.................................the blog nobody reads: Jimi Hendrix as Session Musician, Volume 3: 1969-1970

Friday, November 21, 2025

Jimi Hendrix as Session Musician, Volume 3: 1969-1970 | Albums That Should Exist

Jimi Hendrix & Various Artists - Jimi Hendrix as Session Musician, Volume 3: 1969-1970

Paul says: Here's the third and last album showcasing the session work by Jimi Hendrix, arguably the greatest lead guitarist of all time. This deals with the last two years of his life, 1969 and 1970.

By 1969, Hendrix was a big star. He loved performing live, and often dropped in as a guest in concerts put on by other musicians he liked, especially when they played in small clubs near where he lived. However, he still didn't guest on records that much, especially those that got released while he was alive.

A couple examples of him doing this are "Yes I Need Someone" and "The Clown" by Eire Apparent. Hendrix actually produced the entire debut album by this band from Northern Ireland, and these are just two of the songs from it. Unfortunately, he mostly kept a low profile with his guitar playing on this album, with these two songs probably showing the most playing by him. His Experience band mates Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell also played on many of the songs. The band broke up after that single album.

Another song released in his lifetime was "Old Times, Good Times," which came out on the 1970 debut solo album by Stephen Stills (of Crosby, Stills and Nash fame), simply called "Stephen Stills." Hendrix and Stills formed a musical connection and often jammed with each other, but very little of it saw the light of day. "30 Dollar Fine" and "No-Name Jam (Instrumental)," and "White Nigger (High and Dry)" are all Stills songs with Hendrix that didn't get officially released until decades later. In fact, "White Nigger (High and Dry)" is still unreleased, probably due to song title, obviously now considered quite offensive.

A song that almost came out in Hendrix's lifetime is "The Everlasting First," released by Love. This came out at the very end of 1970, a couple of months after Hendrix's death. Hendrix had a natural bond with Arthur Lee, the lead singer and main songwriter of Love, due to both of them being Black men in a overwhelmingly Causasian rock world at the time. This song was cowritten by Hendrix and Lee. The two of them actually knew each other before either of them became famous. Hendrix even played guitar on a song written by Lee back in 1964.

Generally speaking, the other songs here came out much later, on archival releases. Tracks 3 and 4 are from the "West Coast Seattle Boy" box set. Track 6 is from "The Experience Sessions." Track 10 is from "People, Hell and Angels." Track 13 is a jam session, and remains unreleased. Track 5, "Doriella Du Fontaine," is a curious case, because the lead vocals weren't added until 1973. That's from "Change the Beat: The Celluloid Records Story."

That just leaves the three bonus tracks. These all sound fine, despite the fact they're all still unreleased. But the reason I made them bonus tracks is because they actually are from concerts where Hendrix guested, and the theme here is him guesting with studio sessions. Perhaps someone could help me find enough songs for a full album (or albums?) of Hendrix being a guest star in concerts, then I could move these to that. Unfortunately, in my opinion, a lot of the recordings of his guest appearances have poor sound quality. "Baby's Gone Away" and "The Sky Is Crying" come from the Newport 69 Festival in Northridge, California. "Mother Earth" is from a concert at a club in London on September 16, 1970. I'm not sure, but I think that might be his last public performance, because he died of a drug overdose just two days later, on September 18, 1970. I don't remember why I put "[Edit]" since I did that a long time ago. But I think I cleaned up a lot of the audience noise (it being from an audience boot), and possibly boosted the vocals.

This album is 52 minutes long, not including the three bonus tracks.

01 30 Dollar Fine (Stephen Stills with Jimi Hendrix)
02 Yes I Need Someone (Eire Apparent with Jimi Hendrix)
03 Instant Groove (King Curtis with Jimi Hendrix)
04 Mastermind (Larry Lee with Jimi Hendrix)
05 Doriella Du Fontaine (Lightnin' Rod with Jimi Hendrix & Buddy Miles)
06 Noel's Tune [Instrumental] (Noel Redding with Jimi Hendrix)
07 The Clown (Eire Apparent with Jimi Hendrix)
08 No-Name Jam [Instrumental] (Stephen Stills with Jimi Hendrix)
09 The Everlasting First [Extended Version] (Love with Jimi Hendrix)
10 Mojo Man (Albert Allen & the Ghetto Fighters with Jimi Hendrix)
11 Old Times, Good Times (Stephen Stills with Jimi Hendrix)
12 White Nigger [High and Dry] (Stephen Stills with Jimi Hendrix)
13 Dreamin' [Instrumental] (Eric Oxendine with Jimi Hendrix & Richie Havens)

Baby's Gone Away (Jimi Hendrix with Buddy Miles & Lee Oskar)
Mother Earth [Edit] (Eric Burdon & War with Jimi Hendrix)
The Sky Is Crying (Buddy Miles with Jimi Hendrix & Lee Oskar)

Now as Paul says this is the third of these and I post only because it is Jimi\s last contributions of value to other people’s work . . the [revious two vols are f less interest to me . . the early show band work is well know to me and I don’t need to bother with here . .

if interested the links are here