Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I really like your line of thinking, Ed.  Miles would have been great
for Jimi and vice a versa.  

I also think that Jimi's finest flashes as a lyricist were a key part
of what allowed him his real world (not conjectural) ascendence as
arguably the finest example of a psychedelic rock star. His lyricism
would not have carried over into these "co-conspiracies" with Miles. 
  

    
>>Eva Sundqvist, the mother of his son in Sweden, claimed it was about
her. I've also read where Jimi
had worked on his arrangement for "Angel"... didn't Mitch Mitchell and
Noel Redding or Billy Cox lay down their tracks for Angel after Jimi
died? 

A couple of the women I interviewed who knew Jimi well said "Angel"
was about them. I tend to believe it was more  about his mother... "she
stayed long enough to rescue me." Before his mother's death, Jimi had
premonitions of her leaving this world (listen to the Meatball Fulton
interview). The song, for me, seems to have her returning to encourage
Jimi. There are two demo versions out there. The earliest (found on the
2000 box set) has Jimi playing along with a simple drum machine. He
even overdubbed another guitar part, and the song has a bit of a
country feel to it. The other demo, from 1968, is just Jimi, his
guitar, and a mini amp, practicing it in a hotel room prior to the
Electric Ladyland sessions. The "Cry of Love" version was almost
finished. Some feel he may have added another guitar part. Mitchell
came into the studio in 1971 to add a fuller drum part. I know they
tried to tinker with it again in 1994 for "Voodoo Soup," but left it
alone. 

>>Also, what other posthumous songs by Hendrix do you find most
compelling?

In "Black Gold" I tried to express my frustration with the two
attempts to complete Jimi's 1970 double album, "First Ray of the New
Rising Sun." The first attempt was by producer Alan Douglas. He set out
with good intentions, but it when down hill from there. Alan's
downfall was he couldn't leave things as they were, and felt he had to
finish and interpret them as Jimi would have (listen to "Crash Landing"
and "Midnight Lightning"). He even told me, that he wanted to burn all
of Jimi's out takes, adding Jimi wasn't God and the public shouldn't
have to hear these. So where Alan crossed the line with "Voodoo Soup"
(other than the crappy title) was having Bruce Gary (r.i.p.) overdub on
two tracks, "Stepping Stone" and Room Full of Mirrors." I interviewed
Bruce about this and he said that Buddy's drum part was missing and the
other didn't cut it. Funny, the originals have turned up in recent
years.

The second attempt, by Janie Hendrix, John McDermott, and Eddie
Kramer, also failed. Here was the opportunity to get it right. They had
access to Jimi's handwritten track listing for three sides of the
release (it was even printed in a magazine), but none of Jimi's
instructions were followed, and they included the track "My Friend,"
(from 1968) which had nothing to do with this project.

In my opinion, I think Experience Hendrix should take guidance from
the estates of Miles Davis and John Coltrane; release recordings warts
and all, and complete concerts. Many of the "new" studio releases also
have too much going on. Jimi recorded multiple solos, but Kramer likes
to have them all of them up in the mix, and seems to pick the wrong
ones, i.e "Ezy Ryder."

I like "Tax Free" that was found on "War Heroes." Somebody was talking
about Swedish influences the other day. Hansen and Karlson wrote this
one. It has a nice jazz break in the middle. (Somebody played me an
hour long club jam with them and Jimi ~ it was incredible.) There's a
lot of other tracks that haven't been released. I think the problem is
that the wouldn't sell in large enough numbers for the label to be
satisfied. The Hendrix "family" does have their official Dagger label
and manage to crank out one CD of fan quality material per year -
mail/interent order only.

From what I've seen lately, the focus has drifted away from the music
and the back story, to more concentration on marketing Jimi's image on
toys, sunglasses, air fresheners, vodka, and diaper covers... yes,
diaper covers! Sadly, this may continue for another 10 years or so.
What's missing is a new film documentary (no biopics please) that tries
to explain who this genius was. There is one called "Room Full of
Mirrors" that remains unreleased, and screened to small group of
people. In it, Jimi tells his own story by way of interview clips and
rare footage. There's even a producer I know that has been filming
interviews for the past ten years or so. He'd like to put something
out, but can't seem to reach an agreement. 
  

