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

bdp24, I wasn’t mad at you, like I said, I am still mad about how Jimi was treated and I have to vent from time to time. I believe Noel Redding was still suing for back royalties when he died, wasn’t he?

The music business certainly has more than its share of scumbags. Jimi also had trouble till the end of his life from a contract he signed while he was still an unknown with a small time studio owner here in the States. Everybody knows about Jimi’s Electric Ladyland studio in NY, but Jimi was just paying for it, Michael Jeffery was going to end up being the owner. Jimi was easy prey for these jackals.

The ability to spot real talent certainly does run in the Hammond family. Michael Bloomfield was definitely one of the greats. It’s hard to believe, but on John Hammond’s So Many Roads album Bloomfield is listed as playing piano (?) with Robbie Robertson on guitar. That has to be the only time that Bloomfield took a back seat to anyone.

Nobody knew how to dress like Jimi. He would dress so outlandishly, but always looked great. I’ll admit that the Brits generally had better fashion sense than the American bands.

I just wish that John Hammond Sr. had signed him to Columbia before he went to England. I think Hammond Sr. would have steered him to better management. We wouldn’t have the Experience albums but maybe something even better.

So, sorry if my posts were a little aggressive, you definitely better me on direct experience.  I never saw Jimi live.

No offence taken, Tom. Au contraire'---I appreciate your knowledge! That fact about Bloomfield is interesting, isn't it? I read an interview with Mike wherein he described arriving at the session intending to play guitar, but upon hearing Robertson, move to piano without being asked to. They both played in a similar blues style, and were two of the first white 60's guitarist to get good tone (though they played very different sounding guitars---Bloomfield a Gibson Les Paul, Robertson a Fender Telecaster), before most of the British players got hip, one exception being John Mayall's guitarists, Clapton and Peter Green. In '66 Jimmy Page, when taking over as lead guitarist (from Beck) in The Yardbirds, was still playing a Telecaster, and had horrid, thin tone. As did Keith Richards.

Musicians/singers/songwriters getting screwed financially is a very old, common occurrence. Chuck Berry was one of the few original Rock n' Rollers to possess business acumen, most others being very naïve and overly-trusting, even The Beatles (whose terrible songwriting publishing deal robbed them of many millions of dollars. Brain Epstein did NOT know what he was doing). In the early 2000's, Emitt Rhodes actually had to move into his studio (a huge converted garage located behind his house in Hawthorne California), and rent out the house to pay the mortgage.