3 of the Best Alternative Rock Jimi Hendrix Covers

It’s common to hear blues-rock legends like Stevie Ray Vaughan and John Mayer cover Jimi Hendrix. But for this list, I want to highlight three alternative rock covers you may not be familiar with. The first reading remains true to Hendrix’s signature style. But the others show just how far the guitarist’s influence has reached. Hendrix not only transformed the electric guitar but also forever changed rock music, including a subgenre that often went out of its way to avoid rock’s clichés.

See how these alt-rockers below interpreted an artist who himself upended similar conventions.

“Castles Made Of Sand” by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Few artists have so faithfully borrowed from Jimi Hendrix. Red Hot Chili Peppers thread funk and punk with Hendrix’s psychedelic blues, which began in 1982 in the hands of the band’s co-founding guitarist, Hillel Slovak. Following Slovak’s death in 1988, John Frusciante took the blueprint and helped transform it into a RHCP masterpiece, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Here, the Funky Monks’ cover of “Castles Made Of Sand”—a bonus track from Blood Sugar—largely sticks to the original as an homage to their hero.

“Purple Haze” by The Cure

Post-punk guitarists mostly avoided the blues-rock tradition. And on paper, you might not think Robert Smith has much in common with Hendrix. However, Smith built his signature sound using modulation effects like chorus and flanger, which occasionally echo Hendrix’s swirling textures. Here, The Cure covers “Purple Haze” and transforms the Hendrix standard into psychedelic goth rock. This is the Virgin Radio Version, which appears on the B-sides and rarities collection, Join The Dots.

“Are You Experienced?” by Belly

Tanya Donelly was a central figure in the rise of indie rock in the late 80s and early 90s. She co-founded Throwing Muses with Kristin Hersh before co-founding The Breeders with Kim Deal. Then Donelly formed Belly, and this cover of “Are You Experienced?” remains my favorite from the 1993 Jimi Hendrix tribute album, Stone Free. It features how Donelly and others from Boston’s indie rock scene helped pave the way for Nirvana, Radiohead, and many others.

Photo by Christian Rose/Roger Viollet via Getty Images