The Afterword

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How Close Can The Afterword Get To A Studio Band Of Gypsys Album?

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Jimi Hendrix has yet another posthumous release , Both Sides Of The Sky (his 12th such studio album). This collection is dominated by studio cuts by The Band Of Gypsys, defined by the presence of Buddy Miles on drums. Buddy was a powerful, foot-to-floor, rock drummer. Mitch Mitchell, of The Experience, relied more on flexibility and feel. Buddy’s drumming drew a discipline from Jimi that restricted his natural firework displays somewhat but, definitely, made for a different sound.

Both Sides Of The Sky’s predecessor, People, Hell and Angels, Jimi’s best selling album ever, also features six tracks with Buddy and there are others scattered through his posthumous discography. The only official Band Of Gypsys album is a live one. These latest releases gives an opportunity to the avid Hendrix collector of putting a Band Of Gypsys studio album.

I’m willing to bet the Afterword can have a good stab at it. I’ll start with Jimi’s last single during his lifetime, Stepping Stone. It is a genuine Band Of Gypsys single but later versions were overdubbed, another recording was made with Mitch and additional drums were also added. To obtain Stepping Stone in its original band Of Gypsys glory, » Continue Reading.

Jimi’s Record Collection – A Man Of Wealth and Impeccable Taste

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Someone sent me this picture they took at the Hendrix museum at the house at 23 Brook Street, London W1 where Jimi lived in 1968-69.

In the recreation of his bedroom we see Jimi’s record collection and look, he had the first Zappa LP Freak Out, the Byrds’ Fifth Dimension, Wes Montgomery’s A Day In The Life, the first Canned Heat album and last, but by no means least….

*Drum Roll*

THE BEANO ALBUM

http://i.imgur.com/uHHrfP5.jpg

Hey Joe – Where You Going With That Gun In Your Hand?

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C-G-D-A-E

Those are the chords to Hey Joe. Along with House Of The Rising Sun it’s one of those simple songs that nearly every budding guitarist learns how to play very early in the uphill struggle to rock stardom.

Perhaps the most famous version of Hey Joe is by Jimi Hendrix. It was Jimi’s very first single, recorded as a slow, lazy ballad in late 1966 not long after he arrived in London. But the song has a long and illustrious history going back much further than Hendrix.

It’s thought that Hey Joe was written in 1962 by Billy Roberts, an obscure California-based folk singer, but even that is shrouded in uncertainty.

The Leaves, The Standells, The Surfaris, Love, The Music Machine, and The Byrds all recorded versions before Jimi and the song became an LA garage band standard, in much the same way as Louie, Louie had before it.

The song became so ubiquitous around LA, usually in fast-paced, speeded-up form that perhaps inevitably, Frank Zappa lampooned it as Flower Punk a track from the Mothers’ 1967 album We’re Only In It For The Money. It’s thought that Frank based Flower Punk on The Leaves version » Continue Reading.