Jimi Hendrix's Career Before he Was Famous

Hendrix played professionally since the early '60s, and actually had a longer music career before he was discovered, than after.

Thanks to a recent PM reminder by one of the Worlds top Hendrix Experts (our own Chris M! thanks Chris!!).... of this under discussed part of Henrix's career, I thought we could talk about this stage of Hendrix's playing. ......Unlike a lot of other 'garage rockers' Jimi spent a lot of years on the road with various groups before making it big.

What are some of the highlights and History of Pre Experience Jimi? (Photos and videos are welcomed too!)




To get up to Speed, this is from Wikipedia


Jimi Hendrix's Early career


After his Army discharge, Hendrix and army friend Billy Cox moved to nearby Clarksville, Tennessee, where they established "The King Kasuals" on a less casual footing. He had already seen Butch Snipes play with his teeth in Seattle and now Alphonso 'Baby Boo' Young the other guitarist in the band was featuring this.[30] Not to be upstaged, it was then that Hendrix learned to play with his teeth properly, according to Hendrix himself: "... the idea of doing that came to me in a town in Tennessee. Down there you have to play with your teeth or else you get shot. There’s a trail of broken teeth all over the stage..."[31] They played mainly in low-paying gigs at obscure venues. The band eventually moved to Nashville's Jefferson Street, the traditional heart of Nashville's black community and home to a lively rhythm and blues scene.[32] There, according to Cox and Larry Lee - who replaced Alphonso Young on guitar - they were basically the house band at "Club del Morrocco".[33] Hendrix and Cox shared a flat above "Joyce's House Of Glamour".[34] Hendrix' girlfriend at this time was Joyce Lucas. Bill 'Hoss' Allen's memory of Hendrix' supposed participation in a session with Billy Cox in November 1962, which he cut Hendrix' contribution due to his over the top playing, has now been called into question; a suggestion has been made that he may have confused this with a later 1965 session by Frank Howard And The Commanders that Hendrix participated in.[35] For the next two years, Hendrix made a precarious living with the King Kasuals and on the Theatre Owners' Booking Association (TOBA) or Chitlin Circuit otherwise known as "Tough On Black Asses," performing in black-oriented venues throughout the South with both Bob Fisher and the Bonnevilles,[36] and in backing bands for various soul, R&B, and blues musicians, including Chuck Jackson, Slim Harpo, Tommy Tucker, Sam Cooke, and Jackie Wilson. The Chitlin Circuit was an important phase of Hendrix' career, since the refinement of his style and blues roots occurred there.

Frustrated by his experiences in the South, Hendrix decided to try his luck in New York City and in January 1964 moved into the Hotel Theresa in Harlem,[37] where he soon befriended Lithofayne Pridgeon (known as "Faye",[38] who became his girlfriend) and the Allen twins, Arthur and Albert (now known as Taharqa and Tunde-Ra Aleem). The Allen twins became friends and kept Hendrix out of trouble in New York. The twins also performed as backup singers (under the name Ghetto Fighters) on some of his recordings, most notably the song "Freedom". Pridgeon, a Harlem native with connections throughout the area's music scene, provided Hendrix with shelter, support, and encouragement. In February 1964, Hendrix won first prize in the Apollo Theater amateur contest. Hendrix was then hired as guitarist for the Isley Brothers' band and joined their national tour, which included the southern Chitlin' circuit. Hendrix played his first successful studio session on the two-part Isley Brothers single "Testify".[39] In Nashville, he left the band to work with Gorgeous George Odell on an R&B package tour that had Sam Cooke as the headliner.[40] In October 1964 he arrived in Atlanta, Hendrix (then calling himself Maurice James) was hired by Little Richard to record and perform on the road with his touring revue, "The Royal Company".[41][42][43][44] During a stop in Los Angeles while touring with Little Richard in 1965, Hendrix played a session for Rosa Lee Brooks on her single "My Diary". This was his first recorded involvement with Arthur Lee of the band "Love".[45][46] While in LA, he also played on the session for Little Richard's final single for Vee-Jay"I Don't Know What You've Got, But It's Got Me".[47] He later made his first recorded TV appearance on Nashville's Channel 5 "Night Train" with "The Royal Company" backing up "Buddy and Stacy" on "Shotgun".[48] Hendrix clashed with Richard, over tardiness, wardrobe, and, above all, Hendrix' stage antics.[49] On tour with Richard they shared billing a couple of times with Ike and Tina Turner. It has been suggested that he left Richard and played with Ike & Tina briefly before returning to Richard, but there is no firm evidence to support this, and this is emphatically denied by Tina. Months later, he was either fired or he left after missing the tour bus in Washington, D.C.[50] He then re-joined the Isley's for a while.

