Rock

Drummer Nick Mason Picks His Favorite Jimi Hendrix Song

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Jimi Hendrix’s presence in the psychedelic rock world was very significant. Hendrix’s left-handed style of play and the upside-down Stratocaster with soul, psychedelic, and British rock type of music were butterflies to the ears. Hendrix was extremely talented and natural with the flow of play.

To be able to see Jimi Hendrix play live was something to behold, with his unique guitar plays and his colorful appearance on stages all across the world. Pink Floyd, who was gaining popularity alongside Jimi in the 60s was one of his loyal fans.

Pink Floyd’s drummer Nick Mason is one of the earlier fans of Jimi Hendrix. Mason has always been surrounded by music and in the world of rock, he is one of the very best who can drum. He is one of the very best drummers and has been in every album of Pink Floyd. He and his fellow bandmate, David Gilmour also got to experience the magic of Hendrix in 1966, according to him.

When asked about songs that have soundtracked their life Gilmour went on to pick ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ as his all-time favorite track while making an appearance on BBC Radio 2’s ‘Tracks of My Years.’

He said, “I went to a club in south Kensington in 1966, and this kid got on stage with Brian Auger and the Trinity and [held] the guitar the other way around [upside down] and started playing. Myself and the whole place was with their jaws hanging open.”

He added, “I went, next day, to the record shops and I said ‘You got anything by this guy Jimi Hendrix?’ and they said ‘Well, we’ve got a James Hendrix’. He hadn’t yet done anything, so I became rather an avid fan waiting for his first release. Also, this is one of his beautiful ballads that I really love.”

In 2020, the drummer, Nick Mason was also invited to BBC’s, ‘Tracks of My Years’ and chose Hendrix’s 1968 cover of Bob Dylan’s original song ‘All Along the Watchtower.’ He said,

“Well, I chose this because it was really covering two bases. First of all – big fan of Jimi Hendrix,” Mason said, introducing the song. “I mean, I saw him the first time he came to the UK – it was an extraordinary evening.”

“He came on as a guest of Cream,” he continued. “And that in itself was a pretty extraordinary moment for me. Because that’s when I decided I wanted to be a full-on rock drummer like Ginger Baker rather than an architect. Which is the way I was heading at the time”.

“Plus the fact that the song itself was written by Bob Dylan. I’m a huge fan of Dylan, as I think so many people in bands are. In fact, what happened after that was that, eventually, when we became professional – actually, we didn’t become professional, we remained gifted amateurs for some time – but we actually went on tour with Jimi [in 1967].”

“It was one of those last great tour packages. I got to know [Hendrix drummer] Mitch Mitchell quite well, and he was terrific. I mean, that for me was, to have someone of that stature who was sort of interested in my playing was really important.”

Well, this was just one of many songs that have been there for the drummer. Other songs which have been the soundtrack of his life that do not involve Jimi Hendrix are Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell, My Generation by The Who, and many others. But we can safely assume that he was a big fan of Jimi Hendrix and his favorite song by him is ‘All Along the Watchtower.’

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