KFIX Rock News: Album Featuring Early Jimi Hendrix Recordings To Be Released Next Month

A collection of historic recordings Jimi Hendrix made from 1965 to 1967 as a sideman for the group Curtis Knight & the Squires will be released on March 24.

You Can’t Use My Name: Curtis Knight & the Squires (Featuring Jimi Hendrix) — The RSVP/PPX Sessions includes 14 tracks and will be available on CD and as a 150-gram vinyl LP.

You Can’t Use My Name is the first in a planned series of releases by Experience Hendrix, the company that oversees the late guitar legend’s musical legacy, which acquired the rights to the recordings in 2014 following years of litigation with record producer Ed Chalpin and his company PPX Enterprises.

Chalpin had signed Jimi to a three-year contract in October 1965 while he was playing with Curtis Knight & the Squires, a Harlem-based R&B group.

Some of the songs featured on You Can’t Use My Name were the first Hendrix compositions that were ever released commercially. Most of the recordings were made during 1965 and ’66, before Hendrix headed to England to find stardom as a frontman. The final track, “Gloomy Monday,” was recorded in July 1967, after Jimi had released his debut album with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Also included is never-before-heard studio banter in which Hendrix comments to Chalpin, “You can’t use my name,” thus giving the album its title.

Longtime Jimi Hendrix Experience studio engineer Eddie Kramer worked on You Can’t Use My Name tracks to enhance their sonic quality and clarity. He describes the mixing process as “a continuing archeological sound dig, which is to say you sweep away the dirt with a fine brush and find the gem hidden therein.”

Says Experience Hendrix CEO Janie Hendrix, Jimi’s sister, “We are extremely delighted to now be in a position to offer these rare, historic recordings. What makes them so special is that they provide an honest look at a great artist during the pivotal time when he was on the cusp of his breakthrough…a time when Jimi’s number one priority was playing and recording, and this set captures him doing just that, both as a collaborator and an innovator.”

Here is the full track list for You Can’t Use My Name:

“How Would You Feel”
“Gotta Have a New Dress”
“Don’t Accuse Me”
“Fool for You Baby”
“No Such Animal”
“Welcome Home”
“Knock Yourself Out (Flying on Instruments)”
“Simon Says”
“Station Break”
“Strange Things”
“Hornet’s Nest”
“You Don’t Want Me”
“You Can’t Use My Name”
“Gloomy Monday”

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Photos courtesy: PRNewsFoto/Legacy Recordings