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The Authentic PPX Studio Recordings Vol.4 - Live at George's Club
Ref.: CBH / SPV SPV 085-44 692 / CRCL-4732
Date: 1996
(1) Live
[50]

Tracks

01. Drivin' South
02. Ain't That Peculiar
03. I'll Be Doggone
04. I've Got A Sweet Little Angel
05. Bright Lights, Big City
06. Get Out of My Life Woman
07. Last Night lyrics
08. Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch
09. What'd I Say
10. Shotgun

Lyrics

07. Last Night tracks

(Instrumental)

Notes

Original folder name: jimi hendrix - live at george's club - the authentic ppx stu. 4
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The Authentic PPX Studio Recordings Vol.4: Live at George's Club (CBH / SPV SPV 085-44 692 / 1996 / Ger / 1CD) ftbfs: A363
(Remastered Curtis Knight material 1965-67)
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THE AUTHENTIC PPX STUDIO RECORDINGS VOL. 4: LIVE AT GEORGE'S CLUB / CD
(SPV 085-44692) (live 1965 and studio 1965)
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THE COMPLETE PPX RECORDINGS (?) Germany
Get That Feeling/How Would You Feel/Hush Now/No Business/Simon Says/Gotta Have A New Dress/Strange Things/Welcome Home/Love, Love/Day Tripper/Gloomy Monday/Fool For You Baby/Don't Accuse Me/Hornet's Nest/Flashing/Oddball/Happy Birthday/UFO/You Don't Want Me (instrumental)/Better Times Ahead/Future Trip/Wah Wah (instrumental)/Everybody Knew But Me/Mercy Lady Day (instrumental)/If You Gonna Make A Fool Of Somebody/My Best Friend (instrumental)/Ballad Of Jimi/Second Time Around (instrumental)/Drivin' South (instrumental)/Ain't That Peculiar/I'll Be Doggone/I've Got A Sweet Little Angel/Bright Light, Big City/Get Out Of My Life Woman/Last Night (instrumental)/Sugar Pue Honey Bunch/What'd I Say/Shotgun/California Night (live)/Level (studio instrumental)/Feel Good (live)/Left Alone (live)/Knock Yourself Out (studio instrumental)/Something On Your Mind (live)/I Should've Quit You (live)/Hard Night (live instrumental)/I'm A Man (live)/Instrumental (studio)/On The Killing Floor (live)/Money (live)/Nobody Loves Me (live)/Love (studio instrumental)/You Got Me Running (live)/Mr. Pitiful (live)/Torture Me Honey (studio instrumental)/Sleepy Fate (studio instrumental)/Satisfaction (live)
Just about every Pre-Experience w/Curtis Knight track available. CD; 6-CD Set. +
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The Authentic PPX Studio Recordings
Nippon Crown CRCL 4729 34
Released: 1999
Running Time: 31:20
This page is a Web-page version of a message sent by Ken Voss to the Hey Joe mailing list, Volume 19991119. It was originally published in Voodoo Child #43 Summer, 1997. It's put here with Ken Voss's permission.


THE COMPLETE & AUTHENTIC PPX STUDIO RECORDINGS...
In 1997, SPV Records in Germany released six volumes titled The Authentic PPX Studio Recordings. Now, here in 1999, Nippon Crown of Japan is offering that same set a 6CD box set as Jimi Hendrix: The Complete PPX Recordings (CRCL-4729-34).

During two studio sessions in 1965 and 1967, plus a live set at George's Club in Hackensack, New Jersey, Jimi Hendrix recorded tracks with Curtis Knight. Under contract to, and under the direction of producer Ed Chalpin, these studio sessions at PPX Studios in New York became infamous. Not only for being one of the earliest known studio sessions featuring Hendrix as a lead performer, but for the legal embattlement the sessions created.

The tapes have been released on various album combinations over three dozen times, as Chalpin continuously licenses them to record companies throughout the world. "As long as there are record companies who want to distribute this material in their market, I will license it to them accordingly," Chalpin once indicated, noting that each of those companies is only supposed to distribute the product in the country they are licensed.

But, according to CBH, the Knight material has never before been officially licensed on compact disc. That is, until now. Of course, we can document numerous pseudo-legitimate releases with some of the Hendrix- Knight material included, but certainly, this is the most comprehensive compilation of such material to date.

Chalpin has licensed the tapes to CBH Records in Germany. Engineers Kalle Trapp and Rainer Hansel went in and recut, re-edited and remastered the material into a six volume set. Some songs have been remixed, some mixed down to only include Jimi's guitar and vocals. Others have been completely re-edited, cut and spliced in such a way that choruses are repeated, verses are re-arranged, and guitar parts are extended. "Butchered," say some; "creative" argue others. Either way, we do get some new material. We get plenty of old material that's been cleaned up and made more presentable and listenable. And, we get the doctored tracks, which will always get challenged in the Hendrix circles.

