"Trumpets and violins I can hear in the distance. I think theyre calling our names."
PART 9
Guitar for hire
For many years, there were far more releases of pre-Experience recordings than the regular Hendrix material on the market ! Practically all of the releases pictured and still picture Jimi at the height of his fame with no indication of the source of the recordings, creating confusion about his musical heritage. The main sources were from sessions done when Jimi worked with Curtis Knight and Lonnie Youngblood. Some albums published through the years even featured recordings which don't even have Jimi on them but an imitator (overdubbed after he had found fame).
As a youngster in his hometown of Seattle, Jimmy joined local groups such as The Velvetones, The Rocking Kings, Luther Rabb & The Stags and The Tom Cats. Later in Nashville he joined The King Kasuals (with Billy Cox), and Bob Fisher & The Barnevilles. In 1962/63, he toured with anyone he could (often accompanied by Billy Cox), landing jobs with Bobby Taylor & The Vancouvers, Tommy Tucker and the great Slim Harpo. In 1964 came his first big break when he was hired by The Isley Brothers as guitarist in their backing band (The I.B. Specials) and his recording career began. He then went on to tour with such prestigeous artists as James Brown, Little Richard, Ike & Tina Turner, BB King, Sam Cooke and many more.
Jimmy (he became "Jimi" later, on his first flight to England with Chas Chandler in September 1966) was captured on tape with only, The Isley Brothers, Little Richard, King Curtis, Don Covay, and a few other lesser known artists. Some of the recordings of this period are quite interesting, although rather dated.
These are the only recordings with confirmed involvement by Jimmy (according to the very authorative earlyhendrix.com).
Only the Curtis Knight, Lonnie Youngblood, Little Richard and Isley Brothers recordings are to be found on compilations.
Jimmy with a regulation haircut, on-stage with The Isley Brothers
Photo credit: Caesar Glebbeek Collection; scan c/o T. Pershing
The Isley Brothers
"Testify (Part
1)"/"Testify (Part 2)" (T-Neck, June 1964)
""Move Over And Let Me Dance"/"Have You ever Been Disappointed"
(Atlantic, September 1965)
Three 1964 sessions with the superb
Isleys resulting in these singles on Atlantic. This is very early
Hendrix (or rather "Maurice James" as he called himself at the
time !) but you can already feel his dynamic touch in the punchy
rhythms and the brief but neat solo on "Testify". It's a totally
wild song, a sort of crazy rap where the band imitate Ray Charles,
James Brown and Stevie Wonder, shouting all over the place. In
"Part 2" he gets the chance to play a short solo.
Minimal Hendrix contribution on the other single.
These songs appeared later on the album "In The Beginning" with Jimmy's guitar parts mixed up front.
> Later, in 1971, The Isleys paid hommage to Jimi on their album "Givin' It Up" which opened with "Ohio/Machine Gun" ("Ohio" being the famous Neil Young song). As the 70s continued, Ernie Isley became the Hendrix figure of the band, dressing like Jimi and laying his fuzz guitar solos on hits like "Live It Up", Summer Breeze" or "Who's That Lady".
"In The Beginning", a seventies collection of early Isley Brothers recordings, some featuring Hendrix.
Don Covay
Don Covay & The
Goodtimers
"Mercy
Mercy"/"Can't Stay Away" (Rosemart, August 1964)
This is a classic little song with a
lovely clean production. In an interview with Covay, he said that
main guitar you hear is not Jimmy (who only did some fill-ins) but
Ronnie Miller.
Hendrix obviously loved the song as he later included it in the
early Experience repertoire (it is often listed on unofficial
releases as "Have Mercy") and you can hear Jimi, Mitch and Noel
play it on the bootleg of the Flamingo Club concert, recorded in
February 1967 (rather poor sound however) and also at the Stora
Scenen, Lund, Sweden, in September 1967 (better sound but it is
incomplete dammit !).
The Rolling Stones liked Covay's song too and covered it on their 1965 album "Out Of Our Heads". Their version is a very faithful reproduction of this original single.
