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One morning he told me to pick him up in my VW bus and to bring my
Baldwin electric harpsichord, (that I had hooked up through a Hammond
leslie), pretty cool for that time! There I was at "TTG" studios on
Highland Ave. and Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood California November 1968,
setting up my Baldwin, while Jack Casady of the Jefferson Airplane was
setting up his bass, Lowell George of Little Feet was warming up on
flute, Graham, turning on the Hammond B3 and Mitch Mitchell setting up
the drums. Noel Redding was in the control room with the engineer. My
back was to the studio door. Then I felt something behind me... I
looked over my shoulder... there was Jimi Hendrix, accompanied by two
gorgeous blonds, one carrying his amp. and the other his guitar. He sat
down, plugged in and proceeded to play the blues in the key of A. His
veins were popping out of his neck as he squealed the high notes out of
his Fender's Fender. It was totally awesome! The jam lasted two hours.
As we all finished gloating, listing to the playback, Hendrix, myself
and some guy, I think he was a studio tech., stood in the corner,
smoking a joint and pretended we were instruments. I was the drums,
making "ka doom doom bop" noises with my mouth, Hendrix was... you
guessed it, lead guitar with his mouth, and the guy was bass. I still
don't know what happened to that tape. It's out there
somewhere... anyone know where it is?
(click here to visit the site)
September, 1968, Hollywood California. I started working for a
subsidiary of Mercury Records called Pulsar Records. It was headed by
Irwin Garr, a friend of my Mom's. That's how I got the job. I was
pulling in a whopping $40.00 a week as "office boy". You know, getting
the coffee, running errands. I was assigned 'personal assistant' to
Graham Bond, originator of the "Graham Bond Organization" with Ginger
Baker and Jack Bruce (pre -'Cream'). He was the first one to bring the
Mellotron over from Europe to the States. He was into black magic,
lighting candles, making and breaking spells. We became good friends and
he would always include me on all of his adventures.