1966 studio
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CURTIS KNIGHT (& THE SQUIRES)
1966 Studio Recordings Apparently Curtis Knight had left PPX and signed a production contract with RSVP instead. Further proof for this is the fact that when Ed Chalpin started to put together the first Knight-Hendrix albums in 1967 he had to first buy some of the master recordings from Jerry Simon. This clearly indicates that Chalpin neither owned nor recorded those tracks.  AN LP AUTOGRAPHED BY CURTIS KNIGHT. COURTESY OF LASSE ALEXANDERSSON The Squires signed a contract with RSVP records on 10 June 1966. The signing members included Napoleon Anderson, Nathaniel Edmonds, Marion Booker and Jimmy Hendrix. Curtis Knight had already signed a (second?) contract with RSVP on 19 February 1966. The fact that the rest of the Squires were signed 5 months later might explain why the first single featuring Hendrix released on RSVP was credited to Curtis Knight alone, and the second one to Curtis Knight & the Squires. The RSVP sessions were recorded at Allegro Sound Studios located downstairs in the building of the RSVP office, and were produced by Jerry Simon. According to the book "Setting the record straight" on or around 27 July 1967 PPX bought the masters for the following tracks from RSVP records: The U.F.O., I'm a Fool for You Baby, Ballad of Jimmy, Gotta Have a New Dress, Hornet's Nest, Knock Yourself Out, Your Love I have yet to see facsimile copies of any of these contracts, the information about them comes from the book "Setting the Record Straight" and Univibes issue #35. If anybody has copies of the actual papers I'd be more than happy to see them... In February 2005 Jerry Simon placed a listing for two reels of RSVP recordings on eBay (with a starting price of $3 million). The listing pictured two reels (although the description only mentioned one), copyright registrations for "No Such Animal" parts 1 & 2 and multiple copies of the sleeve for the Audio Fidelity 45 "No Such Animal". One of the reels is noted on the box as "No Such Animal 7 1/2", this probably is a 7.5 ips reel of that track alone, maybe a back-up reel or a test mix of the 45 master. The other reel comes with a studio log listing the following tracks (my comments in brackets): Kato's Special (aka Hornet's Nest), Station Break (unreleased), No Such Animal, Flying On Instruments (aka Knock Yourself Out?), I'm A Fool For You Baby, U.F.O The total time for this reel is given as 17.48 which indicates that these are not complete tracks but rather edited mixes of the multitracks prepared in 1966, as even excluding "Station Break" the complete versions of these tracks give a much longer playing time when put together . The Allegro Sound Studios, Inc. log for the 6 song reel (or 7 as the listing says, probably counting the 2 parts of "No Such Animal" as two separate songs as it was split in half for the 45 release) seems to list tracks for 3 possible singles. Allegro Sound Studios was located at the same address as the RSVP offices, 1650 Broadway, this is the studio that Jimi referred to in his PPX court hearing as being located "downstairs" in the RSVP building. This was confirmed by Mike Rashkow (engineer at Studio 76 in 1966), there were only two studios in the building, Studio 76 and Allegro Sound Studios. It's unclear exactly what this tape is: the tape log has the following boxes ticked: "master", "re-record" & "4T". This can't be the original multitrack as the timings don't match, the tracks are not complete, and "re-record" sounds like this would be a copy of something rather than a master tape. The most logical explanation that I can think of is that this is a tape of edited mixes of the multitracks made when they were considered for release as 45s. This 4-track tape could then have been used to make a mono master from which the actual 45s would have been cut. The tracks are coupled in pairs with the mysterious notation "1DF" after each pair. The pairings are as follows, and probably indicate the suggested couplings for the single releases considered at the time: Kato's Special No Such Animal I'm A Fool For You Baby A date of 20 June 1966 appears twice on the tape log, under "date" and "due date". Based on the speculation above and the "due date" notation I believe this is the date when this particular reel of mixes was prepared, not the actual recording date of these tracks. Eventually only two of these tracks were released by RSVP, and Jerry Simon sold some of the multitrack masters to Ed Chalpin in 1967. Based on the info that we have Jerry Simon probably still has the original multitracks for the following songs in his posession (unless they have been destroyed of course): Station Break (unreleased) & No Such Animal (and possibly "I'm A Fool For You Baby" since only one mix apart from mixes created by repeating sections of the track has ever appered which suggests that Ed Chalpin was unable to remix it). The eBay auction description says that "we do have a copy of the entire reel to reel on a DAT and cassette, done by Jerry about 20 years ago, also included. Besides these two copies, no others had been made." So the whereabouts of the 3 multitracks listed above remain a bit of a mystery. NOTE: A full rundown of all the different edits and mixes of these tracks will follow later. PPX Session Strange Things I Ain't Taking Care Of No Business Jimi signed a publishing contract with R.S.V.P. MUSIC, INC for the track "I Ain't Taking Care of No Business" on 30 March 1966. The contract was offered for sale by Lelands.com in 2002 He's credited as the sole composer for the song. If there was a recording of the song made as the publishing contract suggests it has never surfaced. The track was recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience during sessions for Axis: Bold As Love in May 1967, and again recorded during the July / August 1967 Curtis