Rosa Lee Brooks
Rosa Lee
Brooks
"My Diary"/"Utee" (Revis 1965)
Arthur Lee (later of Love) wrote "My Diary"* and he is on backing vocals and production. It opens with Jimmy's guitar in a gentle "Little Wing"-like way before the song continues in standard soul fashion. "Utee" is also very Mowtown inspired, sounding similar to Martha Reeves & The Vandellas for example. Jimmy's guitar comes over very clearly here and he puts in a great little solo.
*The record label listed Lee as the writer but in John McDermott's recent book, Rosa claims that she wrote the song with Jimi !
Jimmy on-stage with a silver wigged Little Richard !
Little Richard
"I Don't Know
What You Got But Its Got Me Part 1& 2" (Vee-Jay 1965)* -
See also bottom of page
"What You Got"/ "Dance-A-Go-Go" (?) - (That is the
same song re-released plus another song on which Jimi is said to
be present recorded as "Dancin' All round".
Like with the Isleys, this was one of Jimmy's most prestigeous early employers though Richard was past his glory years at this stage. On tour the act was billed "Little Richard and the Royal Company". Few recording sessions were done with Hendrix however. In the late sixties (or early seventies) a Hendrix imitator was overdubbed on some Richard tapes. The album "Friends From The Beginning" doesn't even contain the track here, which is reportedly the only one that Jimmy is said to have definately played on ! Young Jimmy's contribution on this dreary song is very low key and the song drags on. It reminds me of James Brown's "Please, Please, Please" without the passion.
*The song was listed as being written by Don Covay but in an interview, Ace Hall (the leader of Don Covay's backing band The Goodtimers) stated that he in fact wrote the song with Jimmy !
>There exists a live recording of Richard with Jimmy behind him, however it is not in circulation among collectors.
In the mid 60s, Jimmy
appeared on TV when Little Richard's band, The Upsetters, backed
singers Buddy & Stacey
as they performed their version of the Junior Walker & The All
Stars hit "Shotgun".
(To see the clip, just type "Hendrix Stacey" on YouTube - check
out the superb Junior Walker original also).
It seems that Jimmy did no studio recordings with the
duo.
You can hear Jimmy playing
"Shotgun" on one of the Georges Club recordings of Curtis
Knight & The Squires.
Soon after, in New York's Greenwich Village, Jimmy had the song in
the repertoire of his first group The Rainflowers (aka Jimmy James
& The Blue Flames).
Lonnie
Youngblood
Lonnie Youngblood
"Go Go Shoes" /
"Go Go Place" (Fairmont 1966)
"Soul Food (That's What I Like" / "Goodbye Bessie Mae"
(Fairmont 1966)
This mid-tempo Lonnie Youngblood song
features a funky stabbing rhythm from Jimmy. There's no solo but
the initial flourish from Jimmy reminds me of a passage that he
later used in "3 Little Bears" ! On the flip-side however,
which is "Go Go Place", Lonnie asks the guitar player to do
his thing and Jimmy finally puts in a little solo. Not much
happenning for Jimmy on the other single however, apart from a
breif solo on "Goodbye Bessie Mae".
The recordings that Hendrix
made with his session mate Lonnie Youngblood have been heavily
exploited over the years. Some "Hendrix" albums that appeared
after Jimi's death featured these tracks (in remixed form) plus
many other songs. However a court ruling in 1997 saw some albums
withdrawn due to the absence of Hendrix involvement on most of the
recordings ! The albums were "Moods", "Rare Hendrix" and "In The
Beginning" and "Free Spirit" which also featured The
Icemen's "She's A Fox". (see below).
Later in his career, once famous, Jimi met up again with Youngblood to jam and a glimpse of that appeared recently on the album "Martin Scorcese Presents the Blues: Jimi Hendrix" - see Posthumous Studio Albums.
One of the many collections of Lonnie Youngblood/Hendrix
recordings with an image of Jimi circa 1968/69.
Here's an interesting article about Lonnie Youngblood.
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Ray Sharpe with The King
Curtis Orchestra
"Help Me get That feeling (Part 1&2)" (Atco
1966)
While with The Isley
Brothers, Jimmy had been seen by King Curtis and Juggy Murray the
manager of Sue Records. Murray was impressed and signed Jimmy to
his label and Jimmy went on to tour and record witn King
Curtis.
