Once In A Blue Mood: When Jimi Hendrix Kissed The Dark Side Of The Moon

Jimi Hendrix changed my life. I grew up in a conservative Christian home. My dad was an Army vet who held little love in his heart for hippies. He, his brothers and many of his friends had served in the military and several of them saw combat in WWII and Korea. Sex, drugs and rock and roll had no place in our home. Until…

My mother had a niece who was something of a wild child in the city at only age 15. We lived in the country where it was safe (or so we thought). To help steer a young lady in the right direction, she was sent to live with our rather large family of seven children. And she brought with her, drum roll please, a small portable record player and a stack of albums which she snuck into her room under a pile of clothes.

My life was about to change. She didn’t want a pesky little blonde-haired boy hanging around her room all day while she listened to records. So we made a deal. I wouldn’t enter her room and she wouldn’t close the door. Sitting in the hallway, listening to the sounds coming from that room… it was glorious. I had never heard anything like that.

My dad loved Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams and pretty much any Gospel singer. He would tolerate Elvis (my mom’s boyfriend) in small doses. But none of that hippy music. No way. Turn that garbage off. So I had never really heard Hendrix, The Who, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin. Pink Floyd and a host of other artists who were exploring new sonic territory. It was all new to me and I was enthralled by the sounds, energized by the rhythms and excited by the guitar-playing.

I couldn’t have known it then, but what was happening in our home was a microcosm, a mere metaphor, for the types of changes that were happening to the entire US. Parents and children held conflicting world views. Faith in the government split along a generational divide. Soldiers who were serving in Vietnam were dying for a cause that a lot of them didn’t understand. I will never forget standing on a tarmac in Northern Michigan as a little boy and waving goodbye to a good family friend who was in full battle dress uniform, complete with an M16, about to board a plane for Vietnam.

My father didn’t know this, but he and Hendrix had way more in common than he realized. When Jimi played the National Anthem at Woodstock, it was a funeral dirge, an elegy, a deep expression of lament for his friends who were dying in the jungles of Vietnam—and for the innocent Vietnamese people who were also suffering. Hendrix had been a good soldier and might have made it his full career if not for a few circumstances. My dad didn’t know that.

The Music Of The Psychedelic Era Was A Revolution, An Outrage, An Attempt To Envision Something Much Better

The music of the psychedelic era wasn’t just a toe-tapping tune, like so much music that came before. It was a revolution, an outrage, an expression of disbelief in a world order that no longer worked and a cry, a hope, a dream for something much better. It was a lot more than music. It was an alternative way of visioning how to be in the world.

• Hierarchy versus mutuality. The older generation had no problem with a pecking order and knowing one’s place in it. The younger generation didn’t believe in hierarchy and instead wanted everyone to be equal.
• Till death do us part versus free love. The older generation believed love and marriage should last till death. The younger generation wanted love to last until it didn’t.
• Hording versus sharing. The older generation accumulated houses, cars and money. The younger generation often lived communally and shared everything.
• Work ethic versus exploration. The older generation was okay with working a job until you were old and gray. The younger generation wanted to travel, explore and experience new things right now.
• Duty versus self-actualization. The older generation believe in duty, fidelity and nose-to-the-grindstone. The younger generation wanted to become everything they had the potential to be.

This moment in time, this crossroad, this cultural upheaval—I could think of no better way to express this chasm than psychedelic music. Once In A Blue Mood is my attempt to capture this visioning of a new world order.

Who’s In The Band?

Once In A Blue Mood is instrumental psychedelic rock comprised of a lot of different instruments and sounds. Some of them include:

• 12 String acoustic guitar. The 12 string is the sonic heart of Dark Side and it’s a crucial instrument on this album, giving it an authentic vibe of the era.
• Stratocaster. Hendrix is famous for his Strat work as is David Gilmour. The Strat is all over this album in more places and in more ways than I can count.
• Les Paul. The Les Paul was the preferred axe from a lot of period players and it carries numerous guitar solos on this album.
• B3. The B3 organ fills, thrills and energizes so many of these songs.
• Synth textures. Thick synth textures carry melodies, warp in different directions and span the stereo spectrum.
• Backing vocals. Rich backing vocal create almost sacred moments in some of these songs.
• Electric bass. There are several different electric bases on this album and several effects applied to create that psychedelic sound.
• Acoustic drums. This classic kit is punchy and often sounds much bigger than it actually is.

How To Get The Most From Once In A Blue Mood

If you are telling a story about social upheaval from the late 60s, sex, drugs and rock and roll, the Vietnam war, family conflicts, young people coming of age or similar types of narratives, I think you’ll find this album to work really well for you. Any stories having to do with psychedelics, drug experimentation or alternative lifestyles will also really like this music. Anything from the late 1960s to early 1970s would be a great fit. Of if you’re simply looking for something trippy with that psychedelic quality, this music could work.

Wrap Up

I want to thank you again for your interest in Supernatural Sounds, our music and our unique approach. I hope you come to love this music the way I do. It’s so much more to me than just a bunch of sounds and instruments. It’s a passionate expression of things I lived through and a whole lot of other families too. It’s about pain, discovery and vision.