The music behind SmashBits

Music is a source of inspiration. Sometimes this inspiration takes some time to surface. Music can influence you indirectly through your emotions. This is a story about how music directly influenced the name of my website.

When I was young, I used to listen to U2, Simple Minds and those kinds of bands. Those were the bands that came out with new music at the time. It was the period after which I left bands like Wham and Duran Duran behind. It was also the time where I began to discover Jimi Hendrix. At the time there was a Levi's commercial that featured the track "Crosstown Traffic". I was intrigued by it. Somehow it was different. It fit perfectly to the soundtrack of Tour of Duty that was very popular amongst us.

Anyway, one day after work, I was walking home through my hometown's city center and there was some kind of evening market taking place. Some guy was selling CDs and he had a copy of "Smash Hits" by Jimi Hendrix, at a price I could afford, so I instantly bought it. That opened up a whole lot of new tracks I did not know. I loved it!
I became a great fan of all of Hendrix' work and bought a lot of his albums. The CD that started it, I lost. Maybe I lent it to someone, I don't remember. Since I already owned all of the music on that CD, I did not really miss it.

Many many years later, I thought it was time for my own web domain, it came quite naturally to me that it had to be SmashBits. A nice reference to that first Hendrix album. So since 2008 my domain is active.

The picture below is a photo of a recent copy of "Smash Hits" that I stumbled upon on Discogs, when buying another album I wanted. It's a great addition to my collection and bought back the memories and the story behind my domain name. It was a cheap copy, that someone has enjoyed very much, judging by how it crackles. There's tremendous joy in Smash Hits!