Currently I'm reading Room Full of Mirrors - A Biography of Jimi Hendrix by Charles Cross. I just got to the part describing the genesis of Jimi's guitar smashing. In November of 1966, Hendrix played four nights at The Big Apple in Munich. Here is the passage describing the event:
The Big Apple gig required the band to play two shows a night, common for their bookings over the next year. Jimi did his entire routine twice each evening, and with each show the crowds got larger and were more enthusiastic. 'That was really the first time we all knew something big was going to happen,' Noel Redding recalled. 'You could tell that we were just on the cusp of success.' Making use of a long guitar chord, Jimi walked in the audience as he played. When he went to get back onstage, he threw his guitar before him, and in doing so cracked the neck. Upset about the damage, and knowing that it would cost him two months' pay to buy a new instrument, Jimi grabbed the neck of the guitar, raised it above his head, and brought it down on the stage with a violent fury. It may have been one of the only moves he made all night that wasn't rehearsed or done as a crowd pleaser. Nonetheless, the audience applauded madly and dragged Jimi offstage at the end of the show. Seeing that response, Chandler [Bryan 'Chas Chandler - former Animals bassist and Jimi's manager/producer] determined then and there to have Jimi smash more guitars over the next few shows. The destruction of the guitar - many times the same guitar patched up night after night - became an occasional part of Jimi's set, done when all the other gimmicks had failed to excite a crowd.
So, it appears, the guitar smashing, rather than an artistic statement of sacrifice, was actually an accidental screw up that the audience loved and repeated pursuant to instructions from management for the sensationalist effect on the crowd.
Bill, tgo
