bOB MarLeY

Robert Nesta Marley was born on the 6th of February 1945 in the Saint Ann Parish of Jamaica. His father Norval Sinclair Marley was a white man in his 50s and his mother Cedella Booker was a black woman who was 18 years old. Due to this, he suffered a lot of racial prejudice in his childhood. Although his father provided the family with financial support, he was away most of the time on his work related trips. Bob Marley was ten years old when his father died. His family moved to the Trenchtown slum in Kingston after his father died. Since he was of a short stature and due to his mixed origins, Bob Marley had to endure a lot of bullying. So he learnt self defense and eventually gained a lot of physical strength. This earned him the nickname of ‘Tuff Gong’. This is also the time he met Neville Livingston (later known as Bunny Wailer) and they began playing music together. At 14 he apprenticed at a local welder’s shop and began to make music in his free time with Livingston and Joe Higgs, who was a local musician and a devout Rastafarian. It was at one such jam session, that Bob Marley also met Peter McIntosh (later known as Peter Tosh).

Religion
Bob Marley was a member of the Rastafari movement, whose culture was a key element in the development of reggae. Bob Marley became a leading proponent of the Rastafari, taking their music out of the socially deprived areas of Jamaica and onto the international music scene. Marley was baptized by the Archbishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church in Kingston, Jamaica, on November 4, 1980.
Judy Mowatt, a member of the I Threes, has claimed that Marley converted to Christianity on his deathbed.

Bob Marley History

In 1962, Bob recorded his first two singles called ‘Judge Not’ and ‘One Cup of Coffee’ with Leslie Kong under the pseudonym Bobby Martell. Later on he and Leslie split up due to money issues. In 1963 Bob Marley, Bunny Livingstone and Peter Tosh and others joined together to form a band. They initially called themselves ‘The Teenagers’ but later on changed the names several times, finally settling themselves on the name ‘The Wailers’. Bob Marley began to sing along with composing the music and lyrics for the band. They recorded two songs called ‘I’m Still Waiting’ and ‘It Hurts to be Alone’ with record producer Clement Dodd. Dodd also gave Bob a place to stay in the back room of the recording studio and in return Bob would do assignments for Dodd. In one such assignment, where Bob was coaching a group of vocal singers called ‘The Soulettes’, Bob met Rita Anderson. He later married her in 1966. While with Dodd, The Wailers recorded several songs. However, one of them called ‘One Love’ became extremely popular. Comprised of elements from the Rastafarian faith, the song called for unity, peace and love. This song was completely different from the radical and sometimes anti-authority songs that The Wailers used to sing. Bob Marley also recorded the song ‘Simmer Down’ in 1964 with Dodd which became extremely popular and made The Wailers one of the top bands in Jamaica. They then followed it up with ‘Soul Rebel’ and ‘400 Years’. In 1966 after marrying Rita Anderson, he moved with his mother in Wilmington, Delaware. However, less money and record producers wanting him to compromise on his Rastafarian messages in his songs meant a lot of conflict in his life. Therefore, he came back to Jamaica and began working in a factory to earn his living. Marley also began wearing his trademark dreadlocks in keeping with his Rastafarian faith. Between 1968 and 1972, The Wailers along with Rita Marley tried to re-cut a few of their old songs with JAD Records in London. However, this did not prove to be a very good idea. Then, in 1973 The Wailers released their first album worldwide. It was called ‘Catch a Fire’ which did quite well. Then a year later, they released another album titled ‘Burnin’. This album included their hit songs like ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ and ‘I Shot the Sheriff’. This introduced Marley on the international stage. In 1974, The Wailers broke up with each of the three band members wanting to pursue solo careers. But Bob Marley continued calling his band ‘Bob Marley and The Wailers’ and teamed up with new members to form another band. These included Carlton and Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett (drums and bass), Junior Marvin and Al Anderson (lead guitar), Tyrone Downie and Earl ‘Wya’ Lindo (keyboards), Alvin ‘Seeco’ Patterson (percussion), and the ‘I Threes’ (backing vocals) which included his wife Rita. In 1975 Bob Marley had his first international hit ‘No Woman, No Cry’. After this he released his album ‘Rastaman Vibration’ in 1976 which became a Billboard chart topper for four weeks. In December 1976, Bob Marley, his wife and his manager Don Taylor were wounded in an assassination attempt made before the ‘Smile Jamaica’ concert. Marley’s wife and manager were seriously wounded, and Bob Marley had just some minor wounds. They all recovered, and Bob went on to play at the concert. Bob Marley then went to London and recorded his next two albums ‘Exodus’ and ‘Kaya’ which included the hit songs ‘Exodus’, ‘Waiting in Vain’, ‘Jamming’ and ‘One Love’. ‘Exodus’ stayed on the British music charts for 56 consecutive weeks. He was also arrested for possession of a small amount of cannabis.

Death

In 1977, Bob Marley was diagnosed with cancer. He had sustained an injury on right toe which had never healed. But Bob Marley refused to go ahead with any amputation surgery as it was against the Rastafarian faith. His strong faith in his religion meant that he had to keep his body ‘whole’ and also that he should not register a will as it would symbolize the acceptance of death as inevitable, thus giving a total disregard for the concept of everlasting life. Rastafarian faith also believed that smoking marijuana was an uplifting experience which would connect the human body to the divine. Eventually the cancer spread to his lungs, liver, stomach and brain. However, he continued to play on in concerts and recording albums such as ‘Survival’ in 1979 and ‘Uprising’ in 1980. Bob Marley died on the 11th of May, 1981 at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami, Florida. He was 36. His final words to his son Ziggy were ‘Money can’t buy life’. As per his wishes, he was buried with his guitar, a soccer ball, a marijuana bud, a ring given to him by the Prince Asfa Wossen of Ethiopia and a Bible.

After Death
After his death, too, Bob Marley’s reputation as a great singer and Rastafarian continued to add to his popularity and fame. Bob Marley received many posthumous awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001 and the induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This Bob Marley biography is an account of this great musician and his contribution to the Rastafarian faith. He popularized the tenets of the faith through his music and his life. He was revered by many as a ‘prophet’ or a ‘messiah’ for his religion. He propagated many thoughts including radical non-violent action. To put it in his words:
‘Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery None but ourselves can free our minds...’

ChE gUeVaRa

Ernesto "Che" Guevara (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che, or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader. After death, his stylized image became a ubiquitous countercultural symbol worldwide.
As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was transformed by the endemic poverty he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of monopoly capitalism, neocolonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara's radical ideology.
Later, in Mexico, he met Fidel Castro and joined his 26th of July Movement. In December 1956, he was among the revolutionaries who invaded Cuba under Castro's leadership with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to Comandante, and played a pivotal role in the successful two year guerrilla campaign that deposed Batista. Following the Cuban revolution, Guevara reviewed the appeals of those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals, ratifying sentences which in some cases (the number of death sentences is disputed) involved execution by firing squads. Later he served as minister of industry and president of the national bank, before traversing the globe as a diplomat to meet an array of world leaders on behalf of Cuban socialism. He was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare, along with an acclaimed memoir about his motorcycle journey across South America. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to incite revolutions first in an unsuccessful attempt in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured with the help of the CIA and executed.
Both notorious as a ruthless disciplinarian who unhesitatingly shot defectors and revered by supporters for his rigid dedication to professed doctrines, Guevara remains a controversial and significant historical figure. As a result of his perceived martyrdom, poetic invocations for class struggle, and desire to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by "moral" rather than "material" incentives, Guevara evolved into a quintessential icon of leftist-inspired movements. Paradoxically and in contradiction with his ideology, Che's visage was also reconstituted as a global marketing emblem and insignia within popular culture. He has been mostly venerated and occasionally reviled in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, books, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, while an Alberto Korda photograph of him entitled Guerrillero Heroico (shown), was declared "the most famous photograph in the world."

