COTD 14: The Hendrix/Gretty Chord

Sorry about the long pause. Perhaps it will soon be "Chord of the Fortnight."

D7#9
X5456X

This is used in the Beatles song Taxman, and as such should be referred to as the Gretty chord, after Jim Gretty, who worked at a music shop in Liverpool and taught the chord to the Beatles. Hendrix used this fingering often, and sometimes added a raised fifth:

E7#9#5
X76788

Both have their place, but good luck if you're hoping for other ergonomic voicings that are similarly bluesy without becoming too dissonant. Swapping out the root note for a 5th gives you this:

D7#9
X(9)(10)(10)(10)X

Which is an F#^oΔ7, and pretty ugly out of context. Note the spelling is exactly the same as D7#9. From low to high, these notes are F#, C, E#, A. The E# is because that note functions as a #9 in D7#9 and a Δ7 in F#^oΔ7. Neither of those degrees is an F note in their respective scale.

Here's a list  of D7#9's for you completists:

Substitution	Form	Root inversion	1st inv.	2nd inv.	3rd inv.	4th inv.*
Root	Close	X(17)(15)(11)(13)X	X8453X	N/A	X(9)(10)(7)(6)X	X(15)(12)(10)(7)X
Root	Drop-2	X5456X	X(9)(12)(10)(13)X	N/A	X(15)(15)(11)(15)X	X(8)(10)(7)(7)X
Root	Drop-3	(10)X(10)(10)(7)X	2X353X	N/A	8X476X	(13)X(12)(11)(13)X
5th	Close	N/A	X8421X	X9756X	X(12)(10)(10)(7)X	(15)(15)(11)(10)X
5th	Drop-2	N/A	X(9)(10)(10)(10)X	X(12)(15)(11)(13)X	X3426X	X8757X
5th	Drop-3	N/A	2X321X	5X456X	(8)X(7)(10)(7)	(13)X(10)(11)(10)X

* The 4^th inversion has the #9 in the lowest voice. In drop-2 and drop-3 voicings, this creates a ♭9 tension with the major 3^rd. Play the chords and see if you like them. Close forms are always constrained to an octave, making ♭9 intervals impossible. So they don't have that problem, but good luck playing them!