Cherokee Missed: Indigenous Influence and Natural Metaphysics in the Music of Jimi Hendrix

Abstract

This paper shows that native culture and mythology is a more pervasive influence in the music of Jimi Hendrix than has been hitherto appreciated, and also fully explores the extent to which natural imagery features in both Hendrix’s song writing and in his instrumental innovations. It argues that indigenous influences and natural metaphysics are crucial to understanding the meaning and effectiveness of Hendrix’s songs; his transcendence of the black-white binary and the rigid musical categories that confined so many of his contemporaries; and his contributions to the evolution of music.