Later in 1965, Hendrix joined a New York-based band, Curtis Knight and the Squires, after meeting Knight in the lobby of the Hotel America, off Times Square, where both men were living at the time.[51]

Hendrix then toured for two months with Joey Dee and the Starliters before rejoining the Squires in New York. On October 15, 1965, Hendrix signed a three-year recording contract with entrepreneur Ed Chalpin, receiving $1 and 1% royalty. While the relationship with Chalpin was short-lived, his contract remained in force, which caused considerable problems for Hendrix later on in his career. The legal dispute has continued to the present day.[52] During a brief excursion to Vancouver in 1965, it was reported that Hendrix played in the (much later in 1968 )Motown band Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers with Taylor and Tommy Chong (of Cheech and Chong fame). Chong, however, disputes this ever happened and that any such appearance is a product of Taylor's "imagination".[53]

In 1966, Hendrix seemed to be quite in demand, playing on sessions with King Curtis and Ray Sharpe; Lonnie Youngblood; The Icemen; Jimmy Norman & Billy Lamont. He got his first composer credit on the Curtis Knight and The Squires's instrumental single "Hornets Nest".[54] He formed his own band, known as The Blue Flames, (or The Blue Flame as they were actually billed in the only surviving advert for them and referred to by John Hammond and also Hendrix himself in his 1969 interview with Nancy Carter) composed of Randy Palmer (bass), Danny Casey (drums), a 15-year-old guitarist who played slide and rhythm, named Randy Wolfe and the occasional stand in about this time.[55] Since there were two musicians named "Randy" in the group, Hendrix dubbed Wolfe "Randy California" (as he had recently moved from there to New York City) and Palmer (a Tejano) "Randy Texas". Randy California would later co-found the band Spirit with his step father, drummer Ed Cassidy. It was around this time that Hendrix' only (officially claimed and partly recognized) daughter Tamika was conceived with Diana Carpenter (also known as Regina Jackson), a teenage runaway and prostitute that he briefly stayed with. She was acknowledged indirectly as his daughter by both Hendrix, when Diana started a paternity suit prior to his death, and unofficially after Hendrix' death by his father Al. Her claim has not been recognized by the US courts where, after death, she may not have a claim on his estate even if she could legally prove he was her father, unless recognized previously as such by him or the courts.[56]

Hendrix and his new band played at several places in New York, but their primary venue was a residency at the Cafe Wha? on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. The street runs along "Washington (Square) Park" which appeared in at least two of Hendrix' songs. Their last concerts were at the Cafe au Go Go, as John Hammond Jr.'s backing group, billed as "The Blue Flame". Singer-guitarist Ellen McIlwaine and guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, also claim to have briefly worked with Hendrix in this period.[57] >>

 

That wiki article is pretty good. I just skimmed through it but it skips Have Mercy with Don Covay. Pretty neat that Jimi, as a session musician, was in the top 40 around the same time Beatlemania started in the states. The Frank Howard And The Commanders 45 Jimi and Billy Cox played on considered a Northern Soul classic in some circles.

Most of the books have some significant chronological and discography errors regarding the early stuff. The best source of info by far is the Early Hendrix site Jimi expert Niko Bauer runs. Niko has applied a Lewisohn level of research and accuracy to Jimi's pre-London career.

www.earlyhendrix.com

 

obligatory post...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaIxswG7d84


Which begs the question, is there any OTHER pre-fame footage of Hendrix out there??

 

Love that clip. You can hear Jimi funken' it up, and check out his hand-tricks at 1:48.

 

Nothing else has turned up. There is a live tape with Little Richard that was discovered a few years back..

 

Great clip -many thks.

 

Great site. Thanks Chris.

 

Also says on the wiki page .........

"Hendrix was particularly fond of Elvis Presley, whom he saw perform in Seattle, in 1957."

Did not know that. Pretty cool.

 

It's a long article but worth reading:

Jimi Hendrix: The early years
Goldmine Article date: November 21, 2008 Author: Thompson, Dave

An informal guide to the early recordings of the guitar god

It's a sobering thought, but Nov. 27, 2008, marks what would have been the 66th birthday of Jimi Hendrix, just a couple of months after we finished mourning the 38th anniversary of his death.

And it still boggles the mind to consider just how much he accomplished during his time on earth, all the more so when you remember that the vast majority of it was actually banged down in less than two years.

"Hey Joe," his first (British) hit 45, was recorded in December 1966, and Electric Ladyland, his third final studio album, was released in October 1968. Two years, eight full sides of long-playing vinyl (Electric Ladyland was, of course, a double), sufficient singles and B-sides to stuff a greatest hits disc, and that is before we even think about the hours and hours worth of studio outtakes and live material that have since kept the Hendrix catalog ticking over with more life than many artists with careers 10 times as long.

