The Exquisite Corpse of Jimi Hendrix

In 1961, offered a “choice” between prison and military service, 19 year-old James Marshall Hendrix enlisted. As a prospective soldier, he ignored regulations and was honorably discharged a year later. His papers listed his many infractions, concluding that he was more interested in his guitar. With his small rebellions, Hendrix prefigured the 1966 conscientious objection of Muhammed Ali. As Ali said, ‘Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?—Allan deSouza