This great funky track (the riff and song structure lifted from
Them's fabulous "Gloria") was recorded with King Curtis who
also produced the session. The results were so good that Curtis
used the backing track a second time for a single by
Owen
Gray"(Help
Me"/"Insence"). I'm not sure that the basic riff is played by
Jimmy but that's certainly him behind, playing what are almost
like "wakka-wakka" wah-wah rhythms.
In 1967, to avoid contractual problems, he replaced Jimmy's
contribution with another guitarist and used it as the backing for
Aretha Franklin's superb "Save Me"*.
Later, in 1969, Curtis came back again to the master with
Jimmy, did more overdubbing and released it under his own name as
King Curtis & The
Kingpins -
"Instant Groove" / Sweet Inspiration" !
*Interesting triviia - In 1966, just after his arrival in London and before The Experience were formed, Jimi jammed in a London club with Brian Auger who would later release his own cover version of "Save Me" (with Julie Driscoll on vocals).
The Icemen
"(My Girl) She's A
Fox"/"(I Wonder) What It Takes" (Samar 1966)
Jimmy participated in this session with Lonnie Youngblood. This is
really a copy of The Impressions "Gypsy Woman" with new
lyrics and because of that it is very close to the version of that
song which Jimi performed at Woodstock in 1969. The performance of
that song, with Larry Lee on vocals, was not put on the MCA
release "Live At Woodstock" but it can be heard on bootlegs of the
show. The arrangement, Jimi's playing and the vocals (with Jimi on
backing vocals) are all very similar to this 1966 single by The
Icemen. Like with "My Diary", you can hear the roots of
"Little Wing" also in his gentle guitar style. The title
itself also points to "Foxy Lady" !
Jimmy
Norman
"You're Only Hurting Yourself"/"That Little Old Groovemaker"
(Samar 1966)
Nothing of Hendrix interest
going on here.
Billy
Lamont
"Sweet Thang"/"Please Don't Leave" (20th Century Fox -
recorded 1966, released in 1967)
A pre-Experience recording but released
in 1967. Jimmy bursts in here with superb snappy guitar intro,
then he carries the whole thing along with a dense funky rhythm
backed with brass. No solo.
Jimmy also played on Lamont's "Wipe the Sweat" (with Lonnie
Yougblood on sax) and that was later re-issued on albums, without
vocals, as a Hendrix/Youngblood track.
Frank Howard & The
Commanders
"I'm So Glad"/"I'm Sorry for You" (Barry 1966)
Both songs here were written
by Billy Cox ! That's about all that is worth reporting about
these rather dull songs. The A-side has nothing whatsoever to do
with Cream's "I'm So Glad" of course.
Curtis Knight and The
Squires
"How Would You
Feel"/"Welcome Home" (RSVP 1966)
"Hornets Nest"/"Knock Yourself Out" (RSVP 1966 ) - Both
songs written by Hendrix and co-credited to the producer Jerry
Simon.
Jimmy eventually decided to abandon touring the States and
settled in the New York/New Jersey area. He had probably figured
that building up a local following and reputation was a better way
to advance his professional career.
He joined this local band (who also called themselves The
Lovelights) in 1965 and recorded a few things in the studio with
them for PPX Enterprises, a company who had signed them up. PPX
and their owner Ed Chalpin were to cause Jimi many headaches over
the years to come, concerning recording rights. The legal battles
with the various Hendrix managements continued into the 21st
century.
Curtis Knight & The Squires' first single, "How Would You Feel", is a cry for racial equality and in musical terms it owes a lot to Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" (which was later in Hendrix's own repertoire from 1966 to 1968 of course). He plays through a fuzz box all through this but some of his cleaner overdubbed runs here are identical to what you here on the famous Monterey version of the Dylan song. Jimmy is credited as arranger for "How Would You Feel" and this was the first appearance of his name on a record ! The B-side, "Welcome Home", is quite a catchy Mowtown-like dance song and features a great little solo from Jimmy.
"Hornet's Nest"/"Knock Yourself Out"
The very first record to feature Hendrix compositions.