Certainly the last decade has been a great time to be a Hendrix collector. Ever since they assumed control of the Hendrix estate in the mid-1990s, his family's own Experience Hendrix foundation has been diligently working to cut through the confusion (not to mention bulk) wrought by the activities of earlier administrations, reissuing and remastering each of his core albums, while supplementing the catalog with a host of live and unreleased recordings.

Nest of snakes

It is an unsurpassable legacy. Through the 1970s and 1980s, after all, a "new" Hendrix album tended to comprise a couple of handfuls of outtakes, drawn from across the four years he spent with the Reprise label (Polydor/Track in the U.K.), mixed and sometimes remixed by a variety of passing souls, and then shoved into the marketplace with little or no annotation.

War Heroes, Midnight Lightning, Crash Landing... one such set was titled Loose Ends, and the irony button must have been fully depressed when that particular title was conceived.

The material featured on those albums is still available today. But, it appears in a form that at least tries to approach that which Hendrix himself would have chosen and succeeds to such a degree that today, we have even been afforded a serious glimpse into what might have been Jimi's fourth studio album, had he only lived to release it, The First Rays Of The Rising Sun.

As admirable as all this work has been, however, there is one thing to remember. Experience Hendrix's efforts have concentrated exclusively upon those same four years, 1966-70, during which Hendrix was at his creative and commercial height. They completely overlook all that occurred at the opposite end of the chronological scale; more than that, they all but disown it, and certainly despise it.

This is not necessarily a terrible omission. The three years (1963-1966) worth of work with which Hendrix preceded his arrival in London represents one of the most convoluted corpuses in rock 'n' roll history, a nest of snakes so venomous that no single record label has yet attempted to delve definitively into it.

There is some great music in there, and a lot that is worthy of our notice. But, Hendrix's pre-fame career, what must have seemed the endless vacuum during which he worked as a mere sideman for whomever would employ him, also abounds with some absolute rubbish, and if you have spent any time browsing the Jimi bin in your friendly neighborhood used vinyl emporium, you will know exactly what we are talking about.

The Lonnie Youngblood experience

Hendrix received his discharge from the U.S. Army on July 2, 1962, walking out of Fort Campbell with nothing more than $300 and a duffel bag stuffed with a handful of possessions.

He had even sold his guitar to one of his army buddies, and his initial intention was to return to his childhood home in Seattle. Unfortunately, a visit to a local jazz bar ended that dream when he blew through almost all of his cash. So, he returned to the army base, borrowed his old guitar back from its new owner, and then settled in Clarksville, where he and another army friend, bass player Billy Cox, formed a band, The Casuals (later to become The King Casuals).

"People would say if you don't get a job you'll just starve to death," Hendrix said a few years later. "But I didn't want to take a job outside music. I tried a few jobs, including car delivery, but I always quit after a week or so..."

Many of The Casuals' gigs took place at the army base, and they remained in Clarksville until Cox received his own discharge. From there, they relocated to Nashville, where Hendrix and Cox found their way into another band, W&W Man. There was a brief hiatus while Hendrix traveled to New York City to try his luck there, but he soon returned to Clarksville, before splitting for Vancouver, Canada, in December 1962, to stay with his grandparents.

There he joined the local R&B band Bobbie Taylor and The Vancouvers - fronted by Tommy Chong, later to find fame as one half of Cheech and Chong. By spring 1963, however, he was back in the South, working the Chitlin' Circuit with whichever touring musicians would employ him.

A return to Nashville saw him join an R&B band called The Imperials. The King Casuals reformed for a time, while a stint with Bob Fisher and The Barnesvilles introduced him to guitarist Larry Lee - six years later, Lee would play alongside Hendrix at the Woodstock Festival. For now, they were content to gig as backing band to the likes of Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions, and Motown girl group the Marvelettes.

Hendrix returned to New York in late 1963, 18 months after he left the army, and it was there that his recording career got underway, under the aegis of bluesman Lonnie Youngblood. Indeed, it has been estimated that over 200 LPs and CDs have now been issued worldwide, all claiming to feature the double act of Youngblood and Hendrix.

A year older than Hendrix, saxophonist Youngblood had been playing the club circuit since the late 1950s, when he worked with singer Pearl Reeves. The early 1960s brought him his first major success, the solo hit "Heartbreak," but it was his discovery of the young and unknown Jimi Hendrix that has, unjustly but understandably, cemented his subsequent renown.

Youngblood's band gigged regularly throughout the New York and Philadelphia area; one favored haunt was the Cheetah in New York, another was the Uptown Theater in Philly. What about those 200 albums, though? They must have been very, very busy.

Youngblood was signed to Fairmount Records, a Cameo-Parkway subsidiary, at the time, and did a fair amount of recording for the label. But, he utilized Hendrix on just nine songs, recorded at Abtone Studios, a tiny hideaway looking down on Broadway and 55th in New York.