    
>>Randy Hanson

He's still playing. Funny, back in 1995 I was involved with Jimi
Hendrix Electric Guitar Festival in Seattle. We pulled all the original
band members together along with who's who guitar players. I sat in on
the two days of rehearsals, and of all the guys playing, Randy was the
only that was most familiar with Jimi's music; he played it night
after night on the road for so long. 
  

    
>>little has been said about his abilities as a lyricist

Scott, you're right, and I do cover that in my class. 

The lyrics you quoted from "Bold as Love" are beautiful and clever. I
just started reading Oliver Sacks new book "Musicophilia," and he talks
about musicians having musical synnesthesias; seeing fixed color
associated with playing music, scales, arpeggios, anything with a key
signature. I think Jimi may have had this (I include some quotes in
"Black Gold.). He also made some wonderful painting and watercolors. I
think used these talents to formulate some his musical ideas/lyrics.
Many of his lyrics also include metaphors. 

"Dolly Dagger," for example, talks about his girlfriend Devon:

"Been riding broomsticks since she was fifteen" - Devon was a teenage
prostitute.

"She drinks her blood from a jagged edge" - had an affair with Mick
Jagger.

And spoken under the music - "Watch out Devon,
better give me a little bit of that heaven."

Jimi was a great composer/lyricist, and his handwriting was fluid too
(he wrote right handed, played left handed).
  

    
(no biopics please)
Yeah, there's something about those that's hard to take.  Also, when
details emerge, such as the villainizing of Michael Jeffrey, it's hard
to know what to take as factual or as embellishment.

Steve, will there be another version of the Hendrix Electric Guitar
Festival at some point in the near future?
  

    
(he wrote right handed, played left handed).

Do you think that Jimi was ambidexrous, or was him writing
right-handed a product of his teachers (and the practice of that era)
forcing him to use that hand?  Do you know which hand Jimi threw with? 
  

    
Speaking of Jimi's lyrics, he was very well acquainted with Bob Dylan
before he left for London.  Do you think Jimi's fascination was more
with Dylan as a lyricist or as a composer?  The marvelous and colorful
imagery of "Mr. Tamborine Man", for example is also evident on so many
of Jimi's own songs on those Experience LPs. 

Moreover, "Black Gold" notes that Jimi was doing a cover of "Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" for the members of the Beatles only
two weeks after that LP came out in 1967.  Not only must that have been
trippy for Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starr, it's another great example
of how maleable Jimi was to his changing circumstances.  In other
words, the lyrics he was penning while newly in London, were very much
a product of the style and tone that surrounded him.  And as a deeper
level those lyrics also borrowed from the breadth of his life
experience, too.
  

    
>>Steve, will there be another version of the Hendrix Electric Guitar
Festival at some point in the near future?

Experience Hendrix put on a five city tour of the east coast just
recently. It featured several excellent guitar players. The one we did
in 1995 was filmed, but they never could get everyone to agree on
financial matters. You can see a few shots I took on my website:
http://www.steveroby.com/Straight_Ahead.html about halfway down the
page. I love the Mike McCready story. More story and photos here:
http://www.steveroby.com/Gallery.html

Sadly, Noel Redding is no longer with us so it wouldn't be quite the
same.
  

    
>>Do you think that Jimi was ambidexrous, or was him writing
right-handed a product of his teachers (and the practice of that era)
forcing him to use that hand?  

It probably had something to do with being from another planet. You
know, space people are gifted that way.

>>Do you know which hand Jimi threw with?

I'll have to look back on some of those school photos.
  

    
>>Moreover, "Black Gold" notes that Jimi was doing a cover of "Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" for the members of the Beatles only
two weeks after that LP came out in 1967.

No, make that three days. The album came out on a Thursday (June 1),
and he played it at the Saville on Sunday (June 4) for them. You can
hear Jimi pay many tributes to the Beatles such as "Tomorrow Never
Knows", "I Fee Fine", and "Day Tripper."
  

    
>>Speaking of Jimi's lyrics...

"I think of tunes, I think of riffs. I can hum them. Then there's
another melody that comes into my head, and then a bass melody, and
then another one. On guitar I just can't get them out. I think I'm a
better guitarist now than I was. I've learned a lot. But I've got to
learn more about music, because there's a lot in this hair of mine
that's got to get out... I want to be a good writer. I still can't
figure out what direction my writing is going at the moment, but it'll
find a way... I'm happy, it's gonna be good."

