I went over to "Posh The Salon" to get my buddy Steve Hillard
to cut on the few hairs I have left on my head. Kind of sad. I
have so little hair left that he has to trim the hair on my back.
It's my theory that these hairs became lost on the way to the
top of my head. Besides giving wonderful haircuts to all who
sit in his chair, Steve also has a talent that I'll bet most of his
clients don't even suspect: Steve is a great hard rock singer.
I always end up talking about all of our musical friends that
we know or have know. We're both Durham boys. We went
to several of the local high schools and could talk for hours
about all of the local bands that are no more. One topic that
we dwell on concerns the guys we knew first starting out that
could duplicate singers,drummers and guitar players to such a
degree, they really did sound like the person they were copying.
to cut on the few hairs I have left on my head. Kind of sad. I
have so little hair left that he has to trim the hair on my back.
It's my theory that these hairs became lost on the way to the
top of my head. Besides giving wonderful haircuts to all who
sit in his chair, Steve also has a talent that I'll bet most of his
clients don't even suspect: Steve is a great hard rock singer.
I always end up talking about all of our musical friends that
we know or have know. We're both Durham boys. We went
to several of the local high schools and could talk for hours
about all of the local bands that are no more. One topic that
we dwell on concerns the guys we knew first starting out that
could duplicate singers,drummers and guitar players to such a
degree, they really did sound like the person they were copying.
Casey Haskins, who is now a professor of philosophy at SUNY
could play anything that John Bonham of Led Zepplin could do.
It was creepy how he could do all of the bass drum stuff on
"Good Times,Bad Times." Another guy, Graham Willams could
ace all of Jimmy Page's playing. Louie Myers could do all of
the bass parts Jack Cassidy(Jefferson Airplane) played. I
did a good a job on Duane Allman and Carlos Santana. But the
people's playing that I admired the most were never properly
duplicated. Never. Until I heard Stevie Ray Vaughn do Jimi
Hendrix, I did not think it was possible. But, his "Little Wing"
channels Hendrix to perfection. The other guy that I loved
was Mitch Mitchell. Mitch played for Jimi Hendrix on nearly
all of his recordings, excluding "The Band of Gypsies". The
drummer on this splendid album was Buddy Miles. (This album
was great in spite of Buddy's playing. Best job of musical coat-
tail riding in all of rock music.) Back to Mitch. Mitch was a
musical partner to Jimi Hendrix. His capacity to swing rock
music made Jimi's music soar. If Jimi had found another one
of the chittlin' circut drummers like he worked with for Wilson
Pickett or The Isley Brothers, you would't have heard anything
from Hendrix. The records that he made prior to going to
England, grooved o.k. but they were dull,dull,dull compared to
the great awakening of his music that took place when a great
drummer like Mitch came on the scene. Jimi's music found
it's pulse with Mitch. The cool playing he did on Jimi's masterful
writing just made great even greater. One of the things that still
kills me about Mitch is that he played a very hip,powerful big
band sound that did not sound like jazz. It sounded like rock
music. A brand new, yet to be duplicated blending that took
Rock to a new place. These guys seemed to be just as happy playing
very mellow as they were playing so loud and hard that it felt like
your head was being sawed off. This was known as Jimi's electric church. Praise the Lord and pass the ear plugs.
In the bad old days, prior to large scale sound systems, the
drummer did not have a bank of mikes sending his every tap to
a 64 channel board going into a 20,000 watt bank of speakers.
At Dorton arena, when I saw Jimi Hendrix play, Jimi had a mic;
Noel Redding,the bass player, had a mic and Mitch's bass drum
may have had a mic. This went through 4 "Voice of The Theater"
speakers (The ones they use to put behind the movie screens at the
local cinema) This, in turn, was driven by less power than the butt
heads have on their car stereos these days. Above all of this, a wall
of Marshall amps for Jimi. A wall of Sunn amps for Noel's bass.
Somehow, Mitch played loud enough sans mics to play up and
ocassionaly over Jimi and Noel. Hard rocking music back then
was known to damage the toughest of drummers. Not Mitch.
could play anything that John Bonham of Led Zepplin could do.
It was creepy how he could do all of the bass drum stuff on
"Good Times,Bad Times." Another guy, Graham Willams could
ace all of Jimmy Page's playing. Louie Myers could do all of
the bass parts Jack Cassidy(Jefferson Airplane) played. I
did a good a job on Duane Allman and Carlos Santana. But the
people's playing that I admired the most were never properly
duplicated. Never. Until I heard Stevie Ray Vaughn do Jimi
Hendrix, I did not think it was possible. But, his "Little Wing"
channels Hendrix to perfection. The other guy that I loved
was Mitch Mitchell. Mitch played for Jimi Hendrix on nearly
all of his recordings, excluding "The Band of Gypsies". The
drummer on this splendid album was Buddy Miles. (This album
was great in spite of Buddy's playing. Best job of musical coat-
tail riding in all of rock music.) Back to Mitch. Mitch was a
musical partner to Jimi Hendrix. His capacity to swing rock
music made Jimi's music soar. If Jimi had found another one
of the chittlin' circut drummers like he worked with for Wilson
Pickett or The Isley Brothers, you would't have heard anything
from Hendrix. The records that he made prior to going to
England, grooved o.k. but they were dull,dull,dull compared to
the great awakening of his music that took place when a great
drummer like Mitch came on the scene. Jimi's music found
it's pulse with Mitch. The cool playing he did on Jimi's masterful
writing just made great even greater. One of the things that still
kills me about Mitch is that he played a very hip,powerful big
band sound that did not sound like jazz. It sounded like rock
music. A brand new, yet to be duplicated blending that took
Rock to a new place. These guys seemed to be just as happy playing
very mellow as they were playing so loud and hard that it felt like
your head was being sawed off. This was known as Jimi's electric church. Praise the Lord and pass the ear plugs.
In the bad old days, prior to large scale sound systems, the
drummer did not have a bank of mikes sending his every tap to
a 64 channel board going into a 20,000 watt bank of speakers.
At Dorton arena, when I saw Jimi Hendrix play, Jimi had a mic;
Noel Redding,the bass player, had a mic and Mitch's bass drum
may have had a mic. This went through 4 "Voice of The Theater"
speakers (The ones they use to put behind the movie screens at the
local cinema) This, in turn, was driven by less power than the butt
heads have on their car stereos these days. Above all of this, a wall
of Marshall amps for Jimi. A wall of Sunn amps for Noel's bass.
Somehow, Mitch played loud enough sans mics to play up and
ocassionaly over Jimi and Noel. Hard rocking music back then
was known to damage the toughest of drummers. Not Mitch.
It makes me sad that he's gone. But, I'm glad to have had the
privilege of hearing him play. I have yet to hear anyone duplicate
Mitch Mitchell's playing. However, Ed Shaunesy, The drummer
on the old Johnny Carson version of The Tonight show did a
damn good imitation of Mitch when Jimi dropped by one night.
Hmmm.....I guess this means old farts can rock, too.Mitch Mitchell 1946-2009
