Sometime in the early summer of 1967, the prophet, poet and musician Jimi Hendrix sang out the words to change a day. In The Wind Cries Mary, Hendrix released a declaration:
“The traffic lights, they turn blue tomorrow,
And shine their emptiness down on my bed.”
It was near dusk the next day when the prophecy first came true. A lonely wind rushed through the town before blue light streamed from the city’s stoplights at all three positions, replacing red, yellow and green. This left drivers to interpret the meaning.
At Elm and 6th street, traffic in all four directions came to a standstill. The drivers, in a trance, tried to determine just what the blue lights meant.
On Connecticut Avenue, a grandfather named Eugene saw the lights and fled screaming from his car, off into a park. Others soon followed suit, sure that the end times were upon them. The other people returned, but Eugen never claimed his car.
When Kathy saw the blue lights on Broadway, it felt like the break she needed. As other drivers were confused and cautious, she floored it and sped off to some unknown destination, hitting every blue light on her way to freedom.
And then, carried by the wind across the city, the echo of a guitar three-note riff was heard. This was a sound that only one man has ever created with the instrument. All the lights turned red, then the normal patterns reset.
The phenomenon, to this day, continues to travel to different towns and cities. It’s only an occasional occurrence. It’s always a lonely summer’s day when the wind sweeps chaos before ending with a guitar riff that was last played long ago.