TS: Hendrix's bass players - Noel Redding Vs. Billy Cox

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didnt hendrix replay a lot of noels bass lines for the records?
people always say noel was an average bass player but i kinda like him more than cox as cox doesnt seem to play with as much spunk
or am i wrong?

― bass, Wednesday, 7 September 2005 09:10 (twenty years ago)

Didn't Hendrix tell Redding what to play most of the time? Redding was a guitarist primarily.

― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 09:22 (twenty years ago)

cox was a better, more solid and disciplined bassist i think, but there was just better chemistry between redding, hendrix and mitchell. they both served their purpose but neither were as good on bass as mitchell was on drums or hendrix was on guitar though.

― splooge (thesplooge), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

Once while listening to a live recording of Jimi and Mitch going off while Noel soldiered on playing the riff over and over again, I realized that, especially given the common (and likely true) perception that Dadaismus presents that Jimi told Noel what to play, he served admirably in what was basically a thankless task.

― k/l (Ken L), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:27 (twenty years ago)

wow, does ILX hate hendrix or something?

― bass, Wednesday, 7 September 2005 21:59 (twenty years ago)

Noel got the job becuz he had a fro. He was a guitar player (in Fat Mattress?) writing astoundingly excellent immortally brilliant songs like she's so fine and little miss strange. Billy Cox was Jimi's buddy from the paratroopers. I always heard that Jimi played the basslines on records and the bassists were just for shows.

― steve ketchup, Wednesday, 7 September 2005 23:18 (twenty years ago)

wow, does ILX hate hendrix or something?
ILX would prefer if Chris Squire had played bass with Hendrix. Excepting a few people on this thread, of course.

― k/l (Ken L), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

yeah ilx seems to hate hendrix. i remember that post where everyone voted for JIMMY PAGE over JIMI HENDRIX
something is not right here

― bass, Wednesday, 7 September 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

chris squire and hendrix. he woulda done it probably. hendrix I mean.

hendrix and bernard edwards; hendrix with george porter jr.; hendrix with duck dunn; with jamerson; tommy cogbill. that's my idea of something good. I always liked billy cox and hendrix. billy cox, he used to run a pawn shop on nolensville rd. in nashville, all burnt out. we often went in and chatted with him: "jimi played blues." noel redding was ok, I prefer billy cox.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, 8 September 2005 00:28 (twenty years ago)

everyone who says cox is the best - what are the best records to hear him on other than the band of gypsies live LP?

― bass, Thursday, 8 September 2005 00:38 (twenty years ago)

Billy Cox joined back up with Hendrix after Electric Ladyland, so there was never a finished studio album with him on bass. Cox is the bassist on some of Jimi's last tracks like Freedom, Ezy Rider and Izabella. The studio tracks have come out in quite a few different forms, currently they are out as First Rays of the New Dawn Sun. Billy Cox is also the bassist on the Hendrix shows at Woodstock, Isle of Wight and Live at Berkeley.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Thursday, 8 September 2005 01:51 (twenty years ago)

The Band Of Gypsies LP (A second volume came out later, on Ryko, I think)seems completely built around the bass. The guitar's dynamic enough, but the whole thing is so tight. I don't get that from Experience so much, although it can be tight (on first listening, I thought the mad-hyped Are You Experienced? was too reined in, but it grew on me quickly; really seems like one of his most focussed). But the Band Of LP is a whole 'nother fascination. I bet this (what's actually achieved, and what it implies, about already-post-psych tightness, evocative grooves) influenced at least as many people as the freakier stuff did.(Miles made a point of doing both: no matter how wild the rest of his music could get, notice how often he used Michael Henderson, Motown session apprentice/prodigy, and that was after keeping Ron Carter and then Dave Holland in the *electric* bass pocket as long as they'd stand for it)(tight like that, at the same time he's telling McLaughlin,"Play like you don't know how to play"!)

― don, Thursday, 8 September 2005 02:49 (twenty years ago)

It's a tough call because I like Mitch Mitchell SO MUCH better than Buddy Miles, and I like the approach of the Experience so much better than BOG - the latter feels reactionary in a "back to basics" kind of way, after the Experience had done something so original. Are there any chances to evaluate Redding outside the JHE context?

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 8 September 2005 02:56 (twenty years ago)

i dont think anyone could ever say buddy miles was beter than mitch in any way

― bass, Thursday, 8 September 2005 03:00 (twenty years ago)

Well, I guess he might have been better at playing a laid-back, solid groove that doesn't freak out or get all manic on you.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 8 September 2005 03:14 (twenty years ago)

It's not better or worse, they're two different things. And Band Of Gypsies could have taken it further out than they do on the LP (Buddy Miles seems perfectly at home on McLaughlin's Devotion, for instance, and on that jam LP with Carlos Santana, and on live Electric Flag bootlegs, and we know about that Hendrix fella, what he's liable to go and do). But it's partly about listening to the implications, where they *might* have taken that approach, and where others(like Miles did(although Miles could do something like Experiece *times* Band Of, though not literally)

― don, Thursday, 8 September 2005 03:24 (twenty years ago)

Once while listening to a live recording of Jimi and Mitch going off while Noel soldiered on playing the riff over and over again = Redding was no Lesh!

but yeah, Cox wins of course. Remember, Mitchell came BACK to the band after Band of Gypsies; Redding disappeared with his tail between his legs... Still love that "She's so Fine" and "Little Miss Strange" though...

