So what is it in Hendrix’s music that still hooks so many? Is it the melodies? Lyrics? Vocals? The guitar? Is it the diversity of styles? Sheer innovation? Or just the brilliant-but-tragic mystique of a gypsy soul that was too soon gone?

Something raw in the music evoked something raw in me, as though I was entering some forbidden chamber – a place where darkness could be spun into words and anger could be channeled into rhythm and melody. Teenage rebellion was not only possible when Hendrix laid down the leads for “All Along the Watchtower” or “Voodoo Chile”; it was required. And when the tempo slowed, and the vulnerable, helter-skelter lyrics came tumbling out, there were those images of angels and birds and sand castles. Maybe it’s his palpable passion that keeps him among the world’s best-selling recording artists....and that's still very true today!

My close friends were right about Jimi Hendrix. He was – is – and will always be....the Great Satan. He’s the Great Satan within us all. He’s our shadow put to poetry. He’s our hatred laid bare. He’s our fear that life may pass us by before our dreams come true. He’s our craving for more, even when more is far too much. And he’s our loneliness left to fend for itself, no healing salve, no redemptive Hollywood ending.

Jimi Hendrix was much more than a black rebel with an upside down guitar. He was the Great Satan in all of us, come to haunt our easy assumptions about ourselves, one another, God, social protocol and the illusion of the Protestant work ethic – the lie that happiness can be bought or earned. Hendrix was the raw in you and me.

So....Jimi Hendrix as a spiritual guide? You fucken bet! He’s the model of passion for passion’s sake. Neglected. Poverty-stricken. Lost. Confused. Hurting. Betrayed. Empty. All that pain and passion became the fuel that, when touched off by the fire of an innate, awesome talent, gave us permission to trust our gifts, even when no one else does. To trust others, even though we’ve been slashed and burned by life and love.

So tune in at 6.00pm AEST for the Vinyl Crusade where we feature in loving detail the sexual innuendo of "Electric Ladyland" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Tune into Megazine Radio