A message for The Elder, Hawk Henries.
The Elder, Hawk Henries; May All Peace Be Upon You. I share your pain. Insulted, demeaned, denied my culture, beaten, robbed, raped, arrested, for complaining as a victim in my home town. And I'm the whitest. Being left-handed in kindergarten, small stuff now. Being left-handed, that ten percent of all of us, like every other mammal on earth. Being musical, I was playing everyone else's guitar, either way, and changing the strings if I could. It didn't make any difference to me. But after I dropped out of high school to work and buy a Fender Stratocaster, after seeing Jimi Hendrix, I had to make up my mind. Imagine, while Hendrix was alive, buying a Strat and using a hack saw to even out the horns, using car model paint, still playing either way. (It wasn't nice poking other musicians) I knew I had to decide to progress. My friend and I hitch-hiked over 100 miles to see George Benson in Toronto, who was winning Downbeat jazz instrumentalist awards as a new artist. Unfortunately, Hendrix was no longer with us, or I would have crawled. Not getting near Mr. Benson, I started rapping off out loud about being left-handed and all the miles, and he rose, moving aside his security, and took me backstage. He tried me both ways, moving my fingers for me, and said playing "upside down" had advantages, using the pads of my fingers for bass, making big chords easier to hold down longer, and not having to crunch up my fingers to play lead on the high E string. What a lesson! Free! I used to sit with the owner of my local music store and wonder why Jimi played a right-handed guitar upside down with the strings reversed. Probably just Fender left-hand policy back then, which was brutal, time and price wise. If you see a picture of Orville Gibson, known for making guitars, he played with the bass string on the bottom also. Elder Hawk, about our missing Jimi Hendrix. He talked about being of Nubian Egyptian descent, with maternal Cherokee blood. In his last interview, he talked about never quite capturing that dry desert sound. His was a most famous expression of our pain. He carried the whole arena away like we were on headphones, hearing every perfect sound. Still today, he remains the most misunderstood musician of our times.
Of honour to you, still in line with Mr. Magle's classical intent, as Jimi cited Wagner and Handel, I shall create a post and type what happened when The Jimi Hendrix Experience played Toronto in 1969.
I need to withdraw now, overcome with our emotion.
I can add: soon, oh soon, the light, ours forever, ours the right, The Son shall guide us, a reason to be here.
as always, Master John Alexander Hay Watt, of dual descent, maternal Scottish Highland Royal Buchanan, paternal Doctor James Watt, inventor, who would be shocked to see the high wattage grids we live in, the militarization of electricity, the amount wasted on fantasy and the creation of subelectronic ponds on earth. I have to admit, it's easy to win gentle bets sitting there right-handed, complaining I can play better than someone else upside down. I've had so many musicians come up to me saying they wish they had stayed left handed, ultimately avoiding tendonitis, etc.
Again, The Elder Hawk Henries, you have joined me in an important place.
"There once was a boy, whose heart was a frown, 'cause he was crippled for life and couldn't speak a sound, 'til one day he drew his wheelchair to the shore, and to his legs he smiled, you won't hurt me no more, but suddenly, he jumped up to say, look, a golden winged ship is coming my way, and it didn't have to stop, it just kept on going, and so castles made of sand slip into the sea, eventually."
James Marshall Hendricks: Axis, Bold as Love: Castles Made of Sand, third verse.