A compilation of farts perhaps?

May 29th – The rock idiom is to have fast women, make a fast buck, drive fast cars and live a fast life; some folk take this last ideology too far as we've found out on many an occasion. The idea is if you’re gonna go then go out in a blaze of glory, not with a whimper but with a bang, and some have managed to do that. Car and plane crashes figure high on the list, as does shooting, motorcycle accidents and drug OD’s. All of these have a certain…charm when it comes to maintaining the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle-image that’s peddled in the industry. Keeps the flame alive…and the record sales too. What’s important in all of this is to have the demise of the star as well publicised as possible. This allows for extra sales to be generated on the current catalogue as well as a flurry of activity in the cutting room and back-catalogue for out-takes, fluffed rehearsal tapes and general recording studio dross. Of course, they’re doing it for the fans, there’s no money being made by the company…now, you may think I'm exaggerating…?

Case in point; Jimi Hendrix. 

He died in 1970 of asphyxiation on vomit…not very RnR but he did do it after a pill and booze binge so…fair play. Since that date there have been a steady file of recordings released (escaped) and re-released by Jimi (?) as  follows:

Studio Recordings: - 

6 in the 70’s

7 in the 80’s 

19 in the 90’s 

12 in the 00’s 

37 in 10’s 

Live Recordings: - 

8 in the 70’s

16 in the 80’s

20 in the 90’s

9 in the 00’s

8 in 10’s

33 compilations

7 unofficial releases

15 interview albums

91 tribute albums

12 home recordings………starting to get embarrassing, isn’t it?

And I guess that all the money made from these releases has gone to fund a worthy charity in Jimi’s name? Yeah, right.

So, you can imagine the kerfuffle at Profit HQ when Iron Butterfly’s bassist, Philip Kramer went missing on Feb 12th 1995. I mean, he’d made ‘phone calls threatening suicide but…where was the corpse?!? Without it the marketing department was on-hold and precious record selling time was ticking by. As it was, four years was lost until, purely by chance on this day in 1999, some photographers found Mr. Kramer’s skeletal remains at the bottom of Decker Canyon in Malibu; too late to market him meaningfully (and posthumously) but at least the mystery was solved. Trebles all round!