Tag Archives: Jimi Hendrix

Birthdays, Music et al, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Hendrix Bassist Billy Cox

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Hendrix Bassist Billy Cox

From a 10/29/23 FB post: Hello everyone, Happy Sunday!!! Been back home a few weeks, getting back into the rhythm. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes.
Happy birthday: born October 18, 1941

Old Army Buddy

A July 12, 1969 article entitled Jimi Hendrix Has a Brand New Bass in Rolling Stone said in part: Jimi Hendrix has named an old Army buddy as the bass player he may soon be recording with and hinted during a recent visit to Los Angeles that as soon as contracts allow, the Jimi Hendrix Experience may make the transition from trio to creative commune.

The bassist is Billy Cox, who was stationed with Hendrix at Ft. Campbell, Ky., several years ago when both were in the Army and then for three years following the service, in the Clarksville, Ky., and Nashville areas. Since that time, Cox has remained in Nashville, playing pickup dates and touring occasionally with Wilson Pickett, Gene Chandler and most recently, Buddy Miles.

Wheeling, West Virginia

Hendrix Bassist Billy Cox
That’s me, age three with hatchet in hand, Wellsburg, West Virginia. Wonder what I was knowing? That’s my friend, Jimi, Memphis, 1969. A lot was going on with him, at that time, and NONE of it good. After a few years of not seeing each other, Jimi had made it big and he had called me to meet him in Memphis. In the early years, we always planned and talked about making it and being big together. So, there I was in Memphis, on the side of the stage, watching my old friend, sing about chopping down a mountain with the edge of his hand. Soon I would be on stage with him. ~The Last Gypsy, Billy Cox

From his site: Billy Cox was born in Wheeling, West Virginia. His father was a Baptist minister and teacher of mathematics and his mother was a classical pianist. Billy was blessed with the best of both worlds. One world revolved around the strong intellectual discipline of his father and the other world revolved around the loving tenderness and sensitivity of his mother.

Billy Cox

Hendrix Bassist Billy Cox

Woodstock

Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock was Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. Yes, he had a band behind him, but Jimi’s talent and showmanship always shone so brightly, other band members were often in the shadows, so Billy’s presence at Woodstock is more of a footnote.

Having said that, he is a part of, albeit momentarily, of what is perhaps Woodstock’s most famous song: the Star  Spangled Banner.

From a May 2023 Bassplayer magazine article Billy said:  “If you listen to the recording you hear me playing the first five or six notes,”  “Then I thought, ‘Wait a minute – we never practiced this.’ So I immediately stepped back, and it was bang – such a great thing that Jimi did.”

He continued: “That [Woodstock] was great; it was the first big gig I played with Jimi. We came around the back way and looked out on that crowd – it was the largest crowd I’d ever played in front of. Mitch said, ‘Hell, I don’t know whether I want to go out there!’ Jimi said, ‘We’ll give to them and they’ll give back to us, and we’ll have a good time.’ It was great, it was exhilarating.”

From the same article: Onstage with Hendrix during his first serious gigs and for his very last performances, Cox’s low-end support aptly complemented Hendrix’s guitar stratospherics. “A bloody marvellous bass player – has soul and feel for days,” noted Hendrix engineer Eddie Kramer. “Billy was Jimi’s confidante and buddy – and a wonderful human being.”

Hall of Fame

Hendrix Bassist Billy Cox

From his site: legendary bassist and Musicians Hall of Fame inductee Billy Cox, is synonymous with almost any reference to Jimi Hendrix and Rock-n-Roll history. From their army days, Billy would always have an extended friendship with Jimi Hendrix. The kindred spirits would have a musical chemistry that was nurtured over the years as both performed regularly as sidemen for the most prominent blues and R&B acts of the day. The bond between the two men would write a new chapter in music history.

Hendrix Bassist Billy Cox

Hendrix Bassist Billy Cox

Billy Cox and his Hendrix Experience band at the Allen Blues Festival

Billy Cox has released four solo albums:

  • Nitro Function, 1971
  • Last Gypsy Standing, 2009
  • Old School Blue Blues, 2011
  • Unfiltered, 2014

From Wikipedia: Today, Billy Cox owns a video production company. He has produced numerous blues and a myriad of gospel shows. He co-authored the books, Jimi Hendrix Sessions and Ultimate Hendrix with John McDermott and Eddie Kramer. Billy has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors among which: In 2009 Billy Cox was inducted into The Musicians Hall Of Fame; Billy received The Founders Award in 2010. It was given by Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen and in 2011 Billy was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall Of Fame. Billy released his latest album, Old School Blue Blues, in 2011 and continues to tour with “The Experience Hendrix Tour” each year and his own Band of Gypsys Experience. He released the single Run featuring the androgynous singer and songwriter Marlon Alarm in November 2011.

Hendrix Bassist Billy Cox

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Anniversary, Music et al, Music of the 60s

Gone Far Too Soon 27 Club

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Gone Far Too Soon 27 Club

Gone Far Too Soon 27 Club

Gone Far Too Soon 27 Club

Equivocal occupation

As a docent at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts I have the opportunity to do “Artist Tours.”

During the outdoor concert season, the Center offers a Woodstock site tour to the visiting musicians, their crew, and accompanying family and friends.

