The female guitarist Jimi Hendrix was always desperate to emulateIt is easy to forget that Jimi Hendrix was, at his core, an ordinary bloke, rather than a fully-formed rock god sent down from the heavens in order to show us mere mortals the ways of his psychedelic six-string. So much so that the rest of rock’s guitar heroes, including the likes of Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page, then working as a session musician, had to scramble to keep up with the guitarist, often unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, Hendrix was, in essence, indebted to his own range of influences and guitar heroes. Admittedly, when you think of rock’s archetypal axemen – including Hendrix himself – they all tend to be men. Tharpe was patient zero for virtually all future rock and roll guitar heroes, and Hendrix was a natural disciple of the gospel performer from a young age.