Band Of Gypsys

My introduction to Jimi Hendrix was via The Experience and those three amazing LPs.  Later, when I heard Band Of Gypsys for the first time, I didn’t take to it immediately.  Reminiscent perhaps in parts to Electric Ladyland, it was still too out there for me.  Soon, though, as I continued to listen to it and take it in, it became a very special record to me.

The Band Of Gypsys really only existed for several months between October 1969 and January 1970.  Having split from Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, Hendrix put together this new band with a couple buddies he knew before his career took off.

L - R: Buddy Miles, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Cox.

Hendrix met bassist Billy Cox in 1961 at Fort Campbell during his stint in the Air Force.  The two performed together with ensembles and formed The King Casuals after leaving the service.  Like Hendrix, Cox played with some of the finest R&B killers of the day including Sam Cooke, Rufus Thomas, Etta James and Little Richard.  After Noel Redding jumped ship, Cox came on board.

Lookin' sharp, gentlemen.

Buddy Miles met Hendrix in 1964 at a show both were performing at in Canada, Hendrix with The Isley Brothers and Miles with The Ink Spots.  Miles played with The Delfonics and Wilson Pickett, among others, before starting The Electric Flag with Mike Bloomfield in Chicago in 1967.  After The Electric Flag broke up, Miles started his own band, The Buddy Miles Express.  Miles had played on some of the sessions for Electric Ladyland.  When Hendrix asked Miles to join Band Of Gypsys in October 1969, he said yes.

The Electric Flag.

Bill Graham booked The Band Of Gypsys for a four performance engagement over the course of New Year’s Eve, December 31^st 1969 and January 1^st 1970.  These concerts were recorded and six of the songs were ultimately released as the Band Of Gypsys LP.  Following Hendrix’s death, an LP called Band Of Gypsys 2 was released.  This was misleading in that Band Of Gypsys only played on the A side, performances of “Hear My Train A Comin’,” “Foxy Lady” and “Stop.”

Recently, I paid my hard earned money to download Live At The Fillmore East, which consists of sixteen recordings, fifteen of which were not released on Band Of Gypsys.  “Hear My Train A Comin’” and “Stop” are included, but not “Foxy Lady,” which I find odd.  It includes the same recording of “We Gotta’ Live Together” as can be found on Band Of Gypsys, though this one is unedited, coming in at 9:56 compared to the 5:46 version found on Band Of Gypsys.  I know bootlegs exist, but I would very much like to see all four sets remixed, remastered and released with truckloads of liner notes.  I’d love to be able to listen to each set, complete, start to finish, without edits.

The recordings from those concerts reveal a band on fire, fully in control of their formidable talents, firing on all cylinders, swinging HARD and rocking harder.  Hendrix joked about their limited repertoire (‘We only know about six songs right now… seven… nine…’), but this band only needed a handful of tunes to blow the doors off the Fillmore East.

This is what righteous rock looks like.

Hendrix finally had a rhythm section he had no personal problems with and with who he felt a sense of newfound freedom.  Perhaps it is the sound of relief and of sheer joy that we hear coming out of Hendrix on these recordings.  He was more excited about the music he was making than he had been in a long time and was playing with musicians who shared his background and roots to a much larger extant than Mitch Mitchell or Noel Redding.  If anything, Jimi’s confidence must have been soaring, his enjoyment of this lineup eclipsing his struggles up to that time.

But within the joyful release of the music lies the dark underbelly of the times.  Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement, the Black Panther party, Kent State, Altamont and a lot of ugly confrontation between the old guard and the new counterculture.  Hendrix was experiencing turmoil with his management and his career.  These were dark times, as much as the period is associated with peace and love.  Hendrix knew it and felt it.  You can hear it best in “Machine Gun”, where Jimi sings, “Evil man make me kill you, evil man make you kill me.”  If his “Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock was Jimi’s commentary on the violence and war going on at the time, “Machine Gun” was that frightening vision put to words.  The versions from those Fillmore East concerts were downright scary, the band providing the soundtrack to the scenes everyone was seeing every day.  Explosions, napalm, gun shots, bombs, Molotov cocktails, death.

Perhaps the times were also reflected, somehow, in the direction Jimi’s life and career took after these recording were made.  One more Band Of Gypsys concert, back to unsure lineups, unsure situations, complete disillusionment and, ultimately, death. 

But, for those two nights at the Fillmore East, Jimi was very, very much alive.  The chemistry and interplay between these three musicians is so powerful and such a joy to listen to.  The gospel roar of “We Gotta’ Live Together,” the killer version of “Stone Free,” the slow burn of “Hear My Train A Comin’,” the beautiful little figure that acts as the intro to “Changes.”  There is a sense of uplift, of positivity in the music and the message.  ‘With the power of soul, anything is possible’ seems to be the point and the evidence is in the magic of the music.  For two nights, four sets, The Band Of Gypsys ROCKED.  I love listening to these recordings, getting inside them, closing my eyes and trying to really believe I’m there, in the middle of the crowd, experiencing this incredible testimony to the power and glory of music.

The Band Of Gypsys would perform only one more show, a charity event at Madison Square Garden later in January.  According to Buddy Miles, Hendrix’s manager, Michael Jeffrey, wanted Hendrix back with Redding and Mitchell and purposely sabotaged the show by giving Jimi bad acid:

‘Jeffrey slipped [Jimi] two half-tabs of acid on stage as he went on ... [Jimi] just freaked out. I told Jeffery he was an out-and-out complete idiot and a fucking asshole to boot. One of the biggest reasons why Jimi is dead is because of that guy.’

Hendrix ended up having a breakdown and walking off stage, effectively disbanding The Band Of Gypsys.  I’ll let you do your own research on this one, but I agree Jeffrey was instrumental in guiding Hendrix to an early grave.

We’re left with a wonderful catalog of work and the aftermath of a revolution in guitar playing.  Hendrix is like the Bruce Lee of music (or maybe Bruce Lee is the Hendrix of kung-fu); no one can touch them, not only because they were the best at what they did but because they’re gone.  Gone too soon.  The wonder and marvel I feel when I hear Hendrix has not diminished over the decades, the inspiration is as strong as it ever was.  I’d have loved to see him live but he was gone before I got here.  I have to make due with videos and visions in my head.  Band Of Gypsys remains one of my absolute favorite Hendrix LPs and The Band Of Gypsys was one of the best lineups he ever got down with.