Early life
A teenage Ernesto (left) with his parents and siblings, ca. 1944. Seated beside him, from left to right: Celia (mother), Celia (sister), Roberto, Juan Martín, Ernesto (father) and Ana María.
Ernesto Guevara was born to Celia de la Serna and Ernesto Guevara Lynch on June 14, 1928[1] in Rosario, Argentina, the eldest of five children in a family of Spanish, Basque and Irish descent. In reference to Che's "restless" nature, his father declared "the first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels." Growing up in a family with leftist leanings, Guevara was introduced to a wide spectrum of political perspectives even as a boy. His father, a staunch supporter of Republicans from the Spanish Civil War, often hosted many veterans from the conflict in the Guevara home.
Though suffering crippling bouts of acute asthma that were to afflict him throughout his life, he excelled as an athlete, enjoying swimming, soccer, and golf. He was an avid rugby union player and earned himself the nickname "Fuser"—a contraction of El Furibundo (raging) and his mother's surname, de la Serna—for his aggressive style of play.His schoolmates also nicknamed him "Chancho" ("pig"), because he rarely bathed, and proudly wore a "weekly shirt."
Guevara learned chess from his father and began participating in local tournaments by age 12. During adolescence and throughout his life he was passionate about poetry, especially that of Pablo Neruda, John Keats, Antonio Machado, Federico García Lorca, Gabriela Mistral, César Vallejo, and Walt Whitman. He could also recite Rudyard Kipling's "If" and José Hernández's "Martín Fierro" from memory.The Guevara home contained more than 3,000 books, which allowed Guevara to be an enthusiastic and eclectic reader, with interests including Karl Marx, William Faulkner, André Gide, Emilio Salgari and Jules Verne. Additionally, he enjoyed the works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Vladimir Lenin, and Jean-Paul Sartre; as well as Anatole France, Friedrich Engels, H.G. Wells, and Robert Frost.

Congo
A 37-year-old Guevara, in the Congo Crisis, 1965
In 1965, Guevara decided to venture to Africa and offer his knowledge and experience as a guerrilla to the ongoing conflict in the Congo. According to Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella, Guevara thought that Africa was imperialism's weak link and therefore had enormous revolutionary potential. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had fraternal relations with Che dating back to his 1959 visit, saw Guevara's plans to fight in the Congo as "unwise" and warned that he would become a "Tarzan" figure, doomed to failure.[91] Despite the warning, Guevara led the Cuban operation in support of the Marxist Simba movement, which had emerged from the ongoing Congo Crisis. Guevara, his second-in-command Victor Dreke, and 12 other Cuban expeditionaries arrived in the Congo on April 24, 1965 and a contingent of approximately 100 Afro-Cubans joined them soon afterward.They collaborated for a time with guerrilla leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who had previously helped supporters of the slain Patrice Lumumba lead an unsuccessful revolt months earlier. Disillusioned with the discipline of Kabila's troops, Guevara would dismiss him, stating "nothing leads me to believe he is the man of the hour."
South African mercenaries, led by Mike Hoare in concert with Cuban exiles and the CIA, worked with the Congo National Army to thwart Guevara. They were able to monitor his communications, and so pre-empted his attacks and interdicted his supply lines. Despite the fact that Guevara sought to conceal his presence in the Congo, the U.S. government was aware of his location and activities: The National Security Agency was intercepting all of his incoming and outgoing transmissions via equipment aboard the USNS Pvt Jose F. Valdez (T-AG-169), a floating listening post that continuously cruised the Indian Ocean off Dar es Salaam for that purpose.

Bolivia
In rural Bolivia shortly before his death (1967)
Guevara's location was still not public knowledge. Representatives of Mozambique's independence movement, the FRELIMO, reported that they met with Guevara in late 1966 or early 1967 in Dar es Salaam regarding his offer to aid in their revolutionary project, which they ultimately rejected. In a speech at the 1967 International Workers' Day rally in Havana, the Acting Minister of the armed forces, Major Juan Almeida, announced that Guevara was "serving the revolution somewhere in Latin America". The persistent reports that he was leading the guerrillas in Bolivia were eventually shown to be true.
At Castro's behest, a parcel of montane dry forest in the remote Ñancahuazú region had been purchased by native Bolivian Communists for Guevara to use as a training area and base camp.
Training at this camp in the Ñancahuazú valley proved to be more hazardous than combat to Guevara and the Cubans accompanying him. Little was accomplished in the way of building a guerrilla army. Former Stasi operative Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider, better known by her nom de guerre "Tania", who had been installed as his primary agent in La Paz, was reportedly also working for the KGB and is widely inferred to have unwittingly served Soviet interests by leading Bolivian authorities to Guevara's trail.

Legacy
Over forty years after his execution, Che's life and legacy still remain a contentious issue. The contradictions of his ethos at various points in his life have created a complex character of unending duality, polarized in the collective imagination.
Some view Che Guevara as a hero; for example, Nelson Mandela referred to him as "an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom" while Jean-Paul Sartre described him as "not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age." Guevara remains a beloved national hero to many in Cuba, where his image adorns the $3 Cuban Peso and school children begin each morning by pledging "We will be like Che." In his native homeland of Argentina, where high schools bear his name, numerous Che museums dot the country, which in 2008 unveiled a 12 foot bronze statue of him in his birth city of Rosario.[ Additionally, Guevara has been sanctified by some Bolivian campesinos as "Saint Ernesto", to whom they pray for assistance.
Conversely, others view him as a spokesman for a failed ideology and as a ruthless executioner. Detractors have theorized that in much of Latin America, Che-inspired revolutions had the practical result of reinforcing brutal militarism and internecine conflict for many years. Guevara remains a hated figure amongst many in the Cuban exile community, who view him with animosity as "the butcher of La Cabaña."
A high-contrast monochrome graphic of his face has become one of the world's most universally merchandized and objectified images, found on an endless array of items, including t-shirts, hats, posters, tattoos, and bikinisironically contributing to the consumer culture he despised. Yet, Guevara still remains a transcendent figure both in specifically political contexts and as a wide-ranging popular icon of youthful rebellion.

gReEn DaY

Green Day is an American rock trio formed in 1987.[1] The band has consisted of Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass guitar, vocals), and Tré Cool (drums, percussion) for the majority of its existence.
Green Day was originally part of the punk rock scene at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. Its early releases for independent record label Lookout! Records earned them a grassroots fanbase, some of whom felt alienated when the band signed to a major label.[2] Nevertheless, its major label debut Dookie (1994) became a breakout success and eventually sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. and 15 million worldwide.[3] As a result, Green Day was widely credited, alongside fellow California punk bands The Offspring and Rancid, with reviving mainstream interest in and popularizing punk rock in the United States.[4][5] Green Day's three follow-up albums, Insomniac, Nimrod and Warning did not achieve the massive success of Dookie, but they were still successful, reaching double platinum, double platinum, and gold status respectively.[6] Green Day's 2004 rock opera American Idiot reignited the band's popularity with a younger generation, selling five million copies in the U.S.[7] The band's eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, will be released on May 15, 2009.
Green Day has sold over 65 million records worldwide,[citation needed] with 22 million of them being sold in the United States.[8] They have won three Grammy Awards; Best Alternative Album for Dookie, Best Rock Album for American Idiot, and Record of the Year for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams".

Band history
Formation and Lookout years: 1987–1993
"Welcome to Paradise"
Sample of "Welcome to Paradise" from Kerplunk This was before Green Day re-recorded the song for its major-label debut Dookie.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.
In 1987, friends Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, 15 years old at the time, formed a band called Sweet Children. The first Sweet Children show took place on October 17, 1987, at Rod's Hickory Pit in Vallejo, California where Armstrong's mother was working.[1] In 1988, Armstrong and Dirnt began working with former Isocracy drummer, John Kiffmeyer (also known as Al Sobrante). Kiffmeyer served as both the band's drummer and business manager, handling the booking of shows and helping the band establish a fan base.[9]
Larry Livermore, owner of Lookout! Records, saw the band play an early show and signed them to his label. In 1989 they recorded their first EP, 1,000 Hours. Before 1,000 Hours was released, the band dropped the name Sweet Children, according to Livermore this was done in order to avoid confusion with another local band Sweet Baby.[10] The band adopted the name Green Day, allegedly due to their fondness of marijuana.[11]
Lookout! would release Green Day's first LP, 39/Smooth in early 1990. Green Day would record two EPs later that year: Slappy and Sweet Children, the latter of which included some older songs they had recorded for Minneapolis indie label Skene! Records. In 1991, Lookout! Records released 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, a compilation of the 39/Smooth, Slappy, and 1,000 Hours EPs. In late 1990, shortly after the band's first nationwide tour, Sobrante left the East Bay area to attend college.[9] The Lookouts drummer Tré Cool began filling in as a temporary replacement, and when it became clear that Sobrante did not plan on committing to the band full time, Tré Cool's position as Green Day's drummer became permanent. The band went on tour for most of 1992 and 1993, and played a stretch of shows overseas in Europe. The band's second full length album Kerplunk sold about 50,000 copies in the U.S.,[12] which was considered quite a large amount for the independent punk scene in 1992.

