after they had played at his Jacaranda club in Liverpool, Harrison had seen Best playing with the Black Jacks in The Casbah Coffee Club. After the Black Jacks broke up, McCartney asked Best to go to Hamburg, the St. McCartneys father, Jim McCartney, was reluctant to let his teenage son go to Hamburg, but relented after a visit from Williams, who told him that he shouldnt worry. Lennons aunt, Mimi Smith, was reluctant to allow Lennon to go to Hamburg, wanting Lennon to continue his studies. Best had an audition in Williams Jacaranda club on 15 August 1960, Williams later admitted that the audition with Best was not needed, as they had not found any other drummer willing to travel to Hamburg, but did not tell Best in case he asked for more money. The group were to be paid about £100 per week, which was more than promoters in Liverpool paid. Williams drove the group and their equipment in his Austin J4 minibus which was loaded by crane onto a ferry at Harwich on 16 August 1960, as Williams had not obtained work permits for West Germany, they were detained at Harwich for five hours. Williams finally convinced the authorities that they were students on holiday, note, Lord Woodbine and Williams ran a Strip Club called New Cabaret Artistes club at 174a Upper Parliament Street, Liverpool. Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Sutcliffe once played backing music for Janice the Stripper there, the Reeperbahn and the Grosse Freiheit were decorated with neon lights, with posters advertising the performers in the clubs. Each club had a doorman whose job was to entice customers inside, customers who would not, or could not afford to pay were dealt with severely by being beaten and then thrown out. The Beatles arrived very early in the morning of 17 August 1960, unfortunately the Indra Club was closed, so a manager from a neighbouring club found someone to open it up, and the group slept on the red leather seats in the alcoves. The group played at the club on the night, but were told they could sleep in a small cinemas storeroom, which was cold and in very poor condition
7.
Michael Jackson
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Michael Joseph Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, actor, and philanthropist. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music, dance, the eighth child of the Jackson family, Michael made his professional debut in 1964 with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5. He began his career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music, the popularity of these videos helped bring the television channel MTV to fame. Jacksons 1987 album Bad spawned the U. S and he continued to innovate with videos such as Black or White and Scream throughout the 1990s, and forged a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and his distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous artists of various music genres. Thriller is the album of all time, with estimated sales of 65 million copies worldwide. Jacksons other albums, including Off the Wall, Bad, Dangerous and he is recognized as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time by Guinness World Records. Jackson won hundreds of awards, making him the most awarded recording artist in the history of popular music. He became the first artist in history to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades when Love Never Felt So Good reached number nine on May 21,2014. Jackson traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism, and, in 2000, aspects of Jacksons personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. In 1993, he was accused of sexual abuse, but the civil case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of child sexual abuse allegations. While preparing for his concert series, This Is It, Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25,2009. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician, Jacksons death triggered a global outpouring of grief, and a live broadcast of his public memorial service was viewed around the world. Forbes ranks Jackson as the dead celebrity with earnings of $825 million in 2016. Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29,1958 and his mother, Katherine Esther Scruse, was a devout Jehovahs Witness. She played clarinet and piano and once aspired to be a country-and-western performer, michaels father, Joseph Walter Joe Jackson, a former boxer, was a steelworker at U. S. Steel
8.
The Monkees
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The Monkees are an American rock band originally active between 1965 and 1971, with subsequent reunion albums and tours in the decades that followed. They were formed in Los Angeles in 1965 by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork and British actor and singer Davy Jones. The bands music was supervised by producer Don Kirshner. Dolenz described the Monkees as initially being a TV show about an imaginary band and that wanted to be The Beatles, that was never successful. The actor-musicians, however, soon became a real band, for the first few months of their initial five-year career as The Monkees, the four actor-musicians were allowed only limited roles in the recording studio. This was due in part to the amount of required to film the television series. Nonetheless, Nesmith did compose and produce some songs from the beginning and they eventually fought for and earned the right to collectively supervise all musical output under the bands name. The sitcom was canceled in 1968, but the continued to record music through 1971. A revival of interest in the show came in 1986. Up until 2011 the group had reunited and toured several times, despite the sudden death of Davy Jones on February 29,2012, the surviving members reunited for a tour in November–December 2012 and again in 2013 for a 24-date tour. Nesmith was able to some time up to join them in the latter stages of the US tour. The Monkees have sold more than 75 million records worldwide and had hits, including Last Train to Clarksville, Pleasant Valley Sunday, Daydream Believer. At their peak in 1967, the band outsold the Beatles, aspiring filmmaker Bob Rafelson developed the initial idea for The Monkees in 1962, but was unsuccessful in selling the series. He had tried selling it to Revue, the division of Universal Pictures. In May 1964, while working at Screen Gems, Rafelson teamed up with Bert Schneider, whose father, Abraham Schneider, headed the Colpix Television, Rafelson and Schneider ultimately formed Raybert Productions. The Beatles film A Hard Days Night inspired Rafelson and Schneider to revive Rafelsons idea for The Monkees, as The Raybert Producers, they sold the show to Screen Gems Television on April 16,1965. Rafelson and Schneiders original idea was to cast an existing New York folk rock group, the Lovin Spoonful, however, John Sebastian had already signed the band to a record contract, which would have denied Screen Gems the right to market music from the show. Jones had previously starred as the Artful Dodger in the Broadway show Oliver, which debuted on December 17,1962, and his performance was later seen on The Ed Sullivan Show the same night as the Beatles first appearance on that show, February 9,1964
9.
