50 years ago today (October 1st) and 13 days after he passed away in London, Jimi Hendrix was buried at Greenwood Memorial Park in the city of Renton in his home state of Washington. Few had attempted backwards guitar on record before, because it was so difficult to get the timing right, but Hendrix could do it. From the 1967 album Axis: Bold As Love the song“Castles Made of Sand” is a standout because of that technique. The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded in October of 1967. About two decades later, their late bassist Noel Redding spoke about what makes the song a standout.
”It was backwards guitar, wasn’t it? The Beatles had used backwards guitar, who else? That’s it. That what I recollect about that song. Nice song. Backwards guitar, which is very hard to do, ‘cause it’s fiddling, it takes a lot of time. You have to go out and basically play a solo and imagine what it’s going to sound like backwards, which is very hard to do. But Hendrix could do it.”