Breakthrough success: 1994–1996
Kerplunk's underground success led to a wave of interest coming from major record labels, and eventually they left Lookout! on friendly terms and signed with Reprise Records after attracting the attention of producer Rob Cavallo. Signing to Reprise caused many punk rock fans to regard Green Day as sellouts.[2]Reflecting on the period, Armstrong told SPIN magazine in 1999, "I couldn't go back to the punk scene, whether we were the biggest success in the world or the biggest failure ... The only thing I could do was get on my bike and go forward."[13] After signing with Reprise, the band went to work on recording its major label debut, Dookie.

Released in February 1994, and recorded in 3 weeks,[14] Dookie became a commercial success, helped by extensive MTV airplay for the videos of the songs "Longview", "Basket Case", and "When I Come Around", all of which reached the number one position on the Modern Rock Tracks charts. That year, Green Day embarked on a nationwide tour with queercore band Pansy Division as its opening act. At a September 9, 1994 concert at Boston Esplanade, mayhem broke-out during the band's set (cut short to seven songs) and by the end of the rampage, 100 people were injured and 45 arrested.[15] The band also joined the lineups of both the Lollapalooza festival and Woodstock 1994, where they started an infamous mud fight. During the concert, a security guard mistook bassist Mike Dirnt for a stage-invading fan and punched out some of his teeth. Viewed by millions via pay-per-view television, the Woodstock 1994 performance further aided Green Day's growing publicity and recognition,[16] and helped push its album to eventual diamond status. In 1995, Dookie won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album and the band was nominated for 9 MTV Video Music Awards including Video of the Year.[17]

American Idiot and renewed popularity: 2003–2006
Spectators watch Green Day from the grass slopes at the National Bowl.
In the summer of 2003 the band went into a studio to write and record new material for a new album, tentatively titled Cigarettes and Valentines.[28] After completing 20 tracks, the master tapes were stolen from the studio. The band chose not to try to re-create the stolen album, but instead started over. By the end of 2003[when?], Green Day collaborated with Iggy Pop on two tracks for his album Skull Ring and they underwent serious "band therapy," engaging in several long talks to work out the members' differences after accusations from Dirnt and Cool that Armstrong was "the band's Nazi"[29] and a show-off bent on taking the limelight from the other band members.
The resulting 2004 album, American Idiot, debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, the band's first ever album to top the chart, backed by the success of the album's first single, "American Idiot." The album was billed as a "punk rock opera" which follows the journey of the fictitious "Jesus of Suburbia".[30] American Idiot won the 2005 Grammy for "Best Rock Album" and the band swept the 2005 MTV music awards, winning a total of seven of the eight awards they were nominated for, including the coveted Viewer's Choice Award.[31]
Through 2005, the band toured in support of the album with about 150 dates — the longest tour in its career — visiting Japan, Australia, South America and the United Kingdom, where they drew a crowd of 130,000 people over a span of two days. While touring for American Idiot, they filmed and recorded the two concerts at the Milton Keynes National Bowl in England, which was voted 'The Best Show On Earth' in a Kerrang! Magazine Poll.

Music style and influences
Green Day's sound is often compared to first wave punk bands such as the Ramones, The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Jam, and the Buzzcocks.[43][21] The majority of their song catalog is composed of distorted guitar, fast, manic drums, and relatively high-treble bass. Most of their songs are fast-paced and under four minutes. Billie Joe Armstrong has mentioned that some of his biggest influences are seminal alternative rock bands Hüsker Dü and The Replacements, and that their influence is particularly noted in the band's chord changes in songs.[21] In fact, Green Day has covered Hüsker Dü's "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely" as a b-side for the "Warning" single, and the character "Mr. Whirly" in their song "Misery" is a reference to the Replacements song of the same name.[44] Among other influences, Green Day have also cited Queen,[45] and proto-punks Green Day has covered Ramones songs several times, including recording "Outsider" for the tribute album We're a Happy Family, and performing "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Teenage Lobotomy" when the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

Criticism and controversy
Beginning with the release of Dookie, and the subsequent explosion of MTV airplay it received, Green Day has received considerable criticism from those who see the punk genre as a social movement independent of corporate sponsorship. With the release of American Idiot and the subsequent draw of many new fans, much of this criticism has been revived.
One of the more contentious issues is genre labeling. In reaction to both the style of music and the background of the band, many fans and musicians have taken heavy objection to the usage of the term "punk" when applied to Green Day. This is evidenced by the following comments issued by John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), former front man of both the 1970s punk band the Sex Pistols and the 1980s post-punk, Public Image Ltd.:
“
So there we are fending off all that and it pisses me off that years later a wank outfit like Green Day hop in and nick all that and attach it to themselves. They didn't earn their wings to do that and if they were true punk they wouldn't look anything like they do.[46]
”
Brandon Flowers of The Killers went on record in 2007 claiming that Green Day's politically driven concept album American Idiot displays "calculated Anti-Americanism." He explained that he has problems with the album content itself and also the fact that the band's recent live DVD, Bullet in a Bible, was filmed in England. The taping of the concert, featured on Bullet in a Bible, shows thousands of Europeans singing along to "American Idiot." Stating that he felt Green Day's DVD is a bit of a stunt, he said, "I just thought it was really cheap. To go to a place like England or Germany and sing that song - those kids aren't taking it the same way that he meant it. And he (Billie Joe Armstrong) knew it."[47]
More recently, Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher has accused the band of ripping off his song "Wonderwall" for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams".[48]

BaJaJ PuLsAr

Bajaj Pulsar is a motorcycle brand owned by Bajaj Auto in India. The two wheeler was developed by the product engineering division of Bajaj Auto in association with famous Japanese design house Tokyo R&D.

History
Before the introduction of the Pulsar, the Indian motorcycle market trend was towards fuel efficient, small capacity motorcycles (that formed the 80-125 cc class). Bigger motorcycles with higher capacity virtually did not exist (except for Enfield Bullet). The launch and success of Hero Honda CBZ in 1999 showed that there was demand for performance bikes. Bajaj took the cue from there on and launched the Pulsar twins in India on November 24, 2001. [2] Since the introduction and success of Hero Honda CBZ, the Indian youth began expecting high power and other features from affordable motorcycles.
The project was faced with internal resistance, reservations by Mckinsey and doubts on its effects on Bajaj's relation with Kawasaki. The project required approximately 36 months for completion and cost Bajaj Rs 1 billion[3]

Market position
As of 2006, the Bajaj Pulsars form the most popular motorbike product in the newly emerging 150+ cc class of Indian two wheeler market.[4] Bajaj have been regularly making alterations to it to make the motorbike look fresh at all times.

Variants
2001
The original Pulsar came with a 150 cc or 180 cc air-cooled, single-cylinder, petrol, spark-ignited four-stroke engine. They featured a single spark plug to ignite the air-fuel mixture fed from a carburetor, simple spring shock absorbers, round headlamp dome and 1,235 mm wheelbase. Disc brakes as standard equipment was a novelty in Indian motorcycles of the early 2000s. Other standard features were parking lights and an aircraft-type fuel tank lid. The 180 cc version came with Electric Start (ES) and twin-tone horn, both of which were optional equipment on the 150 cc version.

2003
The second generation Pulsars featured Bajaj Auto's newly developed DTSi technology[5], which increased the power rating of both versions by 1 bhp (0.75 kW) each and also increased fuel economy[6]. This model also sported a new headlamp assembly, 1,320 mm wheelbase[7], and standard twin-tone horn and trip meter.

2005
In 2005, Bajaj launched another upgrade of the Pulsar. The bike was offered with 17-inch (430 mm) alloy wheels as standard option, and the stance was also lowered by about 12 mm. It was the first time any bike maker in India had offered 17-inch (430 mm) profile wheels at the rear. The fuel tank now had a capacity of only 15 litres[8]. The power output was now further increased to 13.5 bhp (10.1 kW) @ 8500 rpm for the 150 while it increased to 16.5 bhp (12.3 kW) @ 8500 rpm for the 180[9]. The rear shock absorbers were now gas-filled Nitrox absorbers.

2006
Bajaj introduced another version of Pulsar. New features included: pilot lamps separated from the main headlamp, turn indicators with clear lenses and amber bulb, self-cancelling turn indicator switch, flush LCD screen with digital read-out of key vehicle data, non-contact speed sensor, non-contact backlit switches, twin-stripe LED tail-light assembly and side panels altered for a sharp, tapering-towards-the-rear look. The engine had increased torque availability, reduced vibration and improved gear shift feel. They also introduced the 1 Down 4 Up variant of the Gear box for the first time on sub 150 cc variants.[10].

