Billy Cox (born October 16, 1939) – You Got A Hold On Me (1971)
The former Hendrix bassist and his last surviving regular collaborator wrote this funky psychedelic soul jam for his rare first solo album Nitro Function.
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Bassist and singer/songwriter Billy Cox is the last surviving musician who regularly played with Jimi Hendrix, starting in the early 1960s when they first met. He is also a former Band of Gypsys member, the short-lived trio the two of them formed from 1969-70 with drummer Buddy Miles.
Born in Wheeling, West Virginia, Cox grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Army and was stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. During a sudden rainstorm, he ducked inside the base’s Service Club No. 1, and while using the restroom heard someone playing guitar. He introduced himself to Jimi Hendrix, told him he played bass, and before long they started jamming together and became close friends.
When both of them left the military around the same time, they moved to Nashville, TN and put together a group called the King Kasuals. A young “Sweet” Charles Sherrell drummed with them for a while. Cox stayed in Nashville when Hendrix joined the touring bands of other artists including Little Richard and the Isley Brothers. After Hendrix was discovered by Animals bassist Chas Chandler in New York City, he called Cox and invited him to go to London. Cox was broke at the time and declined, but they stayed in touch.
After the Jimi Hendrix Experience shot to worldwide fame, Hendrix called Cox again in 1969 and asked him to come record as his studio bassist. When Noel Redding left the Experience, Cox joined Hendrix’s new short-lived group Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, which played at Woodstock on the morning of August 18.
The two of them next formed Band of Gypsys along with drummer Buddy Miles. They only recorded one self-titled live album, taped during four live sets around New Year’s 1970 at the Fillmore East, and played one more show at Madison Square Garden in late January, 1970 before Miles was fired on the spot by Hendrix’s notoriously shady manager Mike Jeffery.
But the album was hugely influential and a catalyst for the funk rock explosion that was to come in the seventies, especially on funky tracks like “Who Knows” and “Machine Gun.”
Cox joined Hendrix and original Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell for the Cry of Love tour, which ran from April through September, 1970. They were sometimes billed as the Jimi Hendrix Experience. He also kept recording with Hendrix, and that summer, they laid down several new tracks at Electric Lady Studios, including the upbeat rocker “Dolly Dagger” (written about Hendrix’s sexually liberated girlfriend and muse Devon Wilson), the phenomenal jam “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun),” and the instrumental masterpiece “Pali Gap.” All three were included on Rainbow Bridge (1971), the second album to be released posthumously after Hendrix’s death under suspicious circumstances on September 18, 1970.
In 1971, Cox released his first solo album Nitro Function. It featured Robert Tarrant on drums and guitarist Char Vinnedge, formerly of the Michigan-based, all-female garage rock group Luv'd Ones who released brilliant late sixties singles like “I’m Leaving You” (1966), a copy of which is currently available on Discogs for $800.
Cox wrote the LP’s funky psychedelic soul jam “You Got A Hold On Me,” which featured a laid back, bass-driven groove, superb vocals by Cox, and a wild guitar solo by Vinnedge. Like the rest of the album, it was recorded at FAME Studios in Memphis, and mixed both there and at Electric Lady. The album was produced by Kenny Rogers’ older brother Lelan Rogers.
Further info:
"Billy Cox Looks Back On Jimi Hendrix As Band Of Gypsys Celebrates 50 with New Vinyl Reissue,” Forbes, March 31, 2020.
“Billy Cox: Destiny Calling,” Interview by Frank-John Hadley, JimiHendrix.com, November 19, 2021.
“Jimi Hendrix bassist Billy Cox Remembers Woodstock,” Guitar World, May 19, 2023.
#soul #funk #rock #JimiHendrix #BillyCox