The initial response to the opportunity is that as a docent I’d have the opportunity to “rub elbows” with these well-known acts. Rarely is that so and it took me a few times to realize why.

I once observed to a crew member that what fans see as the glamour of the touring experience, seeing many places, the applause, the adulation, the well-appointed buses aren’t perhaps all they appear to be, he replied, “It’s still traveling down the interstate in a metal tube at 70 MPH.”

And that is as good a revelation of the other side as I will likely ever hear.

Gone Far Too Soon 27 Club

Opportunity

It would seem that given the wealth that can sometime become a part of the successful musicians’ lives, the chance to be a part of many exclusive inner circles, and the requests to be met and their accompanying flattery, a person might come to believe that their success has no down side.

But the chance to accept all that is offered, the ability to purchase that which is often unavailable and to purchase excessive amounts of that thing can lead on to that infamous slippery slope to the Valley of Humiliation.

Gone Far Too Soon 27 Club

27 Club

And is some cases, the Valley of Death.

It is an exaggeration in the extreme to say that the life of rock and roll is a lethal one, a deadly one. Unfortunately, for too many, it was just that. And oddly, the 27 year old musician has been that.

Gone Far Too Soon 27 Club

No One Lives Forever

The Band sang it so well…

No one lives forever

Who would want to

But you’re too soon gone, too soon gone

Too soon gone, too soon gone

…and so did Robbie Robertson solo

Are you out there

Can you hear me

Can you see me in the dark

Follow this link to  a sad listing the too many rock musicians who died at the age of 27.  Or this Ranker article.

Gone Far Too Soon 27 Club

Mental Health and Musicians

Over the Bridge

In 2021, Over The Bridge developed an album called, Lost Tapes of the 27 Club. Over the Bridge is an organization that aims to change the conversation about mental health in the music community while providing a compassionate environment for members to thrive.

Why?

According to the site, 71% of musicians believe they’ve experienced incidences of anxiety and panic attacks.

68% of musicians have experienced incidences of depression

Suicide attempts for music industry workers are more than double that of the general population.

Lost Tapes

The project said this about the AI produced album:

As long as there’s been popular music, musicians and crews have struggled with mental health at a rate far exceeding the general adult population. And this issue hasn’t just been ignored. It’s been romanticized, by things like the 27 Club—a group of musicians whose lives were all lost at just 27 years old.

To show the world what’s been lost to this mental health crisis, we’ve used artificial intelligence to create the album the 27 Club never had the chance to. Through this album, we’re encouraging more music industry insiders to get the mental health support they need, so they can continue making the music we all love for years to come.

Because even AI will never replace the real thing.

How did they do this?

  1. They had an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm listen to isolated hooks, rhythms, melodies, and lyrics of 27 Club musicians.
  2. Their AI algorithm learned from the music, then generated a string of all-new hooks, rhythms, melodies, and lyrics.
  3. An audio engineer took these AI-generated musical elements and composed the Lost Tapes of the 27 Club.

Gone Far Too Soon 27 Club

Birthdays, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Mitch Mitchell

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Mitch Mitchell

Mitch Mitchell

July 9, 1947 – November 12, 2008

Were you experienced?

Mitch Mitchell

The first time I saw a picture of Mitch Mitchell was simply because he was to the right of Jimi Hendrix on the cover of the Experience’s Are You Experienced album.

In my simple teenage view, simply looking at that cover made me experienced. Those colors with that oddly bulging picture and unnaturally colored trees. After listening to the album, I thought for sure I was experienced. Of course Hendrix’s guitar was the star. I’d never heard anything like it, but the drumming (“What’s his name? OK, Mitch Mitchell.”) was equally unearthly.

John Ronald “Mitch” Mitchell

Like many drummers before and many drummers since, Mitch Mitchell played in a variety of bands in a variety of ways before hitting the spotlight with Jimi Hendrix.

Even a step further back in his life, Mitchell was a child actor in several British productions.  It was while still in school and working in a drum store that Mitchell began playing what became his life’s work.

He worked with bands as a member and worked with bands as a studio drummer. He even played with the Who between Doug Sandom’s departure and Keith Moon’s arrival. Part of his early experience included developing a love of jazz drumming, particularly that of Elvin Jones, who was John Coltrane’s.

Jimi Hendrix Experience

That developing ability attracted the attention of others. particularly Chas Chandler, ex-Animal bassist and the person who brought Hendrix to England to create a band around him.

Mitchell was part of the Experience throughout it’s brief time. He became a part of the band on October 6, 1966 and stayed with them until it’s dissolution in June 1969. Mitchell remained with Hendrix when Hendrix developed the ever-changing line-up and band names until Hendrix’s death in 1970.

Mitch Mitchell

Following Hendrix’s death, Mitch Mitchell remained active as a drummer, but never again would the spotlight be upon him.  His credit list after 1970 are mainly on Hendrix recordings that obviously preceded Jimi’s death.

In 2008, he was part of the Experience Hendrix Tour that featured  Billy Cox, Buddy Guy, Jonny Lang, Robby Krieger, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Eric Johnson, Cesar Rosas, David Hidalgo, Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford,Hubert Sumlin, Chris Layton, Eric Gales, and Mato Nanji.

Mitchell died in his sleep in Portland, Oregon five days after the tour ended.  He is buried in Seattle.