Monday, January 28, 2013

Ultimate Hendrix: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Concerts and Sessions

Ultimate Hendrix: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Concerts and Sessions
Antonio G. Pereira © 2013 Antonio G. Pereira
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Ultimate Hendrix: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Concerts and Sessions by John Mcdermott with Billy Cox and Eddie Kramer. Published by Backbeat Books-An Imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation. This is quite a handy little reference book (which by the way, incorporates some entries from an earlier 1995 book by the same authors entitled, 'Jimi Hendrix Sessions: The Complete Studio Recording Sessions, 1963-1970' Published by Little, Brown and Company {For additional information there is also 'Plug Your Ears' by Kees de Lange and Ben Valkhoff. To access, go to The Internet Archive http://www.archive.org type http://www.cs.kun.nl/~tvdw/pye/left.html into The Wayback Machine and click Take Me Back, and the extremely rare, ''Scuse Me While I Kiss The Sky: The Life Of Jimi Hendrix' by David Henderson. This is the softback 2nd printing (of 'Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child Of The Aquarian Age' - Hardcover - Doubleday 1978) Published by Bantam Books in 1981, which contains a selection of photographs by Jim Marshall, not found in any other edition or book anywhere.}). Nicely put together with a pretty good selection of photographs. Reminiscences by key people who knew Hendrix during his lifetime. (And in this instance, we get a rest from the subtle right wing leaning, superimposed onto Hendrix politics, by some assorted characters and opportunists looking for a buck, that populated certain earlier books. {It would be instructive here, to remember a quote from Eddie Kramer near the end of an interview he gave to Q Magazine in the June 1992 issue: "I socialized very little with him outside the recording studio. He had a small circle of very close friends, but there was a boundary beyond which one would not step."}) An interesting appearance found in 'Ultimate Hendrix', is by Decca Records Chief of A&R, Dick Rowe (who you might remember for the immortal words, "Not to mince words Mr. Epstein, we don't like your boys' sound. Groups of guitarists are on the way out. You have a good record business in Liverpool. Stick to that.") making another wrong call. Getting involved with Ed Chalpin and releasing the rip off records 'How Would You Feel' and 'Hush Now'. It's a real delight reading about the recording of the Axis Bold As Love album, during which Hendrix really came into his own in the recording studio. When he and Eddie Kramer met, they clicked right away. The story about Hendrix playing drums on one of his new songs, 'Try Out', at the end of 1967, is just amazing to read; as his talent continues to blossom. One really ends up wishing that a film camera could have been there to capture some of these events, as they are remarkable. What is also informative is that throughout August of 1968 (along with the alternating and very productive recording sessions for 'Electric Ladyland' at The Record Plant in New York), as the Experience toured across the U.S. and leading up to the Winterland/Fillmore West residency of concerts, how varied their set list was at each concert. From the song listings, it appears that Hendrix was very flexible in that the band was not performing the same exact songs at every concert date, but liberally going through practically their entire recorded output, up to that point. One is left with the impression that after the late 1968 Winterland residency of gigs, that Noel Redding (and probably Gerry Stickells) were outsiders just there to do their jobs and not get in the way. It will be interesting to see which 'Hendrix Experts' begin to squirm when the full story of Jimi Hendrix' and Bumps Blackwell's association is finally told. {I've also found it a little peculiar that none of the experts have ever to this day mentioned Sly Stone's very lengthy interview, which he gave to Strobe Magazine (which was a very good 1960s Pop Culture publication) here in New York, that was published in their Sept. 1969 issue; in which he mentioned Hendrix' Jam with Sly and The Family Stone on the Fillmore East stage in May of 1968, when The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Sly and The Family Stone were on the same bill. There was also a Record Review of Electric Ladyland published in the previous July 1969 issue of Strobe.