Hendrix beat draft with gay abandon

[KiwiCoromandel]

Jimi Hendrix, the rock guitarist notorious for his rampant pursuit of women, escaped military service by pretending he was homosexual, according to a new biography.

After serving for a year as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division, Hendrix told military psychiatrists he had started fantasising about his bunkmates and was in love with one of them.

The ruse -- an early act of rock'n'roll rebellion -- succeeded, and Hendrix was discharged from the US military in 1962 from his base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He was 19.

He embarked on a musical career, and within five years had a top 10 hit with Hey Joe.

Medical records unearthed by Charles Cross, Hendrix's biographer, show how the flamboyant guitarist exploited the military's suspicions about his unconventional behaviour to secure his discharge.

To support his deception, Hendrix claimed to have lost 7kg because he was "lovesick".

Until now biographers have accepted Hendrix's claim that he was discharged after breaking his ankle in a parachute jump. He joined the paratroop division because it offered higher pay in recognition of the added risk.

Hendrix said he came to resent the military as soon as he joined. He was ridiculed for his habit of sleeping with his guitar and was furious that the army only allowed him to play with his band, the King Kasuals, when he was on leave.

Seven years after leaving the military, Hendrix went on to provoke conservative opinion by playing what right-wingers considered a mutilation of the US national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, with a heavy-rock version played at the Woodstock festival in 1969.

Hendrix's talent and striking appearance placed him in the vanguard of the 1960s music scene. He bedded scores of female admirers during his lengthy stays in London after 1966.

Cross, whose book Roomful of Mirrors, named after a Hendrix song, is published next month, reveals fresh details of Hendrix's failed attempt to woo Mick Jagger's then girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull.

Hendrix demanded to know why she preferred Jagger to him and "flagrantly flirted with her" at the Speakeasy club in London. Faithfull is quoted in the book as saying her decision to reject him remains one of her "greatest regrets".

Hendrix's other lovers included Jane Ormsby Gore, daughter of Lord Harlech, and Kathy Etchingham, whom he dated for three years but was repeatedly unfaithful to. Etchingham is now married to a doctor in England.

Hendrix also enjoyed a two-day fling in Paris with French actor Brigitte Bardot in 1969, the year before his death at 27 from drug abuse in London.

source:The Sunday Times

[slum_goddess]

so 'scuse me while i kiss this guy' had some real meaning? (yes i know the proper lyrics!)

[KiwiCoromandel]

i reckon it`s bullshit slum...just a bunch of fucking right-wing revisionists trying to destroy a liberal icon of the `60`s in my view......

[Ken]

I don't give a fuck about icons.

As a person, I probably wouldn't have liked Hendrix.

As a musician, he was good; not as great as everyone hypes, but still good.

[slum_goddess]

yeah kiwi, i know...sour fuckin grapes