I have been reading, thumbing through, and enjoying every dive into the "The Art of Electronic Music: The Instruments, Designers, and Musicians Behind the Artistic and Popular Explosion of Electronic Music" compiled by Tom Darter, edited by Greg Armbruster, with a forward by Robert Moog. It was published in 1984 so it is not comprehensive if you want a history that includes anything around or after 1984. It is a compilation of interviews and articles featured in Keyboard magazine from 1975 to 1983. The interviews are excellent and cover a veritable who's who of keyboard heavyweights. Highly recommed it, regardless of the chronological limitation. I am borrowing a copy from my local library (support your local libraries!) and find it a fun volume to peruse when I am between things.
One thing I found that totally jumped out at me, and a historical nugget that can be filed in the great "what if" and/or "what would have happened if..." category was a response made by Keith Emerson, keyboard maestro best know for his mammoth role in the sound and direction of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. In his interview he was asked:
There's a story that [Jimi] Hendrix was going to be a part of ELP [Emerson, Lake & Palmer]. Is that true?
Well, it was one thing that was suggested by (drummer) Mitch Mitchell when the band was first forming. Unfortunately, the press got a hold of it and blew it up. They made all sorts of speculations. Their imaginations ran wild. At the time, Greg and I were talking with Mitch about joining us. He was happy with the suggestion, and he said, "Well, I’m seeing Hendrix tonight, maybe we could ask him to join too.” Mitch said Hendrix thought a lot of my playing, and I told him the feeling was mutual. I thought it would be fantastic, although I was a bit skeptical about it. I thought Hendrix might take the attention away from me—I’m a bit of an egomaniac. If Hendrix had been interested, though, I’d have given it a go.
Wow, what a musical tectonic shift that would have been. Imagine, a veritable "supergroup" comprised of Hendrix, Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Mitch Mitchell. Mindboggling. Of course, it never happened but it is fun to think of what the sound and direction, musically, would have been.