Grammar question about Jimi Hendrix

How would you make his name possessive?

Like, if you were talking about his song, "Purple Haze," would you say Jimi Hendrix' "Purple Haze," or Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze." I would probably go with the first. A copy editor at my shop argues for the latter.

My style guide has nothing in it about Hendrix other than an entry that reads, "Buncha damn hippies. Cut your hair!"

 

x's. "S" is the only letter that doesn't get an "apostrophe S."

 

what he said

 

Damn. I was hoping we were going to try to parse:

"And with this crutch, its old age and its wisdom
It whispers, 'No, this will be the last.'

And The Wind Cries Mary."

I've always figured generally, he's asking if the sadness over his lost love will fade, and concluding that he can't imagine it will, in the terrible immediacy of his present circumstance.
But that's just a guess.
On the other thing, Hendrix's.

 

Well that sucks. It sounds so awkward. It's like saying the Red Sox's home stadium, Fenway Park. Just looks and sounds weird.

 

Ahhh, but there's a difference: Red Sox's is a triple sibilant. You wouldn't do that, because of the three s sounds. It would be Red Sox'.

 

Three s sounds?

 

Yeah, Red Ssss ox ssss' ssss.


I know this because, many years ago in another lifetime, I was on the desk for a while during the Moses Malone era, and how to handle "Moses' " came up. That was the official ruling of the learned grammar jedi.

 

moses' is definitely only two s sounds, though.

 

Disagree.

 

Yeah, but Mosss e sss ' sss would be three, if you put the extra s on the end, now, wouldn't it??
You're just pissy because Van Halen sucked.

FYI, my wife bought two pricey tickets to a Lyle Lovett-John Hiatt concert for my Christmas present, not realizing I'll be out of town on the concert date. Nobody wants the damn tickets. That's a hundred bucks worth of nothing.

 

Mozesss'sss