Highway Chile Takes The Night Train!

From the same episode of Night Train!, on WLAC-TV Channel 5, we have the opening credits for that episode in June/July 1965, listing the evening's performers, and then a rendition of Shotgun by Buddy and Stacey, supported by the show's backing band, The Royal Company, here with a young James Hendrix.

It was not the first visit to Nashville for Jimi Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix had been demobbed from Fort Campbell, an army base in Kentucky in July 1962 after breaking his ankle in parachute training. After wasting his money, Jimi hung around in Clarksville and then, with an army friend Billy Cox, later came to Nashville to find some work in clubs with their band, now called the King Kasuals. After travelling to New York City and winning the Apollo Amateur Night, but failing to make any bigger impression, he returned. Nashville would become one of several regular places to which Jimi would return in times of need.

Eventually getting a break, he toured with the Isley Brothers in 1963/4, before quitting their band on a stop in Nashville once more. This time he hung around for a while, before joining several mid-western tours organised by DJ Georgeous George Odell:

"So then I quit, I quit them [The Isleys] in Nashville somewhere. And eh, ??? this guy, he was on a tour with B.B.King, Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke, and all these people Chuck Jackson. So I played, eh, I was playing guitar behind a lot of the acts on the tour."

Jimi worked like this for over a year, basing himself in Atlanta this time when his money ran out and Georgeous George couldn't get enough bookings, offering to work as a valet for acts if they didn't need musicians. Here, he was spotted by Little Richard who hired him for his band:

"I guess about, I guess I played with him for about 6 months, I guess. About 5 or 6 months. And I got tired of all that, played some shows with Ike and Tina Turner, and I went back to New York and played with King Curtis and Joey Dee"

Jimi was being a little reticent. Many people credit his time with Little Richard as an important influence for Jimi, giving him the chance to experiment with his stage persona and play with seasoned musicians. Richard told him once:

"Look. Don't be ashamed to do whatever you feel. The people can tell if your a phony. They can feel it out in the audience. I don't care if you're wild, I don't care if you're quiet. They'll know if your putting yourself into it, whatever it is."

Others remember Jimi on that tour:

"Richard didn't hide Jimi. He used to allow him to do that playing with his teeth onstage and take solos. It became a part of the act, all that playing behind his back and stuff."

However, it became clear that Jimi was not comfortable with the tough life on the road, travelling by bus on a gruelling schedule. He was unnerved by some of the racially-charged scenes he saw in towns and venues in the South, and while he continued to develop his playing, his moodiness led to lateness for shows and rehearsals.

Returning to Nashville once more to regroup and earn some money, Jimi got work on the Night Train! with the backing band. Also around June - July 1965, at the Starday Studio, on Dickerson Road in Nashville, Jimi played rhythm guitar on Frank Howard & the Commanders' record I'm So Glad. Frank Howard and The Commanders were also regular performers on Night Train and on its successor The Beat !!!!

Soon after, Jimi left Nashville and returned to New York, and began to think about how he could break out on his own...

Watch:
Buddy & Stacey with The Royal Company - Shotgun

Information found from Early Hendrix website, and the Life And Times of Little Richard: Quasar Of Rock by Charles White. The most detailed biography of the early career of Jimi Hendrix on the internet that I've found can be read at the Soul-Patrol, titled Jimi Hendrix And The Chitlin' Circuit by Oscar J Jordan III.

The Soul Clan: Where you going, Joe?...

The way that Don Covay asks, "Hey Joe's packing his bags, where you goin', Joe?" at the begininning of The Soul Clan's single "Soul Meeting" has never sounded like a good omen. The concept of the southern soul supergroup, founded by Covay in 1968, and comprising Don Covay, Solomon Burke, Joe Tex, Arthur Conley and Ben E. King, never fulfilled the hopes of its members, and perhaps some could already sense it while recording their first and only single.

The original plan had included Wilson Pickett, but reportedly, Pickett had backed out, concerned both for his solo career ambitions, and perhaps concerned that the group would not prosper amongst Solomon Burke's many other business ventures.

Otis Redding was the other mooted Clan member, and the beginning of recording had been delayed while Otis underwent throat surgery and recuperated. Sadly, by the time the situation had been finalised, Redding had met his tragic death. Arthur Conley, an artist whom Redding had cultivated and produced, was inducted in his stead. Joe Tex said during the 1981 reunion, "I would have given it a chance if Otis had lived. Man's head was on straight... the future of the Soul Clan died with Otis..."

Joe revealed also his take on the spirit he had hoped the Soul Clan would embody, as he describes Otis thus: "Talk to white, talk to black, don't piss nobody off, but don't Tom neither..."

Solomon Burke, who, after Covay himself, was possibly the most committed to the enterprise, said in an interview, “We wanted to interlock ourselves as a group, to express to the younger people how strong we should be and to help one another, work with one another and support one another...”

The sentiment was a noble one, therefore, but the business acumen of Atlantic Records' Jerry Wexler was not buying into it. The Soul Meeting single failed to catch fire, reaching No.34 on the RnB Chart, and only No.91 on the Pop Chart. An LP was scheduled and duly appeared, but it seems Wexler cancelled funding for group recordings. The LP has the two sides of the single, plus a selection of solo recordings by the Soul Clan members. What was the motivation for this? Don Covay said in an interview with Gerri Hirshey, "Some funny stuff went down at Atlantic." Solomon Burke seemed to believe that Wexler in particular did not want to give his most successful black stars a greater control over their careers.

There is some cold logic in this. Wexler had groomed Ray Charles, only to see him leave at the moment Atlantic might have capitalised upon their investment by involving Charles in movie deals etc. He may have feared that to allow five of his greatest and most lucrative hitmakers to work and act in solidarity would give them the power to collectively renegotiate their contracts, and cut the company's profit margins. As I said, logical, but hardly honourable or far-sighted, in my view. In each case, the members of the Soul Clan were poorly served by a company which failed to invest in publicity and actively sabotaged their recording schedule. Times were changing, and none of the final line-up of the Soul Clan were experimenting with, nor being encouraged to try, the new sounds of funk that might have boosted and elongated their hit careers. Atlantic Records was happy to let them fade away, while sucking up the back-catalogues and talents of regional hit factories such as Stax. No Marvin Gayes or Stevie Wonders would be nurtured in New York City.

The B-Side to Soul Meeting is That's How It Feels, an apt summation of a bold but doomed venture to establish the Five Pillars of Southern Soul. It was written by Don Covay and Bobby Womack. The single was recorded in Nashville, in February 1968.

That's How It Feels - The Soul Clan (Atlantic LP 587127 1968)

This song has just been released on Atlantic Unearthed: Soul Brothers, a new compilation of allegedly never-released tracks, that have been mercifully set free from their state of limbo by Rhino Records. I am sure this is not the only example of a track that, rather than being unreleased, Atlantic simply willfully forgot... you can buy it here.

Joe Tex said at the press conference before the1981 reunion show: "I'm tellin you right now, it ain't gonna work." The concert was reportedly chaotic, with many technical problems and other setbacks. "...we been having to make it on our own so long it's hard to get in step. A soul man is that. Singular. Soul Clan is more a beautiful idea to me." A statement that undercuts the sugar-coated marketing of soul music that tries to reduce it to a Starbucks moment.

The quotes and some of the facts for this entry have been found in Gerri Hirshey's "Nowhere To Run: The Story of Soul Music".