} It has been mildly amusing since the bygone days of the Reagan era, to see the emergence of, or to put it more accurately, 'reappearance of' the element that existed in the '60s era, who attempted to view everything they saw occurring around them that made them uncomfortable, {such as the Political and Racial issues of the day, (and of course The Vietnam War) bleeding into the music} as extraneous. It was fascinating to watch how quickly one's viewpoint could change, once a Draft Notice to report to the nearest Induction Office was received in the mail.  A big fat booboo in this book is a dated photograph citing Hendrix as performing at Woolsey Hall at Yale University on Nov. 16th, 1968, when the entry for listed gigs indicates Boston Gardens on that date. Bizzarely, there is NO ENTRY for Woolsey Hall, Yale University at all. At this point in history, it's a little late in the game for anybody to continue to buy the consistently unconvincing stories by people who assisted and worked for Micheal Jeffery, as to where the bulk of Hendrix' fortune disappeared to, without raising some hard questions. Especially since Eric Burdon (who is very much alive) raised similar questions about the whereabouts of The Animal's money, in his two autobiographies. For one thing obviously, the PPX Ed Chalpin $1.00 Contract suit that hung over Hendrix head all that time, was a candidate for any Trial Judge worth his salt (with the assistance of the right kind of lawyers batting for Hendrix in his corner, and pointing their fingers in the right direction), to take Ed Chalpin by the scruff of his neck and the seat of his pants and show him the door out of the courtroom. I mean you really begin to question what kind of legal representation Hendrix was getting. Other than Electric Ladyland Studios being built, this cat was making an incredible amount of money for that time. Where was all of this money disappearing to? And the staged 'reformation of the original Experience' interview in Rolling Stone with John Burks in 1970, shortly after the questionable circumstances of the demise of The Band Of Gypsys, followed by what Hendrix' ultimate decision was (to tour with Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell), points right back to Michael Jeffery's motives. And isn't it interesting that when Hendrix begins touring again in April of 1970, his first two concerts in Los Angeles and Sacramento have The Buddy Miles Express as one of the opening acts? Given that Sky Church/Gypsy Sons and Rainbows was an experiment, after the demise of the original Experience, what are we REALLY supposed to buy into about Mike Jeffery? For other questions in the Hendrix story, check this posting http://observer1984.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html Nevertheless, this is a marvelous book. And Billy Cox finally gets his due for his immense contributions. A nod of appreciation to the folks at Experience Hendrix. Worth checking out.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

With The Beatles

With The Beatles
Antonio G. Pereira © 2013 Antonio G. Pereira
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        With The Beatles - Published by Life Books - Great Photographers Series - An Imprint of Time Home Entertainment Inc. New York. This is quite a collection, and quite a mighty sized book; the photographs beautifully presented. The photographer Bob Whitaker, has had collections of his photographs released in book form before http://observer1984.blogspot.com/2008/10/eight-days-week-inside-beatles-final.html and if you've followed his work, you'll recognize a lot of the pictures in this hardcover edition. This was just a case of the right man for the right job, and Epstein certainly knew what he was doing when he chose Bob Whitaker. (There is one thing I find in the Beatles chronicle that has always been historically mysterious and puzzling. In 1966, I remember seeing (what I think was) a British music paper, with a bizzare full colour picture of the Beatles standing up holding meat cleavers and plastic doll heads in their hands, with plastic doll bodies and meat strewn on the floor with blood all around them; and John, Paul, George and Ringo had the coldest looks on their faces. They are not smiling, and they are wearing the same clothes that you see them wearing in the odd album cover photo (L.S.D. inspired Pop Art?) of the group and a steamer trunk. John sitting on top of the trunk with one leg crossed and arms folded, half of George floating in the air, Ringo standing with his right arm resting on the trunk, and Paul sitting inside the trunk. They all look slightly stoned. This of course is the photo on the album cover of Yesterday and Today, that was released in the U.S.; replacing the tame (compared to the other photo I just mentioned in the beginning) Butcher cover with the group sitting down with Butcher coats on. Now the question is, 'Was there a separate photo session, and possibly contact