Hendrix Comes to Rock Band

If you’re the creators of wildly popular Rock Band, you’ve been dealing with a bit of a problem lately: how do you beat the Beatles? This isn’t a new quandary; people have been trying to figure out how to top the Fab Four for fifty years…and no one has figured it out yet. So while it may have seemed like the greatest video game coup of all time to get privileges to the Beatles’ catalogue for what turned out to be a phenomenon (and hey, I don’t use that word lightly) of a video game frenzy, the Rock Band powers-that-be have to be scratching their heads about how to make people want more post-Beatles. Color me impressed because I think they’ve actually picked the right follow-up act in Jimi Hendrix. In cooperation with Experience Hendrix and Legacy Recordings, Rock Band will start releasing Hendrix’s three studio albums, plus the posthumously released First Days of the Rising Sun, all starting at the end of March. For now, the plan is to just release the music on the current Rock Band platform but there have been talks of formatting a whole Rock Band: Jimi Hendrix game, complete with an avatar of the late rock god and even replicas of his guitars. Yes, you can all lose your shit now. “Much like Jimi’s music, we feel that Rock Band represents an amazing, innovative medium for music discovery and interaction that can have a profound affect on those who experience it,” says Janie Hendrix, the CEO of Experience Hendrix. “We are extremely pleased to be able to have Jimi Hendrix’s genius musical legacy continue to live on and touch people the world over through Rock Band.” Why is Hendrix such a great choice to keep the Rock Band fever rolling? Because much like the Beatles were arguably the greatest songwriters ever, Hendrix was arguably the most challenging guitarist ever. You’re also talking about two musical acts who are widely agreed to have been cut short before their time, leaving fans perpetually wanting more. And whether you love it or think it’s an abomination of untouchable music, you have to admit, it’s smart as hell. Because the Rock Band guys have figured out how to give fans that “more” they’ve been wanting for half a century.