Something 4 The Weekend #245

Brian May & Friends:  Star Fleet Project:  "Starfleet"  [mp3]

One of Brian May's friends on this 1983 project is Eddie Van Halen.  That's pretty much all that matters to a guy like me who believes Eddie is the second greatest rock guitarist after Jimi Hendrix. 

I saw the original Van Halen in concert three times.  Aside from Eddie being the second greatest rock guitarist of all time, I still believe, after all these years and sooo many concerts, that Diamond Dave is the best front man I've ever seen, with the possible exception of Michael Stipe.

I never saw Queen live, nor Jimi, though my dad claimed he and my mom saw Jimi live.  My mom didn't agree.  I can say that one of my earliest memories is going to a Willie Nelson show with my parents when I was about four years old.  Willie Nelson isn't one of Brian's friends on this project.

REO Speedwagon's drummer, Alan Gratzer, is one of Brian's friends.  I saw REO Speedwagon headline The World Series of Rock at Milwaukee County Stadium back in 1981.  That show is significant because it was the first time I smoked weed.  Combined with too much blackberry brandy, and I spent a good chunk of 38 Special's set puking and shitting in a filthy stadium bathroom. 

I don't know if this is true, but I seem to recall being hunched over that disgusting toilet and thinking, "Alan Gratzer is not a good rock'n'roll name."  Meanwhile, five hundred feet away, on the stage erected out in the centerfield bleachers, I hear Donnie Van Zandt singing "Hold on loosely, but don't let go..."

Hotcha!  Hank

Something 4 The Weekend # 94

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced?: "I Don't Live Today" [mp3]

As I'm sure you're aware, Mitch Mitchell, drummer in The Jimi Hendrix Experience, died in his sleep of natural causes last Wednesday, and I feel a bit guilty for taking more than a week to post anything about it...

And perhaps you think the song selection for this week's S4TW is crass and dishonorable, or a lame attempt at irony and possible cleverness, but rest assured, it's one of the better showcases for Mitch Mitchell's stellar skills, and just how important he was to Jimi Hendrix...

Hendrix was an extraordinary talent, but if he was truly going to soar, to reach his own artistic potential as a musician, he needed to play with others who were not only capable of "keeping up", but who could actually complement, enhance, and even improve what Hendrix was trying to do...And he had that in bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell...

But especially Mitchell...He blurred the line between rhythm and melody, the interplay of his snare and tom almost like a speaking voice, echoing Hendrix own vocals at times, other times skittering around the edges of the songs, filling in spaces with his own vibrant ideas and skills, bursting through the long strings of feedback with a rolling thunder of his own...Mitchell was a Jazz drummer in a Rock band, but somehow, The Jimi Hendrix Experience were neither Jazz nor Rock...There was Funk and R&B mixed in there, and Avant Garde tape manipulation and general studio trickery, all that feedback and noise exploration, and nobody else in the Pop/Rock world of 1967 were even close to doing stuff this singular...

Except for Zappa, I suppose, but this isn't about Frank...

This is about the first truly brilliant, legendary drummer in Rock history, Mitch Mitchell...May he rest in peace...

Hotcha! Hank

Something 4 The Weekend # 58

Buddy Miles passed away this Wednesday, most likely of congestive heart failure, at his home in Austin, Texas. He was 60 years old, and probably best known as the drummer for Jimi Hendrix in the Band Of Gypsys.

Jimi Hendrix: Band Of Gypsys: "Changes" [mp3]

I really don't have much to say about Buddy Miles...That Band Of Gypsys album is a stone cold killer, wherein Jimi deftly incorporates what he's learned from R'nB and Rock into something distinctly funkier and Jazzier...More abstract, if that's possible...Plenty of the credit must be given to Buddy, who urged Hendrix to join him and bassist Billy Cox after the dissolution of The Experience...I believe what Miles and Cox offered Hendrix was a rock-solid bed of Funk grooves over which Jimi had plenty of space to really stretch out as a player, and explore texture and a more slowly evolving melodicism in his soloing...This isn't merely 12 bars of Jimi blasting off before moving into the third verse of a 3 minute pop song, you know? Well, actually, it sorta IS, but I've got my reasons for streaming this particular song...

Buddy Miles other notable accomplishments were the formation of Electric Flag with guitarist Mike Bloomfield prior to Band Of Gypsys...After Band Of Gypsys, Miles had his own eponymous group, did some work on Cheech Y Chong albums, played and recorded some fiery stuff with Carlos Santana, and sang "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" as one of the California Raisins in the famous commercial...Ayup.

Anyways, if I was going to share a song from the Band Of Gypsys album, "Machine Gun" would have been the logical choice...Plenty of fans consider it the pinnacle of Hendrix's playing, and that's saying quite alot when you think about it...Instead, I thought I'd share one of the two Buddy Miles compositions found on that great album. It seems more appropriate, and in the end, it's good to remember that not only was Buddy a fantastic drummer, but a fine singer, and a very good songwriter, which is a rare combination of talents for a drummer, and a final reminder of just how formidable this man truly was.

Rest In Peace, Buddy Miles.

Hotcha! Hank