New Hendrix cd "People Hell and Angels" coming in November

I don't think $100,000 could last over a dozen years until the late 80's when he made money selling the Hendrix guitar in auction and some other things.

Maybe he got money on home video releases in the 80's like Monterey.

 

Possibly. I know Billy Cox was completely shafted until EH got control. He was running a pawn shop here in Nashville, and his car didn't even run! He should have official writing credit on some of that later stuff (some of those riffs were co-written with Hendrix). I'm just happy that EH takes care of him.

 

Billy never took them to court. It's also unclear to me what contracts he signed.

 

Billy was a salaried employee when he worked with Jimi, so he was never entitled to any royalties. Additionally, he never got any writer's credit for his collaborations with Jimi, even though it is widely accepted that his jams with Jimi did produce melodies used for songs Hendrix ultimately shaped into the form of working masters. That said, his chance to prove he was entitled to writer's royalties died with the statute of limitations decades ago. Fortunately, he has some sort of 'consultant' agreement with EH that provides him with some additional income.

With regards to Billy as a bass player, I was always surprised he did not find work during the '70s after his association with Jimi and due to the praise the Band Of Gypsys album received. I prefer Billy's actual playing to Noel's and have always felt he was greatly undervalued.

 

They each sold out for low-to-mid six figures (McDermott mentions $300K to Mitch). They made the deals; no one coerced them into it. In hindsight, when Hendrix had a resurgence in popularity and his albums started to sell millions of copies over the subsequent decades, Noel and Mitch had buyers remorse realizing they left a lot of money on the table. That said, there is nothing unlawful about making a bad deal. Additionally, if Hendrix's music wasn't selling particularly well during the early '70s and it appeared that huge streams of income were not on the horizon, selling out for a couple hundred grand (which was a lot of money in the early '70s) probably seemed like a good deal to a couple of guys that were not working in money-making bands at the time. When people suggest Noel and Mitch didn't have the money to fight the labels - what exactly are they referring to? They sold away their rights to future royalties (I suppose like other acts, they may have had an argument that they were entitled to digital royalties depending on what the language of their contracts said). It is a stretch to assert or assume Noel and Mitch were victims.

 

I think it might not be clear if Mitch were "officially" band members or salaried when it came to royalties. I've heard 25/25/50 split or something much lower for the rhythm section. I think Noel claims that no "new" albums would be created. Noel also claimed that when his settlement figure came in much lower than anticipated that his lawyer threatened to sue him if he didn't take it.

As for their pre-settlement financial status, did they EVER recieve a royalty check, or did they just get money from time to time via management when Jimi was around?

 

You are correct that Jimi, Mitch, and Noel had a split of Experience royalies and income - with Hendrix having a majority. Still, Mitch and Noel were not salaried employees with regards to AYE, ABAL, and EL - they were shareholders.

Now, one has to apply some logic to Noel's apparent claims. His lawyer "threatened to sue him" if he didn't sign a deal? That makes no sense on any level. What could he sue Noel for? Secondly, the lawyer would face getting disbarred coercing his client to sign a blatantly unfair deal for the lawyer's apparent personal gain. Additionally, can you imagine a record label putting into a contract that it would not create any future albums - particularly albums from a deceased artist where the only way to continue making money is to issue hits compilations and archival releases? None of it sounds believable.

With regards to royalties prior to their buy-out deals, my understanding is that Michael Jeffery funneled a significant amount of royalty money and earnings into off-shore accounts. So, my guess is that the band did not see its fair share of money - but there is also no indication that Mitch or Noel ever asked Jeffery for an accounting of earnings and accounts or for any back-payments. Perhaps the deals Mitch and Noel signed were for back-royalties and future royalties as well, but that is speculation.

 

Totally agree

 

this is something for which we can all be grateful

 

I agree. Douglas did have access to various quantities of tapes, but there were plenty that alluded him as well. The thing is, Douglas didn't see the value in many of Hendrix's archival works, at least in their natural form. He is on record as saying that he had a certain degree of difficulty trying to piece Midnight Lightning together because the material simply wasn't strong enough. He rated the material based on its potential commerical impact versus the material representing the artistic reputation and skill of the artist. Yes, one should want to find a balance and not just produce a mainstream album of lengthy, aimless jams lacking broad appeal - but, Douglas didn't see any value in presenting authentic archival pieces which shows he lacked a certain appreciation for what Hendrix's unfinished work truly represented. Fortunately, he only did minimal damage to the master tapes he did work with.

 

"aimless jams lacking broad appeal".........Yes!!!!

