ABSTRACT
Many of the first histories of rock were written in the late 1960s, at a time when rock journalism was in its first full flowering and the music itself was widely perceived as having entered a period of consolidation. But histories can never be innocent of the human need to mythologize, and these early accounts set in motion a process whereby the short history of this music would be understood in terms of a creation myth and a linear trajectory of style development in a tripartite model made up of primordial beginnings, classic flowering and a final period of decadence and decay. By the summer of 1969, the Jimi Hendrix Experience had completed what would be its last American tour. Bassist Noel Redding marked the occasion by resigning from the band and Hendrix began to formulate plans to put together a new band.
