Black Gold (Jimi Hendrix recordings)
Black Gold was the title for a suite of songs Jimi had
composed for an idea he had worked on to compliment a film
of a cartoon character of the same name. It's really unknown
when Jimi first developed these idea's, but he certainly
drew on his childhood memories of watching Mighty Mouse for
the character of 'Astro Man,' "Here I come to save the day."
which would undoubtedly have been included. Jimi laid down a
basic outline of the tracks on acoustic guitar in his
apartment using a two track stereo cassette recorder,
sometime between February and April 1970.
Some of the lyrics, notably 'Suddenly November Morning' were
most certainly written when Jimi made an unexpected visit to
England in March 1970 and booked into the Londonderry Hotel.
Kathy Etchingham confirmed to me that Jimi did stay at the
hotel for part of his visit.
However Jimi also wrote partial lyrics to 'Suddenly November
Morning' while staying at the Cumberland Hotel in September
1970, but he only wrote the first verse, the same that had
appeared on the Londonderry note paper. It's very
interesting that Jimi drew a little scene at the top of the
Cumberland note paper depicting a spaceship and possibly a
scene of the tents and flags at Maui.
After Jimi died; and all the story's started circulating
about Jimi's apartment being emptied of all their contents,
it was always assumed that 'Black Gold' along with various
other known about recording's were taken and forever lost.
Jimi did speak briefly about 'Black Gold' in interviews,
however he didn't give much information as to the contents,
only the idea itself.
JIMI HENDRIX.
"Mostly it's cartoon material and making up this one cat,
he's funny. He goes through these strange scenes, you know.
It's all funny I guess, you know. I can't explain it now.
You put it to music I guess, just like how you can put blues
into music, you know, or whatever."
"I wanted to get into sorta, what you would probably call,
just pieces; yeah, pieces behind each other like movements
or whatever you call it. I've been writing some of those.
But like I was into like writing cartoons mostly, you know.
Cartoons, music cartoons. It's in your head. You listen to
it and you get some...such funny flashbacks, you know. The
music is going along with the story, you know. It's like
'Foxey Lady.' Music and the words go together."
"Three or four different worlds went by within the wink of
an eye.
Things were happening. Here was this cat came around
called 'Black Gold.' And there was this other cat came
around called 'Captain Coconut.' Other people came around. I
was all these people. And finally when I went back home; all
of a sudden I found myself being a little 'West Coast
Seattle Boy' for a second. Then all of a sudden, when you're
back on the road again, there he goes, he starts going back.
That's my life until something else comes about."
And there after, the story died a death, although the
questions still surfaced on occasions as to the whereabouts
of the tape. Alan Douglas mentioned it in a few interviews,
but it still remained a lost treasure, that is until June
1992.
Although I had known Mitch for many years, it wasn't until I
became actively involved with the research into Jimi's
death, that we talked and met on a more regular basis.
During one such conversation, Mitch happened to mention that
he still had some tapes that Jimi had given to him to look
after, and though they could very likely be the Black Gold
tapes. Mitch had not really been aware of the rumours that
had always surrounded the whereabouts of these supposed
missing gems. So I gathered up all the information I could
find for him, that had any connection with 'Black Gold.'
Mitch was not really convinced that he had anything special
and though copies of this material must surely be in the
hands of collectors thus making the tapes redundant. I was
very flattered and excited when he asked me if I wouldn't
mind going down to take a listen to the tapes.
He was fully
aware of the material in my collection, and presumed that if
I didn't have copies already in my collection, then it would
be very unlikely that anyone else would have this material.
So in June 1992 my wife Carol and I, set off for a day trip
down to Battle in Sussex, not knowing what was in store for
us. It was probably one of the only times I had been on a
Jimi Hendrix research trip, more than eager to get to my
destination as quick as possible. However, as is always the
case in these circumstances, the miles seem to take longer
and longer to travel. After a three and a half hour drive,
we finally made it to Battle.
Once all the greetings and refreshments were over, Mitch
brought out the tapes and started telling me the story of
how Jimi had given them to him.