2007
In July 2007, Bajaj began selling the Bajaj Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi and Pulsar 200 DTS-i, featuring fuel injection and oil cooled engines, a digital dash, and modern styling. This bike has some features which are totally new to the Indian market, like the fuel injection itself, rear disc brake and clip-on handlebars (the last two only available in the 220 model).

Technology
DTSi
DTSi stands for Digital Twin Spark Ignition, a Bajaj Auto trademark. The DTSi idea is a simple one to understand - it involved usage of two spark plugs (instead of the usual choice of one) per engine cylinder.
Bajaj Auto holds an Indian patent for the DTSi technology. The Alfa Romeo Twin-Spark engines, the BMW F650 Funduro which was sold in India from 1995 to 1997 also had a twin-spark plug technology, and the Rotax motorcycle engines,more recently Honda's iDSI Vehicle engines use a similar arrangement of two spark-plugs. However very few small capacity engines did eventually implement such a scheme in their production prototypes. This may be the case because the idea was perhaps not observed to yield any significant or noticeable performance benefit that could be justified against the additional investment of an extra spark plug. This may well be the reason behind very few Indian motorcycles offering products based
While Bajaj claims that the Pulsar is a complete in house product, it should also be known that they had learnt a considerable know-how of building motorcycles from their erstwhile technology partner Kawasaki. Take for instance the original Kawasaki-Bajaj Eliminator, (now sold as the Bajaj Avenger) that had a different engine design than that of the current 180/200 cc Avenger series.

ExhausTEC
ExhausTEC stands for Exhaust Torque Expansion Chamber, a Bajaj Auto trademark. The technology involves use of a small chamber connected to the exhaust pipe of the engine to modify the back-pressure and the swirl characteristics, with an aim to improve the low-end performance of the bikes. This was attempted in response to the issue of a reported lack of low-end response in Bajaj's single-cylinder four-stroke engines. The ExhausTEC technology is claimed to be highly effective in improving the overall engine response, especially the low-end torque characteristics. This enhanced performance is claimed to come at no loss of top-end performance or engine smoothness.

Criticisms
Ergonomics and quality
This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007)
Taller riders often find it difficult to 'tuck in', due to the lack of knee recesses. The 2006 Pulsar also faces numerous defects. The LED Tail Lights, Electronic Fuel gauge and Auto Start malfunctions frequently. But Bajaj has been proactive in changing the faulty components of the bikes at no cost. Bajaj has also replaced the tyre provided in 3rd upgrade model from MRF Zapper to Eurogrip which many riders feel is comparitively of inferior quality and see it as a cost cutting step. But Bajaj is making continuous efforts in order to improve the overall quality of vehicles and squeeze in more features at similar prices.

Patent infringement allegations
In september 2007, Bajaj Auto filed a claim accusing that the development of TVS Flame was in violation of their patent for DTS-I.[11] TVS Motors countered by threatening to sue Bajaj Auto for libel.[12][13] On February 2008, the Chennai High Court restrained TVS from launching it with the twin spark plug technology.[14] TVS appealed against this decision, claiming that crucial evidence was not taken into account [15] and in March 2008, launched the Flame with a modified engine containing one spark plug.[16]

Awards
The different variants of Pulsar have won the following awards.[17]
2008
Bike India awards- Bike of the year- upto 250 cc [18]Indian Motorcycle of the Year [19]
2007
CNBC-TV18 Autocar Auto Awards- Bike of the Year
2004
ICICI Bank OVERDRIVE Awards -Bike of the Year
2003
BBC World Wheels Award-Viewers Choice Two Wheeler of YearBBC World Wheels Award-Best Two Wheeler between Rs 55,000 to Rs 70,000BBC World Wheels Award-Best Two Wheeler between Rs 45,000 to Rs 50,000NFO Automotive- Motorcycle Total Customer Satisfaction StudyICICI Bank OVERDRIVE Awards -Bike of the year

2002
OVERDRIVE Awards- Most exciting bike of the year

BrEtT LeE

Brett Lee (born 8 November 1976 in Wollongong, New South Wales) is an Australian cricketer.
After breaking into the Australian Test team, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket. In each of his first two years, he averaged less than 20 with the ball, but since then has mostly achieved figures in the mid 30s.[1]
He is an athletic fielder and useful lower-order batsman, with a batting average exceeding 20 in Test cricket. Together with Mike Hussey, he holds the record for highest 7th wicket partnership for Australia in ODIs since 2005–2006 (123).[2]

Style
Lee is an express bowler, one of the fastest the game has known, and is capable of bowling at 160 km/h (99 mph). Lee's fastest recorded delivery to date is 160.8 km/h (99.9 mph) which he bowled in his first over on March 5, 2005 at Napier, New Zealand against Craig Cumming.[3] He is also an athletic fielder and aggressive lower-order batsman with a batting average exceeding 20.
Lee ranks with Pakistani bowler Shoaib Akhtar as the fastest bowler in contemporary cricket.[4] Akhtar's delivery at 161.3km/h (100.2mph) stands as the fastest recorded to date.[5]
Lee's speed allows opposition batsmen less time to react, increasing their chances of making a mistake and has bowled with great accuracy as Australia's bowling spearhead. He has a Test bowling average of just under thirty, which sees him ranked in the 5th in the International Cricket Council's Test bowling rankings.
Early in his career, Lee was reported for a suspected illegal bowling action, but was cleared.[6] He was also criticised in early 2005 for bowling a series of beamers at batsmen during ODIs, at a rate which lead some to claim he was deliberately bowling illegal head high full tosses at batsmen.[7][8]
Lee is at his most effective on the pitches of the southern hemisphere, where the pitches have greater bounce. In the northern hemisphere, he has taken 53 wickets in 19 Tests at an average of 42.11. In the southern hemisphere, he has taken 178 wickets in 40 matches at 28.48. He has had the most success against the West Indies and New Zealand, averaging in the low twenties. He averages more than 40 against England, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and in the 30s against other teams.[9]

Childhood and early career
Lee is the second of three sons born to Bob, a metallurgist and Helen (née Buxton), a piano teacher [1] . He has two brothers, the elder being former Australian all rounder and New South Wales Blues captain Shane Lee and a younger brother Grant, now an accountant and concert pianist, who played cricket for New South Wales at the under-19 level. Lee attended Balarang Public School and Oak Flats High School, which later named its cricket ground in his honour. His nickname 'Bing' refers to 'Bing Lee', after a chain of electronics stores in New South Wales.
The brothers enjoyed soccer, basketball and skiing and were encouraged to play the piano by their mother. Lee was introduced to the game of cricket at the age of eight by his brother Shane. He played his first formal game of cricket for the Oak Flats Rats where he took 6/0 from one over or 6 wickets for 0 runs, all of his wickets being bowled..[citation needed] At sixteen years of age, Lee began playing first grade cricket for Campbelltown, where he managed to claim the wickets of a few New South Wales cricketers. He later joined Mosman, where at one point, he shared the new ball with Shoaib Akhtar.[10]
Lee also played for the Australian Under 17 & 19 teams and was awarded a scholarship to attend the Australian Cricket Academy.
In March 1994, Lee was forced out of the Australian under-19 team to tour India due to stress fractures in his lower back. He recovered and made his first-class debut for New South Wales against Western Australia in a Sheffield Shield match as a 20-year old in the 1997–98 season, playing one match and taking 3/114.[11]
One month later, Lee was chosen to represent the Australian A team on a tour to South Africa. He claimed two wickets but in that very match, stress fractures in his back from the previous injury had re-opened and Lee was in a back brace for over three months. When he turned twenty-one, Lee moved to Sydney to be closer to work.[citation needed]
During the 1997-98 season, he played in five of the ten Sheffield Shield games, taking fourteen wickets at 30. He finished outside the top 20 in both the wicket taking list and the bowling averages.[12]
In 1999, during a Sheffield Shield match at Perth, Lee bowled a spell against the Western Australian batsmen, compared the fastest bowling seen in Australia since the days of Jeff Thomson back in the 1970s. From that point, Australian captain Steve Waugh and then vice-captain Shane Warne began pushing for Lee's inclusion in the Test team.

