In Defense of West Coast Sound

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Never cared for the Grunge/stoner Seattle sound.

What's to like about I hate myself, baby killer music?

[k4kyv]

Hendrix?   There's a museum in Seattle that has another name but might as well be called the Jimi Hendrix Memorial. He was a Seattle kid who had to go to England to get any respect.

Seattle? I thought he started out as an unknown little black kid from Alabama.  He was once in the army and stationed about 8 miles from here.  Of course, I had never heard of him then.

We should be careful here. We could start a thread that goes on and on naming rock bands.   I will tell one little story though. My wife of a zillion years was waiting at the butcher counter at the local Whole Paycheck when she overheard the young guys working the counter talking about how in awe they were of Hendrix. When it was her turn she said simply, I saw him in '69 at the Berkeley Community Theater. They were awestruck. They were talking to someone who actually saw Hendrix.   

And to think I never did see him.

He did the best instrumental version of the national anthem, ever.

[AF9J]

Never cared for the Grunge/stoner Seattle sound.

What's to like about I hate myself, baby killer music?

Nice try Pete! 

73,
Ellen - AF9J
Who says read the lyrics, it's not all like that

[ka3zlr]

and there's always.."that little o'le band from Texas"....

[AF9J]

Seattle? I thought he started out as an unknown little black kid from Alabama.  He was once in the army and stationed about 8 miles from here.  Of course, I had never heard of him then.

He did the best instrumental version of the national anthem, ever.

Yep, Jimi was born in Seattle, and grew up there. He also played guitar in Little Richard's band, and the Isley Brothers in the early and mid 60s. There is also an unusual connection between Les Paul and Jimi Hendrix.  Les Paul used to like the tell the story about how back in 1964, he ran into Hendrix, before he was famous. Accroding to Les, him and one of his sons made a brief stop (after running errands) at a club in New Jersey (around the time Jimi was forming his pre-Experience group Jimmy James and the Blue Flames).  Les was feeling lazy, and rather than spending time going into the club, just to find out the band might suck, he sent his son in to take a look.  His son came back to the car and told him that he needed to see him play for himself - he said the guy was playing guitar like a madman.  Les went in, and saw Jimi auditioning to do some gigs for the club, and was blown away.  But Les had to finish running errands, so he had to leave.  But, he went back to the club afterwords to talk with Jimi, and possibly see what he could do to help with Jimi's career.   Unfortunately, Jimi was gone.   Les inqured about him, and found out that the club ownder had stopped the audition (the owner said he was too loud), and nobody knew they guy's (Jimi's) name.  So, it wasn't until Jimi became famous, the Les Paul found out who the auditioner was.  He got a chance one time to speak with Jimi, and related the abovew story to him. Jimi laughed, and said (that) to think he was "that" close possibly making it at that time.

Other Hendrix factoids:

1.   Accomplised blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield, & Hendrix were good friends.  Bloomfield, met Hendrix after Jimi did a gig in 1965 in a Greenwhich Village club. At the time Bloomfield (who was the guitarist on the Bob Dylan song "Like a Rolling Stone"), thought he was THE hot guitarist, until he saw Hendrix (who saw Bloomfield in the audience, and knew who he was) humble him using nothing more than a Strat, a Fender Twin amp, a Maestro fuzz tone, and tons of volume.

2.  Stephen Stills (of Crosby,Stills & Nash,and Buffalo Springfield fame) was another good friend of Jimi's.  They both knew each other from before the time Jimi was famous.   Jimi wanted Stills to join the Jimi Hendrix Experience as the bass player.  Stills would have too, but his manager dissuaded him from doing so, since it would have hurt his career with The Buffalo Springfield (which was starting to take off).  As it was, Jimi did have a pretty big effect on Stepehn Stills' guitar style, which went from being this sort of generic folksy and rootsy style, to a more rock oriented style.

3.  The Jimi Hendrix Experinience's first US tour was in 1967.  The group they toured with - The Monkees!  It was mess.  The Monkees main audience of teeny boppers had a hard time dealing with Jimi's music.  So the Jimi Hendrix Experience dropped out of the tour after only a few weeks.

