St. Vincent has named Jimi Hendrix’s Crosstown Traffic as the song that got her into rock guitar music, despite the fact she doesn't believe his records sound that great.
In an interview with Kerrang!, St. Vincent – aka Annie Clark – discussed some of the most influential tracks, albums and artists that she’s been exposed to throughout her life, with Hendrix’s 1968 Electric Ladyland cut cherry picked as an especially important piece of music.
As Clark recalls, she was listening to Hendrix when she was only eight or nine years old, with the trailblazer’s playing serving as an especially influential force on her own music.
“I was listening to Jimi Hendrix when I was eight or nine,” she says, “and I had a CD but it skipped so it kept going like, ‘You jump in front of my car- You jump in front of my car- You jump in front of my car…’ His guitar playing is just fire, it’s like lightning.”
However, Clark did go on to comment on the quality of Hendrix’s recordings which, as a result of the emerging recording technology of the time, weren’t all that great.
She continues, “Recording technology hadn’t come that far at that point and obviously he died so young, so the sounds of the records are kind of bad, right?”
Of course, Hendrix’s guitar playing was in a league of its own, with Clark noting that, regardless of the recording quality of the time, his chops still shone through.
“You could record it in a tin can and still feel the power of his guitar playing,” Clark concludes. “As a guitarist, my favourite Jimi Hendrix guitar parts are his parts, I’m less of a solo gal, but the parts are so good. The sound is just pummelling coming out of the speakers, it’s absolutely undeniable.”
Clark has previously shared a candid clip of herself covering Hendrix classic Little Wing on a Fender Lead II.
Elsewhere in the Kerrang! article, St. Vincent also named John Mayer’s Daughters as “the worst song ever written”, calling it “hideously sexist” and “deeply misogynistic”.
The track, which was released in 2003 and won a Grammy for Song of the Year in ’05, explores familial relationships, and stresses the importance of mothers and fathers being good to their daughters, who “turn into mothers” themselves.
“It’s just so hideously sexist but it pretends to be a love song, but it’s really, really retrograde and really sexist,” she says. “And I hate it… It’s so deeply misogynistic, which would be fine if you owned that, but it pretends like it’s sweet.”
