Jimi Hendrix's Last Night in NYC

John Mayer's Born and Raised, my favorite CD out right now, was recorded at Electric Lady Studios on 6th avenue and 8th street in West Village.  Yesterday, I visited this studio and learned about its incredible past.

From 1930-1967, the studio was a country western club called the Village barnyard.  Jimi Hendrix, who lived around the corner at 6th ave and 12th st, purchased the space in 1968 to make it his personal studio.  Hendrix wanted a place where the creative energy would flow.  Psychedelic murals, rounded walls, and homey features were essential. The project took Hendrix 2 years to complete and cost over one million dollars, more than twice the time and cost he expected.

Electric Lady Studios (8th st and 6th ave)

Psychedelic mural at Electric Lady

On August 26, 1970, Hendrix threw a blowout opening party to celebrate his new studio.  Yoko Ono, Johnny Winter, Mick Fleetwood, and other musicians partied the night away and ate Japanese food according to Rolling Stone magazine.  Strangely, a food fight broke out leaving Hendrix upset with his guests.  According to Rolling Stone, he spent most of the evening in the stairway conversing with up-and-coming musician Patti Smith about his plans and excitement for the studio.

Hendrix in his unfinished studio June 17, 1970

 Electric lady studio went on to be a huge success.  The legendary albums Houses of the Holy (Zeppelin), Chinese democracy (Guns n Roses), and Back in Black (AC/DC) were all recorded there. The Rolling Stones also recorded there.  Rumor has it there's a tiny hole in the bathroom door, just big enough to fit Keith Richards' guitar plug.  Apparently, he liked to record in the bathroom, the most intimate of places.  Hendrix never recorded at his studio, although a month before the opening party he laid down the track "Valleys of Neptune" with Steve Winwood in his near finished studio. The night of his opening party, just after the food fight and his talk with Patti Smith, he left for the Isle of Wight festival in England promising to be back soon to start recording in his new studio.  Tragically, he died in London three weeks later from an overdose of Vesparax sleeping pills.  He was 27.