Test career
By the late 1990s there were calls for Lee to be included in the national squad. He was eventually chosen in the final 14 for the Test series against Pakistan in 1999 but failed to make the final 11. By the time the Test series against India came around, he was twelfth man. However, he duly made his Test debut for Australia in December 1999 against the touring Indians, becoming Australia's 383rd Test cricketer.
Bowling first change, Lee took a wicket in his first over in Test cricket when he bowled Sadagoppan Ramesh with his fourth delivery. He also captured Rahul Dravid in his first spell before returning to take three wickets in six balls to finish the innings with figures of 5/47 from 17 overs. Australia had batted first, and Lee had earlier made 27 runs. Lee took thirteen wickets in his opening two Tests at the low average of 14.15.
Lee won the inaugural Donald Bradman Young Player of the Year Award at the Allan Border Medal award ceremony in 2000 soon after his debut.
During the early 2000 tour to New Zealand, Lee was reported by umpires Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Arani Jayaprakash for a suspected illegal bowling action. He was later cleared.
Lee took 42 wickets in his opening three series, the most by any Australian bowler in the seven matches he played.[13] However, in his seventh Test, where he took seven wickets including a five wicket haul in the second innings against the West Indies, he suffered a stress fracture of the lower back which kept him out of three following Tests. He returned against Zimbabwe but soon suffered another setback a month later when he broke his right elbow and was sidelined until May 2001.

Test return
Brett Lee bowling against South Africa at the WACA in 2005
After 18 months on the sidelines and a plea to the selectors and media regarding his constant position as 12th man in the team, Lee returned to the Test team in the 2005 Ashes series. With Michael Kasprowicz and Jason Gillespie both struggling for form, Lee returned to take the new ball with Glenn McGrath. He averaged 40 with the ball for the series, which some commentators have put down to having to bowl longer spells than he was accustomed to at the time, but was retained, in part because of his defiant batting which yielded runs at an average of 26.33. Despite his high bowling average for the series he was considered by many as one of Australia's best players along with leg-spinner Shane Warne and batsman Justin Langer.[21] as well as injuries to McGrath.
Part of Lee's difficulty at Test level is that the benefits of his high speed, which give the batsmen less reaction time, also results in more erratic bowling. In recent times he has tried to concentrate solely on accuracy by reducing speed. During the first Test against the West Indies in late 2005 at the Gabba, after declaring that he would sacrifice pace and focus on 'line and length',[22] Lee reverted to his initial style of bowling, based on the advice of his captain Ricky Ponting after his new method of bowling failed in the first innings.[23] This saw him take 5/30 his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests, his first in four years.

One-day International career
Lee bowling against Pakistan at Lord's, 2004-09-04
Lee made his debut in One Day International for Australia against Pakistan on 9 January 2000 during the Carlton and United Breweries Series at the Gabba, Brisbane. He became the 140th ODI cricketer to represent Australia.
In One-day Internationals Lee is widely regarded as one of the world's finest and most feared bowlers, he was ranked by the ICC as the No. 1 ODI bowler in January 2006[29] and has been ranked among the top ten ODI bowlers since the start of 2003. He has a wide array of deliveries including a dangerous in-swinging yorker. His bowling strike rate of around 30 puts him amongst the most incisive in this form of the game. He also has a One-day International hat-trick to his name, achieved in the 2003 World Cup against Kenya. Lee was the first Australian and fourth bowler to ever achieve this feat in World Cup history.
In the matches Australia played in the 2005-06 triangular one day series, Lee gave a display of his useful batting abilities by making 57 in the second game in a 100 run partnership with Michael Hussey to pull Australia out of a middle order collapse. However, he is yet to consistently contribute with his batting, and his current ICC ranking hovers around the 90-100 region.

Cricket World Cup 2003
During the 2003 Cricket World Cup, Brett Lee was one of the leading performers for Australia. He concluded the tournament with 22 wickets off 83.1 overs at an average of 17.90 finishing second to Sri Lankan left-arm fastbowler Chaminda Vaas who took 23 wickets during that tournament. Lee also had a third leading strike-rate of 22.68 behind West Indian fastbowler Vasbert Drakes and Australian counterpart Andrew Bichel who topped the strike-rates with 19.43 and 21.37 respectively.
Lee earned six of his 22 wickets during the group stage, 11 wickets during the Super-six stage, 3 from the semi-final and 2 wickets from the final. He took one five wicket haul, 5 for 42, during this World Cup which was against the Australians' Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand during their super-six encounter at Port Elizabeth. He also earned his first international hat-trick with figures of 3 for 14 against Kenya during the last match of the super-six stage.
Brett Lee peaked during this tournament in terms of his bowling speed. It was at this world cup Lee bowled his previous fastest recorded delivery of 160.7km/h against England at Port Elizabeth during their group match.

Awards
The Donald Bradman Young Player of the Year 2000
The Wisden Young Cricketer of the Year 1999-2000
Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2006
Chosen in "Australia's Greatest ODI XI", selected by former and present Australian ODI representatives
Chosen in the ODI Team of the Year 2005 at the ICC Awards
Chosen in the Test Team of the Year 2006 at the ICC Awards
Chosen in the ODI Team of the Year 2006 at the ICC Awards
VB Series Player of the Series 2002-03
VB Series Player of the Series 2004–05
DLF Cup Player of the Tournament 2006
Warne-Muralitharan Trophy Player of the Series 2007
Border-Gavaskar Trophy Player of the Series 2007/08
2007 McGilvray Medallist for ABC's Australian Test Player of the year.
2008 Australian Test Player of the Year[32]
2008 Allan Border Medallist[33]
Chosen in the ODI Team of the Year 2008 at the ICC Awards
Chosen in the Test Team of the Year 2008 at the ICC Awards

sWiTzErLaNd

Switzerland (German: Die SchweizFrench: Suisse, Italian: Svizzera, Romansh: Svizra, officially the Helvetic Confederation) is a landlocked alpine country of roughly 7.7 million people (2009) in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km². Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called cantons. Berne is the seat of the federal authorities, while the country's economic centres are its three global cities, Geneva, Basel and especially Zürich. Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world by per capita gross domestic product. Zürich and Geneva have respectively been ranked as having the first and second highest quality of life in the world.

Napoleonic era
The Act of Mediation was Napoleon's attempt at a compromise between the Ancien Régime and a Republic.
In 1798 the armies of the French Revolution conquered Switzerland and imposed a new unified constitution. This centralised the government of the country and effectively abolished the cantons. The new regime, known as the Helvetic Republic, was highly unpopular. It had been imposed by a foreign invading army and destroyed centuries of tradition, making Switzerland nothing more than a French satellite state. The fierce French suppression of the Nidwalden Revolt in September of 1798 was an example of the oppressive presence of the French army and the local population's resistance to the occupation.
When war broke out between France and its rivals, Russian and Austrian forces invaded Switzerland. The Swiss refused to fight alongside the French in the name of the Helvetic Republic. In 1803 Napoleon organised a meeting of the leading Swiss politicians from both sides in Paris. The result was the Act of Mediation which largely restored Swiss autonomy and introduced a Confederation of 19 cantons. Henceforth much of Swiss politics would concern balancing the cantons' tradition of self-rule with the need for a central government.
In 1815 the Congress of Vienna fully re-established Swiss independence and the European powers agreed to permanently recognise Swiss neutrality. Swiss troops still served foreign governments until 1860 when they fought in the Siege of Gaeta. The treaty also allowed Switzerland to increase its territory, with the admission of the cantons of Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva. Switzerland's borders have not changed since.

International institutions in Switzerland
The seat of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne.
An unusual number of international institutions have their seats in Switzerland, in part because of its policy of neutrality. The Red Cross was founded there in 1863 and still has its institutional centre in the country. European Broadcasting Union has the official headquarters in Geneva. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union; the Swiss people rejected membership in a referendum in the early 1990s. Switzerland is one of the most recent countries to have joined the United Nations, in 2002, even though Geneva is the second biggest centre for the United Nations after New York, and Switzerland was a founding member of the League of Nations. Apart from the United Nations headquarter, Geneva is host to many UN agencies, like the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and many others.

Nestlé HQ on the shores of Lac Léman

Greater Zürich area, home to 1.5 million employees and 150,000 companies, has taken top position in some life quality surveys.
If adjusted for purchasing power parity it ranks 15th. The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report currently ranks Switzerland's economy as the second most competitive in the world. For much of the 20th century, Switzerland was the wealthiest country in Europe by a considerable margin. In 2005 the median household income in Switzerland was an estimated 95,000 CHF, the equivalent of roughly 81,000 USD (as of Nov. 2008) in purchasing power parity, which is similar to wealthy American states like California.

Engadin valley, tourism constitutes an important revenue for the alpine regions
Switzerland is home to several large multinational corporations. The largest Swiss companies by revenue are Glencore, Nestlé, Novartis, Hoffmann-La Roche, ABB and Adecco.[36] Also notable are UBS AG, Zurich Financial Services, Credit Suisse, Swiss Re, and The Swatch Group. Switzerland is ranked as having one of the most powerful economies in the world.
Chemicals, health and pharmaceutical, measuring instruments, musical instruments, real estate, banking and insurance, tourism, and international organizations are important industries in Switzerland.