Elvis Presley
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Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is referred to as the King of Rock and Roll. Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis and his music career began there in 1954, when he recorded a song with producer Sam Phillips at Sun Records. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was a popularizer of rockabilly. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, Presleys first RCA single, Heartbreak Hotel, was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. He was regarded as the figure of rock and roll after a series of successful network television appearances. In November 1956, Presley made his debut in Love Me Tender. In 1958, he was drafted into military service, in 1973, Presley featured in the first globally broadcast concert via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii. Several years of drug abuse severely damaged his health. Presley is one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century and he won three Grammys, also receiving the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. Presley was born on January 8,1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Love and Vernon Elvis Presley, Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered stillborn 35 minutes before his own birth. Thus, as a child, Presley became close to both parents and formed an especially close bond with his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God, where he found his musical inspiration. Although he was in conflict with the Pentecostal church in his later years, rev. Rex Humbard officiated at his funeral, as Presley had been an admirer of Humbards ministry. Presleys ancestry was primarily a Western European mix, including Scots-Irish, Scottish, German, gladyss great-great-grandmother, Morning Dove White, was possibly a Cherokee Native American. Gladys was regarded by relatives and friends as the dominant member of the small family, Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, evincing little ambition. The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance, the Presleys survived the F5 tornado in the 1936 Tupelo–Gainesville tornado outbreak. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of kiting a check written by the landowner, Orville S. Bean and he was jailed for eight months, and Gladys and Elvis moved in with relatives
10.
James Brown
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James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and bandleader. The creator of music and a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance. In a career spanned six decades, he influenced the development of several music genres. Brown began his career as a singer in Toccoa, Georgia. He joined an R&B vocal group, the Gospel Starlighters, in which he was the lead singer. His success peaked in the 1960s with the live album Live at the Apollo and hit singles such as Papas Got a Brand New Bag, I Got You and Its a Mans Mans Mans World. During the late 1960s he moved from a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms, by the early 1970s, Brown had fully established the funk sound after the formation of the J. B. s with records such as Get Up Sex Machine and The Payback. He also became noted for songs of social commentary, including the 1968 hit Say It Loud – Im Black, Brown continued to perform and record until his death from congestive heart failure in 2006. Brown recorded 16 singles that reached number one on the Billboard R&B charts and he also holds the record for the most singles listed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart which did not reach number one. Brown has received honors from many institutions, including inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in Joel Whitburns analysis of the Billboard R&B charts from 1942 to 2010, James Brown is ranked as number one in The Top 500 Artists. He is ranked seventh on the music magazine Rolling Stones list of its 100 greatest artists of all time, Rolling Stone has also cited Brown as the most sampled artist of all time. Brown was born on May 3,1933, in Barnwell, South Carolina, to 16-year-old Susie and 22-year-old Joseph Joe Gardner Brown, in a small wooden shack. Browns name was supposed to have been Joseph James Brown, Jr. however, his first and he later legally changed his name to remove Jr. His parents were black, in his autobiography, Brown stated that he also had Chinese and Native American ancestry. The Brown family lived in poverty in Elko, South Carolina. They later moved to Augusta, Georgia, when James was four or five and his family first settled at one of his aunts brothels. They later moved into a house shared with another aunt, Browns mother later left the family after a contentious marriage and moved to New York. Brown spent long stretches of time on his own, hanging out in the streets and he managed to stay in school until the sixth grade
11.
