When I was a teenager in the 70’s I distinctly remember buying the album Are You Experienced? by Jimi Hendrix and listening to “Third Stone from the Sun.” The song was one of the major catalysts for me to become an instrumental guitarist. Not only does the song take you on a total tonal psychedelic trip, but the guitar melody is unforgettable with those wonderful octaves and expressive tremolo bar phrases.
It takes me back to the incredible days of when a nickel bag was actually 5 bucks and a pack of cigarettes were 50 cents. Every time I listen to this album it takes me back to those days at my parent’s weekend Farmhouse where we had a 2-level tree fort we had made far in the woods smoking our homemade Doobie’s and drinking beer. Although at the time the album was over a decade old, it was just as fresh to us as the day it was released. Hendrix truly manipulated magic, fury and fire out of that Fender Strat! The gamut of guitar tones and emotional fervor that Third Stone displays is so far beyond what any man on the guitar has ever recorded. And the incredible dialog of Jimi during the song as, “Your mysterious mountains I wish to see closer, May I land my kinky machine?” No one else could pull off the swing jazz elements combined with shear acid rock at the time!
The album closes with Jimi posing the question to us, “Have you ever been experienced? Not necessarily stone, but beautiful” and I remember thinking – not like this even though we were stoned!
You can learn more about Jimi Hendrix here
Image Credit: Wikipedia
About the Curator: Brian Tarquin
Multi Emmy Award winning Brian Tarquin is an established top rate composer/guitarist. He has won 3 Emmy’s for “Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series” and has been nominated for an Emmy 6 times. In 2019 Tarquin received a Global Music Gold Award for his release Orlando In Heaven for “Best Album.” Three years in a row (2016-2019) Tarquin received “Best Album of the Year” nominations from the Independent Music Awards for his releases: Guitars for Wounded Warriors, Orlando in Heaven, and Guitars for Veterans. On which, Tarquin shows his guitar prowess alongside such world-class shredders as: Steve Morse, Larry Coryell, Billy Sheehan, Bumblefoot (Guns N’ Roses), Reb Beach (Whitesnake), Chuck Loeb (FourPlay) to name a few. In 2006 SESAC honored him with the Network Television Performance Award. Tarquin has graced the Top Billboard Charts with such commercial releases as: This is Acid Jazz, Vol. 2, Sweet Emotions, and Bossa Brava: Caliente on Instinct Records, followed by several solo jazz albums, which charted Top 10 at Smooth Jazz Radio R&R and Gavin charts. Brian has appeared on 38 releases, selling over 140,000 records in his career.