The best known of these are those issued as Youngblood 45s at the time - "Go Go Shoes"/"Go Go Place," and "Soul Food"/"Goodbye Bessie Mae." Other songs recorded during the same sessions, but unreleased until after Hendrix's death, include "Sweet Thang," "Groovemaker," "(She's A) Fox" and multiple versions of "Wipe the Sweat" and "Under the Table."

All were mono recordings; stereo mixes of the latter two tracks were prepared in 1971 prior to their release on the Maple label album Two Great Experiences Together, a set which actually reached #127 on the U.S. chart.

The albums Rare Hendrix, The Genius of Jimi Hendrix and For Real! round up the remainder of authentic Hendrix/Youngblood material in the most concise manner. But other titles, while possibly featuring one or two of the Hendrix performances, overwhelm them with extra-curricular Youngblood material - which is no bad thing if you're a Youngblood completist but is disappointing for Hendrix fans.

But Youngblood feels your pain. Youngblood himself had nothing to do with the fate of his recordings - few artists did in those days. Neither did the Fairmount label.

It was other parties who ferreted them out shortly after the guitarist's death, doubtless in the belief that they were uncovering a goldmine of previously unknown Hendrix material, and when they discovered there was just that baker's dozen to play with... well, they just pretended otherwise.

Journalist Frank Moriarty spoke with Youngblood in 1996 and got the whole sad story. "The tapes were at the studio. Once I'd mixed them down and mastered them, I always left my tapes at the studio, because at that time that was the thing to do. When everybody recorded, they left the mother tape at the studio.

"These people, they knew where the tapes I had recorded were... [and] made a deal with this big company in Chicago. They went and bribed the guy who owned the studio, and actually went and took my tapes away. And they gave them about $100,000 for this tape. And they took all the money and didn't give me any of the money. That was my stuff! And then these companies started to put the **** out and didn't even put my name on it.

"They would say it was Jimi Hendrix singing, without my name on it - so many lies, man. The stuff that came out on that album called Two Great Experiences Together! - what happened with that, one company took that and tried to doctor it up to make it have more Hendrix activity. See, Hendrix is more or less just backing me up. The companies wanted to say they had a little more activity by Hendrix, so they found some Hendrix wannabes and they put them on the tracks. And what they really did was they messed the tracks up with the overdubs."

The fact that the fraudulent issues include some of the bestknown of all "early" Hendrix titles only amplifies the sheer audacity of these claims. For the record, such "early Hendrix" classics as "Spiked With Heady Dreams," "She Went To Bed With My Guitar" and "Strokin' A Lady On Each Hip," first issued on a series of LPs by the Pan/Saga labels in the early 1970s, are nothing of the kind.

Neither are such enticing titles as "Funky," "Feel That Soul" "Gangster Of Love," "Hey Leroy" and "Young Generation." Some feature Youngblood alone, and date from years on either side of Hendrix's recruitment to his band. Others may date from the right period but do not feature Jimi. And there's a few cuts that have nothing to do with either player.

Hendrix and The Isley Brothers

Youngblood and Hendrix parted company in 1964, and Hendrix moved onto The Isley Brothers' band.

Five years had elapsed since the Isleys broke through with the monster smash "Shout," years during which the Isleys moved from vital R&B to luscious Motown-style soul, shot through with an instinctive understanding of what one day emerged as funk and all draped in the brothers' trademark soaring vocals.

In 1962, their take on The Top Notes' "Twist And Shout" had in turn inspired a cover by The Beatles, suggesting a rock-and-soul fusion which the Isleys adopted as a virtual blueprint over the next four years; two years later, "Testify" found them publicly allying themselves with the hard-hitting likes of James Brown, Little Richard, Ray Charles and the then-prodigious talent of Little Stevie Wonder.

But, "Testify" occupies another, even weightier, place in history, as it marked Hendrix's debut in their band. The guitarist was a member of the Isleys" backing group for four months, June through October 1964, arriving at a time when the Isleys themselves were going through a transitional phase, caught in the four-year no-man's land which separated their last hit, "Twistin' With Linda," from their next, "This Old Heart Of Mine."

They were also in the process of setting up their own record label, T-Neck (named for their New Jersey home base), and looking for a new guitarist when a friend, Tony Rice, saw Hendrix playing in the houseband at New York's Palm Cafe and recommended him to the Isleys.

A churning, rhythmic blues, "Testify" was haunted by at least an echo of all that Hendrix journeyed on to achieve; touring with the Isleys in the record's wake, he showed off even more of his repertoire, including playing his guitar with his teeth. It was a trick which the Isleys were more than happy to encourage - unlike other acts with whom he worked, anything which added to their reputation was welcome, even a flashy backing musician with a taste for crowd-pleasing novelty.

"They used to let me do my own thing because it made them more bucks," Hendrix said later, but he also knew that the Isleys' own trip was based around more than neat presentation and sweet vocal harmony. They wanted excitement, action, drama. It oozed from their records, it issued from their live shows, and now, it poured from their guitarist.

