Irish Examiner View: Octogenarians all along the watchtower

If Jimi Hendrix had lived, he would be celebrating his 80th birthday

Rock guitar virtuoso Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) caught mid guitar-break during his performance at the Isle of Wight Festival, August 1970. Picture: Evening Standard/Getty

It will be a sobering thought for many that, if Jimi Hendrix had lived instead of dying in a flat in London’s Notting Hill, he would be celebrating his 80th birthday on Saturday, perhaps planning a concert with other grizzled old-timers such as Mick Jagger (79), Keith Richards (78), Paul McCartney (also 80), Elton John (a mere stripling at 75), and Bob Dylan, the oldest of them all at 81.

Hendrix was one of the greatest, representing the bridge between the love and peace (and drugs) of the Swinging Sixties through the Vietnam era into the disillusion of the '70s. His totemic rendition of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock remains as resonant within a divided US now as was did then.