Jimi Hendrix, Melody Maker, September 5, 1970
  

    
<< On September 4, 1995, a Jimi Hendrix tribute concert was held at
the Memorial Stadium during Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival. The line-up
included Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell, George Clinton and the P-Funk
All-Stars with Parliament and Funkadelic, Buddy Miles, Billy Cox,
Vernon Reid, Little "Jimmy" King, Junior Brown, Clarence Clemons, Eric
Burdon, Jerry Cantrell, Chris Duarte, Eric Gales, Randy Hansen, Little
Jimmy King, John McLaughlin, Mike McCready, Vernon Reid, Juma Sultan,
Neal Schon, The Spirit of Hendrix (Narada Michael Walden's house band),
Ann Wilson>>

What a wonderful lineup you put together, Steve!!  Living Color is
great but how did you manage to get Vernon Reid to clone himself and
appear twice?  You've got the Grunge stars, funkadelia stars, jazzier
McLaughlin.  Any chance that recording will ever get released in the
future?


slippage:  Also, great perspective from Jimi himself on his own
creative process. "it'll find a way...I'm happy, it's gonna be good"
are not the words of someone who would take his own life two weeks
later.   
  

    
Another of my favorite Hendrix songs (decades before it became
background for a Cadillac commercial) is "Voodoo Child (slight
return)".  When we compare a delicately worded and expressed, and more
introverted song such as "Little Wing" with the hard-driving,
blues-rock feel of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return), it seems to show that
Jimi was equally comfortable exloring his musicality through the more
extroverted environment of the jam, as he was through more private
explorations.

Steve, what do you know of the origins of "Voodoo Child (Slight
Return)"? Doesn't the studio version on Electric Ladyland feature the
likes of Al Cooper?  What do you think Jimi made of this monicker for
himself?  I know you dislike the posthumous LP title of "Voodoo Soup,"
but did Jimi like being refered to as a voodoo child?  Or, was he
talking about himself with this title?
  

    
Our Inkwell.Vue guest, Steve Roby, is clearly one of the foremost
authorities on Jimi Hendrix. Here's your chance: 

Off-WELL readers with comments or questions may have them added to
this conversation by sending them to <inkwell@well.com> 
  

    
>>Steve, what do you know of the origins of "Voodoo Child (Slight
Return)"? 

Jimi's girlfriend Fayne, recalled, "[Jimi] was so tormented and just
so torn apart, like he was obsessed with something really evil. He'd
say, 'Well, you're from Georgia,' so he'd say I should know how people
drive demons out, because I used to talk about my grandma and all her
weird stuff. He'd talk about us goin' down there and havin' some root
lady drive this demon out of him! He used to always talk about some
devil or somethin' was in him, and he didn't have any control over it."

In an interview, Jimi spoke about voodoo: ""You think that sort of
thing is rubbish 'till it happens to you, then it's scary. There's
different things they can do, they can put something in your food, or
put some little hair in your shoe. I saw it. If I see it happen or if I
feel it happen then I believe it, not necessarily if I just hear it
being talked about. Around in the southern United States they have
scenes like that goin' on." In another interview, Jimi spoke about a
girl that tried to "work roots" on him. This may have happened on the
Chitlin' Circuit or earlier.

When Jimi was 13, in 1956, he may have made a trip with his mother to
the deep south where some "transformation" may have occurred. Eddie
Kirkland, who played guitar with John Lee Hooker said: "I didn't see
Jimi in the sixties, I met him when he was thirteen years old, nothin'
but a kid, a youngster, you understand? See, he had kin people in
Macon, Georgia, some people there up on Fort Hill. He came down there
in the summer, down to a place called Sawyer's Lake. On Sunday kids
could come in. At the time that I met Jimi, he was trying to learn how
to play the bass. We had bought one of those Sears Roebuck guitars,and
he started playing that. Then I had to go away, I left there, but there
was another guitarist there named Johnny Jenkins."

>>Doesn't the studio version on Electric Ladyland feature the likes of
Al Cooper?  

Nope. You're thinking of "Voodoo Chile" and that features Steve
Winwood on organ. Al Kooper played piano on "Long Hot Summer Night."
Jimi told Al(ice) Cooper: 'Here Alice, smoke this. You'll like it!'
Alice said that was the worst advice he ever received. I think that
covers all the Coopers and Koopers.

>>What do you think Jimi made of this monicker for himself? 

