A gentler side to Hendrix
A long-forgotten tape of the rock star could reach £100,000 at auction next month
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At a quarter of an inch wide and 1,800 feet long, the reel of black polyester audio tape in its battered, coffee-stained, green box suggests nothing about the musical treasure it holds. But when played, it is unmistakably Jimi Hendrix – lo-fi, stripped back to a single guitar and unvarnished voice.
Forgotten for decades, the recordings capture Hendrix at his most reflective. The tape, listened to by The Independent on Sunday yesterday, will be sold at auction next month. Expected to fetch between £50,000 and £100,000, the songs, 14 in total, date back to 1968 as Hendrix worked on his third album, Electric Ladyland.
Rather than containing his trademark distorted guitar and a full backing band, most of the tracks feature Hendrix singing and playing guitar quietly by himself in an apartment. Several tracks include a second musician playing harmonica.
"This tape shows his very sensitive, creative side," said Ted Owen, a memorabilia expert and CEO of the Fame Bureau (famebureau.com), the site that will auction the tape. "The wild man of rock is not there at all."
The tape was given to Carl Niekirk by Hendrix himself. Mr Niekirk worked in a photography studio below the rock star's flat in Brook Street, central London. As there was only one entrance to the flat, Mr Niekirk would often let Hendrix and his friends – including George Harrison – into the flat. "It was a constant stream of people coming and going and partying," he said. At one point, Hendrix asked Mr Niekirk if he could borrow some milk and sugar. When he took it up to Hendrix's flat, the singer gave him the tape. Mr Niekirk said: "Because I asked him, he just gave it to me. As simple as that." The tape then passed to Mr Niekirk's sister, who ran a pub in Epping Forest, and there it languished in a box in a wardrobe.
The tape is now owned by Mark Sutherland and Paul Jackson, who run the Cafe Music Studios in east London. They bought the tape for a nominal sum 10 years ago, and now, after years of legal wrangling with the Hendrix estate, the pair are finally able to sell it.
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Comments
many thanks for this fantastic news about the Hendrix tape. I will never be able to afford it but hopefully it may become available to the general collector soon?
Any chance of a photo of the tape or box etc??
Many thanks again,
Mick Coyne
coyne_55@yahoo.com
But I must break cover to demur at the general thrust of this article. This newly discovered tape is said to show a side apart from the 'wild man of rock', a gentler side, possibly because it is of accoustic guitar, as opposed to Hendrix's 'trademark distorted guitar.'
On a pedantic note, and mindful that I cannot be certain which of the various effects employed with such expressionistic skill by Hendrix Paul Bignall regards as the 'trademark' of the man, it is useful to distinguish the effects and workings of the 'wah wah' pedal - which for many typifies Hendrix's style - from more commonly used distortion effects such as overdrive or 'fuzz'.
But what really grates in this article is the wholly false contrast drawn between the accoustic, stated to be sensitive, creative and gentle, and the electric work. I find myself wondering just which of Hendrix's songs Paul Bignall has and has not listened to.
If what you want is something gentle, then you could do much worse than give the track Pali Gap a listen. This is probably one of the most beautiful rock tracks ever produced. Yet there is no need to venture into the more obscure catalogue for ample evidence of Hendrix's melodic genius with the guitar: Hey Joe, Angel, The Wind Cries Mary even Vodoo Chile, - all of these are brim full of gentleness.
But I must break cover to demur at the general thrust of this article. This newly discovered tape is said to show a side apart from the 'wild man of rock', a gentler side, possibly because it is of accoustic guitar, as opposed to Hendrix's 'trademark distorted guitar.'
On a pedantic note, and mindful that I cannot be certain which of the various effects employed with such expressionistic skill by Hendrix Paul Bignell regards as the 'trademark' of the man, it is useful to distinguish the effects and workings of the 'wah wah' pedal - which for many typifies Hendrix's style - from more commonly used distortion effects such as overdrive or 'fuzz'.
But what really grates in this article is the wholly false contrast drawn between the accoustic, stated to be sensitive, creative and gentle, and the electric work. I find myself wondering just which of Hendrix's songs Paul Bignell has and has not listened to.
If what you want is something gentle, then you could do much worse than give the track Pali Gap a listen. This is probably one of the most beautiful rock tracks ever produced. Yet there is no need to venture into the more obscure catalogue for ample evidence of Hendrix's melodic genius with the guitar: Hey Joe, Angel, The Wind Cries Mary even Vodoo Chile, - all of these are brim full of gentleness.
Which of your favourite 'gentle' tracks did I miss off my list?
What about Little Wing ?