Two Songs You Cannot Sing

An old tobacco executive might quietly reflect on the 1950's to the middle late 60's as the "Golden Age of Smoking." Regardless of what we know about tobacco, now, it seemed everyone was smoking back then. There was not anywhere you could not smoke. It appeared that everybody was smoking everywhere, all the time. Therefore, everyone had a lighter. Most, had a Zippo lighter.

The Zippo lighter, smoking phenomenon aside, was, and is, a phenomenon unto itself. A utilitarian device of prosaic purpose, the longer you own one, the more deeply you appreciate its precision mechanism. Balancing the Zippo in your fingers, you gently pop your thumb along the edge of the lid, just enough to raise it to a point where it responds with that confident, spring "click," as it opens itself the rest of the way. Next, your thumb comes back down on that short pass along the flint wheel, and the Zippo sings the second verse of the Zippo song, that quick, "gravel click" tells you the fire is lit... every time. Then, in its final verse, you pop the edge of your forefinger to the lid to hear "clack," and it is closed.

That little three beat rhythm of the Zippo lighter can be expanded and played out in variation. Hollywood has inserted it into countless films, integral to the score, or as commentary of unspoken conversation. We are held in the silent beats played out as the beguiling smile of Bacall radiates in the flickering flame tendered by Bogie. "Clack” and it is closed.

No one seems to openly question the status of Jimi Hendrix as a "legendary musical genius." That (it might be odd for a fan to say) is surprising, but I suspect most people too young to have experienced his arrival on the scene, do not "get" what is was that Hendrix contributed. It would be a stretch to say that there are two great Hendrix songs, and his lyrics were less poetic than a soap commercial. His phrasing often sounds like it came from one of those web pages interpreted from a foreign language by a software algorithm, "Have you ever been experienced?"

Jimi Hendrix changed the way the electric guitar is played. Now, everyone plays like Jimi. Maybe they do not play as well, but after Hendrix hit, every electric guitarist in every band changed their style, overnight. The electric guitar was no longer an amplified acoustic guitar; it was its own instrument. The inherit qualities of the electricity became part of the music.

By the time Hendrix got to Woodstock, his style had supplanted the acoustical style completely. So, in his rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" he raised the stakes. His audience was populated with kids conscious of the draft, and the "lost cause of a war" it fed. To that consciousness Hendrix played an anthem drowned out by napalm bombs and painful screams accompanied by a distorted, unsettling, and audible pulse of the waving flag. He played the war on his guitar. He played the damn war.

Two Legendary songs. One sung by the guitar of Jimi Hendrix. The other sung by the Zippo Lighter.

By: Ray Cervantes 2

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Visit www.tobacco-barn.com/s-85-zippo-lighter.aspx for more information or click here to visit our blog.