The Mojo Collection. Various Mojo Magazine
… (A Merman I Should Turn To Be); Moon Turn The Tides … Gently Gently Away; Still Raining, Still Dreaming; House Burning Down; All Along The Watchtower (S); Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) (S/UK)
Running time: 75.29
Current CD: MCA MCD 11600
Further listening: Experience Hendrix: The Best Of (1997)
Further reading: Jimi Hendrix: Electric Ladyland 33 1/3 (John Perry, 2004); www.jimi-hendrix.com
Download: iTunes; HMV Digital
‘We call our music Electric Church Music,’ said Hendrix. ‘It’s like a religion to us. Some ladies are like the church to us too. Some groupies know more about music than the guys. People call them groupies but I prefer the term “electric ladies”. My whole Electric Ladyland album is about them.’ Physically, eight months and the Atlantic Ocean divided the first and last sessions for Electric Ladyland; spiritually, a lifetime sundered the set. The soft soul of the title track was only the first of the surprises in store, as Hendrix pulled away from the visceral sex-rock of his first two albums and began daubing from the broader, expressionist palette of subsequent experience. The sessions could have produced two great single albums. But blended together, they were heart-stopping. Wild experimentation blurred into solid rocking grooves. All Along The Watchtower not only reinvented Dylan’s original for the audience, it reinvented it for Dylan as well – he subsequently performed the song as a de facto Hendrix cover. The two Voodoo Chiles offer first a funkadelic jam with Winwood and Cassidy, then a screaming guitar exorcism (based around Cream’s Sunshine Of Your Love riff, played backwards); and Burning Of The Midnight Lamp is spectral moodiness grafted to a mid-period Stones arrangement.
Yet bassist Redding recalls, ‘The stuff we did in America, apart from Midnight Lamp, didn’t work as well. I’d say we all preferred working in London. While we were at Olympic, the Stones were next door. We used to go and hang out, have a smoke, all that stuff, and it was a good atmosphere. If Chas wanted to do a bit of mixing, he’d go “alright lads, go down the pub,” and we’d troop off. It was very relaxed. Whereas American studios were always so clinical. It wasn’t such a good environment to be working in.’
Chandler’s withdrawal from the sessions, sick of constantly rowing with Hendrix, only exacerbated the discontent. Indeed, says Redding, ‘By the time we recorded Little Miss Strange (on April 20/21), the band had already broken up.’ They would carry on gigging for another year, but only because their work schedule was already mapped out that far in advance.
The Outsiders
CQ
Dutch psychedelic beast touches on love, murder, revenge – and space travel.
Record label: Polydor
Produced: The Outsiders
Recorded: GTB Studios, The Hague; spring—summer 1968
Released: October 1968
Chart Peaks: None (UK) None (US)
Personnel: Wally Tax (v, g, hm, o, pc, flute, vibes, balalaika); Ronny Splinter (g, b, bv); Frank Beek (b, g, o, p, bv, vibes); Buzz (d, pc, bv, mouth harp).
Track listing: Misfit; Zsarrahh; CQ; Daddy Died On Saturday; It Seems Like Nothing’s Gonna Come My Way Today; Doctor; The Man On The Dune; The Bear; Happyville; You’re Everything On Earth; Wish You Were Here With Me Today; I Love You No. 2; Prisonsong
Current CD: Pseudonym VP99008
Further listening: Strange Things Are Happening: The Complete Singles Collection (2002)
Further reading: www.alexgitlin.com/outsider.htm (fan site)
Download: Not currently legally available
It’s easy to forget that at the height of the ’60s, rock’n’roll was alive and kicking in the most unexpected places. And arguably nowhere outside the UK and the US had a more fertile scene than Holland, home of the now-legendary ‘Nederbeat’ scene, where great bands like Q65, Group 1850, Sandy Coast and the Motions were churning out high quality records that were barely released abroad. Few would dispute, though, that the greatest Dutch band of all was The Outsiders, who never recorded a song they hadn’t written and in 1968 produced the mighty CQ.
Led by the androgynous Wally Tax, they’d been playing the dives up and down the seafront of the Hague for years, honing their musicianship in front of a transient audience largely comprised of rowdy sailors. In this period they grew impressively hard-hitting, their magnificent, adrenaline-filled set captured on their live March 1967 debut – such was their power that they reportedly blew the Stones off stage when supporting them in 1966. Releasing a string of punchy hit singles like the raunchy Touch, the melodic Monkey On My Back and the gritty That’s Your Problem, in the summer of 1967 they had a Dutch smash with the uncharacteristically fey Summer Is Here. This success encouraged Polydor to grant them total freedom in recording their second album early the following year.
Closeted in the studio for months on end, The Outsiders experimented with new instruments and sounds, massively expanding their repertoire without losing any of the focus or drive displayed on their singles. The crunching opener, Misfit, announces itself with an ominous bass riff before dementedly energetic drums and guitar crash in. Its unusual, jerky structure typifies the unconventional approach of the album. On the spacey, claustrophobic title track (which could be mistaken for Can or even Radiohead) waves of static wash from speaker to speaker as Tax increasingly desperately cries ‘do you receive me?’ over a mesmerising groove.
Few releases of the time could boast such varied fare or ferocious delivery, but when CQ appeared in 1968 (in a striking yellow pop art sleeve) it bombed and the band disintegrated. Less than 1,000 copies are thought to have been sold, making the recent reissue especially welcome. Though The Outsiders can be compared superficially to the Stones or The Pretty Things, on CQ they developed a sound all of their own and proved that they could hold their own alongside anyone – and that means anyone.
Pentangle
Sweet Child
The UK’s folk rock supergroup make their definitive work.
Record label: Transatlantic
Produced: Shel Talmy
Recorded: The Royal Festival Hall; June 29, 1968; IBC Studios, London; September 1968
Released: November 1, 1968
Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)
Personnel: Jacqui McShee (v); Bert Jansch (v, g); John Renbourn (v, g); Danny Thompson (db); Terry Cox (v, d, glockenspiel); Damon Lyon-Shaw (e)
Track listing: Live: Market Song; No More My Lord; Turn Your Money Green; Haitian Fight Song; A Woman Like You; Goodbye Pork-Pie Hat; Three Dances: i. Brentzel Gay; ii. La Rotta; iii. The Earle Of Salisbury; Watch The Stars; So Early In The Spring; No Exit; The Time Has Come; Bruton Town Studio: Sweet Child; I Loved A Lass; Three Part Thing; Sovay; In Time; In Your Mind; I’ve Got A Feeling; The Trees They Do Grow High; Moondog; Hole In The Coal
Running time: 75.51
Current CD: Castle CMDDD132 is a 2-disc 36-track collection which includes live versions and studio versions of songs plus numerous outtakes and alternate versions
Further listening: Basket Of Light (1969); Reflection (1971)
Further reading: Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch And The British Folk And Blues Revival (Colin