These two instrumentals are credited to J. Hendrix/J. Simon (the producer of the sessions)
For the second single, PPX chose to release two excellent instrumentals written by Hendrix, "Hornets Nest"/"Knock Yourself Out" (with producer Jerry Simon also credited). Importantly, these are the first Hendrix compositions to appear on record ! "Hornets Nest" (inspired by the TV series "The Green Hornet") has a monster fuzzy (buzzing) guitar from Jimmy and some dramatic spookie organ. "Knock Yourself Out" is more interesting, with some strong driving rhythms and solos. Great drums too.
Other recordings by
Curtis Knight & The Squires
During this 1965-1966 period, Curtis Knight & The Squires
recorded a number of other studio tracks with Jimmy but these were
only released on albums once Jimi had become famous, thus cashing
in on his international success. The other recordings were as
follows :
Don't Accuse Me
Fool For You Baby
Gotta Have A New Dress
Simon Says
Strange Things
You Don't Want Me
U.F.O
No Such Animal
"Don't Accuse Me" is
a neat little blues with some great guitar from Jimmy."Strange
Things" is built on a basic Bo Diddley rhythm and the rest are
rather lightweight R&B numbers with occasional punchy chords
or little solos from Jimmy. That last song listed, "No Such
Animal" is another instrumental and it has a similar
feel to "Knock Yourself Out" . It surfaced as a posthumous
single in October 1970 on the Audio Fidelity label. Because of
contractual complications, the song has never appeared on the
numerous posthume PPX albums (however it did turn up on the
otherwise Lonnie Youngblood compilation "Cosmic Turnaround").
"The "Simon Says" is a sort of a copy of an Isley
Brothers song of the same name and I can't really hear Hendrix on
the very weak "U.F.O". The rest are also of little
interest.
There exists mono and stereo versions of some of these tracks and
an instrumental version of "You Don't Want Me".
A couple of other
instrumentals are known to have been recorded in this period,
namely "Station Break"and "Flying On Instruments" .
The latter seems to have disappeared without a trace but
"Station Break" was seen in the listing of an auction a
couple of years ago, though it has not yet shown up on the market
or in collector's circles.
This neat 90s compilation on
the Freud/Jungle label titled "Knock Yourself Out" used that nice
accurate group photo. It featured all the above Curtis Knight
tracks, except "U.F.O." and "No Such Animal".
For complete accuracy and honesty however, the title should have
read "Curtis Knight & The Squires (featuring Jimmy Hendrix)"
!
Check this review by John Perry , he's the ex-Only Ones guitarist and author of "33 1/3: Electric Ladyland" (Academi).
Curtis Knight demos/outtakes/rehearsals
Volume 3 of the "Authentic PPX Studio Recordings" collection includes four demos which feature only Knight and Jimmy going through four songs. The tracks are also on the "The complete PPX Studio Recordings" box set. The demos are:
U.F.O.
Better Times Ahead
Everybody Knew But Me
If You Gonna Make A Fool Of Somebody
Finally, on the private collector's ATM compilation "Curtis Knight & The Squires: The Complete Recordings Vol. 2 - Studio", there are versions of "Killing Floor" and "Last Night" that were obviously recorded with a fake live album in mind (either that or the band were rehearsing their show and taping it to see how it sounded). These tracks are also to be found with overdubbed audience noise on the "live" Hendrix/Knight albums (see below).
Curtis Knight live (?)
recordings
DRIVIN'
SOUTH
(Released 2000 -
Freud/Jungle)
Driving South, Travellin' To California, I'm A Man, I've Got A
Sweet Little Angel, Killing Floor, Bleeding Heart, Bright Lights
Big City, Get Out Of My Life Woman, Last Night, Baby what you want
me to do, What'd I Say
The sound is pretty poor
here but this is probably the most interesting pre-Experience CD
there is, being the closest to where Jimmy was heading for in the
future. Three songs played here were later in The Experience's
repertoire ("Driving South", "Killing Floor" and "Bleeding
Heart" * ) and the rest of the tracks are interesting blues
numbers.
These tracks are said to have been recorded at Georges Club 20,
Hackensack, New Jersey on December 26 1965. They have been
exploited on countless albums over the years. The recordings seem
to be live takes (perhaps recorded in an empty club) but the
audience noise was overdubbed and some tracks feature intrusive
rhythm section overdubs (perhaps done in the early
seventies).
