So long, Mitch.
Nov. 12th, 2008 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wileypeterI've been wondering exactly what to write about this.
Mitch Mitchell, longtime drummer for Jimi Hendrix, was found dead in his hotel room in Portland at 3am Wednesday morning.
I know a bunch of guys who wanted to be Hendrix when they were kids. Me, I wanted to be the guy pounding the drums behind him. Mitchell's drums on the live version of "Fire" from the old Ryko comp Steal This Disc still grabs me by the throat. He drove that band.
I've had more than one Hendrix Experience vs. Band Of Gypsies argument. I always side with the Hendrix Experience. I'm glad Jimi was moving beyond his expected style, but I'm sorry, Buddy Miles was no Mitch Mitchell. It always comes down to the drummer. Mitch could play in any band Buddy could, brought a hyper-kinetic Jazz feel to his cymbal work Buddy couldn't touch, and Mitch pushed Jimi. The last Experience lineup, with Mitchell and Billy Cox, was doubtless the group Jimi needed to reach the next level with his music.
Drummers are all too often seen as second-class citizens by a large chunk of the listening public. Unless you have a fandom like that of Tool or Rush the drums aren't the story. No great band has ever made it without the right drummer. Sometimes the drummer made it look too simple and easy (like Ringo Starr, whose work was a lot more subtle than most listeners cared to hear), but every one was crucial. Why do you think Spinal Tap never broke through to the next level? Drummer trouble.
There's a reason Led Zeppelin broke up when Bonham died. There's a reason Richard Hell & The Voidoids collapsed when Marc Bell left to become Marky Ramone. There's a reason Yes panicked when Bruford jumped ship to join King Crimson.
Often, after a great band fractures the drummer is left behind. It's uncommon that a drummer forges a solid career outside the group format. For example, I saw Ginger Baker, drummer from the mighty Cream and Blind Faith, at the mostly empty Cactus Club in San Jose. George Hurley worked construction after fIREHOSE broke up. I haven't any idea what Mitch has been up to. Not proud of that.
As amazing a musician as Hendrix was, his music needed a solid skeleton with limber joints on which to hang its muscle. Mitch Mitchell was that skeleton. Hendrix would have been huge either way, but the musical legacy he left behind lasted in no small part due to the solid foundation Mitch provided.
If there is a stereotypical Rock 'N' Roll Heaven, godspeed, Mitch. I hope you and Jimi have a hell of a jam.
Mitch Mitchell, longtime drummer for Jimi Hendrix, was found dead in his hotel room in Portland at 3am Wednesday morning.
I know a bunch of guys who wanted to be Hendrix when they were kids. Me, I wanted to be the guy pounding the drums behind him. Mitchell's drums on the live version of "Fire" from the old Ryko comp Steal This Disc still grabs me by the throat. He drove that band.
I've had more than one Hendrix Experience vs. Band Of Gypsies argument. I always side with the Hendrix Experience. I'm glad Jimi was moving beyond his expected style, but I'm sorry, Buddy Miles was no Mitch Mitchell. It always comes down to the drummer. Mitch could play in any band Buddy could, brought a hyper-kinetic Jazz feel to his cymbal work Buddy couldn't touch, and Mitch pushed Jimi. The last Experience lineup, with Mitchell and Billy Cox, was doubtless the group Jimi needed to reach the next level with his music.
Drummers are all too often seen as second-class citizens by a large chunk of the listening public. Unless you have a fandom like that of Tool or Rush the drums aren't the story. No great band has ever made it without the right drummer. Sometimes the drummer made it look too simple and easy (like Ringo Starr, whose work was a lot more subtle than most listeners cared to hear), but every one was crucial. Why do you think Spinal Tap never broke through to the next level? Drummer trouble.
There's a reason Led Zeppelin broke up when Bonham died. There's a reason Richard Hell & The Voidoids collapsed when Marc Bell left to become Marky Ramone. There's a reason Yes panicked when Bruford jumped ship to join King Crimson.
Often, after a great band fractures the drummer is left behind. It's uncommon that a drummer forges a solid career outside the group format. For example, I saw Ginger Baker, drummer from the mighty Cream and Blind Faith, at the mostly empty Cactus Club in San Jose. George Hurley worked construction after fIREHOSE broke up. I haven't any idea what Mitch has been up to. Not proud of that.
As amazing a musician as Hendrix was, his music needed a solid skeleton with limber joints on which to hang its muscle. Mitch Mitchell was that skeleton. Hendrix would have been huge either way, but the musical legacy he left behind lasted in no small part due to the solid foundation Mitch provided.
If there is a stereotypical Rock 'N' Roll Heaven, godspeed, Mitch. I hope you and Jimi have a hell of a jam.
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 07:54 pm (UTC)What I liked most about Miles was his voice. He added a lot to the Gypsies in that regard. Some of those songs needed more than what Jimi had. Imagine Fillmore with Mitchell on drums, Miles on vocals, Jimi on vox and guitar, and Cox still on bass. Shit!
Mitch had a jazz touch. Hendrix, if he had lived, surely would have followed Mitch there. All indications pointed toward Jimi being a Miles Davis kind of figure in two or three years.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 08:03 pm (UTC)As long as Hendrix didn't follow Santana down the smooth jazz path I'd have been on board.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 08:12 pm (UTC)The Santana Path ruined everything that crossed it, including my sainted John Lee Hooker. Their duets must never be heard.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 08:16 pm (UTC)Dammit.
Date: 2008-11-13 08:37 pm (UTC)Dammit.
I have to admit, I don't mind Steve Perry's voice. It's the band. The band is gawdawful. So awful, Perry refuses to sing, to this day. For fear that, if he were to open his mouth and any sound were to escape, Schon and Cain would immediately appear and start improvising.
Not that that has stopped them.
Re: Dammit.
Date: 2008-11-13 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 09:11 pm (UTC)I will cop to him being a harbinger of the blue-eyed soul plague that made the tragedy of Michael Bolton possible, but I won't lay Bolton's insults to my ears (and Otis Redding's legacy) at Perry's tiny little gnome-like feet.
If imitation were the responsibility of the imitated, we would blame Sam Cooke and Otis for Steve Perry and Michael Bolton. And that's just wrong.
I'm not saying Steve Perry is Otis Redding, I'm saying Steve Perry is not Michael Bolton.
[You know the weirdest thing? Redding's widow said Bolton's cover of Dock o' the Bay was something Otis would have loved. She endorsed it, personally, as her favorite cover of the song. It's moments like that when pieces of the world fall out and audibly "clunk" onto the floor. That particular chunk hit my foot.]
I believe my blindspot here, which I admit to having, is that I'm seeing Perry not in Journey, but as he may have been if in a decent band where he didn't have to howl and yawp. I think, actually, I'm imagining him in The Faces. For this and other sins, I will have a long stay in Hell.
But I do think he had some talent. Just badly-realized. That shouldn't count for anything, and doesn't. But I don't go so far as to let his crap ruin Sam Cooke.