Mitch had arrived in Maui, Hawaii in July 1970 ahead of
Jimi. As soon as Jimi had arrived in Maui, he met Mitch and
gave him six cassette tapes wrapped up in a head-band and
asked him to look after them for him. Mitch remarked to me
that although he thought nothing of it at the time, looking
back on the incident, it was rather strange and out of
character. Jimi had given Mitch tapes in the past, but tapes
of new material he had been working on for Mitch to learn
and add new idea's too. Mitch popped the tapes into his
suite case, brought them back to England after the tour and
forgot about them for the following twenty two years.
Mitch only had a tiny portable cassette player with micro
speakers, and as he put the 'Black Gold' cassette's into the
player, alarm bells started going off. I knew how very
unreliable these portable players were, and how much they
loved to chew up cassette tapes; I'd lost many a good
Hendrix performance over the years through such unforgiving
machines.
So I explained the dangers to Mitch. I was in
limbo at this point, wanting desperately to hear the first
notes of material that in my wildest dreams, I never ever
thought I would ever hear, and the thought of the original
tape of 'Black Gold' with no copies in existence, being
chewed up and winding around the capstan of Mitch's portable
cassette player into an unbelievable mess.
We both agreed that great care should be taken and Mitch
proceeded to press the play button on the player but sitting
close enough so that we could stop the tape should the need
arise. Within seconds of the tape playing,
I knew that this
was indeed completely new and un-heard material of Jimi on
acoustic guitar. Each song went into the next without many
breaks and I was amazed how Jimi remembered the words to
each song as he went from one song to the next without
hearing any evidence of pages being turned, like he usually
did.
It was clear that these were completely new songs and heard
for the first time since Jimi had recorded them twenty two
years earlier. Mitch remarked that this was the first time
since they had been recorded, they had ever been played on
another cassette deck. I remember thinking, that if there
was ever truly a Holy Grail, I've just found it and
therefore will try to remember every note. But of course we
all know that's impossible to do. But I did have the added
bonus of having a great deal of this material in my hand-
written archive. I had all these unknown hand-written words
to songs and now I was hearing the music that Jimi had
composed for them. Now I know that I would never ever forget
what I had heard. I convinced Mitch that the tapes contained
some of the rarest material anyone would ever hear, and my
excitement and enthusiasm took hold of him too.
After playing the tapes through once, we both agreed that it
would be tempting providence to play them again before back-
up copies could be made, which Mitch agreed should be his
next priority. And so after our good-byes, we got ready to
drive the three and a half hours back to King's Lynn, still
trying to remember everything I had heard.
On my return, I set about going through all my hand-written
material, looking for everything that I had heard on the
Black Gold tape, which you will find re-printed in this
article in the order that it was recorded.
During the following week, I spoke to Mitch and asked if he
had made arrangements to make safety copies of the
cassette's, but he said he was reluctant to take them to a
studio or let anyone else copy them for him, but would I
agree to take my equipment down so we could copy them at the
house. I of course instantly agreed and we made arrangements
that we would stay over the whole coming week-end.
So armed with my top of the range Denon cassette decks,
headphones, pen and plenty of note paper, we made the trek
back down to Battle again. This time I knew that I would
have the whole week-end to absorb every inch of tape without
having to rush. I also had piece of mind that my Denon
cassette deck would treat these tapes with the respect that
they deserve. They had never let me down before and I was
very confident that they would do the best job possible.
After I had made the safety copies of the tapes, I could
then play, re-wind and stop them, as often as I like without
any danger, so set about making detailed notes about the
'Black Gold' tape.
The tape was in a black Ampex tape box, which Jimi had
written "BG*" on. The make of the cassette was an Entronic
C90 which looked like Jimi had used over and over again in
the past. I couldn't help thinking of all the material that
Jimi had probably recorded onto this tape in the past that
had been over recorded time and again.
On the A side of the cassette, Jimi had written "Idea for
L.P. Side 1 suite...Black Gold" and on the B side of the
cassette was written "Cont. from side A."