Interviewed for the Experience Hendrix magazine in 1999, younger brother Ernie Isley recalled watching from the side of the stage as Kelly called Hendrix to the front, to "show them how it's done. And [Jimi'd] do something like play the guitar behind his back and everyone would go, 'my God, how did he do that?' They did a show with Eric Burdon and The Animals in 1964, and the Animals were going out of their minds."

Two years later, Animals bassist Chas Chandler, coincidentally or otherwise, became Hendrix's manager.

Hendrix quit the Isleys in October 1964, following the "Last Girl" single. He reunited with them in August 1965, meeting them in New York to cut a new single, "Move Over And Let Me Dance." A year after that, as Ronnie Isley remarked in the liner notes to the Hendrix-era Isleys compilation In The Beginning, "He went to England, we went to Detroit." But buyer beware! In The Beginning's Hendrix content might be authentic, but it has been either remixed or even replaced with alternate takes to the originally issued sides. The original 45 version of "Testify," for example, would remain unavailable until its inclusion on the Isleys' It's Your Thing box set in 1999.

Still, Hendrix's sojourn with the Isleys marks an oasis of relative calm in his prefame discography. His next port of call, however, returns us to more turbulent waters.

Little Richard and other encounters

1964 also saw Hendrix encounter and, according to some sources, record with Steve Cropper, ace guitarist with Booker T and the MGs.

Hendrix was in Memphis as a backing musician with Gorgeous George Odell, one of the lesser acts on Sam Cooke's latest tour, and Hendrix later recalled, "Steve Cropper turned me on millions of years ago, and I turned him on millions of years ago, too, but because of different songs. He turned me on to a lot of things. He showed me how to play certain songs, and I showed him how I played "Mercy, Mercy", or something like that...."

It was a visit to Atlanta during the same tour that brought him into Little Richard's orbit. It was a short-lived stint, characterized by the erstwhile Richard Penniman growing increasingly impatient with Hendrix's burgeoning showmanship and flamboyance. But, it did give Hendrix his first taste of chart success, as guitarist on Little Richard's latest single, the two part "I Don't Know What You've Got, But It's Got Me." The record reached #12 on the Billboard R&B chart and also made #92 on the pop listings.

Another song from the same, session, "Dancin' All Around The World," was unearthed for the 1971 Little Richard compilation Mr. Big, together with a composite version of the single. Which isn't really much of an output, but don't tell the Little Richard discography that!

The oft-released compilation Friends From The Beginning is just one of several titles that claim to feature the two legends playing together; sadly, you have to take the rough with the smooth and wade through a lot of non-Hendrix material to find the nuggets. Dig deeper into the catalog and even more spurious associations emerge. A lot of the things, in fact.

Although Little Richard remained the main source of Hendrix's bread and butter until June 1965 (when the guitarist was sacked for missing the tour bus), Jimi did engage in a few extra-curricular projects. In February 1965, in Los Angeles, he met up with Arthur Lee, whose band Love was just beginning to pick up local attention.

Under Lee's aegis, Hendrix sessioned on a single by singer Rosa Lee Brooks, "My Diary." He also cut 45s with Ray Sharpe & The King Curtis Orchestra ("Help Me"), and Don Covay and the Goodtimers ("Can't Stay Away").

None of these cuts has yet resurfaced on any generally available Hendrix-related LP, although the Brooks single (erroneously dated to 1962) made an appearance in 1990 on the limited-edition radio promo On the Radio Rarities Bonus CD Volume One, produced by the Santa Monica, Calif.,-based On The Radio Syndication Company.

Cut loose by Little Richard, Hendrix again headed for New York, and, in October, he joined singer Curtis Knight's band, The Squires, and was quickly rewarded when Knight's manager, Ed Chalpin, landed Hendrix a stint in the studio with actress Jayne Mansfield.

Although his labors were not issued until summer 1967 - "Suey" was the B-side to Mansfield's "As The Clouds Drift By" single - it was a paying session, and one of many that Hendrix would now embark upon, as Chalpin produced Knight and The Squires through what now feels like several albums' worth of material. All of which has now been spread over several hundred albums.

Thanks in part to Knight's incredibly readable (if not always accurate) biography of Hendrix, this is the best documented phase of Hendrix's pre-fame career, a prolific period that saw the guitarist featured on some 65 studio recordings with Knight. Also circulating are around 2 ½ hours worth of live material, apparently recorded at two separate shows in late 1965.

This vast body of work has appeared across a colossal number of releases over the years, beginning with two singles released during 1966, "How Would You Feel" and "Hornet's Nest." More appeared following Hendrix's breakthrough in 1967, and there are definitely some collectibles to be found among them.