Bootlegs featuring a couple of tracks ("Killing Floor" and "Last Night") in their raw state, reveal the band playing to an empty hall but Knight pretends to address an audience. You can hear that this made Jimi crack up laughing at the absurdity of it all. So it would seem that the recordings were done with a faked live album in mind. The project was left on the shelf, only to be revived once Jimi became famous when Ed Chalpin came back the poorly recorded tapes and overdubbed the audience noise (this was a technique sometimes used on albums by James Brown or Chuck Berry for exemple). On some tracks, he overdubbed a rhythm section in an attempt to freshen up the sound.
On the recordings, Jimmy
even sings on most of the numbers featured here: "Killing
Floor", ""Bleeding Heart", I'm A Man", "What'd I Say",
"Get Out My Life Woman" and "Travellin' To California"
(often listed as "California Night", it is an Albert
King song and seems to have been the basis for Jimi's own blues he
was to pen later - "Red House").
The version of "Bleeding Heart" is superb but unfortunately
fades out after a couple of minutes. "Drivin South",
Jimmy's reading of Albert Collin's "Thaw Out", is also
great, pointing to the Experience versions we know from the BBC
and Paris Olympia performances.
Jimmy sounds very confident on these recordings, singing well and
putting in some excellent guitar work. The blues "I've Got A
Sweet Little Angel" , sung by Knight, is excellent also, with
Jimmy putting in great solos.
*"Bleeding Heart" is also
known as "Left Alone". It is listed as such on the PPX series of
albums. (thanks to François for that info.)
From these "performances" there is also an instrumental bash
titled "Hard Night" which ressembles "Come On (Part One)" a
little, and it is sometimes listed as such on
bootlegs.
> The radio documentary on "the Lifelines" box set in fact featured this version of "I'm A Man"
Here is an interesting review of Drivin' South (with an extract of "Bleeding heart" !) by John Perry again.
Finally, here is a list of all the "live" tracks that have cropped up on official or unofficial releases. Lonnie Youngblood is present on some titles which shows how confused and overlapping this period is. These are recordings from more than one source. At one point the band is introduced as simply The Lovelights. Certain songs feature overdubs and sound quality varies. There is a version of "Have Mercy" listed here but Curtis Knight takes lead vocal. The song was of course in The Experience's early repertoire. A few songs exist in a couple of versions. It must be said that the very best songs are on Jungle's "Drivin' South".
You Got What It Takes but
Hang On Sloopy
I'll Be Doggone
What'd I Say
Bo Diddley
Hold (On To) What You've Got aka Hold What You've Got
I'm A Man
Stand By Me
Ain't That Peculiar
Sugar Pie Honey Bunch aka I Can't Help Myself
One Night With You
Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go
Walkin' The Dog
California Night (aka Travelin' To California) - 2 versions
Twist And Shout
Day Tripper
Bright Lights, Big City
Land Of A Thousand Dances
Bleeding Heart
Get Out Of My Life, Woman
Wooly Bully
There Is Something On Your Mind
Money
I'll Be Doggone
I Got You (I Feel Good) - 2 versions
Sweet Little Angel
Drivin' South
Baby, What You Want Me To Do( aka You Got Me Running(
Just A Little Bit
Mercy Mercy (aka Have Mercy)
Something You've Got aka Something You Got
Satisfaction
Mr. Pitiful
Killing Floor (2 versions)
Hard Night - vaguely similar to Come On (Part 1)
Shotgun
Forget the front cover of
"Drivin' South", here's an idea of what Jimmy looked like
around the time of these December 1965 Georges Club
recordings.
Mid 1966
and Jimmy has adopted a Dylan
haircut, ressembling the Jimi that we all love.
This photo was taken at The Club
Cheetah
(hence the costumes) and this is where Linda Keith first saw him
perform
(see "Jimi Breaks Away" paragraph below).
There exists a bootleg of Curtis Knight and The Squires that was
supposedly recorded at the Club Cheetah
though I think it is simply some of the"Georges Club"
recordings.
The 1967 reunion
sessions with Curtis
Knight
Later in his career and once he had found fame, Jimi came
back to New York and joined Curtis Knight for a couple of
reunion sessions. They jammed a little and Jimi touched
up a few old tapes. After The Experience's triumph at the
Monterey Pop Festival of June 1967, some of the Curtis
Knight studio tapes were released, with Jimi being
powerless to stop them.
