Sunday, September 19, 2010

Buddy Miles Express - Expressway to Your Skull (1968)


I've always held fast to my opinion that Jimi Hendrix's work with drummer Buddy Miles and bassist Billy Cox was far superior to that he did with the Experience; it's a funkier, more soulful incarnation of Jimi's music and it came along at a time when people were more or less doubting (or challenging) Hendrix's "blackness".

So Buddy's drumming gave everything a funkier, dancier swing (fresh off his work with blues rock band The Electric Flag) and Jimi's Band of Gypsys was born. In between being a sideman for Mike Bloomfield's project and Jimi's new thing, he had his own thing, the Buddy Miles Express, with Jim McCarty on guitar and Billy Rich on bass. This is a pretty cool album as far as being a period piece; not every song is a knock-out (the cover of Sam & Dave's Wrap it Up is actually kind of flat) but it's interesting to see on record how one of the first albums to attempt to blend hard rock with funk & soul works out- this basically presaged the whole Funkadelic movement; helping to spawn funk rock.

Anyway, give it a go; you shan't be disappointed (too much)...

0 comments:

Post a Comment