A reissue of "How Would You Feel," with new B-side "You Don't Want Me," for example, was scheduled for release on the U.K. Decca label in August, 1967. An injunction threatened by Track, Hendrix's own current label, saw the release switched to that imprint before any Decca pressings were issued. However, that was not the end of the story. Further legal investigation then restored the rights to Decca (Capitol in the U.S.); it also ignited the breach of contract disagreement that would finally be resolved by Hendrix delivering a full album of new material to Capitol, the Band Of Gypsies live album.

Capitol itself issued two albums of Hendrix/Knight recordings during 1967-68, Get That Feeling and Flashing: Jimi Hendrix Plays, Curtis Knight Sings; the British London label, in the meantime, issued a single of "Hush Now" in October 1967, following through with a U.K. release of Get That Feeling, a second collection, Strange Things and a double album apparently issued in the Netherlands only, The Great Jimi Hendrix In New York.

All included material recorded both during Knight and Hendrix's original partnership, supplemented with a clutch more songs recorded in 1967, when the pair reunited for a jam during Hendrix's first "post-stardom" visit to New York Unfortunately, record keeping of any kind seems to have been furthest from anybody's mind at the time, and there is no way of knowing which songs were recorded when... or even by whom, sniff some purists. A case in point is Knight's "The Ballad Of Jimi" 45.

Interest in these releases was low at the time, and, by late 1968, both London and Capitol had given up on this archive. Perhaps inevitably, however, London returned to it immediately following Hendrix's death, rushing out the somewhat sensationally titled "The Ballad Of Jimi" 45, but defraying the inevitable accusations of opportunistic sensationalism by including (with the German release) a purported copy of the original studio sheet, giving the song's recording date as Sept. 18, 1965.

Knight himself claimed this possibly premonitory song was composed after Hendrix himself predicted his death earlier that year. Which does not explain how the guitarist was able to accompany Knight's lyrics with a very audible wah-wah, some two years before the effect unit itself was actually available.

Another single rushed into production in late 1970 was the now very scarce "No Such Animal," deceptively credited to Hendrix alone, but in reality dating again from the Knight sessions. Since 1970, a number of labels have licensed Knight's Hendrix archive for a succession of releases, many of which have continued to draw new and unheard performances from the vault without ever coming dose to offering a complete survey of the duo's entire recorded repertoire.

Significant among these are the early 1970s U.K. LPs What'd I Say/Early Jimi Hendrix and Birth Of Success, budget price releases that introduced the first live recordings to the catalog.

They were followed into this same poorly recorded, but generally entertaining territory, by the Ember label's Early Jimi Hendrix, In The Beginning (complete with added false applause) and Looking Back With Jimi Hendrix. These, and several other similar albums were all issued between 1971-'75 and are generally regarded as worth picking up, if only as examples of period kitsch (the sleeves are generally pricelessly garish).

A short leash

The bewildering plethora of such albums issued since then, however, has seriously impacted both the collectibility of the material and the patience of even the most devoted completist collector. And, while some attempt to correlate the catalog has been undertaken, culminating in the SPV label's release of the six-CD anthology Hendrix: The Complete PPX Studio Recordings in 2000, it really is too little, too late.

Indeed, the anthology is basically as shoddy as all the releases it supplanted, as it retains the same non-existent annotation that has scarred every other release and makes no attempt to either improve the sound quality or even guess at chronology. True, it gathers together almost every single track the pair cut in tandem - 57 cuts, including numerous retakes, sprawl across the musical spectrum. But, you need considerable patience to make your way through the entire package.

Still, it's there if you need it, as are all the other IPs and CDs (not to mention cassettes and eight-tracks) out there, bearing the name, if not the genius, of Jimi Hendrix. The question is, do you need it?

Particularly over the last couple of decades, it has become almost second nature among Hendrix fans to disregard any attempt to repackage the guitarist's pre-fame material, for reasons ranging from the aforementioned lack of concrete information (not to mention Hendrix), to wariness of investing in another fly-by-night budget label's wares, and on to a general weariness with the subject in general.

Discussing the possibility of Experience Hendrix ever remastering and releasing any of this music, producer Eddie Kramer simply asked, "Why? That stuff is really crap. It plays a part in the story, but do I personally want to put it out? No. It's not really Jimi, is it? I mean it is, but it isn't. He's playing bloody rhythm guitar for God's sake."

And that is true. Listening to the music he was making, even on the Knight sessions, where he was encouraged to let fly, Hendrix sounds markedly unambitious. Leading his own Blue Flames around the New York circuit during 1966, he knew that Mike Bloomfield was watching him play, but not once did he make a move in that direction.

He was aware, too, that both The Rolling Stones' brilliant young manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, and New York industry bigwig Seymour Stein were interested in him. But he never gave those admirers any overt encouragement either, and both eventually drifted away.