73,
Ellen - AF9J
Stating there is life after Buck Owens and Merle Haggard (the kings of the Bakersfield Sound)

[steve_qix]

The hi-fi sounds on the east coast started well before the early 70's.

Bill, W3DUQ is still on the air with hi-fi audio. Listen for him on 3733 kHz.


QSL from 1957, TNX to Ken, W2DTC.

Absoulutely!  There were some spot good audio operators back then, and once it reached a critical mass here in the East, the term East Coast Sound was born    What's interesting is to listen to the old recordings.  We thought it sounded good back then, but still nothing like what we have today with large diaphram condenser mics, better audio processing and transformerless transmitters

Regards,

Steve

[Ed-VA3ES]

In the mid to late sixties, I was listening to Bill, and others (W3PHL, W3YAM, etc.,) on 75.  I was struck by the high quality audio (and lots of audio from PHL!).  That's what turned me on to AM!

Also, in the sixties, Montreal was part of the tour circuit for major rock bands. Saw Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Airplane, Doors, Janis, and many others.   (I love being a Baby Boomer!  )

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

I'll take Danny Gatton over any of those over-hyped commercialized guitar heros.

[AF9J]

You're a country twanger & roots twanger, aren't you Steve?   Living where you are, you must have seen the amazing Danny Gatton before he died.  That must have been something seeing him rip on his Tele.

73,
Ellen - AF9J
Quote of the day - don't overplay; play for the song

[Art]

"He did the best instrumental version of the national anthem, ever."

Hey Don,
 
Did you hear that, perchance, on a wet Monday morning in 1969??

Art

[WA1GFZ]

I remember a night about this time 40 years ago when a couple of us stopped by a friends house to check out some new music our buddy Bob just bought. Hendrix and Cream..........my hair got longer after that......so needed a head band to spank second gear and still see where I was going.

[ka3zlr]

Howdy Howdy,

 As far as Hendrix I always liked Machine Gun..alot of emotion in that, i never liked when he went to the flying wing, bad sustain on that guitar..not very clear...

[AF9J]

Flying Wings are a bit more electric sounding than Strats Jack.  For having humbuckers, they are pretty trebly sounding.  It's hard to believe, but Gibson first sold them (along with the Explorer) in 1958!  Originals are very rare (they didn't sell well - everybody thought they looked stupid), and worth as much as $100,000.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Well, that and a whole lot more and different stuff too. But, yes living in the Baltimore/Washington Metroplex, I was lucky to see/hear a lots of good musicians. Gatton was a trip. But so was John Duffy on the mando, and Tony Rice flattop and Del McCoury singing and .......

Places like the Cellar Door, the Red Fox Inn, Bayou, 9:30 Club and the Birchmere were just a few of the spots.

Didn't see many most of these but DC has a rich musical history. Here's just a few of those who were born and/or played in the area.

John Fahey
Marvin Gaye
Roy Clark
Duke Ellington
Jorma Kaukonen
Toni Braxton
Jack Casady
Peter Torkelson
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Charlie Byrd
Roy Buchanan
Emmylou Harris
Joan Jett
Nils Lofgren
Billie Holiday
Frank Zappa

You're a country twanger & roots twanger, aren't you Steve?   Living where you are, you must have seen the amazing Danny Gatton before he died.  That must have been something seeing him rip on his Tele.

73,
Ellen - AF9J
Quote of the day - don't overplay; play for the song

[AF9J]

Oh man!,

That is a good list of musicians from your neck of the woods.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[ve6pg]

..ellen...glad you mentioned the monkees/hendrix tour..poor jimi could'nt match peter tork, and mike nesmith on guitar...he had to quit, not being as good.....sk..

[ka3zlr]

Never cared for the Grunge/stoner Seattle sound.

What's to like about I hate myself, baby killer music?

nothing man...isn't it something....

 and one got lost in Omaha...could of been something..

   but nothing man....