See Curtis
Knight recordings released in Jimi's
Lifetime
JANE MANSFIELD ?
It has been suggested that
Jimmy played on the B-side of a PPX recorded single by the
Hollywood star Jayne Mansfield.
It's an instrumental titled "Suey". After a close listen,
it doesn't sound like Hendrix at all to me.
Jayne Mansfield once attended an Experience gig in Bolton, England in 1967 ! She left with Englebert Humperdink.
Over the years, a number of
so-called "Hendrix" releases contained recordings which didn't
even feature Jimi (or Jimmy) at all ! Albums such as "Moods",
"Rare Hendrix" and "In The Beginning"* (also put out in some
countries as "Free Spirit").
Here is a list of the tracks involved:
Two in One Goes, Psycho, Good Feeling, Voice in the Wind, Good Times, Bring My Baby Back, Suspicious, Hot Trigger, A Mumblin' Word, Miracle Worker, From This Day On, Human Heart, Feel That Soul, All Alone, Get Down, So Called Friend, Girl So Fine, She's So Fine*, Every Little Bit Hurts, You Say You Love Me, Hey LeRoy, Free Spirit, House of the Rising Sun, Something You Got, Let the God Sing, Gangster Of Love, Funky, Let Me Go, Groove, Back Room Lady, Freedom And You, Two And One Goes, Win Your Love, Voice In The Wind, Whipper…
*Not the Noel Redding song from "Axis: Bold As Love"
JIMMY JAMES BREAKS AWAY
A rare portrait of Jimmy
Hendrix alias "Jimmy James" in New York
1966.
According to Brund Blum, in
his biography of Lou Reed titled "Electric Dandy", Jimi attended a
Velvet Underground performance in New York in 1966 ! John Cale and
Lou Reed's feedback drenched experimentations were obviously a
great influence on his future guitar playing. Perhaps he
had toyed with distortion techniques before that, but this event
must have contributed to his own vision of his music.
I also read somewhere that in 1966, while on tour in the States,
Mick Jagger came across Jimmy (presumably with Curtis Knight) and
was interested enough to talk of organising a tour for him ! Jimmy
is said to have wisely felt that he wasn't ready for it.
Eventually, by mid 1966, Jimmy finally had the confidence to break
away from Knight to form his own band at last. By this time he had
of course dropped his stage name of Maurice James and now, as
Jimmy James, he hung around New York's Greenwich Village and
eventually formed the shortlived Jimmy James and The Blue
Flames*(1).
In the group was a very young Randy California (later of the
superb Spirit)*(2).
Jimmy's new group played small clubs in the Village, but nothing
was ever recorded it seems. In the band's repertoire were "Hey
Joe", Like A Rolling Stone", "Killing Floor",
"Shotgun" (the Junior Walker And The Allstars hit), "Mr.
Bad Luck" (an early "Look Over Yonder") aswell as
embryonic versions of "Third Stone From The Sun" and
"Foxy Lady" ! The late Randy California claimed to have a
live recording of the group but it has never surfaced
unfortunately.
John Hammond Jnr.
Word got around about Jimmy until the much talked about white blues singer John Hammond Jnr. joined up with the Blue Flames and they collectively adopted the name The Screaming Night Hawks (although a press ad. of the time reveals that they were billed as John Hammond & The Blue Flames). They played shows at the more prestigeous club The Café A Go Go. Al Kooper (of Blues Project and later Blood Sweat &Tears) even sat in from time to time. Thus, Jimmy was spotted by many famous British rock musicians who were in town, checking out the clubs for action.
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After Jagger's early
interest, The Rolling Stones connection kicks in again here. Kieth
Richard's girlfriend, Linda Keith, got to know Jimmy and sort of
took him under her wing (even lending him one of Richard's Strats
!). She brought along The Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog
Oldham (he considered Jimmy too complicated to take over). Then
Linda brought along the Animals bassist Chas
Chandler*(3)
down to see him play.