Musically, Hendrix was equally naive. The tide of rock musicianship was fast turning from the day when one could make a living from simply turning out the same old blues standards, but representative set lists from the Blue Flames era made few concessions to the changing times: "Money," "Walkin' The Dog," "Bo Diddley," "Twist And Shout." Even when he came upon "Hey Joe," the song which (with a new arrangement) would soon be establishing his fame, it was simply a bluesy rearrangement of a century-old cowboy song, and the most contemporary things in Jimi's arsenal were "Hang On, Sloopy" and a distinctive rendition of "Like A Rolling Stone."

The exhibitionism which became such a marked part of Hendrix's London persona "probably always was there," Kramer mused. "It was one of the reasons he got sacked from Little Richard's band, because he kept wanting to leap upfront and steal the thunder and Richard wasn't having any of that ****."

But, Hendrix, nevertheless, kept his exuberance on a comparatively short leash, and it shows in the music.

Kramer might have been over-harsh with his dismissal of Hendrix's early canon, but he was not too far off the mark either. Though the Hendrix heard on these early recordings, the Isleys material in particular, was already unquestionably a decent guitarist, the innovation and inventiveness that became his trademarks are scarcely even hinted at.

Fascinating glimpses into his future are present - from the Curtis Knight days, the Beatles' "Day Tripper," the Albert Collinsinspired "Drivin' South" and Howlin' Wolf's "Killin" Floor" would all reappear in the Jimi Hendrix Experience's live repertoire. However, it is also plain that much of the material was either simply a job to be done, or, again among the Knight material, a bit of fun laid down while the tape was still rolling.

For the sake of the historical record, there is a need for this material to be compiled together into one cohesive and, most essentially, well-annotated package. Particularly as there really cannot be too many more previously unissued takes of "1983 (A Merman I Should Be)" and "EXP" in the vault to tempt us into buying another studio compilation.

Indeed, as we approach the 40th anniversary of Hendrix's death, in 2010, what better tribute to him could there be than to finally clear up the mess that devours fully one-half of his recording career and show him as he really was during that period. The music may not always be brilliant, and some of it certainly isn't.

But do we despise the Silver Beatles because they didn't make Sgt. Pepper? Are The Rolling Stones' IBC demos any less valid than Exile On Main Street? Did David Bowie really record "The Laughing Gnome?"

An artist's past is valuable because it is his past, and to try and sweep it under the carpet simply because it doesn't meet the same standards of his later output isn't simply dubious, it's practically dishonest.

And if there's one word that you never want to hear applied to Hendrix's legacy, that's it.

[Sidebar]

"People would say if you don't get a job you'll just starve to death. But I didn't want to take a job outside music. I tried a few jobs, including car delivery, but I always quit after a week or so..." - Jimi Hendrix

[Sidebar]

"It was one of the reasons he got sacked from Little Richard's band, because he kept wanting to leap upfront and steal the thunder and Richard wasn't having any of that ****." - Eddie Kramer on why Little Richard fired Jimi Hendrix


http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1596662941.html (a pay site)

 

I just can't believe that he used to jump out of airplanes.

 

Jimi did this sketch of Elvis when he was 12 or 13.

 

Oh, man. Thanks for posting that but that article has dozens of errors. Major stuff. I have to wonder if he did any research at all. A few years ago Goldmine had an article about this stuff and that one was chock full of errors too. I'll try and correct some of the more major errors in a separate post. The article is really long so I'll have to heavily edit the text for readability.

 

Is any of his pre-fame stuff actually worth hearing?

 

I guess because of the various labels involved theres little chance of an officially released "pre-fame" compilation CD ever being released?

 

WOW.

The historical importance of that clip is huge.
Thanks for posting!

 

Good thread

 

Two things.

1) The so called Youngblood recordings were recorded in 1966, not 1963.
2) Youngblood was a session sax player. In no way was he anything close to a "bluesman".

Go Go Shoes/Go Go Place and Soul Food/Bessie Mae are the ONLY tracks where Youngblood is the featured artist. That's it, 4 songs. Jimi and Lonnie Youngblood were session musicians that played on sessions for other artists (The Icemen, Billy LaMont, Lenny Howard, George Scott, Jimmy Norman). After Jimi died Youngblood took credit for composing and singing all of the tracks and added loads of sax overdubs to some tracks. Kind of disgusting isn't it?

BS. See above. After Jimi died Youngblood mixed out the vocals by the original artists, added overdubs to tracks, and then took credit for them.

Wrong. See above.

No, the Youngblood stuff was recorded well after Jimi's second stint with the Isley's.

Jimi isn't on The Last Girl. Dionne Warwick isn't either.

Shortly after Jimi died the Isley's remixed the 4 tracks Jimi played on greatly increasing the level of the guitar parts. The guitar is buried under the brass in the 1965 mix of Move Over And Let Me Dance. The remix has the horns mixed out so you can hear the slick R&B rhythm guitar parts. Very cool. They also re-recorded the vocals to these tracks.

