ROCK ME BABY

Sugar Pie DeSanto sings a smoldering version of "Rock Me, Baby." She was born Umpeylia Balinton on October 16th, 1935, to an African American mother and Filipino father, and the great Johnny Otis nicknamed her Sugar Pie. Cool name, huh? She toured with Johnny's band, and with James Brown, and collaborated with another red hot mama, Etta James.


Jimi Hendrix plays his psychedelic acid rock take of "Rock Me, Baby" at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. What can you say about Hendrix? What can you say about those wacky threads and that funny cigarette he was smoking? You'd rather hear Chet Atkins?


Finally, some old guitar geezers, BB King, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, and Jimmy Vaughn, try their hand at "Rock Me, Baby." These oldtimers may sit down when they're playing, but they sure hit the right notes. That's about a thousand years of playing experience in those chairs, dude. Bow down.

HENDRIX AT MONTEREY POP

I couldn't help posting another Jimi Hendrix performance after showing him playing back-up to Buddy and Stacey in 1965. Here is Hendrix just two years later, when he burst on the scene at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. That's the Summer of Love, right? Jimi was always a big Dylan fan (you remember his version of Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," right?) and here he's giving the treatment to "Like a Rolling Stone." A classic moment from an historic concert. Can you dig it?

ROUND MIDNIGHT, NEW YEARS EVE

Auld Lang Syne, played by James Marshall Hendrix at Fillmore East. New Years Eve, 1969-70.