A)
Suddenly November Morning
Drifting
Captian Midnight
Local Comotion
Here Comes Black Gold
Stepping Stone
Little Red Velvet Room
(B)
The Jungle is Waiting
Send My Love To Joan Of Arc
God Bless This Day
Black Gold
Machine Gun
Here Comes Black Gold
Astro Man (Parts I&2)
I've Got A Place To Go
The first track on the tape starts with 'SUDDENLY NOVEMBER
MORNING.' After a few false starts, Jimi settles nicely into
the song. This is immediately followed by possibly one of
the first recording's although a very much shorter version
of 'DRIFTING.' Only singing two verses of the song, with
very similar lyrics that of the track he had recorded in the
studio. Changing the tempo drastically for the next track,
'CAPTAIN MIDNITE.' At the time I thought this could have
been called 'Captain 1201' because that seemed to be the
theme that Jimi sang throughout the track. But I had since
received more hand-written evidence given the correct title,
and of course 1201 would be a reference to midnight. Next
came 'LOCAL COMMOTION' which seemed to go on for quite some
time and even going into a second version of the song,
indicated by Jimi. The next track was 'HERE COMES BLACK
GOLD' and was the first appearance on the tape pertaining to
Black Gold it's self. It was performed almost in a fanfare
kind of way, as if a special person has just arrived over
the Horizon.
This merges straight into 'STEPPING STONE' and
very similar to the versions that we have heard before. For
me personally, the next song was possibly one of the
highlights of the tape 'LITTLE RED VELVET ROOM' It's a very
emotional song about a girl called Lucy and Jimi's asking
her if his child TAMI is doing all right, she replies "She's
doing fine." Sadly, the tape runs out before the song
finishes.
Tami was a reference to Tamika Laurice James Carpenter, born
on February 11th 1967, a child he had conceived with Diane
Carpenter back in May 1966 while living in New York. Apart
from a letter from Jimi's lawyer Henry Steingarten informing
Jimi that she was intending to take paternity proceeding,
[see page ??] the lyrics on this tape are the only other
reference Jimi ever made about the child.
Side two starts with 'THE JUNGLE IS WAITING' which is a very
jazz come flamenco piece with Jimi imitating jungle sounds
vocally. The song flows into 'SEND MY LOVE TO JOAN OF ARC'
which is the same chord structure as 'Send My Love To
Linda.' Again without any break, Jimi changes the tempo for
'GOD BLESS THE DAY' and 'BLACK GOLD' playing both in the
same style. Next up is 'MACHINE GUN,' ending the song with
'Thank Hell For Heaven, Thank Haven For Hell.' Jimi then
returns to another version of 'HERE COMES BLACK GOLD,'
singing 'He comes from the land of the Gypsy Sun.' 'TRASH
MAN' comes next. Although this is a vocal version of the
song, and very short. It bears no resemblance to the
version released on 'Crash Landing.' This then runs straight
into 'ASTRO MAN.' Obviously a very early version of the
song, but fairly close to the recorded version, that is
until Jimi announces "Second part of Astro Man.
" After a
quick tune up, he launches into a very comic version about a
young thirteen year old girl flipping out from LSD and
falling from a window, being saved at the very last moment
by 'Astro Man' of course. Swooping down from the sky
announcing, "I'm coming to save you, you poor little
thirteen year old girl," Imitating all the voices in Mighty
Mouse fashion, even chuckling to himself at one point.
The final track starts with Jimi saying "Damn, I've got this
brand new apartment, everything, and now I'm still lonely,
no place to go." Imitating the phone ringing on the dead
strings of his guitar, he holds a phone conversation between
himself and Rosie, who invites him to her place. In great
excitement, Jimi sings 'I'VE GOT A PLACE TO GO.' thus
bringing the tape to an end.
All the tracks on this tape were performed on Jimi's Martin
acoustic guitar, serial number ????, which is still owned by
Mitch. An added bonus to being lucky enough to transcribe a
lot of the Black Gold tape, I was even afforded the pleasure
of playing the actual guitar that Jimi had used to record
it, what a week-end!!
Although I did make extensive notes at the time and can
remember a lot of the material, alas there are parts of the
tape that are lost in my memory, but hopefully not forever.
At this point in time, I am not certain what further
developments have been made between Mitch and Alan Douglas
regarding the tape. But I do hope that amicable arrangements
can be made over the tape and both parties are happy at the
outcome. I personally can't wait to hear it again.
I would like to send my sincere thanks to Mitch for allowing
me the privilege of hearing the tape's in the first place,
and I'm sure you will all agree that he deserves ALL our
thanks for taking good care of what was other wise a lost
treasure. --Tony Brown
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