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Jimi Hendrix would have turned sixty on November 27th. The guitarist -- who died in 1970 at twenty-seven -- left behind an immense legacy of music and film from gigs, jams and studio sessions that remains unreleased, unheard and unseen. In Black Gold: The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix (Billboard Books, $19.95), author Steven Roby, the former publisher of the Hendrix fanzine Straight Ahead, draws on eyewitness accounts, vintage press clips and Hendrix's own words to examine the missing pieces of the guitarist's life, from a rumored tape of his teenage band the Rocking Kings to the autobiographical suite Black Gold, a demo made shortly before his death. According to Roby, this is the best of the lost:
Jimi at Cafe Wha?
New York, Summer 1966
Jimi James and the Blue Flames: "Randy California, the guitarist in
Spirit, was in the Blue Flames. He claimed to have a tape of the
group doing blues classics, 'Hey Joe' and early versions of 'Foxey
Lady' and 'Third Stone From the Sun.' That would be amazing to hear
-- the sound that influenced Chas Chandler to take Jimi to England
and manage him."
Making Electric Ladyland
New York, May 1968
Jimi Hendrix Experience, an ABC-TV documentary filmed in
May 1968 but never finished, now thought to be stolen or destroyed:
"One of the holy grails -- where they follow Jimi to concerts and
into the studio, sitting in his hotel room watching football. The
show would have told us how he made Electric Ladyland. And
the Fillmore East show from May '68 with Sly Stone opening: I have
an audiotape, and Jimi sounds like he's on fire."
Live on The Tonight Show
New York, July 10th, 1969
"I've got a great-sounding audiotape. Flip Wilson, the guest host,
is relaxed and kidding with Jimi. Billy Cox was on bass and Ed
Shaughnessey, of Doc Severinsen's band, was the drummer. Ed's
trying to keep up - they're playing a fast version of 'Lover Man' -
and Jimi's amp blows up. They come back after a commercial, and
Hendrix dedicates the song to Brian Jones of the Stones, who had
just passed away."
Jamming With Miles Davis
New York, 1969
"It's one of the things that make people like me keep looking.
Miles' account of it in his autobiography is so descriptive. Miles
wants to get into rock; Jimi wants to get into jazz. And Miles
realizes that Hendrix can't read or write music after he tells him
to play a certain piece. I would have loved to have been there, to
see Hendrix's face.
Live in Berkeley
Berkeley, California, May 30th, 1970
Berkeley Community Theater, two shows filmed for the 1971 movie
Jimi Plays Berkeley: "A lot of this was abandoned on the
cutting-room floor. I was at the first show, and he was on that
night. The streets were filled with the National Guard, tear gas
was in the air. And Hendrix rolled into town, very casually, and
played two amazing sets."
DAVID FRICKE
(August 1, 2002)