Legendary drummer Buddy Miles sadly passed away this week at the tender age of 60. The man experienced some serious ups and downs in his life, and his career literally veered from the sublime to the ridiculous — he played drums for Jimi Hendrix during the latter's short-lived but incredible Band of Gypsys period, but he also contributed lead vocals to the risible California Raisins "Heard It Through The Grapevine" ad, as well as their two subsequent LPs. I admit that I'm not the hugest fan of either the Electric Flag or the Buddy Miles Express, but there are a lot of folks out there who rate their records (and Buddy's multi-instrumental contributions to them) rather highly. And, of course, he was known in his day to sport a pretty hefty 'fro.
I only saw Buddy play live once, when he jumped onstage for a few numbers at a mid-90s P-Funk gig. He just played the cowbell that night, but he sure beat the living shit out of that cowbell. And he radiated a totally positive vibe, like a walking testimonial to the words of one of the Band of Gypsys songs he played on: "With the Power of Soul/Anything is possible."
R.I.P., brother Buddy. Hope you and Jimi are having a wicked jam in the next world.
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