7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7

immediate successor, Axis: Bold as Love, followed that

December. Hendrix was flown to California for a scene-

stealing appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival, which

rendered him a sensation in his homeland less than a year

after his departure.

Relocating back to the United States in 1968, he

enjoyed further acclaim with the sprawling, panoramic

double album Electric Ladyland, but the second half of his

career proved frustrating. Legal complications from an

old contract predating his British sojourn froze his record-

ing royalties, necessitating constant touring to pay his

bills; and his audiences were reluctant to allow him to

progress beyond the musical blueprint of his earliest

successes. He was on the verge of solving both these

problems when he died of an overdose of barbiturates. In

his all-too brief career, Hendrix managed to combine and

extend the soaring improvisational transcendence of John

Coltrane, the rhythmic virtuosity of James Brown, the

bluesy intimacy of John Lee Hooker, the lyrical aesthetic

of Bob Dylan, the bare-knuckle onstage aggression of

the Who, and the hallucinatory studio fantasias of the

Beatles. His work provides a continuing source of inspi-

ration to successive generations of musicians to whom

he remains a touchstone for emotional honesty, techno-

logical innovation, and an all-inclusive vision of cultural

and social brotherhood.

Joni Mitchell

(b. Nov. 7, 1943, Fort McLeod, Alta., Can.)

C

anadian experimental singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell

(born Roberta Joan Anderson) enjoyed her greatest

popularity in the 1970s. Like her contemporary of the 1960s,

Bob Dylan, she helped turn pop music into an art form.