Noel Redding went to audition for the New Animals and ended up being offered the job of bassist by Chas Chandler and Jimi Hendrix. He had never played bass before that audition. Redding played most of the "Are You Experienced" album using Chas Chander's bass and didn't even have his own bass until the album had almost been finished.
I've referred to some of these things on previous posts. But it seems several myths have developed about Noel Redding. For instance, there's the story that the only reason he got the job was because of his hair. It's true Hendrix actually did like Redding's hair. But it would be pretty absurd if Jimi kept him as bassist for three years just because he liked his hair so much. It seems other factors had more prominence. Everyone knew from the beginning that Hendrix himself was the real star. It was, after all called the Jimi Hendrix Experience. As for Noel switching from being a guitarist to a bassist, Chas Chandler told him when he met Noel that after listening to Jimi play, he wouldn't even want to play guitar anymore. That wasn't entirely true. Noel Redding continued to play guitar the rest of his life. But the idea that he was a frustrated guitarist forced to play bass is not based on hard facts at all. In fact, it seems he was glad to have the job of playing bass for Hendrix. To try to prove this, people often point to the fact that Redding played guitar for Fat Mattress as the opening act for the JHE. However, if you examine this further, it does appear Noel looked at playing in Fat Mattress as somewhat of a backup plan. Also, after the JHE and then Fat Mattress broke up, Noel Redding mostly played bass in bands. In fact, before Fat Mattress had even broken up, he was already playing bass for Road. Later on, he played bass on Randy California's Kapt Kopter album under an alias because of contractual obligations. Noel also played bass very briefly for Mountain. He's on the two last songs of the "Mountain Over the Top" album. He is on a few other albums. He is on the "West Cork Tuning" album playing bass to Hendrix songs to some new arrangements (something he said he preferred.) After moving back to Ireland in the early 70s, Noel played for a few years with former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell in the Noel Redding Band (also known as Clonakilty Cowboys.) I do have to agree with Eric Bell's assessment of the situation. He said that when Noel first approached him about playing, he had assumed it would be something like a blues-rock power trio. Unfortunately, that particular band turned into something quite different. But my main point is Noel Redding was playing bass in all of these bands. If he was such a frustrated guitarist forced to play bass, then why was he playing bass in all these bands? Was it because he wasn't good enough on guitar? Well, I think not. He was just as good on guitar as bass and maybe even better.
Besides the Hendrix albums, my favorite music with Noel Redding on it has to be the Road albums with Les Sampson on drums and Rod Richards on guitar. Unfortunately, their record company had financial problems and never promoted the band. But this was good (now mostly unknown) music. Well, I should have said Road album rather than albums, since they only recorded one album. Even it only has seven songs, the last being untitled and probably my favorite.
Time and again, I've seen statements that Noel didn't even play bass at all on the albums, that Hendrix overdubbed the bass. This is simply not true. Noel was playing bass on both the "Are You Experienced" and "Axis: Bold as Love" albums. It wasn't until "Electric Ladyland" that Hendrix started playing bass on albums. Even then, Noel is playing bass on five songs on "Electric Ladyland." I especially like the way he sounds on "Come On (Part One,) and "Burning of the Midnight Lamp." Pretty good bass for a so-called frustrated guitarist.
Thoughts?
