Jimi Hendrix was famous for his virtuoso electric guitar playing, gigantic hair and occasional tendency to take enough drugs to literally kill him, but that's all in the past – now Jimi Hendrix is mostly famous for being named after a Red Bull rip-off drink.
Of all the ways to celebrate the life of Jimi Hendrix – visiting his grave, dancing naked in your garden to Crosstown Traffic, changing the spelling of your name from 'Jimmy' to 'Jimi' even though you're fully aware it makes you look like a proper nobsack – California drinks company Beverage Concepts has decided that none is as good as buying a probably-overpriced energy drink with a picture of Jimi Hendrix on the front, drinking it, then being unable to sleep properly at night because of all the caffeine thumping around your body. Usually we'd be upset to see a dead artist like Jimi Hendrix transformed into a lowest common denominator commodity like the Liquid Experience drink, but it's annoyed Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, so we'll let it pass this time.
It's nothing new for a celebrity to license out their images and names to products in return for a fast buck. David Beckham has his perfume and Scarlett Johansson has her trainers – we even get the horrifying feeling that Elton John's smelly candles have an audience somewhere – but those three celebrities are all alive and well and have all presumably said "Trade my integrity and god-given talent for a pile of coins? You're on." Jimi Hendrix, on the other hand, died in a puddle of vomit 27 years ago and so probably didn't get the chance to voice his concerns about what bunging a picture of his face on all sorts of crappy opportunistic products would do to his musical legacy.
Not that it's especially important, though – Jimi Hendrix has other people to do that for him now. And busy little bees there are too; so far you can buy official Jimi Hendrix lavalamps, official Jimi Hendrix air fresheners and official Jimi Hendrix baby clothes, not to mention the rumoured Quentin Tarantino-directed Jimi Hendrix biopic. But nothing has upset the legions of Jimi Hendrix fans as much as Liquid Experience, the just-announced officially-licensed Jimi Hendrix energy drink from Beverage Concepts, as ABC News reports:
A new energy drink doesn't promise to give you the juice to play guitar like Jimi Hendrix, but it does hope to give you a "Liquid Experience." Beverage Concepts says its nonalcoholic "Liquid Experience" drinks, named for Hendrix's breakthrough album, "Are You Experienced?" will debut in April. The concept is irking some Hendrix fans, many of whom still consider him the greatest guitarist of all time.
We're not sure what the point of Liquid Experience is – surely all the caffeine contained in one can will be enough to explode the wizened hearts of anyone old enough to be able to remember Jimi Hendrix when he was alive – and there hasn't been any confirmation that Liquid Experience's slogan will be 'Gives You Enough Energy To Listen To Jimi's Version Of The Star Spangled Banner All The Way Through Instead Of Just Skipping That Track Like You've Done Since The Second Time You Listened To That Best Of Jimi Hendrix CD You Got For Christmas A Few Years Ago' either.
But, hey – let's not get too down that one of music's all-time legends is posthumously whoring himself out to energy drink companies. On the plus side Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers has got his knickers in a twist over it, saying:
"To see his image and the beautiful feelings it has created during my lifetime cheapened by base advertising … is very disappointing to me."
So at least Flea can now add 'drinks named after Jimi Hendrix' to his ever-growing list of things that annoy him, which – thanks to his fan emails, we know so far includes 'George Bush', 'the LA riots', 'Heathcliffe from Wuthering Heights' and 'people asking him questions sometimes.'
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Sweaty Bob says
That company should start on a Pete Doherty energy drink. Matter of time innit
duncanchungs says
I found this video posted on web-archive site 2 days ago!
http://jimihendrixsextape.notlong.com