Johnny Jones & The King Casuals - Purple Haze

The history of funk and soul is heavily populated with artists that labored for years to little more than local fame, and then broke through briefly for a taste of national acclaim.
Johnny Jones & The King Casuals was just such a band. It doesn't hurt that for a brief time in the mid-60's they counted Jimi Hendrix among their members*.
Johnny Jones was born in 1936, and by the early 1950's was living in the hotbed of urban blues, Chicago. Over the years he would play with both Junior Wells and Freddy King. Jones would move to Nashville, Tennessee in the early 60's. There he worked as a studio guitarist and formed the band the Imperial Seven.
The King Casuals (some references list 'Kasuals') were formed in Nashville in the early 60's. Early members included Jimi Hendrix on guitar and Billy Cox on bass. It's not clear when Johnny Jones joined the group on guitar and vocals, but there are references to Jones and Hendrix having played together (possibly as the house band on a Nashville TV show).
ometime after 1965 Hendrix and Cox both left the King Casuals. Cox would reunite with Hendrix a few years later in the Band of Gypsies. Hendrix would go on to a brief sojourn with Carl Holmes & The Commanders (in Philadelphia) and then on to Greenwich Village where he would be discovered and spirited off to the UK.

In 1968 Brunswick Records signed the King Casuals (now billed as Johnny Jones & the King Casuals). They would record a series of three 45's for the label between the end of 1968 and the middle of 1969.

Johnny Jones and the King Casuals third and last 45 for Brunswick is perhaps their best known. Their cover of former King Casuals member Jimi Hendrix's 'Purple Haze' is a Northern Soul fave. It takes the psychedelic classic and bends it out of shape, making it a soul shouter. The singer tends to depart from the lyric sheet, but the band makes up for it in spirit. It makes you wonder what Hendrix thought of it. The flip side, 'Horsing Around' is a smooth soul instrumental with a tip of the hat to Cliff Nobles and Co.

http://funky16corners.tripod.com/9_johnnyjones.htm

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• Casuals
• Purple
• Haze

[bobbybluz1]

Johnny Jones was the original "Big Town Playboy", later one of Eddie Taylor's signature songs.

[adric137]

unique

[Alphastare]

This is on the 'Shaftman' lp...XXX 70's style novelty record!