In the mid-1960s, Hendrix, working as Jimmy James, played in Youngblood's band. Later the guitar virtuoso struck out on his own, but he reunited in 1969 with Youngblood in a New York studio to record "Georgia Blues."
The tune was mostly forgotten until Scorsese's 2003 PBS special, "The Blues," which spawned a few albums including "Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Jimi Hendrix," which included the song. It's now the subject of heated litigation.
Earlier this year, Youngblood sued the estate, MCA Records and Scorsese, claiming the song was released without his permission and without proper credit. Youngblood said the Hendrix estate offered him $3,000 for rights, which he refused.
On Tuesday (Oct. 12), the Hendrix estate struck back with counterclaims, asking a judge to declare it the owner of the song and Youngblood's belated copyright registration as invalid.
According to papers filed in New Jersey District Court, Hendrix produced and recorded the song at his own cost. The estate says the two-day session at the Record Plant Studio in New York produced several Hendrix tracks, including "Georgia Blues," which have remained in the physical possession of the estate since that time.
The estate now wants Youngblood to account for all of his royalties on "Georgia Blues."
2 comments:
I love hendrix. He has influenced my guitar playing immensity
Lonnie Youngblood should really be ashamed of himself. Of course to do so, he would have to possess some shred of decency which might enable him to have a sense of shame. In addition, the authors of this article should likewise be ashamed for not doing their homework and their research. If they had done so, they would have at least made some mention of the fact that Youngblood has been endlessly cranking out dubious deceptively labled albums for decades (beginning virtually within months of Hendrix’ death and continuing up to this day) purporting to be his "collaborations" with Hendrix. In reality these albums contain only the same handful of mediocre 1963/64 R&B cuts with Hendrix present only as a sideman and on which his playing is barely audible. To make matters even worse, Youngblood has continuously repackaged this stuff along with completely bogus material he knows full well to have no Hendrix involvement whatsoever and yet he still passes off as Hendrix recordings.
Youngblood has already made far more money off of Hendrix name than his minimal recordings with the artist should ever reasonably have merited. If he is indeed so concerned with "proper credit being given where it is due", he'd best begin by taking a long hard look at his own reprehensible behavior over the past 40 years. He is just yet another in a pathetically long string of vultures pecking over the corpse of an icon to steal the scraps.
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