manic depression is touching my soul

in the 8th grade, i played in a band with travis lilley and andrew brown, and for the talent show we played purple haze by jimi hendrix. it was fantastic, and this is due to a couple reasons. playing good is not one of the reasons, because we honestly only played alright. first, playing music, specifically rock n' roll, in front of peers (girls) when you're 14 immediately makes you cool. we weren't playing trumpet, or alto sax, or the trombone, even though i think the trombone is a super cool instrument. nope. we were playing cool instruments, instruments that didn't require planning out breaths, instruments that were loud and in your face. second, we were playing purple haze, a super dope song that is disputedly about, well, a drug trip. the teachers were either a) shitting their pants hoping nobody understood what i was singing about-- that's right, i sang.. not too bad either -- because we were such innocent 14 year olds, or b) were smiling ear to ear loving the fact that we decided to play an incredibly popular song by arguably the greatest guitarist, and one of the best classic rock bands, in existence, instead of guns n' roses, stone temple pilots, or *gasp!* nirvana.

let me quickly say that any of those choices would've also been alright. nirvana would've been crazy cool, because nirvana were ridiculously popular then (cobain had only killed himself two years prior. quite sad, really). but we all loved hendrix more, probably because our parents beat it into our heads. and why not? jimi hendrix was an unbelievable guitarist, noel redding pumped out some seriously awesome grooves on the bass, and mitch mitchell, well, he just about did it for me. i remember listening to classic rock growing up; between the licks of mitchell, keith moon, and john bonham, it was at an early age when i decided i wanted to play the drums. purple haze was the first hendrix songs i learned, because it had probably the easiest beat. mitch mitchell is a freak when it comes to creating awesome beats. hey joe is a great beat; fire is fantastic; manic depression is absolutely fucking stellar, and probably my favorite beat of mitchell's. it was the perfect combination of oddities with a 3/4 time and triplet groove between the snare, hi tom, and bass drum. and of course the song itself grooved. truly magnificent.

mitch mitchell, the group's last surviving member, died this morning; he was found in a hotel room in portland, oregon. he was 61. i'm really sad right now. i've never been in the position where an influence in my life has passed. this is not to say a joke or two weren't influenced by mitch hedberg, or that my grandparents weren't a positive influence on me. what i mean is i've been playing percussion for 14 years, and the drums for almost 13. i started with jazz, and slowly incoporated rock/funk into my style; mitch mitchell constantly came out with awesome licks that meshed rock with jazz, and he opened my eyes to the limitless possibilities of using multiple styles to create beautiful drumbeat compositions. i mean, shit, my drumset is set up the same way his is.



rest in peace, mitch mitchell, and may your awesome drum style live on forever in those you influenced most. i for one am going down to my basement right now to groove on your manic depression and hey joe beats.