This pretty much explains it: "Well, the night I was born, the moon
turned a fire red/my poor mother cried out the Gypsy was right, and I
seen her fell down right dead/Well mountain lions found me there and
set me on an eagle's wing/he took me past the outskirts of infinity/and
when he brought me back he gave me Venus witch's ring/and he said fly
on, fly on, 'cause I'm a Voodoo Chile..."

>>I know you dislike the posthumous LP title of "Voodoo Soup," but did
Jimi like being refered to as a voodoo child?  Or, was he talking
about himself with this title?

No one ever referred to Jimi as a Voodoo Child, but I do think the
fact that Robert Johnson recorded "Crossroad Blues" on Nov. 27, 1936,
and SIX years later Jimi was born is a little creepy. If you're into
numerology, there's a lot of sixes and nines in there... 2+7 = 9   
3+6+ 9 and it goes on... kinda creepy!!!
  

    
Steve, which of Jimi's many jam sessions do you most wish had been
recorded, but wasn't? (And who were the players?)

And, which of his many jam sessions (that are available) do you
recommend for both the recording quality and musical vitality?  
  

    
>>which of Jimi's many jam sessions do you most wish had been
recorded, but wasn't?

There are sections in "Black Gold" I call "Great Jams, No Tapes."
Three come to mind... The Steve Cropper jam. It was recorded, but
nobody can locate the tape. The Miles Davis Apartment Jam. This one is
debatable. Michael Carabello (formerly of Santana) swears this was
recorded and is out there. Read Davis' autobiography, and imagine if a
cassette had been running. Wow! The other would be the jam he did with
Rashan Roland Kirk. Jimi talks about this, and it sounded like he was a
little nervous. One guy thought he had the tape, but it turned out to
be something else. I'd even like to see photos of the jam.

>> which of his many jam sessions (that are available) do you
recommend for both the recording quality and musical vitality.

I know McLaughlin takes exception with the jam he did with Jimi (John
was having some faulty cord problems), but it's a pretty decent jam and
quality is perfect. It's in the collector's network and not hard to
find.

There's one track that has recently surfaced with R&B sax man Lonnie
Youngblood. It's called "Mother, Mother." Nice blues. Lonnie told me he
and Jimi spent about a weekend in the studio at let the tape run.

During the TTG sessions, October 1968, Jimi let everyone in studio.
There's a nice jam with Buddy Miles, Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding, and
Lee Michael's doing "Red House."

One of my favorites is "Old Times, Good Times" with Jimi joining
Stephen Stills. Jimi's playing some of those fat Wes Montgomery chords
while Stephen is wailing on the B3. Now, where are the rest of those
sessions?
  

    
<<"He'd talk about us goin' down there [to Georgia] and havin' some
root lady drive this demon out of him! He used to always talk about
some devil or somethin' was in him, and he didn't have any control over
it.">>

I'm not convinced that Jimi ever took a trip from Seattle to Georgia
when he was thirteen.  Why wasn't there more mention of this from
Jimi's family or Jimi?  That would have been a VERY long 4500 mile trip
each way in the mid-50s, a pretty memorable event for a poor kid from
Seattle to never talk about.

It is fascinating, however, that Jimi, himself, expressed a belief
that he was possessed. It certainly helps, in part, explain how
obsessed he was to make it big as a musician, it helps us understand
many of his lyrical allusions, and it might have contributed to his
feeling that his life on the planet would be short.

Steve, with so many second and third hand accounts of this
fast-moving, always-changing short career (and the tendency of Jimi to
jive with his interviewers, and his PR handlers to sensationalize), how
do you go about verifying (or debunking) the great body of data you've
collected over the years on Jimi?
  

    

http://www.gadflyonline.com/archive/JanFeb01/archive-hendrix.html

Above is a link to a well heeded Al Kooper warning about one
re-compiled Jimi Hendrix Experience/4-CD set. 

The one or 2 bootlegs I've heard of Hendrix disappointing, yet can
understand the academic interest in listening to what is there. Once I
did hear a set of live out-takes on the Ryko label, that sounded good. 

Hats off to you people who can sift through all of this, putting on
those 2 BOG versions of Machine Gun on a 2 hour loop though does the
job for me.

One Hendrix CD, I'd like to see is, is a compilation of those witty
stage remarks Hendrix made to qualm hecklers.
  

    
<<a compilation of those witty stage remarks Hendrix made to qualm
hecklers.>>

:=) Yeah, I want to hear how he set those 11 and 12-year old Monkees
fans in their place: "scuse me while I k..."
  