Knight sessions (released as "No Business"). The RSVP publishing contract could mean that this was a RSVP session, but "Welcome Home" is also solely credited to RSVP on the single label even though it was a PPX produced track, so the publishing contract doesn't necessarily mean that this couldn't just as well have been a PPX recording. RSVP Sessions Session 1 I'm A Fool For You Baby Features two guitar parts by Hendrix, the second one played through a fuzzbox with Jimi cleverly imitating a trumpet. Gotta Have A New Dress This track is a re-recording of a Curtis Knight solo 45 A-side released in 1963 on the single "Gotta have a new dress / When you've got love" (shell 45-312). The original 45 had no Hendrix involvement. The U.F.O. Session 2 Three (or possibly four) instrumentals, although the band is called "Curtis Knight & the Squires" Curtis himself is nowhere to be heard. Hendrix is here pretty much in the leading role taking composing credits for the songs that are all basically guitar instrumentals showcasing his playing. Stylistically all 3 available tracks are almost exactly alike, and publishing contracts for three tracks from these sessions were signed on the 21st of June, all of which points to them having been recorded sometime in June 1966. Hornet's Nest (aka Kato's Special) This instrumental was released in an edited form as the A-side of the RSVP 1124 single. The eBay RSVP reel auction in February 2005 listed this track with what was it's original working title "Kato's Special". One of the available mixes of this track includes the engineer Bruce Staples intro (he confirmed that it's his voice by listening to a sample) "Rolling - Kato's Special take 10 (or 2, hard to make this out)". Kato was a character in the radio (and later film & tv) series The Green Hornet which was first aired in 1936. The theme music of the show was an adaptation of "The Flight Of The Bumble-Bee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. "Hornet's Nest" is not a straight cover of this, but certainly has been strongly influenced by the song. Jimi regularily included "The Flight Of The Bumble-Bee" as part of the guitar solo in "Lover Man" during his 1970 concerts, the inclusion might have more to do with The Green Hornet than Jimi's taste in classical music. And finally some Bruce Lee trivia, courtesy of Andre Ellis: Knock Yourself Out This instrumental was released in an edited form as the B-side of the RSVP 1124 single. Hendrix signed a publishing contract with RSVP for the tracks "Station Break" and "Flying On Instruments" on the 21st of June 1966 . The contract credits the composers for both tracks as Jimmy Hendrix and Jerry Simon. The eBay RSVP reel auction in February 2005 listed "Station Break" as an unreleased song, meaning that "Flying On Instruments" is probably an alternate (working) title for "Knock Yourself Out". No Such Animal Hendrix signed a publishing contract with RSVP for this instrumental on 21 June 1966. This track is not included in the list of RSVP masters sold to Ed Chalpin, and has never appeared on any compilation of "PPX" material. Instead it's first issue was on a 45 by Audiofidelity records, Ed Chalpin later sued Audifidelity for releasing fake Hendrix recordings, so very likely for one reason or another Jerry Simon did not sell the master tape of this track to Chalpin in 1967 but instead leased / sold the master to Audiofidelity during the 70s. Station Break Hendrix signed a publishing contract with RSVP for the tracks "Station Break" and "Flying On Instruments" on the 21st of June 1966 . The contract credits the composers for both tracks as Jimmy Hendrix and Jerry Simon. The eBay RSVP reel auction in February 2005 listed "Station Break" as an unreleased song, this has been confirmed by John McDermott of Experience Hendrix. Session 3 It's doubtful that Hendrix actually plays on this session. The guitar parts are very simple and low in the mix unlike the other PPX / RSVP studio recordings, and neither of these tracks has appeared on that many releases, which considering the way that Chalpin has been exploiting the other Knight recordings makes these two instantly suspect. One possibility could be that these tracks were recorded after Hendrix left the group, the style is very different to the other recordings, so the Squires might have been attempting to continue without Hendrix before the band fizzled out. Furthermore, "My Best Friend" was redone during the 1967 sessions which would make this song the only Curtis Knight studio recording that was cut twice with Hendrix on guitar. My Love (aka My Heart Is Higher) This instrumental most likely is the track listed as "Your Love" on the list of RSVP masters sold to PPX. It is a version of the Petula Clark song "My Love", released in the USA on a 7" single "My Love / Where Am I Going?" (Warner Bros. 5684) in December 1965. It's most of the time credited on Curtis Knight lp's as "My Heart Is Higher", but I've seen at least one release list it as "My Love (My Heart Is Higher)". Wether Hendrix plays guitar on this is very hard to say, as the guitar part is very sparse and low in the mix. Ballad Of Jimmy (aka My Best Friend) This is the original version of the song, the track was re-done during the 1967 sessions, and later after Hendrix's death a new vocal part was recorded with new lyrics on which Hendrix supposedly foresees his death. See the "1967 studio" -section for details. This sales gimmick would have worked better if the 1967 version of the song featuring the original lyrics hadn't already been released in 1968. This 1966 version is so far only known to appear on the "Music for Pleasure"-label lp "Strange Things" MFP 2M046-95397, released in France in 1974. Again it's hard to tell if it actually has Hendrix playing on it as the guitar part is very basic which really isn't typical for Jimi. |
| Last Updated on Friday, 09 April 2010 08:53 |