Posted on 05/12/2003 8:17:11 PM PDT by eddie willers
By Marcus Errico
Noel Redding , has died.
The bassist passed away Sunday at his home in County Cork, Ireland, according to his manager, Ian Grant. Grant made the announcement on a message board for , Redding's label.
"I can't yet take it in that, once more, I am sitting at my desk bringing sad news. Noel passed away," Grant wrote.
The cause of death was not immediately known. Redding was 57.
His death reportedly comes just a week after his mother's.
Originally a guitarist, Redding converted to bass when he joined with Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966. Redding played bass on all three of the group's landmark albums, Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland. The power trio split in 1969, a year before Hendrix died.
Redding was enshrined with Hendrix and Mitchell in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
Known for his only-in-the-'60s look (towering 'fro that rivaled Jimi's, granny glasses, dashiki), Redding was later embittered by his Experience days. He signed away his royalty rights in 1974, allegedly to pay an outstanding legal bill, for a one-off payment of $100,000. Redding claimed he agreed to the sum after being promised there would be no more reissues of the Experience material. Of course, that was before CDs and DVDs and the endless repackaging of the band's songs by Hendrix's estate.
"I should have been a plumber. That's a joke. But the thing is, plumbers get paid," he told Billboard.com last year. "But there again, I'm still playing, thank God. That's the main thing." Redding said he was even forced to sell the bass he used to record with the Experience to get by.
In February, Grant vowed to file a lawsuit on Redding's behalf demanding some $5 million from the Hendrix estate. It's not immediately clear whether that legal action will go forward.
There was no immediate comment Monday on Redding's death from Experience Hendrix, the company that controls the Hendrix empire.
After his Experience experience, Redding played guitar with Fat Mattress and later with Road and the Noel Redding Band.
In 1996, he outlined his rock 'n' roll woes in his autobiography, Are You Experienced?. A compilation CD of two Noel Redding Band albums, Clonakilty Cowboys and Blowin', was reissued in 2000 on One Way Records. His most recent release, a concert set titled Live from Bunkr--Prague, was released by Grant's Track Records last year.
Redding is survived by his longtime companion, Deborah McNaughton. She released a brief statement to Billboard.com calling Redding an "extremely gentle and gracious soul. He had a kind of chivalry and nobility about him and he was kind to everyone bar none, people and animals alike."
RIP Noel, you gave me quite an Experience.
Thanks for your contribution, Noel Redding. I owe you.
That no other work Jimi did approached "The Big Three" albums, shows their cohesion and musicianship. They were much more than sidemen.
I am so glad to see you here....
I was racking my brains trying to remember your screen name from other "music" threads in hopes to ping you.
A CAT scan image of a 1961 Gretsch 6120 guitar is shown at Scottsdale Medical Imaging Ltd., Monday, May 12, 2003, in Scottsdale, Ariz. A CAT scan was performed on the guitar, owned by The Gretsch Company, in order to determine how the instrument's bracing was assembled. The Gretsch model 6120 was made with unique bracing from 1959-1961 but was discontinued for no apparent reason. Legendary rockabilly guitarist Brian Setzer requested the reintroduction of the bracing for his Gretsch signature series 6120 guitar, which prompted the CAT scan rather than disassembling the guitar to study how it was built. (AP Photo/Matt York)
'a broom is drearily sweeping
up the broken pieces, of yesterday's life...'
RIP, Mr. Redding.
Nope....
They and Cream had just the right amount of members.
I used to have tablature that compared and contrasted different bands' covers of Johnny B. Goode. Hendrix did it in B(as I recall) for some reason. The song was in G. Anyway, it was The Experience and it was a very rocked-up psycheldelic version.
I don't know why, but Crosstown Traffic is one of my favorites that nobody else seems to think much of. I think it is really well-stylized, even though it lacks the trademark Hendrix guitar flash. And I think that song's styling was a precursor to alot of early seventies music.
I'm by no means a musicologist, and there may have been others before that one.
(So good that maybe "Crosstown Traffic" was overshadowed by it and "Voodoo Child")
I just think that Crosstown Traffic was more musically influential than it gets credit for, in a pop-rock, trendsetting arrangement sort of way.
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