Plugging in for Hendrix

Sometimes a stroll down Hollywood Boulevard is a step back in time. To 1969,to be exact.

Sometimes a stroll down Hollywood Boulevard is a step back in time. To 1969,to be exact. Its that way when Anthony Aquarius plugs in his battery-powered amplifiers,straps his electric guitar on upside down and belts out Hey Joe to startled passersby.

Aquarius sounds like Jimi Hendrix. He looks like him tooright down to the lanky gait,bushy hair and flamboyantly coloured clothes.

Hendrix,an iconic figure from the late 1960s,is regarded by some as the best rock guitarist ever. He is still revered for his heavily amped sound and freewheeling technique.

Hendrix played left-handed but used a right-hand guitar that he held upside down. So does Aquarius. Hendrix could play with his teeth and with the guitar behind his back. Aquarius can too.

I realised a long time ago,when I was real little,that I sounded like Jimi, Aquarius says. To look like him I had to draw moustaches on myself when I was 13 or 14. Back then Jimi wasnt as hot as he is today. People would tell me to stop playing like him.

Aquarius moved to Los Angeles last summer from Youngstown,Ohio. These days he performs on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,about a block from where Hendrixs own star is encased in the sidewalks terrazzo. This is where you get your A game, he said. If you practise at home,youre going to practise a half hour and get something to eat and then lay down and take a nap. Out here people are watching.

Boulevard visitors seem to like what they see. Hes good. I grew up on Janis and Jimi and Jim Morrison, says Destiny Mitchell,a 21-year-old waitress and student from San Francisco. Among the passersby who have stopped to listen is Leon Hendrix,Jimis younger brother. According to Aquarius,Leon Hendrix now jams with his new group,the Anthony Aquarius Mystery.

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Aquarius figures he knows each of the tunes Hendrix performed. Ive probably played Hey Joe more times than Hendrix ever did, he says. He doesnt dwell on Hendrixs death from an accidental drug overdose in 1970 at age 27,Aquarius said. Or on Janis Joplins at 27. Or on the Doors Jim Morrisons at 27. When asked his age,Aquarius says,with a grin,that hes 27. And that may be where the similarity between him and Hendrix ends,he saysacknowledging that his boulevard act is for show.

Its really not me that people are looking at when Im out here, he concedes. He knows that those who are unfamiliar with Jimi Hendrix will pay no attention to Anthony Aquarius.