Jimi Hendrix Died 50 Years Ago On 18 September 1970

18 September 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Jimi Hendrix.

Jimi died in Notting Hill, London. On the night of his death Jimi had dinner with German skater Monika Dannemann in her apartment at the Samarkand Hotel. (She later married Scorpions guitarist Uli Jon Roth).

Danneman and Hendrix visited a friend at 1:45am and returned to her flat at 3am. They talked until 7am then went to sleep. When she woke at 11am Jimi was unconscious. He was taken to St Mary Abbot’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12:45pm by an Australian Dr John Bannister.

Incidentally, another doctor on duty that day was Bob Brown, who would become an Australian politician and go on to lead the Greens. Brown was the doctor who met the ambulance delivering the Hendrix body to the hospital.

Hendrix released his first single ‘Hey Joe’ backed with ‘Stone Free’ on 16 December, 1966. Three years 10 months and two days later he was dead.

In his day Hendrix had only released three studio albums ‘Are You Experienced’ (1967), ‘Axis: Bold As Love’ (1968) and ‘Electric Ladyland’ (1968) and one live album ‘Band of Gypsys (1970).

Although he was an America Jimi’s didn’t crack the US chart with his Bob Dylan cover of ‘All Along The Watchtower’ released on 2 September, 1968.