Regarding Hendrix's "Axis: Bold as Love"

So true. I've only really began to appreciate jazz in the last couple of years, particularly the late 50s / early 60s hard bop & Blue Note type. I'm no expert but that music has such a wonderful feel and the recording quality is usually stunning.

 

I just relistened to it, the Polydor is slightly folded in at that point (and others) but the mix itself for the whole song is identical to the regular mix. The same pan sweeps in the same places at the same levels. It's just missing the phasing in the middle.

 

Sounds like a re mix to my ears but I'll keep the comment in mind next time I play a polydor version.

 

I seem to remember a different story about the missing tapes in one of the bios where a studio employee said that there where 3 people in the studio at one point. It was the employee, Chas and Jimi. The employee states that at one point the tapes were sitting on a stool in the studio and shortly afterwards they were gone. This employee did not want to be named.

Also, Noel backs the missing tapes story up in his book and he is brutally honest in that book. So much so that I tend to take him at his word unless other evidence comes to light.

Haven't read Jimpress for a few years but I may pick up the issue with the missing tapes article because it sounds interesting. I really don't have a clue as to what happened.

 

Indeed, Noel always was a straight shooter, ha. Got him self a lot if grief at times!
Again, third party comments and I did highlight enough of them in the article.

I did use a comment that reflected a similar situation but I think that was from EG.

 

Nice someone is pro Noel's song and not so negative as it does fit with the other more pop related cuts. The backing vocals (and on some cuts the bass) seems a little Who influenced IMO.

 

Jimi told Chas he needed more time. He expressed his frustration that he was expected to deliver a finished LP after only 16 recording sessions. Chas was not sympathetic. He had a deadline to deliver the masters to Track so the LP would be released in time for Xmas.

fwiw Axis was released in the UK on December 1st.

 

Yes absolutely, Chas did not want to remix as it was finished. Plus the schedule was really tight to get the lp out by it's scheduled release date. Who can imagine Chas lying to Polydor for an emergency marathon session unless there was no choice. Jimi was not the boss or producer as evidenced further by the downcast December Interview he gave re Axis recordings.

 

Yep, and despite the delay the album was delivered to Track on time!

release dates? See here .......................... Quick reference

We don't know what Chas thought, any thing we add is assumption but yes, it was a very tight schedule to deliver but deliver they did. Deliver to both Track and Polydor with two different mixes!!

Again yes, Chas was the "boss" as co manager. His responsibility lay beyond that of managing the group too. He was the man to ensure delivery of a finished album. To that end, would he be stupid, naïve enough to have allowed Jimi to take the tapes from the studio or to a party?

Jimi did it seems get a little more time, a single day which was spent re mixing an album. That's an album not a side of an album.
Story goes he "lost" a side, one of two mixed master reels! Why remix a full album the following day.
I'll also add that it seems various authors struggle with just what side was lost. Even Chas said in interview a side was lost but continued with saying the whole album was remixed!

The only interviews that count here are the ones from Jimi in 68 and Chas from the South Bank Show in which they both directly comment on the "lost"
tape(s).

 

I don’t believe for a second that any master mixdowns were lost.

 

Exactly my point. But simply stating this without support or reason is as an empty argument as the stories that abound in all the books that claim otherwise.

For me it is the most ridiculous story imaginable.

 

If we imagine that that the story was a PR concoction, which is the only alternative...

What kind of positive PR did Chas and Jimi hope to achieve with that lie? As it came out, it only emphasized how unhappy Jimi was with the rushed recording of the album, and essentially that he was unhappy with Chas as his producer and manager.

And how come neither Chas or Kramer or Noel came clean about it decades afterwards? Noel was in definite myth-busting mode in his book.

Why is it unbelievable that Jimi might have trashed/dumped the mix tape?

 

One point I make in the article is that we read numerous reports in a number of publications and we immediately add in what we think so as the story makes sense. Otherwise, are we really to believe Chas and Jimi are that stupid?

Chas, in that he let the audio tape(s) go missing and Jimi to put the record deal at risk. After all, there was no guarantees that a new mix could / would be done in the 24 hrs remaining!
Putting aside the eq'd master mix tapes would be the only option. Presenting a story to make it [seemingly] impossible to have no other option.

