Everyone is aware of the guitar wizardry of Jimi Hendrix, just as everyone knows that his brilliance was cut horribly short when he died in 1970 at just 27 years old. Since that time, his limited catalog has been issued and reissued, remastered, remixed, and demos and live performances packaged in an attempt to feed a public hunger for more of his music.
It was, unfortunately, a well that has long been dry. Until now.
In 1965, back before he fronted the Jimi Hendrix Experience and melted the faces of a counterculture, Hendrix worked as a hired gun, performing with other acts, including Little Richard and the Isley Brothers. Through performing with a New York-based R&B group, Curtis Knight and the Squires, he met RSVP Records owner Ed Chalpin and found himself on the bad side of a horrible recording contract with the notoriously shady label owner and producer—$1.00 and 1% of royalties. Hendrix and the Squires wrote and recorded a handful of tracks together, none of which went anywhere at the time.
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Luckily for the world, the next year, in 1966, Hendrix would be discovered by Animals bassist Chas Chandler and whisked to London to enter the studio and kickstart the solo career we all know and revere.
As Hendrix’s legend grew, Chalpin tried to repackage the Hendrix-Squires tracks as pure Hendrix albums, telling everyone who would listen that he had the guitarist locked into a three-year contract. The duo and their representatives were locked in litigation for years, a period that stretched to decades.
Last year, Experience Hendrix, the family-run LLC founded by his father that controls his legacy, finally acquired the recordings. After years of careful “forensic audio” reconditioning, spearheaded by original Jimi Hendrix Experience producer Eddie Kramer, all of the original masters have been restored. The result? An entire collection of previously unheard or hard to get tracks featuring, and some written by, Hendrix.
You Can’t Use My Name: Curtis Knight & The Squires (Featuring Jimi Hendrix) releases on March 24. digitally, on CD, and on 150 gram vinyl LP. (You can click the links to preorder.)
Here, we’re beyond excited to offer the world premiere of “Station Break,” written by Hendrix and featuring Jimi, of course, on guitar. Unlike some of the tracks on the compilation, which have popped up from time to time, “Station Break” has never before been released in any fashion.
Put on your headphones, turn it up, and realize that true legends never really die.
For more info, go to www.jimihendrix.com