    
>>I'm not convinced that Jimi ever took a trip from Seattle to Georgia
when he was thirteen.  Why wasn't there more mention of this from
Jimi's family or Jimi?  

There is no concrete evidence, but Jimi once said: "My brother and I
used to go to different homes, because dad and mother used to break up
all the time. I ran away a couple of times because I was so miserable.
When my dad found out I'd gone he went pretty mad with worry. He hit me
on the face and I ran away." When Jimi's parents were divorced in
1951, the boys (Jimmy and Leon) stayed with Al. It may have been
possible that Jimi ran away with Lucille for a private road trip to the
South when Leon was in a foster home, maybe with a man Al didn't like.


These lyrics from "Gypsy Eyes" seem to give a clue:
I walk on up to your rebel roadside/the one that rambles on for a
million miles/I walk down this road searchin' for your love and my soul
too/when I find you I ain't gonna let go. I remember the first time I
saw you/the tears in your eyes looked like they were trying to say/oh
little boy you know I could love you/but first I must make my
getaway/two strange men fightin' to the death over me today/I'll try to
meet ya by the old highway.     


>>Steve, with so many second and third hand accounts, how
do you go about verifying (or debunking) the great body of data you've
collected over the years on Jimi?

I ask the same question to as many people that were involved with the
event. In "Black Gold" I shared all those opinions, and often let the
reader draw their own conclusion; weigh the evidence. Take for example
the single "My Diary" by Rosa Lee Brooks that Jimi plays guitar on.
Rosa Lee's version is that Jimi came up with the melody and that she
wrote the lyrics - "it was their baby." Yet when I interviewed Arthur
Lee about the record, he stated that his name is credited on the label,
AND what has Rosa Lee Brooks done since? Furthermore, said Lee, the
line "even our birthday is on the same ol' day," refers to a girlfriend
Arthur had whose birthday was on the 7th. He later wrote about her
with the title "7 & & Is." I agree with Arthur, but I still let Rosa
Lee have a voice.
  

    
Steve, you're obviously very knowledgable about the collector's market
for Jimi Hendrix related items.  Are there any organizations or clubs
that help with verification of items? Or is this process fairly
haphazard? 

For example, if I had the mono version of Axis:Bold As Love LP still
in the cellophane, how would I go about figuring out what it's worth?

You talked about Jimi's Strat bringing in a record sale from the
Auctioneering house.  What are some other items of Jimi's that have
brought in surprising amounts.  I know some guy bought the house Jimi
grew up in in the Central District in Seattle and moved it to some
other city.  Any other odd Hendrix collectables?
  

    
And related to those questions, how much of that market is driven by Paul
Allan's bottomless pockets?
  

    
Steve, in addition to the above question about the Hendrix collectors
scene, can you tell us the details about tomorrow's 65th birthday
celebration for Jimi Hendrix?  Where will it be?  Who will be there?
etc.?
  

    
>>For example, if I had the mono version of Axis:Bold As Love LP still
in the cellophane, how would I go about figuring out what it's worth?

The original has come down in value since Experience Hendrix released
a mono version a few years ago. At one time it was up in $300 + range.
It's got a total different mix to. The japanese version is different
too.

Shameless plug time for my event at Book Passage on 11/27/07

The Jimi Hendrix 65th Birthday Bash

ilestone, Hendrix biographer Steven Roby will be hosting a free
Hendrix birthday bash/tribute at Book Passage (Corte Madera) on
Tuesday, November 27. 

The event will feature:
            * Introduction by Grammy winner Narada Michael Walden
            * A guitar give-away for the winner of the Air Guitar
Contest
            * Live entertainment by guitarist Ralph Woodson
            * Trivia Contest with prizes
            * A video presentation of rare Jimi Hendrix clips
            * Free cake and beverages
            * Book signing by Steven Roby
 
Admission is free and it all happens on Tuesday November 27, 2007 at 7
p.m. Book Passage is located at 51 Tamal Vista Blvd. in Corte Madera.
Their phone number is 415-927-0960.

You can watch the event the week after on: http://fora.tv/

To preview the event, on 11/27, guitarist Ralph Woodson and I will be
on KFOG-FM, starting at 7:30 am. you can listen on the net at:
http://www.kfog.com/listen/default.asp

Or on KSAN-FM at noon.


More info at: http://steveroby.com/