This was created for a little nightclub project, more of which later.
The inspiration was a Capital letter ‘A’ from a Victorian type specimen book.
This soon morphed into an idea about women’s shoes and girl groups from the sixties.
Plus a dash of Los Angeles Gothic.
Named after a Jimi Hendrix song; it was nearly called Spanish Harlem.
As you see, I like alternative letters, especially with Decorative Headline typefaces.
In the excellent book, “Becoming Jimi Hendrix” by Steven Roby, I learned the meaning of the song. The Spanish Castle was a venue outside Seattle where Hendrix performed before he became well-known as a solo performer. From the context, I think this was shortly after he finished high school, so maybe he was 17 or 18 at the time.
“As Jimi got older, he played a club south of Seattle by the name of the Spanish Castle, which he later reminisced about in a song he titled “Spanish Castle Magic”:
‘It’s very far away
It takes about half a day
To get there
If we travel by my, uh, dragonfly.’
The dragonfly was metaphorically the old, green Plymouth Fury with pronounced wings that one of the bands Jimi sat in with drove, when it wasn’t broken down, to gigs. Leon [Hendrix] tagged along with Jimi and looked forward to the shows at the Spanish Castle, its external square turrets and neon light cutting through the mist of Pacific Northwest nights. Jimi’s little brother also looked forward to a free hot dog and French fries while the band played. On certain late nights, Leon slept under the stage.”
Thank you so much!
I’ve been to a beach next to a seaside town called Essaouira where there is a ‘Castle made of sand’ that ‘fell into the sea, eventually’. Another of Jimi’s magic castles.
If only I could design something to warrant the name ‘The stars up above that played with laughing Sam’s dice’.
I love Hendrix.