Celebrated bluesman John Hammond was playing a regular New York City gig when he met Jimi Hendrix. He was already friends with Eric Clapton. He somehow ended up playing a string of ’60s-era shows with both legendary guitarists as his sidemen.
That’s just one of Hammond’s many incredible career moments, capped by the recent release ‘You’re Doin’ Fine: Blues at the Boarding House.’ The LP, released as part of the Bear’s Sonic Journals series, was recorded by famed Grateful Dead soundman Owsley “Bear” Stanley on June 2 and 3, 1973, in San Francisco – without Hammond’s knowledge. The results are intimate and very revealing.
In the following interview, Hammond discusses playing with Clapton and Hendrix, the ‘You’re Doin’ Fine’ project, and a lengthy friendship with Tom Waits that resulted in their 2001 collaboration ‘Wicked Grin.’
You led a series of gigs with a band that included both Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton in the same lineup. It is such an embarrassment of riches – but how did that actually work on stage? How did those guys interact with you and your music?
Well, I met Eric on my first tour of England in 1965. He was playing with John Mayall at the time, and I was on tour and played some gigs with them and traveled with them. Eric, he was phenomenal. Even back then, you know, he was way ahead. We became friends, and I came back to the U.S. and was introduced to Jimi Hendrix. He was hanging out in New York, trying to get a gig together. So he asked me if I could get him a gig. I said, “I know a place called the Cafe Au Go Go and I play a lot of gigs there. Let’s put a band together and you’ll be my lead guitar player. No problem.”
So, I went over and spoke to Howard Solomon and got the gig the next week. We played for a week there, and everybody who’s who in rock ‘n’ roll came to hear us. Then they offered Jimi a plane ticket to England to record with [Hendrix producer] Chas Chandler – and the rest of the history. He came back to New York about a year later and looked me up. Eric Clapton was in New York with Cream – and he looked me up. I invited them both out for this gig I was playing at the Gaslight [Cafe in Greenwich Village]. I had a drummer with me, Charles Otis, and the bass player Herman Pittman, and I invited both Eric and Jimi on the stage. So to my left was Eric Clapton and to my right was Jimi Hendrix. I don’t think I could go wrong. It was fantastic – and these are just terrific guys.
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Clapton shared your passion for Robert Johnson, the early blues man. What initially struck you about Johnson’s music? He had such a brief career, but ended up being quite influential.
Well, his recordings were that much better than anybody else. In my opinion, I think he was about as good as it gets. He obviously had heard other genres of blues. You know, he could play just about any style, and his vocals were just amazing. I mean, his recordings just – for whatever reason, they just nailed it. Anybody that hears that, you know, is going to feel it. I mean, he came around at the time when there were a lot of records out there of various artists from all over. So he obviously was familiar with the Piedmont style and the Delta style where, where he hung out, and obviously heard people like Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell. He was really a hip guy. I mean, he had heard it all and he was like the synthesis of all these styles.
Your goal all along must have been to bring these songs forward to a new generation – and it worked. I always felt like the Doors wouldn’t have found Willie Dixon’s “Back Door Man” without your help.
I think I nailed that one. Hey, they obviously heard that. I think so because the arrangement and the feel of it are so similar.
Listen to John Hammond’s Update of ‘King Bee’
You’re Doin’ Fine finds you working as a solo act again. You made your legend appearing in this format. What originally created that interest?
Well, when I first became aware of blues music was when my father brought me to hear Big Bill Broonzy in 1949. I was seven years old, and it made a big impression on me – and I always gravitated towards blues music for whatever reason. By the time I was in my early teens, I was a blues fanatic. I never thought that I would ever play an instrument or be a professional player but I mean I loved the music. When I got a guitar, that was it. Solo is, for me, where the art belongs. If you could pull it off solo, you were really doing it.
What really strikes me on this new album is how rangy the choice of material is. There are expected songs from the Delta and Chicago variants of the blues, but also the more underrated Piedmont style. That gives You’re Doin’ Fine a real sense of discovery.
I was always interested in various genres of blues. I loved Blind Boy Fuller and Blind Willie McTell in the Piedmont style, and I liked Robert Johnson and Sun House in the Delta style. Leroy Carr had his his own style. I mean, there are so many choices. I never thought of myself as a songwriter but as a collector of great songs.
I wonder how it sounded when you first heard these recordings from 50 years ago. Did you experience the songs in a different way when you were listening to yourself all those years later?
Yes, I had no idea the sound was that good. I mean, to hear it back and to hear how I got it right is just amazing to me. For me, it was a club date that I didn’t really know was being recorded. Well, as everyone knows now, Bear was a wizard with sound – and having this series of recordings emerge has just been such a gift.
Listen to John Hammond’s ‘2:19’
Along the way, you’ve been a friend of Tom Waits as well. You met him at this show, where You’re Doin’ Fine was captured – then later recorded your own album of Waits songs.
He was the opening show, if you could believe that. I was later on some other shows with him and got to know him a little better. He’s just one of those awesome players who just creates an atmosphere and a feeling that is hard to put into words. He’s that dynamic. I always admired him and I never thought in my wildest dreams that I’d ever make a recording like that, but it worked out.
It must have been a daunting task.
He’s such a unique figure. It’s sort of hard to explain. We had talked about making this album together and he was on the West Coast. I was on the East Coast. I sent him a bunch of ideas that I had of songs I might record, and he sent me a bunch of songs that he thought we could do.
He was all excited about it and then we went out to the West Coast. My wife basically set up the whole deal with his wife, Kathleen. Tom was going to get these guys together, the band that he was going to put together included [keyboardist and accordion player] Augie Meyers and [drummer] Stephen Hodges. But they couldn’t make the rehearsals, so it was kind of going nowhere.
The studio was set up where we were going to record and Tom had a falling out with the owner. So we had no place to record. It was all going to turn to shit, and my wife said to me, “Why don’t you take him and have some coffee and talk about this. Otherwise, he’s gonna split.” So, I said to Tom, “Anything we do is gonna be good. I just know it.” So he said, “Well, I’ve got some songs that you might like,” and I said, “That’s the idea. Let’s do that.” We started out there and we did the song “2:19,” and we nailed it. The next day, he came in with a whole bunch of his songs and we just went for it. It turned out great. That’s a great one.
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