sheet of The Beatles in plain clothes that never saw the light of day?) Anyone with a genuine interest and affection for the Beatles, what they represented, and their music, will love the collection of photographs in this book. Here you get to see them at the peak of their touring years, 1964 through 1966. Performing, backstage, with their families, during the filming of movies and promos, appearing on television, making the wonderful 'The Music of Lennon & McCartney' Television Special  for the BBC (Ah-HEM...,when is Apple/EMI gonna release that sucker on DVD?! And while we're on that subject, where's ' Let It Be'?!), making those funny, strange and entertaining Christmas Records for the Fan Club (eh... Apple/EMI, planning to release those on record anytime soon?). This is a photographic treasure. Unfortunately, when it comes to the written text throughout 'With The Beatles', the results are disappointing. The writers realm of knowledge doesn't go any further back than apparently '80s Pop music, and the rest is purely guesswork. (Surprisingly, no mention is ever made of Australian music journalist, Lillian Roxon; author of the original 'Rock Encyclopedia'; {a monumental late '60s artifact, on which all subsequent books are based}). It also appears that the writers of this... (shall we say 'biographical sketch'?) have only read one book on the Beatles, which is mentioned as reference repeatedly. (If someone had bothered to do their homework, they'd know that George Harrison owned two 12 String Rickenbackers; as he mentioned in the interview he gave to Guitar Player in the Nov. 1987 issue. The one we usually see him playing in concert, had a diagonally shaped head stock (which was the norm). The other one, which we see him admiring in the first set of picture inserts in Beatles Press Officer Tony Barrow's book, 'John, Paul, George, Ringo & Me: The Real Beatles Story' {one of the best memoirs of all}, and which Harrison said in the Guitar Player interview, was later stolen, had an unusual square head stock; and was a gift to him from B Sharp Music Store in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as cited under the photograph in the book. There are also glimpses of it in the book, 'The Beatles: Then There Was Music' by Tim Hill; a collection of rare photographs from the Daily Mail (U.K.).) Also a constant throughout the narrative (If I hear the term, 'back in the day', one more time, I'll scream.), is the '80s phenomenon that now permeates just about all media these days. This desperate need to continually keep you interested in what is being said, that results in phrases like, 'And as we will see in the following chapter...', (while you're in the middle of reading the current chapter), which is not only distracting but annoying. When did people stop having the ability of free thought and common sense, in being able to follow a story? One is left with the impression that (other than providing the wealth of photographs) the late Bob Whitaker had little to do with this book, as he passed away in 2011. His input is sorely missed, as obvious concepts like the two page spread on pages 124 and 125 are not even discussed. (It is interesting though, that from his brief mention of his slightly frosty relationship with McCartney, that we see evidence of this in the two page spread on pages 62 and 63.) In the photographer sections of the Life softback magazine, 'Remembering John Lennon' (2010), Bob Whitaker (in his short section) gave very detailed descriptions and observations of his photographs. One in particular, of Lennon resting, tenderly holding, and having his nose licked by a cat backstage on an American tour (1965?), being an example. The same picture appears spread over pages 156 and 157 in 'With The Beatles', with no explanation. It might have been helpful for the writers to explain that Lennon loved cats (our mysterious feline friends can always sense these things y'know), and that this came from his childhood, and also WHY this was such a beautiful moment captured by Bob Whitaker. (Geeez!) This could have been a much better book if more forethought had gone into it. By the way, it should be mentioned that the 'coffee house avant garde scene' in early '60s Australia that Bob Whitaker came out of, when Brian Epstein recruited him as Official Beatles Photographer, also spawned another very unique artist a few years earlier in 1960. Native Australian, musician Daevid Allen. Co-founder of '60s band, 'The Soft Machine', and later on, founder of 'Gong', he has led a fascinating life; and the extraordinary contrast of his odyssey with Whitaker's is well worth exploring as well. http://www.daevidallen.net  http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-australian-years-mw0001229765