At the end of the month, New York's West 8th Street will (also) become Jimi Hendrix Way. The toponymic plaque which will certify the co-heading of the street will be posted on the stretch of road where the Electric Lady Studios are located, which the musician wanted and built in 1970. The ceremony will be held on the morning of February 24th on the corner of West Eighth Street and Sixth Avenue.
Janie Hendrix, Jimi's sister who leads Experience Hendrix LLC, and Stevie Van Zandt, both promoters of the initiative, will be present at the event. Van Zandt has involved his non-profit TeachRock, which will launch a new lesson for the occasion, “Jimi Hendrix: Rock's Trailblazing Innovator and Influential Guitarist”.
“Hendrix didn't just play the guitar, he changed the very definition of art,” Van Zandt said. “I want TeachRock to make students feel the same sense of possibility and discovery that I felt the first time I saw Jimi live. Its story, its lyrics and its sound remind young people that creativity has no limits.”
«I can't work with a clock that tells me when to stop. Music doesn't work like that,” Hendrix said in 1969. “I need a place that's mine. A place where no one tells me to stop when I'm looking for the perfect sound.” That place was the Electric Lady, a former nightclub that he had purchased in 1968 and which he would inaugurate on August 26, 1970 with a party with Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Ron Wood and Patti Smith (see the history of the studios at this link).
Unfortunately Hendrix died a few weeks later, on September 18, 1970. The studio became one of the busiest and best known in the city and hosted sessions by people ranging from Led Zeppelin to Lady Gaga via the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, Patti Smith.