Science, technology, and education
Education in Switzerland is very diverse because the constitution of Switzerland delegates the authority for the school system to the cantons. There are both public and private schools, including many private international schools. The minimum age for primary school is about six years in all cantons. Typically children choose their school depending on whether they want to speak French, German or Italian. Primary school continues until grade four or five, depending on the school.

The "Zentrum" campus of the ETH Zürich, the most prestigious[41] university in Switzerland, where Albert Einstein studied.
There are 12 Universities in Switzerland, ten of which are maintained at cantonal level and usually offer a range of non-technical subjects. The first university in Switzerland was founded in 1460 in Basel (with a faculty of medicine) and has a tradition of chemical and medical research in Switzerland. The biggest university in Switzerland is the University of Zurich with nearly 25,000 students. The two institutes sponsored by the federal government are the ETHZ in Zürich (founded 1855) and the EPFL in Lausanne (founded 1969 as such, formerly an institute associated with the University of Lausanne) which both have an excellent international reputation.

The still active NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers are powered by Swiss-built motors.
Geneva host the world's largest laboratory, the CERN,[47] dedicated to particle physics research. Another important research center is the Paul Scherrer Institute. Notable inventions include the Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), the Scanning tunneling microscope (Nobel prize) or the very popular Velcro. Some technologies enabled the exploration of new worlds such as the pressurized balloon of Auguste Piccard and the Bathyscaphe which permitted Jacques Piccard to reach the deepest point of the world's oceans.

CERN, world's largest laboratory, Geneva
Switzerland Space Agency, the Swiss Space Office, has been involved in various space technologies and programs. In addition it was one of the 10 founders of the European Space Agency in 1975 and is the seventh largest contributor to the ESA budget. In the private sector, several companies are implicated in the space industry such as Oerlikon Space[48] or Maxon Motors[49] who provide spacecraft structures.

Sports
Ski area over the glaciers of Lötschental
Skiing and mountaineering are much practiced by Swiss people and foreigners, the highest summits attract mountaineers from around the world. The Haute Route trekking or the Patrouille des Glaciers race have international reputation.
Like many other Europeans, many Swiss are fans of football (soccer) and the national team or 'Nati' is widely supported. Switzerland's most well known football clubs include Grasshoppers Zurich, Servette FC and FC Basel.

Roger Federer is one of the best tennisman alive and the current number two ATP tennis player
Many Swiss also follow ice hockey and support one of the 12 clubs in the League A. Switzerland will host the 2009 IIHF World Championships for the 10th time.[75] The Swiss team's latest achievement in ice hockey is the 1953 bronze medal. Switzerland is also the home of the sailing team Alinghi which won the America's Cup in 2003 and defended the title in 2007. Curling has been a very popular winter sport for more than 30 years. The Swiss teams have won 3 World Men's Curling Championships and 2 Women's titles. The Swiss men's team skipped by Dominic Andres won a gold medal at 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. Golf is a growing sport with more than 35 courses available.
Over the last few years several Swiss tennis players, like Roger Federer and Martina Hingis, have been multiple Grand Slam singles champions. One of the world's best current ice skaters is Swiss Stéphane Lambiel. André Bossert is successful Swiss professional golfer.

Spengler Cup in Davos
Other sports where the Swiss have been successful include fencing (Marcel Fischer), cycling (Fabian Cancellara), whitewater slalom (Ronnie Dürrenmatt – canoe, Mathias Röthenmund – kayak), ice hockey (Swiss National League), beach volleyball (Sascha Heyer, Markus Egger, Paul and Martin Laciga), and skiing, (Bernhard Russi, Pirmin Zurbriggen, Didier Cuche).
Motorsport racecourses and events were banned in Switzerland following the 1955 Le Mans disaster with exception to events such as Hillclimbing. However, this ban was overturned in June 2007.[76] Even though racing has been banned in Switzerland, the country has produced successful racing drivers such as Clay

Local
Traditional wrestling
Swiss wrestling or "Schwingen" is an old tradition from the rural central cantons and considered the national sport by some.
Hornussen is another indigenous Swiss sport, which is like a cross between baseball and golf.

JiMi hEnDRiX

James Marshall Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is widely considered to be the greatest guitarist in the history of rock music by other musicians and commentators in the industry,[1][2] [3]and one of the most important and influential musicians of his era across a range of genres.[4][5][6]After initial success in Europe, he achieved fame in the United States following his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Later, Hendrix headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival and the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival.
Hendrix often favored raw overdriven amplifiers with high gain and treble and helped develop the previously undesirable technique of guitar feedback. [7] Hendrix, along with bands such as Cream was one of the musicians who popularized the wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock which he often used to deliver an exaggerated pitch in his solos, particularly with high bends and use of legato based around the pentatonic scale. He was influenced by blues artists such as B. B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Albert King, and Elmore James,[8][9][10][11] rhythm and blues and soul guitarists Curtis Mayfield, Steve Cropper, as well as by some modern jazz.[12] In 1966, Hendrix, who played and recorded with Little Richard's band from 1964 to 1965, was quoted as saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice."[13]
Carlos Santana has suggested that Hendrix' music may have been influenced by his Native American heritage.[14] As a record producer, Hendrix also broke new ground in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas. He was one of the first to experiment with stereophonic and phasing effects for rock recording.
Hendrix won many of the most prestigious rock music awards in his lifetime, and has been posthumously awarded many more, including being inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. An English Heritage "Blue plaque" was erected in his name on his former residence at Brook Street, London, in September 1997. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6627 Hollywood Blvd.) was dedicated in 1994. In 2006, his debut US album, Are You Experienced, was inducted into the United States National Recording Registry, and Rolling Stone named Hendrix the top guitarist on its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003.[15]

Biography
Early life
Hendrix was born on November 27, 1942, in Seattle, Washington, USA, while his father was stationed at an Army base in Oklahoma. He was named Johnny Allen Hendrix at birth by his mother, 17 year old Lucille Hendrix née Jeter.[16] She had put him in the temporary care of friends in California (a holiday). On his release from the Army his father, James Allen "Al" Hendrix (1919–2002), took him, and changed his name to James Marshall Hendrix in memory of his deceased brother, Leon Marshall Hendrix.[17][18] He was known as "Buster" to friends and family, from birth.[19] Shortly after, Al reunited with Lucille. He found it hard to gain steady employment after the Second World War, and the family experienced financial hardship. Hendrix had two brothers, Leon and Joseph, and two sisters, Kathy and Pamela. Joseph was born with physical difficulties and at the age of three was given up to state care. His two sisters were both given up at a relatively early age, for care and later adoption, Kathy was born blind and Pamela had some lesser physical difficulties. Hendrix' parents divorced when he was nine years old, and his mother died in 1958. On occasion, he was sent to live with his grandmother in Vancouver, British Columbia because of the unstable household, and his brother Leon was put into temporary welfare care for a period.[20] Hendrix grew up as a shy and sensitive boy, deeply affected by the conditions of poverty and neglect he experienced. In a relatively unusual experience for African Americans of his era, Hendrix' high school had a relatively equitable ethnic mix of African, European (including Jews), and Asian (Japanese, Filipino and Chinese) Americans.[21] At age 15, around the time his mother died, he acquired his first acoustic guitar for $5 from an acquaintance of his father. This guitar replaced both the broomstick he had been strumming in imitation, and the ukulele his father had found while cleaning out a garage[22] [23][24] He learned by practicing almost constantly, watching others play, through tips from more experienced players, and by listening to records. In the summer of 1959, his father bought Hendrix a white Supro Ozark, his first electric guitar, but there was no available amplifier. That same year his only failing grade in school was an F in music class.[citation needed] According to fellow Seattle bandmates, he learned most of his acrobatic stage moves, a major part of the blues/R&B tradition, including playing with his teeth and behind his back, from a fellow young musician, Raleigh "Butch" Snipes.[25] Snipes was a guitarist with local band (The Sharps), who performed Chuck Berry's trademark "duck walk". Hendrix played in a couple of local bands, occasionally playing outlying gigs in Washington State and at least once over the border in Vancouver, British Columbia.[26]
Hendrix was particularly fond of Elvis Presley, whom he saw perform in Seattle, in 1957.[27] Leon Hendrix claimed, in an early interview, that Little Richard appeared in his Central District neighborhood and shook hands with his brother, Jimi. This is unattested elsewhere and vehemently denied by his father.[28] Hendrix' early exposure to Blues music came from listening to records by Muddy Waters and B.B. King his father owned.[29] Another early impression came from the 1954 western Johnny Guitar, in which the hero carries no gun but instead wears a guitar slung behind his back.
His first gig was with an unnamed band in the basement of a synagogue. After too much wild playing and showing off, he was fired between sets. The first formal band he played in was The Velvetones who performed regularly at the Yesler Terrace Neighborhood House without pay. His flashy style and left-handed playing of a right-handed guitar already made him a standout. He later joined the Rocking Kings who played professionally at such venues as the Birdland. When his guitar was stolen (after he left it backstage overnight), Al bought him a white Silvertone Danelectro which he painted red and emblazoned with the words "Betty Jean" (Morgan), the name of his high school girlfriend.
Hendrix completed junior high at Washington Junior High School with little trouble but didn't graduate from Garfield High School, although he would later be awarded an honorary diploma, and in the 1990s, a bust of Hendrix was placed in the school library. After he became famous in the late 1960s, Hendrix told reporters that he had been expelled from Garfield by racist faculty for holding hands with a white girlfriend in study hall. However, Principal Frank Hanawalt says that it was simply due to poor grades and attendance problems.[30]

