When rap came out 30 years ago I thought it was just a fad

bdp24, Chas Chandler took Jimi to England but Chas wanted to be a record producer not a manager, so he had Jimi sign a management contract with Michael Jeffery, the manager who had robbed The Animals blind. Chas bitched all the time about how Michael Jeffery had screwed them. I guess Jimi thought that Chas was his friend and wouldn’t stab him in the back. Poor trusting Jimi.

Michael Jeffery then proceeded to rob Jimi blind while working him mercilessly, and three years later Jimi was burned out, broke and dead. The worst thing that ever happened to Jimi was going to England.

Jimi was playing with John Hammond when Chas got his hooks into him. John Hammond Sr. probably would have taken note of Jimi’s talent before long and if he didn’t someone else probably would have. That’s just speculation, of course, but what happened to Jimi in Britain is fact. I love the Experience albums but I will never be able to forgive the people who used him for their own gain and who cared so little for him that he ended up dead so soon. So when I hear someone say that Jimi was a British act it’s hard for me to just let it go.

Wow Tom, may I cry uncle?! You are obviously in possession of more knowledge about Jimi than I. I wasn't aware that Jimi was playing with Hammond, but John sure had good taste in guitarists, didn't he? He had engaged both Robbie Robertson (of The Hawks, of course. Bob Dylan stole Robbie and the rest of The Hawks away from John---they were his touring, uh, band) and Mike Bloomfield to play for him in '65 and '66, two of the best guitarists around. In my defense, let me point out that I didn't say Jimi was British (in fact, I specifically stated he wasn't), only that he was perceived as being part of the 1967 second wave of the British Invasion, perceived as such for the reasons mentioned above. He and The Experience also LOOKED British, didn't they? Contrast their ruffled shirts, crushed velvet trousers, and feather boas with the look of American Bands in the late 60's---dirty hippies! The only performers on the stage at Woodstock who looked like they considered themselves to be in "Show Business" were The Experience and maybe Janis Joplin. Everyone else looked like a farmer, except the members of The Band, who looked like they just came off the set of a western movie. 

I didn't see Hendrix live again after '68, but even then he seemed tired, or at least bored. Only the previous year he had been on absolute fire (no pun intended!---my High School Teen Combo performed his song "Fire" in '67-8). Contracts back then could be brutal, requiring at least an album a year. In the late 90's I worked with Emitt Rhodes, and he told us about being sued by Dunhill Records for breach of contract when he didn't deliver his second album on time. They withheld all future royalties in retaliation, and he never received another royalty check until after his song "Lullaby" was used in the film The Royal Tenenbaums, when an attorney/musician sued on his behalf. He signed his deal without legal representation, which was also common back then.