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#1 ESSRA MOHAWK
#2 JIMI HENDRIX
Review by Joe Viglione
10:28 PM Thursday 3/19/2015
God bless Eddie Kramer restoring and enhancing this superb artifact from the pre-Jimi Hendrix Experience era.
Album: You Can’t Use My Name
Artist: Jimi
Hendrix
Review by
Joe Viglione
The authority
of the playing displayed on a song like “Voodoo Child” is so firm and complete that
it explains the world’s attraction to the artistry of Jimi Hendrix. It’s such a
command of the musical vision/statement that the song’s appearance in a pop
culture moment like Steven Segal’s film Under Seige is one of the many reasons
why people who appreciate superb writing and playing keep going back to the
Jimi Hendrix well. It’s the most
dramatic event in an interesting but still corny film.
“Gloomy
Monday” has elements of the “Sunshine of Your Love” riff just as opening track “How
Would You Feel” draws heavily from Bon Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone.” Those two compositions – and the artists that
spawned them – Cream and Dylan – were essential parts of the Hendrix repertoire
and spirit. The influences of the man
who would influence millions more. But
an album that is important because of the historical impact of an artist – as is
this artifact titled “You Can’t Use My Name: The RSVP / PPX SESSIONS by Curtis
Knight & The Squires” - is not going to be the first thing you grab to be
entertained. But God bless Eddie Kramer for putting the music together in a way
which lifts the veil away from the cloudy, murky quagmire that were the two
releases on Capitol – the notorious but you-gotta-have-in-your-collection Get
That Feeling and Flashing discs, along with the plethora of descendants that
they helped spawn, a variety of imports and domestic pressings – so many other
voluminous releases that made their way nine to the universe and beyond, so to
speak.
· * * * * * *
This offering’s listening experience – and John McDermott’s always
essential and detailed liner notes – contain true revelations for those of us
collecting this material for 45 years or more and not knowing the proper
context That context being: how the heck they were recorded, and where
they fit into the puzzle of so much product – be it official releases, bootlegs
or Purple Haze Records or where we really get lost and sidetracked - the
internet waterfall - that blur of fan chatter (and the download onslaught that accompanies
it…) as well as YouTube offerings - the Dusty Sprinfield/Jimi Hendrix duet
being a favorite of that fare – and other platforms where Jimi lives on.
The complexity for the novice
who likes Hendrix is sometimes equal to
the confusion “experienced” by the obsessed long-time individuals – those who
truly appreciate Jimi’s work (some not even knowing why) - all looking for enlightenment to navigate
the fabric that is the ever expanding Hendrix museum of modern art.
You Can’t Use My Name has the daunting task of bringing that morass of the PPX/RSVP tapes to some kind of uniformity, where Jimi’s work at that point of time can be viewed with more clarity.
You Can’t Use My Name has the daunting task of bringing that morass of the PPX/RSVP tapes to some kind of uniformity, where Jimi’s work at that point of time can be viewed with more clarity.
At least the Hendrix live tape
with Little Richard is Jimi working with a star in his own league. If released
on CD combined with Penniman/Hendrix studio work, it becomes a single moment
that is easier for all to grasp and understand.
Recorded by mastering engineer Little Walter DeVenne, and discovered during
an interview Walter did with my TV show Visual Radio in 1995 (a tape which Experience
Hendrix’s John McDermott got to hear when Walter played the WTBS/WMBR broadcast
tape for us (yes, Walter played the Little Richard concert with Hendrix on his
radio show on WTBS – now WMBR) the tape is, as stated, that single moment in
early Hendrix time that is easy to understand. It’s Little Richard with Jimi. It’s Little Richard singing “Lucille” and “I
Saw Her Standing There” with Jimi Hendrix – two stars who stand far beyond the
relatively unknown Squires, a group known because of their association with
Hendrix, not his association with them.
Here’s the complete track list of the live Penniman/Hendrix Experience: Little Richard: - I Saw Her Standing There
Lucille, Send Me Some Lovin', Medley - Rip It Up / Tutti Frutti / Jenny, Jenny
- Shake A Hand - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
Lucille, Send Me Some Lovin', Medley - Rip It Up / Tutti Frutti / Jenny, Jenny
- Shake A Hand - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
See some fan’s “Early Hendrix”
site for more info: http://www.earlyhendrix.com/richard-menu-live
Add the live tape to the Little
Richard studio recordings and you have the definitive Little Richard/Hendrix
which
Is, in my opinion, even more essential.
It’s Jimi blazing a trail on hit music with one of the most influential
stars of early rock and roll.
These were the days before Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin psychedelicized
the world, “"And my
soul has been psychedelicized?" as the Chambers
Brothers so succinctly put it. And it was the psychedelicization that came with
“Piece of My Heart” and “Purple Haze” by Joplin and Hendrix, respectively,
which changed the lives of those of us who were and are children of the
sixties.
When Buzzy Linhart heard opening track “How Would You Feel” the first
time he certainly had a chuckle (and stated “Hendrix deserves co-writing
credit!) The “Like A Rolling Stone” riff
was a key component of the Jimi Hendrix Experience – as stated above - and an important part of Jimi’s personal
repertoire, a terrific live version of the Dylan classic with Buzzy Linhart on
drums, Al Kooper on keyboard, Noel Redding on bass which proves just that. Which, of course, gives “How Would You Feel”
the perfect entrée to the CD, You Can’t Use My Name, and one of the discs most
compelling moments.
For those of us who are enamored of and
love Jimi, “Like A Rolling Stone” is a key song. In the lyric Bob Dylan warns Buzzy Linhart to
get away from his drummer in the Seventh Sons, who allegedly was the diplomat
with the Siamese cat..