Don Covay's Mercy Mercy was a top 40 hit in 1964 and Jimi plays a solo on that. I don't see how the author missed what is easily Jimi's highest profile early recording.

The 'live material' ,at least some of it, is studio recordings with overdubbed applause. Some tracks circulate both with and without audience noise.

How Would You Feel is essentially a cover of Like a Rolling Stone with new (awful) lyrics by Knight. Interesting as you can hear Jimi playing Mike Bloomfield's licks.

Uh, the tracks with the wah-wah are from 1967. Not exactly Sherlock Holmes territory here.

Wrong. No Such Animal is credited to Hendrix because he wrote it. Hendrix signed a publishing contract for No Such Animal, Hornet's Nest and Knock Yourself Out in June 1966. He is listed as co-writer along with producer Jerry Simon. Curtis Knight had nothing to do with those recordings. Does the author think that Knight decided to throw the Hendrix estate a bone by giving Jimi credit on songs he didn't right?

Oh, please. Jimi takes solos on most of the legit early recordings and what is wrong with rhythm guitar?

 

This is an argumant that I seem to often have with folks about the missing tracks from the "WOODSTOCK" CD.

Just because Jimi isn't singing its not a Jimi song?

Especially when he is primiarily known as a guitar player???

 

I hear ya. Jimi's univibe'd fills in the Woodstock Gypsy Woman are so beautiful. Pretty sure there were some technical issues with the recording though. You can hear it on the rough mix. Still, an essential window in Jimi's roots and some of his best rhythm playing IMO.

 

There's a photo of Jimi at the Elvis show. The stadium was in his neighbourhood and there was a hill that overlooked the stage. Jimi's family did have the money for tickets for the 14 year old.

The aeriel shot(baseball stadium with night lights on) is in an Elvis coffe table photo book by an author with a first or last name "Gordon and has a red cover. I've only seen it in a book I was unable to buy at the time.

Hopefully an Elvis nut here can help. It's never been documented by any Jimi scholar.

 

Some of it is. I think there are 6 or 7 killer R&B tracks with excellent guitar work. This is the good stuff IMO. There are a couple other songs I'd add but they aren't on youtube. Note that the Curtis Knight stuff, save for one or two recordings, is by far the worst material. Jimi plays well on that stuff but Knight is so annoying and the songs are lame.

Don Covay - Mercy, Mercy. One of Jimi's first if not his first studio recording. That's Jimi taking the solo. Steve mastered this on the Covay Razor & Tie set. The JHE played this live several times in '67.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX7nxtVknPQ

and here is a live JHE version from 2/67.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eflsj73Zas

Rosa Lee Brooks - My Diary. Written by Arthur Lee in 1965! This is a wonderful song and performance. No idea if the tapes exist. All copies are from needledrops or (I think) acetate. Love that intro. There are much better versions doing the rounds than what is on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fgzcir3lho

The Icemen - My Girl (She's a Fox). Take Jimi out of the equation and this is simply a killer R&B song. The intro guitar is out of this world. John Legend totally, I mean totally ripped this song off. At least he has good taste.

The Icemen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVq93ReJhVE&feature=related

John Legend's Slow Dance - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GQE-Ivb58k

The Isley Brothers - Move On Over And Let Me Dance - backing track ('71 remix, recorded in '65).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qNK-27-HEM

Frank Howard & The Commanders - I'm So Glad

Written by Billy Cox in 1965. Jimi is playing rhythm (not the lead). He isn't in the video though. Good slice of Northern Soul here with the Hey Baby vox swiped from Bruce Channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VngOJKUiCo

Curtis Knight - How Would You Feel.

Listen to Jimi play Mike Bloomfield's licks here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VVCosXBv9g

The Squires - Hornet's Nest. In June '66 the Squires sans Curtis Knight recorded several instrumentals in a NYC studio with Jimi receiving co-writing credits with producer Jerry Simon. Interesting because Jimi is basically leading the session here as opposed to earlier sessions. No idea where Curtis was be he had nothing to do with this session. Jimi signed a publishing contract for 3 of the 4 songs recorded here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F8LRYT2I2Y

 

Really? Now that is interesting. I'd like to see that. Was it at Sick's Stadium?

 

http://www.scottymoore.net/seattle57.html

Jimi would be on the hill, outside the stadium, behind the outfiedl fence. Probably a better vantage point and possibly sound that half of the seats inside. Since it was one of the first ever stadium concerts, the only worry was getting Elvis out in one piece rather than a couple freeloaders.

Robert Gordon "Elvis on tour 1954-1977" coffee table book. The book has a 2 page spread with the photo(maybe 1 foot by 2 foot) where picking off Jimi is perhaps possible.

 

Wow, worth a try. Anyone have the book.

 

Any comments on the youtube links I posted upthread?