Early career
After his Army discharge, Hendrix and army friend Billy Cox moved to nearby Clarksville, Tennessee, where they established "The King Kasuals" on a less casual footing. He had already seen Butch Snipes play with his teeth in Seattle and now Alphonso 'Baby Boo' Young the other guitarist in the band was featuring this.[35] Not to be upstaged, it was then that Hendrix learned to play with his teeth properly, according to Hendrix himself: "... the idea of doing that came to me in a town in Tennessee. Down there you have to play with your teeth or else you get shot. There’s a trail of broken teeth all over the stage..."[36] They played mainly in low-paying gigs at obscure venues. The band eventually moved to Nashville's Jefferson Street, the traditional heart of Nashville's black community and home to a lively rhythm and blues scene.[37] There, according to Cox and Larry Lee - who replaced Alphonso Young on guitar - they were basically the house band at "Club del Morrocco".[38] Hendrix and Cox shared a flat above "Joyce's House Of Glamour".[39] Hendrix' girlfriend at this time was Joyce Lucas. Bill 'Hoss' Allen's memory of Hendrix' supposed participation in a session with Billy Cox in November 1962, which he cut Hendrix' contribution due to his over the top playing, has now been called into question; a suggestion has been made that he may have confused this with a later 1965 session by Frank Howard And The Commanders that Hendrix participated in.[40] For the next two years, Hendrix made a precarious living with the King Kasuals and on the Theatre Owners' Booking Association (TOBA) or Chitlin Circuit otherwise known as "Tough On Black Asses," performing in black-oriented venues throughout the South with both Bob Fisher and the Bonnevilles,[41] and in backing bands for various soul, R&B, and blues musicians, including Chuck Jackson, Slim Harpo, Tommy Tucker, Sam Cooke, and Jackie Wilson. The Chitlin Circuit was an important phase of Hendrix' career, since the refinement of his style and blues roots occurred there.
Frustrated by his experiences in the South, Hendrix decided to try his luck in New York City and in January 1964 moved into the Hotel Theresa in Harlem,[42] where he soon befriended Lithofayne Pridgeon (known as "Faye",[43] who became his girlfriend) and the Allen twins, Arthur and Albert (now known as Taharqa and Tunde-Ra Aleem). The Allen twins became friends and kept Hendrix out of trouble in New York. The twins also performed as backup singers (under the name Ghetto Fighters) on some of his recordings, most notably the song "Freedom". Pridgeon, a Harlem native with connections throughout the area's music scene, provided Hendrix with shelter, support, and encouragement. In February 1964, Hendrix won first prize in the Apollo Theater amateur contest. Hendrix was then hired as guitarist for the Isley Brothers' band and joined their national tour, which included the southern Chitlin' circuit. Hendrix played his first successful studio session on the two-part Isley Brothers single "Testify".[44] In Nashville, he left the band to work with Gorgeous George Odell on an R&B package tour that had Sam Cooke as the headliner.[45] In October 1964 he arrived in Atlanta, Hendrix (then calling himself Maurice James) was hired by Little Richard to record and perform on the road with his touring revue, "The Royal Company".[46][47][48][49] During a stop in Los Angeles while touring with Little Richard in 1965, Hendrix played a session for Rosa Lee Brooks on her single "My Diary". This was his first recorded involvement with Arthur Lee of the band "Love".[50][51] While in LA, he also played on the session for Little Richard's final single for Vee-Jay, "I Don't Know What You've Got, But It's Got Me".[52] He later made his first recorded TV appearance on Nashville's Channel 5 "Night Train" with "The Royal Company" backing up "Buddy and Stacy" on "Shotgun".[53] Hendrix clashed with Richard, over tardiness, wardrobe, and, above all, Hendrix' stage antics.[54] On tour with Richard they shared billing a couple of times with Ike and Tina Turner. It has been suggested that he left Richard and played with Ike & Tina briefly before returning to Richard, but there is no firm evidence to support this, and this is emphatically denied by Tina. Months later, he was either fired or he left after missing the tour bus in Washington, D.C.[55] He then re-joined the Isley's for a while.
Later in 1965, Hendrix joined a New York-based band, Curtis Knight and the Squires, after meeting Knight in the lobby of the Hotel America, off Times Square, where both men were living at the time.[56]
Hendrix then toured for two months with Joey Dee and the Starliters before rejoining the Squires in New York. On October 15, 1965, Hendrix signed a three-year recording contract with entrepreneur Ed Chalpin, receiving $1 and 1% royalty. While the relationship with Chalpin was short-lived, his contract remained in force, which caused considerable problems for Hendrix later on in his career. The legal dispute has continued to the present day.[57] During a brief excursion to Vancouver in 1965, it was reported that Hendrix played in the (much later in 1968) Motown band Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers with Taylor and Tommy Chong (of Cheech and Chong fame). Chong, however, disputes this ever happened and that any such appearance is a product of Taylor's "imagination".[58]
In 1966, Hendrix seemed to be quite in demand, playing on sessions with King Curtis and Ray Sharpe; Lonnie Youngblood; The Icemen; Jimmy Norman & Billy Lamont. He got his first composer credit on the Curtis Knight and The Squires's instrumental single "Hornets Nest".[59] He formed his own band, known as The Blue Flames, (or The Blue Flame as they were actually billed in the only surviving advert for them and referred to by John Hammond and also Hendrix himself in his 1969 interview with Nancy Carter) composed of Randy Palmer (bass), Danny Casey (drums), a 15-year-old guitarist who played slide and rhythm, named Randy Wolfe and the occasional stand in about this time.[60] Since there were two musicians named "Randy" in the group, Hendrix dubbed Wolfe "Randy California" (as he had recently moved from there to New York City) and Palmer (a Tejano) "Randy Texas". Randy California would later co-found the band Spirit with his step father, drummer Ed Cassidy. It was around this time that Hendrix' only (officially claimed and partly recognized) daughter Tamika was conceived with Diana Carpenter (also known as Regina Jackson), a teenage runaway and prostitute that he briefly stayed with. She was acknowledged indirectly as his daughter by both Hendrix, when Diana started a paternity suit prior to his death, and unofficially after Hendrix' death by his father Al. Her claim has not been recognized by the US courts where, after death, she may not have a claim on his estate even if she could legally prove he was her father, unless recognized previously as such by him or the courts.[61]
Hendrix and his new band played at several places in New York, including a stint as the opening act for The Monkees,[62] but their primary venue was a residency at the Cafe Wha? on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. The street runs along "Washington (Square) Park" which appeared in at least two of Hendrix' songs. Their last concerts were at the Cafe au Go Go, as John Hammond Jr.'s backing group, billed as "The Blue Flame". Singer-guitarist Ellen McIlwaine and guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, also claim to have briefly worked with Hendrix in this period.[63]

UK success
After his enthusiastically received performance at France's No. 1 venue, the Olympia Theatre in Paris on the Johnny Hallyday tour, an on-stage jam with Cream, a showcase gig at the newly-opened, pop-celebrity oriented nightclub Bag O'Nails and the all important appearances on the top UK TV pop shows "Ready Steady Go!" and the BBC's "Top Of The Pops", word of Hendrix spread throughout the London music community in late 1966. His showmanship and virtuosity made instant fans of reigning guitar heroes Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, as well as Brian Jones and members of The Beatles and The Who, whose managers signed Hendrix to their new record label, Track Records.
Hendrix' first single was a cover of "Hey Joe", using Tim Rose's uniquely slower arrangement of the song including his addition of a female backing chorus. Backing this first 1966 "Experience" single was Hendrix' first songwriting effort, "Stone Free". Further success came in early 1967 with "Purple Haze" which featured the "Hendrix chord" and "The Wind Cries Mary". The three singles were all UK Top 10 hits and were also popular internationally including Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan (though failed to sell when released later in the USA). Onstage, Hendrix was also making an impression with fiery renditions of the B.B. King hit "Rock Me Baby" and a fast version of Howlin Wolf's hit "Killing Floor".