[AF9J]

..ellen...glad you mentioned the monkees/hendrix tour..poor jimi could'nt match peter tork, and mike nesmith on guitar...he had to quit, not being as good.....sk..

Well you know Tim......

"Daydream Believer" (with the "awesome" Davy Jones singing) - how can you compete with somebody who can pull off the chops busting ability that song requires. LOL!!  Actually Hendrix was very open minded musically.  When he was in town for a show,he would often go out to see local acts play.  Even when they were bad, he would hang around, and listen to them play. When asked why he would stay to watch a terrible band play - his response was:  "everybody has something to say (musically)."

With regards to the Monkees - I read years ago in one of my guitar mags (I think it was "Guitar World"), an excerpt from the book Mitch Mitchell (the drummer in Jimi's band), wrote about his time in the Jimi Hendrix Experience.  The excerpt talked about the 1967 tour with the Monkees.  According to Mitch,  The Experience actually got along pretty well with the Monkees. Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith, and Micky Dolenz actually had some talent (albeit in a limited way).  The one person they couldn't stand (Mitch said he was a little talentless twit), was Davey Jones, who acted like a primma donna.  BTW, Davey Jones is the Reason why David Bowie exists.  David Bowie's original name is David Jones (he even had a band way back when, that was called "Davy Jones and His Lockers [after the old pirate phrase]).  He changed his last name to Bowie, to distance himself from Davey Jones.   

Bowie had a very good and underrated guitarist during his Ziggy Stardust period - Mick Ronson.  He's been dead for a few years (he died of pancreatic cancer within the past 10 years or so).   That's too bad.  He was considered to be a very humble individual, who not only played guitar, but did music arranging.  When John Mellencamp was tight for money during the sessions that recorded the hit song "Jack and Diane", Mick not only helped with the producing, but played some of the guitar parts in the sessions - all for around a $200 fee.   Normally people charge thousands for what he did.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[K6JEK]

Isn't this thread where we talk about Rock and Roll?

The Led Zepplin re-union got rave reviews.   Wouldn't it have been great to be there?  I saw them on the tour following the release of their first album at the Fillmore (or was it Winterland) in SF.   Damn they were loud.   

Here's the NY Times review
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/arts/music/11zeppelin.html?em&ex=1197522000&en=6718f43e7b7cc02d&ei=5087%0A

[AF9J]

Loudest band I ever saw - Anthrax.  It was 1987, and I'd just graduated college.  I saw tham at a place that no longer exists in Madison,WI called "Headliners", that occasionally had up and coming national acts playing at it. Metal Church opened - they were pretty good.  Anthrax came on, and they were so loud, my ears went into overload - it was a big wash of noise.  I couldn't even distinguish the music notes, and could barely even hear the singing. I ended up leaving after 4 songs - it was that ridiculously loud.    My ears didn't stop ringing for 3 days!  No thanks.  I've been known to play pretty loud, but that was way beyond overkill.

73,
Ellen - AF9J
P.S. - my Uncle Joe lost over half of his hearing from playing too loud when he was younger.  So, I try to protect my hearing.  As result of doing this I have passed any hearing tests I have had to take.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Bands you saw when you were younger will always be louder. That's because you've destroyed your hearing then, so everything seems less loud now.

[Ed W1XAW]

I'll take Danny Gatton over any of those over-hyped commercialized guitar heros.

Just gimme some of that Red Neck Jazz!

[KL7OF]

Lightnin Hopkins....Playing a gut string guitar with a mic jammed in the sound hole .....stompin his foot on the wooden stage floor for the bass beat...you could hear him just fine....  Hound Dog Taylor...Playing cheap electrics and driving Sears 6L6 Guitar amps into distortion.......2  guys trying to sound like a 5 pc band.....Those sounds still blow me away........The Blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.....

[Tom WA3KLR]

I saw the new Eagles album at WalMart a week ago and the asking price was $9 versus $14 for most CDs.  The cover is thin cardboard rather than a plastic jewel case - an admirable green thing?