Chas was on a farewell tour with The Animals and was looking for
an artist to manage and produce. Linda had already played Chas Tim
Rose's "Hey Joe" and Chas loved it, saying that if he could
find the right act to manage, that song would be their first
release. When Jimmy took the stage at The Café Wha?, he
opened with "Hey Joe" (this was perhaps set up by Linda).
Chas had found what he was looking for.
He approached Jimmy and convinced him that if he went to Britain,
he could make it big. Jimmy was excited at the prospect of meeting
two guitarists that he admired, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Chas
knew them well of course and promised to arrange to meet them.
Chas then helped Jimmy get his passport sorted out and cleared up
contractual ties with a couple of record labels (but
catastrophically not with PPX Enterprises, which Jimmy failed to
mention for some reason !).
On the plane to England, Jimmy James, Jimmy Hendrix, became
JIMI
HENDRIX.
Jimi's passport photo. Today London, tomorrow the world !
*(1) Cosmic coincidence: Mitch Mitchell had played with the British star Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames before meeting Jimi !
*(2) Here is a very interesting interview with Randy California about these early days.
*(3) - I read in David Shadwicks book that Jimmy had met Chas in 1965 while The Animals were on tour ! Jimmy was at that time playing in Little Richard's band who were on the same bill as The Animals. After the show and an incident where Richard had an argument with the organisers, Chas and Jimmy ended up sharing a smoke on a window ledge. Chas said much later that he remembered the moment but had not connected with the fact that is as Hendrix ! This leaves us to speculate that Jimi must have remembered a smoke with The Animal's bass player and had perhaps reminded Chas of this when they met again in August 1966 at The Café Wha. Fascinating.
> Check out this excellent site for a wealth of information on the pre-Experience materiel - www.earlyhendrix.com
> A nice collection of photos also on Maurice's site Brume Pourpre - Select Concert Dates > Pre-Experience.
JIMI'S INSPIRATION :
VARIOUS ARTISTS : "The Roots
Of Hendrix"
(Free with Mojo
Magazine - December 2005)
Howlin' Wolf - Killing Floor
(Burnett)
Albert King - Born Under A Bad Sign (Jones/Bell)
Jimmy Reed - Bright Lights, Big City (Reed)
B.B. King - Sweet Little Angel (Bogan/Smith)
Buddy Guy - When My Left Eye Jumps (Dixon)
T-Bone Walker - You're My Best Poker Hand (Burghardt)
The Fabulous Wailers - Tall Cool One
(Dangel/Greek/Morrill)
Cropper/Staples/King - What'd I Say (Charles)
Booker T & The MGs - It's Your Thing (Isley
Brothers)
Elmore James - (My) Bleeding Heart (James/Sehorn)
Muddy Waters - (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man (Dixon)
Little Richard - I Don't Know What You Got, But It's Got Me
(Parts 1&2) (Covay)
John Hammond Jnr - So Many Roads, So many Trains (Paul)
Robert Petway - Catfish Blues (Petway)
Big Bill Broonzy - Key To The Highway
(Broonzy/Segar)
This CD was free with the December 2005
issue of Mojo magazine. It's incredible, as at the time, I was
just thinking that such a compilation would be a great idea.
The record does not just concentrate on songs that Jimi included
in his own repertoire from 1966 onwards, but is a collection from
artists who greatly influenced him during his formative years.
There are however familiar Hendrix favourites "Killing Floor",
"Born Under A Bad Sign", "Bleeding Heart", "Hoochie Coochie Man"
and "Catfish Blues".
There is one track that actually features the young Jimmy, "I
Don't Know What You Got But It's Got Me" by Little Richard. It
resembles James Brown's "Please, Please, Please" and
features some delicate guitar work from Jimmy, not unlike what he
played on The Icemen's "She's A Fox" (seen later on the
album "Free Spirit" among others).
"Tall Cool One", I didn't know, is the first song that
little Jimmy learned to play ! Not to be confused with the
Jamaican Wailers of course.
A few numbers, "Sweet Little Angel", "What'd I Say" and
"Bright Lights, Big City" were of course featured in Curtis
Knight's repertoire.
Buddy Guy's "When My Left Eye Jumps" is very close to what
Jimi would do with "Red House" (as was Albert King's
"Travellin To California" which Jimmy played and sang with
Curtis Knight & The Squires).
