When rap came out 30 years ago I thought it was just a fad

Kids are going to like what they like. I’m not sure that the people who enjoy rap now will still be listening to it when they are 60 though.

I think our culture in the US has been on a downward slide for some time and this is reflected in music, movies, tv and politicians. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t a lot of good people and a lot of good culture being created here, some of it in the rap/hip-hop genre, it’s just that the bad is growing at an alarming rate.

bdp24, Jimi Hendrix was entirely American. Born here, lived here and served in the US Army. A couple of Brits signed him to a lousy management contract and worked him too hard, and his British friends let him die instead of calling an ambulance, but that doesn’t make him British in any way.

bdp24, Chas Chandler took Jimi to England but Chas wanted to be a record producer not a manager, so he had Jimi sign a management contract with Michael Jeffery, the manager who had robbed The Animals blind. Chas bitched all the time about how Michael Jeffery had screwed them. I guess Jimi thought that Chas was his friend and wouldn’t stab him in the back. Poor trusting Jimi.

Michael Jeffery then proceeded to rob Jimi blind while working him mercilessly, and three years later Jimi was burned out, broke and dead. The worst thing that ever happened to Jimi was going to England.

Jimi was playing with John Hammond when Chas got his hooks into him. John Hammond Sr. probably would have taken note of Jimi’s talent before long and if he didn’t someone else probably would have. That’s just speculation, of course, but what happened to Jimi in Britain is fact. I love the Experience albums but I will never be able to forgive the people who used him for their own gain and who cared so little for him that he ended up dead so soon. So when I hear someone say that Jimi was a British act it’s hard for me to just let it go.

bdp24, I wasn’t mad at you, like I said, I am still mad about how Jimi was treated and I have to vent from time to time. I believe Noel Redding was still suing for back royalties when he died, wasn’t he?

The music business certainly has more than its share of scumbags. Jimi also had trouble till the end of his life from a contract he signed while he was still an unknown with a small time studio owner here in the States. Everybody knows about Jimi’s Electric Ladyland studio in NY, but Jimi was just paying for it, Michael Jeffery was going to end up being the owner. Jimi was easy prey for these jackals.

The ability to spot real talent certainly does run in the Hammond family. Michael Bloomfield was definitely one of the greats. It’s hard to believe, but on John Hammond’s So Many Roads album Bloomfield is listed as playing piano (?) with Robbie Robertson on guitar. That has to be the only time that Bloomfield took a back seat to anyone.

Nobody knew how to dress like Jimi. He would dress so outlandishly, but always looked great. I’ll admit that the Brits generally had better fashion sense than the American bands.

I just wish that John Hammond Sr. had signed him to Columbia before he went to England. I think Hammond Sr. would have steered him to better management. We wouldn’t have the Experience albums but maybe something even better.

So, sorry if my posts were a little aggressive, you definitely better me on direct experience.  I never saw Jimi live.