So, the questions posed.
What PR? This was never by any means a PR exercise! We know Jimi was unhappy at being rushed, read his interviews throughout his short career. Well it is easy to add a side note to help conclude to a story [as already stated] so to say rightly or wrongly that Jimi was demonstrating how unhappy he is / was with Chas is really irrelevant.

How can Kramer or Redding "come clean"? They were not party to events, as already stated earlier in the thread Kramer and we can now include Redding can only add third party versions from what they may well have been told!

As to why Chas does not "come clean" I have no idea, sadly a little late to ask him.

As for dumping / trashing the tapes, see the point regard putting the recording deal at risk, are we now suggesting both Chas and Jimi are stupid or amateurs ?

But the bottom line is, only Chas and Jimi can truly answer the questions and they never did.

If we get to the bottom of the 2nd stereo mix [which is the first stereo mix seemingly] we would by default answer the point of a lost or not reel(s).

Just finish on this point, why do we have another version of the story with Jimi trashing / dumping the tape(s)? I read enough variation already

 

Intriguing

 

C'mon who would ever believe that Polydor would drop Jimi Hendrix a topline act for losing a tape, AYE was massive. You even point out how disconsolate Jimi was about the sound so what is hard to believe Jimi could or would not have taken the tape.

 

I wonder if Jimi, Chas and Kramer were even aware that all of Europe (bar France) used a totally different mix? I suspect they were not. Curious is Kramer is aware of this today even.

In any event someone goofed big time. There is no way Chas and Jimi intended to release two different stereo mixes. I think we can assume Jimi didn't want that errant guitar plonk left in the Little Wing mix.

I hope Jimi wasn't aware....he was already upset with the rushed recording sessions, the quality of the cutting and the artwork. I imagine he would have been devastated to know the wrong mix was used most of Europe.

 

Intriguing? Yes, confusing and frustrating too!

 

This is simply jumping to conclusion! Who said anything about "dropping" the band? There are a number of avenues to consider if this was a reality.
Most important would be Chas's reputation as a then fledgling "topline" manager!

So, back to Chas being foolish, stupid or simply naïve? The points are already made [at least some quite valid ones] in the thread already as to why it is unlikely the point of Hendrix taking the tapes is unlikely. There are others but I'll they are for the article

Point out to me just when Hendrix was really satisfied, before during or after AXIS! It was this very attitude that drove Chas from his role to begin with. And before anyone jumps on this, this is not me being critical of the guy just pointing out how demanding the guy was, often to the point of unreasonable.

So, this reply is going into ifs and buts territory, away from the actual facts [what few we have]. Easily done to try and make sense of the "stories"!

 

It is my understanding that they didn't mix both sides of axis but just the 1st side

 

If Hendrix and Chandler were not aware of this then just were did the second mix come from and who made the second mix? Kramer is simply a mixing engineer employed on a needed basis at this point so it had little if any concern to him.

I always wonder just what was "designed" for release. Even back then Europe and the US were treated as totally different markets as they are today despite a more "global" approach from big business.

The extra note could have easily been corrected with a remix of one track but they sat and REMIXED THE WHOLE ALBUM. Who says so? Kramer and Chandler say so.

 

Coincidental highlighting and comment

So, just were did the second mix come from?

 

Just throw this out. It can at a stretch be related to what we are discussing but it's not asked for, for that reason.

Do the multi tracks of this recording exist? Do the flat masters even exist for the mixed album?

 

are you sure it's a 2nd mix or is it an earlier mix....

Also from what I understand (correct me if I'm wrong) the differences between the Europe and US versions is not very much...

 

With the deadline looming, Hendrix, Chas Chandler, and engineer Eddie Kramer remixed most of side one in a single overnight session, but they could not match the quality of the lost mix of "If 6 Was 9". Bassist Noel Redding had a tape recording of this mix, which had to be smoothed out with an iron as it had gotten wrinkled

 

If I call this correct [and I by no means say I am correct in my homework ], the 2nd mix is the first mix, the lost mix, the trashed mix!

Yes, in most cases simply slight adjustments. Some vocal or instrument placement and / or panning and phasing or simply just a level adjustment on a track.

I always wonder and didn't confuse in the article the point of the missing "swirling" guitar at the beginning of side B. I always had this down as a mastering point, simply mastered out. In fact it could be that this was not part of the mix on the "lost / trashed" mix.