Hopes ran high when news came of the official German release of The Authentic PPX Studio Recordings that maybe this time we'd have these Hendrix-Knight sessions presented in a sympathetic context with perhaps some detailed liner notes and new information to shed light on these sessions. Dream on!

Let's start with the liner notes, claiming these recordings are available for the first time on CD. Well, what about Historic Hendrix and Prologue, amongst others, which have been around for ages. The liner notes by Gitti Gulden may as well have been written by Chalpin himself as yet again we have a very rose-tinted version of events where he appears to be the innocent part who has been badly done to over the years.

The most interested part is the line-up details which lists: "Drums: Johnny Star. All other instruments played by Jimi Hendrix. Lead Vocals: Curtis Knight. Additional Vocals: Jimi Hendrix." Johnny Star's name has only appeared in historical references previously as a suggested engineer. Noted session drummer Bernard Purdie has made claim he was involved with some of these sessions. And, as far as Jimi playing all instruments on all the tracks, there's enough historical evidence to discount this statement as total rubbish. Even the photos included in some of the booklets show additional musicians in the studio.

In the original SPV releases, each disc comes with an eight page booklet. Graphic continuity brings this six volume set into a unified perspective. The six covers feature different photos from the Gered Mankowitz photo archives. Each inside cover features two different rare (some never before published) photos of Hendrix during the Curtis Knight period and sessions. On the Nippon Crown box set, the SPV covers are re-used on the individual discs. Each disc comes in a cardboard slipsleeve. A 16-page booklet, encapsulating the same pictures and text that appeared in the SPV releases, is included. The six discs are then encased in a thin cardboard "box", another Mankowitz shot used on the metallic-ink four-color cover.

Most of the material has been previously released on numerous titles, the German Astan and Babylon labels providing in vinyl versions the prominent portion of the material presented here.

THE AUTHENTIC PPX STUDIO RECORDINGS
VOL. 4: LIVE AT GEORGE'S CLUB
SPV 085-44692 CRCL-4732 TITLE RUNNING TIME
1 Drivin' South 6:11
2 Ain't That Peculiar 3:23
3 I'll Be Doggone 2:35
4 I've Got a Sweet Little Angel 4:43
5 Bright Lights, Big City 3:10
6 Get Out Of My Life Woman 3:30
7 Last Night 3:14
8 Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch 2:57
9 What'd I Say 3:58
10 Shotgun / Outro Theme 5:15

This session captures Curtis Knight & The Squires, featuring Jimi Hendrix on guitar, live at George's Club 20 in Hackensack, New Jersey on December 26, 1965.

Over the years, over 30 songs have been released allegedly from this night's sessions. As they've been released over the years, some have been in mono while some in stereo, suggesting they are not from the same session. Over the years, we've also been offered up a variety of mixes of the same material.

On this disc, it appears the tapes used were at some time enhanced with additional bass, rhythm and drum parts, along with some audience response, were overdubbed creating a stereo mix. Here, we're served up with 10 of those tracks.

We start out with "Driving South", with Curtis acknowledging Jimi's songwriting credit. In the past, versions of this song have run over seven-minutes, although this appears to be a complete version via faster mastering, this take held down to 6:10.

The set continues with "Ain't That Peculiar", "I'll Be Doggone", "Sweet Little Angel", "Bright Lights, Big City" and an incomplete version of "Get Out Of My Life Woman".

An instrumental version of "Last Night", with crowd added in a post-edit, edits out the introductions by Knight and Hendrix that appeared on early vinyl issues.

Then on to "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch" and an incomplete version of "What'd I Say".

The disc closes out with an overdubbed take of "Shotgun", this five-minute version appearing to be an original stereo version never before released on vinyl or disc.

The disc closes out with what historians have called the "Outro Theme", with Knight introducing the band.

To reiterate, these are not the untouched, original club recording sessions (which Knight recalls were made on an old Wollensak reel-to-reel machine), but later doctored with the addition of extra bass, rhythm and drum parts. Certainly, not what we feel of credible representation to the Hendrix archives.
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Live At George's Club
The Authentic PPX Studio Recordings Vol. 4
CBH Records & SPV
Schallplatten SPV08544692 [German CD]
1996

Jimi live with Curtis Knight

Drivin' South, Ain't That Peculiar, I'll Be Doggone, Sweet Little Angel, Bright Lights Big City, Get Out Of My Life Woman, Last Night (Instrumental), Sugar Pie Honey Bunch, What'd I Say, Shotgun/Outro Theme.

The Live At George's Club disc contains the first release of Shotgun/Outro Theme
Jimi Hendrix