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Thursday, 8 September 2005 03:56 (twenty years ago)

(that comment shd be esp directed to Hurting who wondered wherefore Mitchell..)

bet this (what's actually achieved, and what it implies, about already-post-psych tightness, evocative grooves) influenced at least as many people as the freakier stuff did

man, "Who Knows?" and "Them Changes" are fucking MASSIVE tracks in the African-American / jazz community today. everyone knows and loves that shit..

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Thursday, 8 September 2005 04:06 (twenty years ago)

Redding was no Lesh!
I don''t know how you meant this exactly, Stormy, but I take it as a compliment to Noel.

― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 8 September 2005 04:09 (twenty years ago)

is that the real electrifying mojo from detroit reply above?

― okokok, Thursday, 8 September 2005 11:38 (twenty years ago)

speaking of Lesh, as far as anything Jimi fans might like:I like that Phil & Friends (esp. the ltd. ed. with bonus disc: whole thing's uneven, but damn well worth looking for).Featuring Warren Haynes, who certainly knows from Jimi (and from others, all along the psych-funk-blues-metal-boogie way of)(also like Warren's tracks on some other things feat. Bootsy)(speaking of Hendrix fans and bass players)

― don, Thursday, 8 September 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

Lesh was great before Jimi died.

― steve ketchup, Thursday, 8 September 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

What's Phil Lesh got to do with it, it's Jack Casady you wanna be talkin' about!

― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 9 September 2005 08:53 (twenty years ago)

Dadaismus OTM as usual.

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 9 September 2005 11:48 (twenty years ago)

Where the Jimi-Mitch-Noel chemistry was built on Noel "soldiering on" with the same riff while Jimi and Mitch freaked out over it, the Jimi-Mitch-Billy chemistry was COMPETELY different - Billy Cox was damned near PSYCHIC when it came to shit Jimi was playing, sometimes it seems like Billy knew what Jimi was about to play before even Jimi did.

It's a shame they never completely a true studio album with that lineup, because that was the most fluid, creative time in Jimi's career, based on the live stuff and the bit he did get recorded (that has seeped out over the years).

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 9 September 2005 12:10 (twenty years ago)

The Incident at Rainbow Bridge (wasn't this Jimi's final concert?) album is a pretty excellent indication of the chemistry they had with Billy Cox.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 9 September 2005 12:15 (twenty years ago)

what incident?

"that was the most fluid, creative time in Jimi's career"

dunno about this

― um, Friday, 9 September 2005 12:21 (twenty years ago)

I think Jimi had a tendency to over-egg the pudding by that stage in his career - but then so did most people in 1970

― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 9 September 2005 12:24 (twenty years ago)

I haven't listened too hard Cox but don't care for Redding's style. His time isn't bad, but thinks too much like a 60s rock guitarist, all pentatonic scales and too much widdling about instead of holding it down.

― frankiemachine, Friday, 9 September 2005 12:35 (twenty years ago)

i think that helps noel in a way, cos its like hes trying to hold down the bass as well as kinda 'take hendrix on'

― um, Friday, 9 September 2005 12:41 (twenty years ago)

yeah, i've always liked noel's playing - one of the few instances i can think of where bass played with a guitar mentality comes off well. i can sorta take or leave the band of gypsies stuff, save for a few tracks.

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Friday, 9 September 2005 12:46 (twenty years ago)

"helps"

xpost

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 9 September 2005 12:47 (twenty years ago)

"trying to hold down the bass" is nowhere near the same thing as "holding down the bass"

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 9 September 2005 12:48 (twenty years ago)

I guess I just prefer Billy's playing (and how Jimi worked with Billy's playing) because I preferred Jimi as a psychedelic soul artist than a psychrock one.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 9 September 2005 12:49 (twenty years ago)

That post came out all wrong, sort've.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 9 September 2005 12:53 (twenty years ago)

nah, made sense

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Friday, 9 September 2005 13:26 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

Yeah, Billy was solid as a freaking rock. But Noel also rocked. But noel also egg'd jimi on in the studio too- appearently noel was a hard guy to work with. When BOG happened, it was because of jimis obligation to capitol records and mitch was on break in england. Im sure if he was in america, he would have been the drummer on BOG. But buddy was tighter than hell. Actually mitch is a great allaround drummer and was a seriously influenced by black drummers before meeting hendrix. Also, I get the sense that mitch really loved Jimi where Noel was a writer like jimi but knew he wasnt in the same class as jimi. Jimi and noel argued constantly. Poor mitch.

― Psykidadaise, Thursday, 29 September 2005 08:41 (twenty years ago)

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