Roy Orbison
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Roy Kelton Orbison, nicknamed the Big O, was an American singer-songwriter and musician, known for his distinctive, impassioned voice, complex compositions and dark emotional ballads. The combination led many critics to describe his music as operatic, between 1960 and 1964,22 of his songs placed on the Billboard Top 40, including Only the Lonely, Crying, and Oh, Pretty Woman. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly and country and he was signed by Sun Records in 1956, but his greatest success came with Monument Records in the early 1960s. His career stagnated in the 1970s, but was revived by several versions of his songs. In 1988, he was a member of the Traveling Wilburys supergroup, along with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and he recorded his last solo album, Mystery Girl, the same year but died of a heart attack shortly thereafter. While most male rock and roll performers in the 1950s and 1960s projected a defiant masculinity, many of Orbisons songs instead conveyed a quiet, almost desperate and his voice ranged from baritone to tenor, and music scholars have suggested that he had a three- or four-octave range. During performances, he was known for standing still and solitary, and for wearing black clothes and dark sunglasses, which lent an air of mystery to his persona. His honors include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in the year. Rolling Stone placed him at number 37 on their list of the Greatest Artists of All Time, in 2002, Billboard magazine listed Orbison at number 74 in the Top 600 recording artists. Roy Kelton Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas, the son of Orbie Lee Orbison, an oil well driller and car mechanic, and Nadine Vesta Shults. Both of his parents were unemployed during the Great Depression and, searching for work, moved the family to Fort Worth, Texas and he attended Denver Avenue Elementary School until a polio scare prompted the family to return to Vernon. Later, they moved to Wink, Texas, Orbison later described life in Wink as football, oil fields, oil, grease and sand and expressed relief that he was able to leave the desolate town. All the Orbison children were afflicted with poor eyesight, Roy used thick corrective lenses from an early age and he was not confident about his appearance and began dyeing his nearly-white hair black when he was still young. He was quiet and self-effacing, remarkably polite and obliging — a product, biographer Alan Clayson wrote and he was readily available to sing, however, and often became the focus of attention when he did. He considered his voice memorable, if not great, on Roys sixth birthday, his father gave him a guitar. He later recalled that by the age of seven, I was finished, you know, for anything else and his major musical influence as a youth was country music. He was particularly moved by Lefty Frizzells singing, with its slurred syllables and he also enjoyed Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers. One of the first musicians he heard in person was Ernest Tubb, in West Texas, he was exposed to many forms of music, sepia, Tex-Mex, the orchestral arrangements of Mantovani and cajun
12.
Jimi Hendrix
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James Marshall Jimi Hendrix was an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music, born in Seattle, Washington, Hendrix began playing guitar at the age of 15. In 1961, he enlisted in the U. S. Army and trained as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division, within months, Hendrix had earned three UK top ten hits with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Hey Joe, Purple Haze, and The Wind Cries Mary. Hendrix was inspired musically by American rock and roll and electric blues and he favored overdriven amplifiers with high volume and gain, and was instrumental in utilizing the previously undesirable sounds caused by guitar amplifier feedback. He helped to popularize the use of a pedal in mainstream rock. Holly George-Warren of Rolling Stone commented, Hendrix pioneered the use of the instrument as a sound source. Hendrix was the recipient of several awards during his lifetime. In 1967, readers of Melody Maker voted him the Pop Musician of the Year, disc and Music Echo honored him with the World Top Musician of 1969 and in 1970, Guitar Player named him the Rock Guitarist of the Year. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, Jimi Hendrix was of African American descent. Both his mother Lucille and father Al were African Americans and his paternal grandmother, Zenora Nora Rose Moore, was African American and one-quarter Cherokee. On June 10,1919, Hendrix and Moore had a son they named James Allen Ross Hendrix, in 1941, Al met Lucille Jeter at a dance in Seattle, they married on March 31,1942. Al, who had been drafted by the U. S. Army to serve in World War II, Johnny Allen Hendrix was born on November 27,1942, in Seattle, he was the first of Lucilles five children. In 1946, Johnnys parents changed his name to James Marshall Hendrix, in honor of Al and he spent two months locked up without trial, and while in the stockade received a telegram announcing his sons birth. During Als three-year absence, Lucille struggled to raise their son, when Al was away, Hendrix was mostly cared for by family members and friends, especially Lucilles sister Delores Hall and her friend Dorothy Harding. Al received a discharge from the U. S. Army on September 1,1945. After returning from service, Al reunited with Lucille, but his inability to find steady work left the family impoverished and they both struggled with alcohol, and often fought when intoxicated. The violence sometimes drove Hendrix to withdraw and hide in a closet in their home and his relationship with his brother Leon was close but precarious, with Leon in and out of foster care, they lived with an almost constant threat of fraternal separation. In addition to Leon, Hendrix had three siblings, Joseph, born in 1949, Kathy in 1950, and Pamela,1951, all of whom Al and Lucille gave up to foster care