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Jimi Hendrix jammed with Buzzy at the
Seventh Sons’ loft, while the Music album from Linhart was one of the first to
be recorded at Electric Lady studios with Eddie Kramer, key information which
makes hearing Jimi’s charging and slinky creeping “How Would You Feel” first
cousin guitar riff a distinct look at Hendrix without that “psychedlicization”
discussed earlier.
Play Track 1 from the Capitol Records lp “How
Would You Feel” followed by Track 2, “Hornet’s Nest” from the Flashing lp, also
on Capitol, tracks 1 and 11 on this new CD, and the lesson begins. Ahhh to go back in time and make the “Hornet’s
Nest” accompaniment more Ventures in style than the manic keyboard/drum heavy
jam that it is, Hendrix playing with decent but lesser talents. Perhaps that’s what makes this more of an
investigative adventure than something you will play repeatedly, certainly not
with so much invigorating Hendrix material within reach. “Fool For You Baby” is fun enough, but
Knight – a good singer who hardly struck fear into the hearts of Marvin Gaye or
Curtis Mayfield – is not in Jimi’s
league. That’s the point, isn’t it? That reason alone makes the issuing of the true
Little Richard / Hendrix tapes all the more essential. Richard Penniman, a wizard and a true star,
is in Jimi’s outrageously famous stratosphere, and that the two paired up was a
cosmic, albeit brief, storm.
Imagine being Curtis Knight and having a
platform to be heard worldwide because Jimi Hendrix was your guitarist and a
piece of paper got Capitol Records, the Beatles label, to give you a chance to
release “Day Tripper” with Jimi Hendrix on bass? (as John McDermott’s liner
notes emphasize.)
An opportunity of a lifetime that Curtis
Knight couldn’t capitalize on to secure himself as a world class artist. “Don’t
Accuse Me” ends side two of the Flashing album on Capitol and is track three on
this marvelous early Hendrix CD, but it is marvelous only in that it shows us
Jimi’s work in another light. Again, it’s the efforts of Eddie Kramer which
improve the old tapes, which bring these fragments of Jimi history into a space
where they can be listened to, dissected, and utilized to appreciate the master
craftsman who set the standard for the electric guitar.
The fusion of “Knock Yourself Out” – track #43
on the old PPX boxed set – with “Flying on Instruments” – one of four
instrumentals from the RSVP label, is smart, seamless and is again, quasi Ventures
gone somewhat fuzzy and heavy.
Do we need this music? Yes, it’s great to have, and important to put
the messy history that is the PPX legacy in the world of Jimi into some kind of
compartment that is easier to grasp and comprehend. But at the end of the day,
I want to pull out the Jimi Hendrix music that is the reason that we all
flipped out the first time we heard the magical first notes of “Purple Haze.”
These are the fragments, and they give us a
greater appreciation of Jimi Hendrix when he’s totally in control, writing,
singing and playing. Perhaps my
colleagues Buzzy Linhart (who finds the CD fun) and Ed Wrobleski will have a
different perspective, I’m sure they will. But this is my take and for history’s
sake, I thank Janie Hendrix, John McDermott and Eddie Kramer for getting this
music out in this form.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_Dollar_Babies
March 8, 2015
Today's Birthdays: Actress Sue Ane (correct) Langdon is 79. College Football Hall of Famer Pete Dawkins is 77. Baseball player-turned-author Jim Bouton is 76. Songwriter Carole Bayer Sager is 71. Actor-director Micky Dolenz (The Monkees) is 70. Singer-musician Randy Meisner is 69. Pop singer Peggy March is 67. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Jim Rice is 62. Singer Gary Numan is 57. NBC News anchor Lester Holt is 56. Actor Aidan Quinn is 56. Country musician Jimmy Dormire is 55. Actress Camryn Manheim is 54. Actor Leon (no last name) is 52. Rock singer Shawn Mullins (The Thorns) is 47. Neo-soul singer Van Hunt is 45. Actress Andrea Parker is 45. Actor Boris Kodjoe is 42. Actor Freddie Prinze Jr. is 39.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HISTORY?SITE=AP
REVENGE
A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix
- IGGY POP - Foxy Lady 4:53
(from "Kiss My Blood, Live at the Olympia, Paris," 1991)
raunchy, yet enjoyable
- RICKIE LEE JONES - Up from the Skies 4:31
(from "POP POP," 1991)
jazzy and naughty
- JEAN-PAUL BOURELLY - Electric Ladyland 4:44
R&Bish
- BEN HARPER - Remember 2:47
(from "Like a King," 1993)
makes me think of christian rock for some reason
- RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - Fire 2:03
(from "Mother's Milk," 1989)
- THE SHAMEN - Purple Haze 3:01
(from "If Six Was Nine: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix," 1990)
- LIVING COLOUR - Burning of the Midnight Lamp 5:31
(from "Biscuits," 1991)
- STEVIE RAY VAUGHN Voodoo Chile (S.R.) 7:58
(from "Couldn't Stand the Weather," 1984)
not a big SRV fan, so I don't know how this version ranks, but it ain't bad!
- RAS KENTE & THE TAKE NO PRISONER POSSE - Hey Joe Dub 5:45
- JOHN LEE HOOKER - Red House 3:47
(from "Variations on a Theme: Red House," 1992)
- ROD STEWART - Angel 4:44
(from "Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners," 1973)
this was back when Rod was cool
- FRANK ZAPPA - Purple Haze 2:30
(from "The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life," 1991)
- THE GIL EVANS ORCHESTRA - Crosstown Traffic/Little Miss Lover 6:34
(from "The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix," 1974)
- TRIAD - Message to Love 2:16
(1995)
piano?!
Reed Robins was never this schizophrenic
- PHENOMENUM - Purple Haze 7:04
reggae flavor with some weirdness
http://www.me.umn.edu/~kgeisler/arevenge.html