It was nice to include John Hammond Jnr. He had of course
"discovered" Hendrix before Chas Chandler and even teamed up with
him for some Greenwich Village gigs in the summer/fall of 1966 and
"So Many Roads, So Many Trains" was in the set-list just
before Jimmy left for England (to become Jimi Hendrix).
T-Bone Walker is present as, apart from being another great blues
influence, he would sometimes play his guitar behind his head and
do the splits on stage. An essential ingrediant for the Wild Man
Of Rock !
Booker T. & The MGs are there as Jimmy loved Steve Cropper's
technique.
Finally Big Bill Broonzy is listed as he had followed a similar
path to Jimi. After the army he travelled to New York and was
helped along by John Hammond Snr.
The magazine also features an extensive article about Jimi's early
years and on November 4th, "Mojo - The Radio Station" even
broadcast a special show on the subject, presumably airing a
number of these songs.
Thank you Mojo !
VARIOUS ARTISTS : "Jimi
Hendrix's Jukebox"
(Chrome Dreams -
2007)
Elvis Presley Blue Suede
Shoes 1956 Perkins
Little Richard Long Tall Sally 1956
Penniman/Blackwell/Johnson
Bill Doggett Honky Tonk 1956
Butler/Doggett/Scott/Berisford/Shepherd
T-Bone Walker Call It Stormy Monday 1947 Walker
Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones The Things That I Used To Do 1954
Jones
Young Johnny Watson Space Guitar 1954 Watson
Johnny "Guitar" Watson Three Hours Past Midnight 1956
Watson/Bihari
Ray Charles Losing Hand 1953 Calhoun
B.B King Every Day I Have The Blues 1955 Chatman
B.B King Three O'Clock Blues 1951 King/Taub
Miles Davis Round Midnight 1955 Monk/Hanighen/Williams
Robert Petway Catfish Blues 1941 Petway
Big Bill Broonzy Key To The Highway 1941 Broonzy/Segar
Jimmy Reed Pretty Thing 1955 Reed
Gene Vincent Race With The Devil 1956 Vincent/Tex Davis
Howlin' Wolf Moanin' At Midnight 1951 Burnett
Howlin' Wolf Smokestack Lightnin' 1956 Burnett
Chuck Berry No Money Down 1955 Berry
Elmore James Dust My Broom 1951 Johnson, arr James
Miles Davis Sweet Sue, Just You 1956 W.J. Harris/V.
Young
Muddy Waters (I'm Your) Hoochie Koochie Man 1954 Dixon
Fats Domino Blueberry Hill 1956 Al Lewis/Vincent Rose
Earl King Mother Told Me Not To Go 1956 Earl Silas
Johnson
John Lee Hooker Dimples 1956 Hooker
Big Mama Thornton Hound Dog 1953 Leiber/Stoller
A new release along the same lines as the Mojo freebie. I do not know if Jimi was known to have actually liked or possessed these specific songs (one would assume so, looking at the title). The choice of Gene Vincent over Eddie Cochran is strange. Jimi did incorporate the riff of a song titled "Race With The Devil" during his 1970 tours but his inspiration was the song of the same name by the group Gun.
VARIOUS ARTISTS : "The Roots
Of Jimi Hendrix"
(Complete Blues
2008)
Elvis Presley -Money
Honey
Jackie Brenston - Rocket 88
T-Bone Walker - Alimony Blues
BB King - Bye Bye Baby
Guitar Slim - Things That I Used to Do
Little Richard - Can't Believe You Wanna Leave
Earl King - Mother's Love
Howlin Wolf - How Many More Years
Muddy Waters - Mannish Boy
Richard Berry - Louie Louie
Young Johnny Watson - Space Guitar
Elmore James - Elmore's Contribution to Jazz
Slim Harpo - Got Love If You Want It
Lightnin' Hopkins - Black Cat Bone
Robert Johnson - Preaching Blues (Up Jumped the Devil)
Son House - Death Letter
Howlin Wolf - Moanin' at Midnight
Lowell Fulson - Reconsider Baby
Jimmy Reed - I Ain't Got You
BB King - Troubles, Troubles, Troubles
Robert Johnson - If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day
Blind Joe Reynolds - Outside Woman Blues
A new compilation that has appeared.
