Noel Redding (1946-2003)

May 13, 2003 2:00 AM

Hendrix Experience bassist passes on...
I don't know what to say really, except I'm pretty saddened this morning.
posted by tomcosgrave (13 comments total)

Seems like we're all getting older. Hard to remember (or believe) that I actually saw that legendary group, way back when. And on the day (August 16, 1968), I found out many years later, Hendrix first played The Star-Spangled Banner in public. (Supposedly he chose that day because it was the anniversary of the death of Robert Johnson.)

"Noel re-unites with Jimi and... his mother Margaret who died only a few weeks ago," [his manager] wrote.

I wonder what that trio would sound like.
posted by LeLiLo at 2:30 AM on May 13, 2003

I find this quite sad too - my Dad actually went to school with Noel Redding in Folkestone, and on a holiday in Ireland last year we found a pub in a place called Clonakilty near where he lived and he would play most Friday nights. Didn't get the chance to see him though sadly...
posted by jontyjago at 2:38 AM on May 13, 2003

My dad met him in that pub in Clonakilty. He consumed several pints with him, and said he was a really sound bloke. My dad's a pretty good judge of character, so I feel saddened by extension. Also, the Jimi Hendrix Experience were a huge force in the formation of my musical tastes. So Noel will be missed here, too. Always sad to hear about the death of someone whose life touched mine, regardless of whether the reciprocal is true.
posted by walrus at 4:17 AM on May 13, 2003

and yet another musician dies relatively poor compared to the record industry jackals feasting on the corpse of his work.
posted by quonsar at 4:32 AM on May 13, 2003

No, no, no. That's those evil Napster Clones, doing the feasting. They're eating all the money that the nice record industry would otherwise have given to the poor, starving artist. The record industry is actually ... erm ... bringing his work to a wider audience. Yes, that's it. Without them, no-one would have known about all the wonderful work that he never actually got paid very much for, except that he would surely have got paid more if it wasn't for Napster. Oh yes.
posted by walrus at 4:54 AM on May 13, 2003

yes, i always forget - it's the fans who are destroying the music industry.
posted by quonsar at 5:12 AM on May 13, 2003

As a penance for the thread derail, here's a link to a Noel interview, containing the following quote:

FB:- Do you think the music industry has changed much over the years?
NR:- Not really, I still don't get paid.
posted by walrus at 5:39 AM on May 13, 2003

I´m currently IM'ing with his son who found out about 1 hour ago. I have tears in my eyes not only because he was the father of my best friend but because of what The Experience meant to me as a teenager. If Noel was anything like his son then he was a super human being.
posted by DelusionsofGrandeur at 6:57 AM on May 13, 2003

i remember the night jimi died. me and some friends were sitting in a downtown diner that's no longer there, and 'come together' was playing over and over on the jukebox. funny thing is, noel redding dying at the age of 57 of unknown causes seems as surreal to me now as jimi choking on his vomit all those years ago. jon entwhistle's heart blowing up in 2002 seems far weirder than keith moon's sodden demise at the bottom of his pool. hope i die before i get old? time to cry now.
posted by quonsar at 8:32 AM on May 13, 2003

I was lucky enough to see Noel play at the Haight Street Fair in SF about 5 years ago. He told some stories about playing with Hendrix in the Golden Gate Panhandle festival in the 60's. Noel sang and played bass and guitar with a local backup band. He played Dylan's She Belongs to Me and some Hendrix songs. When it started to rain, they did a quick version of the Beatle's Rain. He was drinking a Schaefer beer on stage. He had smiling eyes and really seemed to enjoy playing music and seeing the fans. His musical contribution to the JH Experience, and thus to the world, has always been underestimated. RIP Noel.
posted by trigfunctions at 10:51 AM on May 13, 2003

Noel Redding wasn't a genius. Hendrix was. Let's get it all in perspective.
posted by skinsuit at 6:04 PM on May 13, 2003

Which one was Dylan's grandmother?
posted by HTuttle at 6:09 PM on May 13, 2003

skinsuit, the whole band was genius. Mitch was a heroic madman on the drums, and who else ever played a bass guitar as if it was a six string? Noel was a rhythm guitarist before he joined the Experience. The story goes that he'd only just scraped together enough spare change for the bus fare to the audition, so when Jimi asked him if he could play bass, he thought he'd give it a go. If not exactly genius, the result was certainly unique, and the format worked exceedingly well. So well that when Jimi hooked up with his wartime buddy Billy Cox on bass for the band of Gypsies, the music, whilst arguably more original, just didn't cut it for most. Of course, he also had Buddy Miles on drums instead of Mitch by then, so it's not a straight comparison. Still, Noel was a legend, and by all accounts a great man, and it's not really on to start detracting from his art in his obit thread. He certainly had more musical genius in his left, little toenail than I have, although I'm not so sure about you.
posted by walrus at 3:20 AM on May 14, 2003