POV
YourJimiHendrix
LondonExperience
26
FEBRUARY2016
AMERICANWAY
“You remember
Pong
?
Itwas amindlessgame,
really stupid,” says
MartinCooper, the
inventor of thefirst
portablecellphone. I
reachedout toCooper
while researchingmy
book
Inventology:How
WeDreamUpThings
ThatChange theWorld
(out thismonth from
HoughtonMifflin
Harcourt), andduring
one interview, he shared
his theoryon the
Pong
Effect. If you’reof a
certainX-Ygeneration,
youmay recall that the
digital tennisgame,
whichwas released in
1975, featuredhyphen-
likepaddles andaball
thatmovedwithall the
pepof apaint drip.Yet
Pong
becameoneof
the top-selling toysof
thedecade, sparkingan
industry that nowmakes
more than$100billion
annually.According to
Cooper, that’sbecause
it introducedkids toa
new set of possibilities.
Pong
“got us familiar
with theconcept of
remotelycontrolling
somethingon the
screen” inour own
homes.Andonceyou
hadplayedavideo
game inyour basement,
youcouldnever go
back.
—PAGANKENNEDY
The
Pong
Effect
Sometimes,
even thebest
ideasarea little
too far aheadof
their time
FOLLOWING A TWO-YEAR
restoration project, Jimi
Hendrix fanscannowtourwhatwasthe legend’shome in
the late 1960s,whenhewas at thepeakof his creativity,
replicated as it was when he lived there. Located in
London’s ritzyMayfair district, the new permanent
exhibitionfeaturesrarely-seen imagesofHendrixandalso
showcases a reconstructed replicaof hisbedroom.Here
area fewmore things tokeepaneyeout for.
—ELVIA LIMÓN
OneofHendrix’smost-
played recordswas a copy
of
GeorgeFridericHandel
’s
Messiah
.Handel composed it in the
homenext door—more than220
years beforeHendrix
moved in.
Nevermuch for
mornings,Hendrix always
startedhis dayswell after noon
and constantly kept his curtains
closed. (Close friends even
dubbedhim
“theBat”
becauseof his late-night
tendencies.)
Hendrix’s flatwas a
thriving jamspot
for some
of thebestmusicians of the
time. Legends suchas
GeorgeHarrison,MadelineBell,
RolandKirkandBillyPreston
were known towalk through
his front door.
Hendrix
usedhis
EpiphoneFT79
acousticguitar
(ondisplay),
usually kept beside
his bedat arm’s reach, for
someof his greatestworks,
suchas his celebrated rendition
of “All Along the
Watchtower.”
Hendrixwas known to
freelygiveouthisdigits
—
sooften that his girlfriendand
flatmate, KathyEtchingham,
eventuallypulledout the
original lineand replaced it
to stop the constant
ringing.
Sorry, neighbors:
Hendrixwas known toblast
records fromhis extensive
collectiononhis
Bang&Olufsen
turntable
at ahigh volume for
hours at a timeat all hours of
thedayandnight. (A replica
of the turntable is
ondisplay.)
PHOTOS
MONITORPICTURELIBRARY/PHOTOSHOT/GETTY IMAGES;COURTESYHANDELHOUSETRUST; SSPL/GETTY IMAGES