 

Douglas was working to instructions from Mo Ostin and had to do what he was assigned to do and what resources he had at his disposal, people are way to harsh on Crash Landing and Midnight Lightning the success of these albums payed for Janie Hendrix's education and gave her the ability to sue

 

I really don't understand the constant need to commercialise Jimi Hendrix ? Within his lifetime he never set the singles charts alight and his highest USA single was number 20 and the rest didnt even make the top 50 and that was with his best songs ? EH should just concentrate on good restropective unreleased 'honest, works in progress or interesting live material' instead of trying to create 'frankenstein' edits as singles IMO

 

Good point.

 

Somebody gets it!

 

Agreed,
except for the fact that he did set the EUROPEAN single charts alight!

 

Only really after he died did he hit number 1 though in the UK, he still did great over here in his lifetime and if not for London and Paris then people would never have even heard of him IMO, and IMO The Jimi Hendrix Experience are as British as The Rolling Sones, Cream or The Beatles

 

Up until Jeffery's death in '73, he had final say of what product would be released. After Cry Of Love, Rainbow Bridge, War Heroes and Loose Ends - the vault was cleaned out as far as Jeffery was concerned. He also specifically kept Douglas out of the picture when the filmmaker for "A Film About Jimi Hendrix" introduced him to Ostin. Once Jeffery died, Ostin and Warner wanted to see what else might be lingering in the archives and in private hands for a new Jimi Hendrix album. Warner and Leo Branton began to inquire about who might have Hendrix tapes and they remembered Alan Douglas. Ostin approached Douglas. Douglas had some tapes and also looked at what was available to Warner and in his mind, only saw fragments of incomplete songs and jams. He is the one who decided to take advantage of the opportunity to work on Hendrix product for Warner and conceived of the re-recording/reconstruction/massive overdubbing/editing project that became Crash Landing. After the positive retail results of Crash Landing, Ostin wanted more product. So, Douglas and Bongiovi employed their approach to additional tapes for Midnight Lightning, this time of course with lesser results. Initially, Douglas did not work on Ostin's instructions to create Crash Landing in the manner in which he did. It was only subsequently that Ostin wanted more product in the same vein as Crash Landing. And if I recall correctly, a third project was considered, but because Midnight Lightning was so difficult to pull off, the third project was aborted and ultimately Nine To The Universe was created in a misguided attempt to show Hendrix was a frustrated jazz artist. The bottom line is that Ostin wanted product - he wasn't the visionary behind how Douglas was to craft it.

Additionally, the Hendrix estate did not particularly share in the wealth of profits generated by Branton and Douglas. Janie's ability to fund expensive litigation against Douglas and Branton was because billionaire Paul Allen loaned her and Al the money to fight for control of the Hendrix legacy.

 

Al Hendrix had enough money to pay her way through school.

Paul Allen financed the lawsuit. Don't think it was ever formally paid back.

 

Wasn't Branton the executor for Jimi's estate?

 

They did pay (assuming) a fair bit for the master tapes of Band Of Gypsy's that Paul Allen owned. Hopefully he made a bit from that transaction to help finance his music museum.

 

It's now a Sci-Fi museum with side dish of Hendrix. Not sure how long the Nirvana exhibit will last. EMP was always a money pit and Paul Allen could afford it.

Paul/Janie were estranged for awhile, but seem to be linked in some way now. EMP have been in recent cd/dvd credits and the EMP owned woodstock strat has been on the Billy Cox EH tours.

 

I know what you mean. Even though they were only 2/3 british and the whole thing was built on Jimi's genius, the early band was a Chandler creation for the market he knew like the back of his hand. However, by mid 68, Jimi began to steer things his way and broke the whole thing up (exit Chandler, exit Redding).

 

He released a solo album, "Nitro Function" in 71. It has Char Vinnedge, from the Luv'd Ones, on guitar and vocals and
is not too bad. He also played with the Charlie Daniels band in the 70's.

 

Just got this email:

This Sunday, January 20, CBS will air a special episode of Hawaii Five-0 after the AFC Championship game which will debut previously unreleased music from the new Jimi Hendrix album, People, Hell and Angels!
The episode will include 7 unreleased songs from the music legend. The tracks, "Bleeding Heart," "Mojo Man," "Hey Gypsy Boy," "Inside Out," "Crash Landing," "Hear My Train A Comin'" and "Somewhere," make up seven of the 12 songs on the upcoming brand-new Hendrix album People, Hell and Angels, which is available for pre-order now!