US success
Although very popular internationally at this time, the Experience had yet to crack America, his first single there having failed to sell.[72] Their chance came when Paul McCartney recommended the group to the organizers of the Monterey International Pop Festival. This proved to be a great opportunity for Hendrix, not only because of the large audience present at the event, but also because of the many journalists covering the event that wrote about him. The performances were filmed by D. A. Pennebaker and later shown in some movie theaters around the country in early 1969 as the concert documentary Monterey Pop, which immortalized Hendrix's iconic burning and smashing of his guitar at the finale of his performance.
The opening song was Hendrix' very fast arrangement of Howlin' Wolf's 1965 R&B hit "Killing Floor". He played this frequently from late 1965 through 1968, usually as the opener to his shows. The Monterey performance included an equally lively rendition of B.B. King's 1964 R&B hit "Rock Me Baby", Tim Rose's "Hey Joe" and Bob Dylan's 1965 Pop hit "Like a Rolling Stone". The set ended with The Troggs "Wild Thing" and Hendrix repeating the act that had boosted his profile in the UK (and internationally) with him burning his guitar on stage, then smashing it to bits and tossing pieces out to the audience. This show finally brought Hendrix to the notice of the US public. A large chunk of this guitar was on display along with the other psychedelically painted Stratocaster that Hendrix smashed (but didn't burn) at his farewell concert in England before he left for the US and Monterey, at the Experience Music Project in Seattle.
At the time Hendrix was playing sets in the Scene club in NYC in July 1967, he met Frank Zappa, whose Mothers of Invention were playing the adjacent Garrick Theater, and he was reportedly fascinated by Zappa's recently-purchased wah-wah pedal.[73] Hendrix immediately bought one from Manny's and starting using it right away on the sessions for both sides of his new single, and slightly later, on several jams he played on at Ed Chalpin's studio.[74]
Following the festival, the Experience played a series of concerts at Bill Graham's Fillmore replacing the original headliners Jefferson Airplane at the top of the bill. It was at this time that Hendrix became acquainted with future musical collaborator Stephen Stills and re-acquainted himself with Buddy Miles, who introduced Hendrix to his future partner - Devon Wilson, who had a turbulent on/off relationship with him, from then right up until the night of his death, the only one of his women to record with him. She died only six months after Hendrix in mysterious circumstances, apparently falling from an upper window in the Chelsea Hotel.
Following this very successful West Coast introduction, which also included two open air concerts (one of them a free concert in the "Pan handle" of Golden Gate Park) and a concert at the Whiskey A Go Go, they were booked as one of the opening acts for pop group The Monkees on their first American tour. The Monkees asked for Hendrix because they were fans,[75] but their (mostly early teens) audience sometimes did not warm to their act, and he quit the tour after a few dates. Chas Chandler later admitted that being thrown off the Monkees tour was engineered to gain maximum media impact and publicity for Hendrix,[76] similar to that gained from the manufactured Rank Theatre's "indecency" "dispute" on the earlier UK Walker Brothers tour. At the time, a story circulated claiming that Hendrix was removed from the tour because of complaints made by the Daughters of the American Revolution that his stage conduct was "lewd and indecent". Australian journalist Lillian Roxon, accompanying the tour, concocted the story. The claim was repeated in Roxon's 1969 'Rock Encyclopedia', but she later admitted it was fabricated.[citation needed]
Meanwhile in Western Europe, where Hendrix was also appreciated for his authentic blues renditions as well as his hit singles there, and was often recognised for his avant-garde musical ideas, his wild-man image and musical gimmickry (such as playing the guitar with his teeth and behind his back) had faded; but they later plagued him in the US following Monterey. He became frustrated by the US media and audience when they concentrated on his stage tricks and most well known songs.

Axis: Bold as Love
The Jimi Hendrix Experience's second 1967 album, Axis: Bold as Love was his first recording made with a view to a stereo release and was where he first experimented with this format, using much panning and other stereo effects. It continued the style established by Are You Experienced, but showcased a profound use of melody, along with his well-known technical virtuosity, with tracks such as "Little Wing" and "If 6 Was 9". The opening track, "EXP", featured a stereo effect in which a ruckus of sound emanating from Hendrix's guitar appeared to revolve around the listener, fading out into the distance from the right channel, then returning in on the left. This album marked the first time Hendrix recorded the whole album with his guitar tuned down one half-step, to E♭, which he used exclusively thereafter and was his first to feature the wah-wah pedal and on 'Bold As Love' was probably the first record to feature the stereo phasing technique.
A mishap almost delayed the album's pre-Christmas release: Hendrix lost the master tape of side one of the LP, leaving it in the back seat of a London taxi. With the release deadline looming, Hendrix, Chas Chandler and engineer Eddie Kramer had to re-mix most of side one in an overnight session, but they couldn't match the lost mix of "If 6 was 9". It was only saved by the discovery that bassist Noel Redding had a copy of it on tape, which had to be flattened as it was wrinkled.[77] Hendrix was disappointed that the album had to be finished so quickly and felt it could have been better, given more time. He was also somewhat disappointed with Track Records British designers who created the album's cover art. He remarked that it would have been more appropriate if the cover had highlighted his American-Indian heritage. The cover art depicts Hendrix and his Experience bandmates as the various forms of Vishnu, incorporating a painting of them by Roger Law (from a photo-portrait by Karl Ferris).[78]
The album was released in the UK near the end of their first headlining tour there, after which the pace briefly settled down a bit for a Christmas break. In January 1968 the group went to Sweden for a short tour, and after the first show Hendrix, reportedly after drinking and according to Hendrix his drink being spiked, went berserk and smashed up his hotel room in a rage, injuring his hand and culminating in his arrest. Then on the 6th in Denmark his famous hat was stolen.[79] The rest of the tour was uneventful, though Hendrix had to spend some time in Sweden waiting for his trial and eventual large fine.[80]

Electric Ladyland
The Jimi Hendrix Experience "All Along the Watchtower" (1968)
"All Along the Watchtower" is one of Hendrix's best-known recordings. From the album Electric Ladyland.
Hendrix's third recording, a double album, Electric Ladyland (1968), was a departure from previous efforts. Following his third and penultimate French concert at the Paris Olympia, Hendrix flew to the US to start his first tour there, after two months of this he returned to his Electric Ladyland project at the newly opened Record Plant studios with engineers Eddie Kramer and Gary Kellgren and initially Chas Chandler as producer.
As the album's recording progressed, Chas Chandler became so frustrated with Hendrix's perfectionism and with various friends and hangers-on milling about the studio that he decided to sever his professional relationship with Hendrix. Chandler's professional and musical education was very business-oriented, and it taught him that songs should be recorded in a matter of hours, and written with a view to releasing them as singles. His influence over the Experience's first two albums is clear in light of the facts that very few of the tracks are more than four minutes long, that both albums were recorded in a short time, and that most of the songs on both albums conformed to the structure of a typical pop song. However, as Hendrix began developing his own vision and started to assert more control over the artistic process in the studio, Chandler decided to move to other opportunities and ceded overall control to Hendrix. Chandler's departure had a clear impact on the artistic direction that the recording took.
Hendrix began experimenting with different combinations of musicians and instruments, and modern electronic effects. For example, Dave Mason, Chris Wood, and Steve Winwood from the band Traffic, drummer Buddy Miles and former Bob Dylan organist Al Kooper, among others, were all involved in the recording sessions. This was one of the other reasons that Chandler cited as precipitating his departure. He described how Hendrix went from a disciplined recording regimen to an erratic schedule, which often saw him beginning recording sessions in the middle of the night and with any number of hangers-on.
Chandler also expressed exasperation at the number of times Hendrix would insist on re-recording particular tracks; the song "Gypsy Eyes" was reportedly recorded 43 times. This was also frustrating for bassist Noel Redding, who would often leave the studio to calm himself, only to return and find that Hendrix had recorded the bass parts himself during Redding's absence. The effects of these events can clearly be identified in the album's musical style. On a purely superficial level, the tracks no longer conformed to the stand