He’s arguably the greatest guitarist of all time, and certainly the most influential. His career lasted barely more than three years, and he’s been dead for nearly half a century. Yet Jimi Hendrix is still one of the most recognizable figures in the history of music, both by sight and by sound. No one before or since has had the distinct sound of the great axeman (though many have tried,) and we have hardly seen anyone else who looked like he looked.

It’s this unique style of his, that of curse went along with his prodigious abilities as a musician, that made him stand out and cause people to take notice of him. It also was notable that he was, at the end of the day, a black man fronting a band at a time when blacks were fighting for basic civil rights against a white government that for years relegated them to second-class citizenry. People flat-out didn’t like seeing a black band leader, especially when the supporting band members were white. Even further, they didn’t know what to make of this pirate-gypsy who played guitar with his teeth and produced sounds that no one else before him made.

So, as music supergeeks and lifelong fans of Hendrix, we wanted to share some of our favorite looks of his from his brief but brilliant career that in such a short time forever enshrined him as a Rock God and has caused him the be the icon we celebrate him as to this day. Enjoy.

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