– by Mike Mettler

* The Wind Cries Tori: Singer/songwriter/ingénue Tori Amos (46) has a way with making material she doesn’t write herself uniquely her own. While discussing her elegiac holiday record Midwinter Graces (Universal Republic) on 5 October 2009, she revisited Electric Hendrixland.

UniVibes: Since you’re known for reinterpreting the songs you cover, what was the thought behind doing “If Six Was Nine” as a bonus track on the “Cornflake Girl” single [in 1994]?

Tori Amos: I did that Jimi Hendrix cover a long time ago, yeah. Sometimes, as a piano player, you have to go to other instruments to get inspired. And over the years, I’ve gone to the guitar players. It’s easy to fall into other players’ styles, and then copy them directly. So I studied a lot of music from other players so I find licks and patterns that I’m not lifting consciously. I don’t want to just copy other peoples’ styles.

I’m not exactly sure why I decided to do “If Six Was Nine,” though. But if I can bring something to a song that’s got even a slightly different perspective, I’ll do it so that I’m not just trying to do what the original did. What’s the point, then? Unless you love the song so much that you emotionally need to sing it the way it was originally done, that is….

* Something Big: Tom Petty (59) and his production team sifted through over 30 years of concert material to come up with the 62 songs that make up the impressive four-disc Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: The Live Anthology (Reprise). During an interview on 21 October 2009, I asked Tom where Jimi fit into his life and career.

UniVibes: So did you come across any Hendrix covers while you were compiling the Anthology?
Tom Petty: No, but sometimes in rehearsal, we’ll do “Little Wing.” And I think maybe we’ve done “Foxy Lady” onstage a couple of times, but they didn’t get recorded.

UV: Would you consider Jimi an influence on you as a player and/or songwriter?
TP: He had a pretty profound influence on everyone, I think. I’ve always been a big fan, yeah.

UV: Did you ever see him live?
TP: I did. I saw him twice. First in Jacksonville [8 July 1967, during the ill-fated Monkees tour], before he had his first album out, and then I saw him again on the Axis: Bold As Love tour in Tampa [either 18 August or 23 November 1968].

UV: How was it seeing him?
TP: Oh yeah, it was pretty stunning. [chuckles] We hadn’t seen nothing like that. It was incredible.

UV: Anything you had to rethink after seeing Jimi live?
TP: Well, we got some bigger amplifiers!

* Third Headlight From The Sun: “Fantastic,” says Jakob Dylan (40) of the “new” Valleys Of Neptune material he heard recently. “I love that stuff.” While discussing his powerful new solo project Women And Country (Columbia) on 4 March 2010, the singer/
songwriter who continually builds upon a storied lineage also discussed our man Jimi.

UniVibes: Was Hendrix important to you growing up?
Jakob Dylan: Oh, of course. As a teenager, I imagined that that’s what I’d be doing too someday. My first intention was to be a guitar player, and he’s one of those people whom you discover early on, especially when you do something you want to be the best at. But when I put that music on, I realized that I might want something else for myself. [chuckles] I don’t think I’d ever be able to achieve what he did as a guitar player.

One thing that was always clear when you listened to his music and read his interviews – as great as he was, he always presented himself as an extreme fan of contemporary and classic music. I mean, he would play Beatles songs [means “Sergeant Pepper’s...”] live the day after they came out. He was never “above and beyond” anything, though of course he was to all of us. But his spirit never set himself above anyone else.

UV: Did you play any Jimi Hendrix songs in your band the Wallflowers?
JD: When we started out, the band wanted to do some, yeah, so I think we did “Bold As Love.” And guitar players always like doing “The Wind Cries Mary,” so maybe that one too. But we stayed away from some of the more untouchable stuff – it requires such a finesse to do them right, you know?

*** From UniVibes issue #60 ***