[8] Another was "Hey Joe" – Hendrix preferred the slower, moodier version by folk musician Tim Rose over the fast hit rendition by the Leaves.
[11] Sometime Hendrix collaborator Paul Caruso recalled a performance of the Beatles' "Rain" with the bassist attempting to sing John Lennon's backwards vocal at the end of the song.
[19] When Are You Experienced was first released, early supporter Linda Keith (who brought Hendrix to the attention of Chandler) said "none of the tracks [on the album] were a complete surprise to her, because most featured riffs, patterns and ideas she'd first heard in Greenwich Village that summer [of 1966]".
In an interview, Butterfield guitarist Mike Bloomfield described Hendrix's guitar work: H-bombs were going off, guided missiles were flying – I can't tell you the sounds he was getting out of his instrument.
[22]John Hammond Jr., who recorded several early blues-rock albums with members of the Band, Charlie Musselwhite and Bloomfield, also became involved with Jimmy James and the Blue Flames.
[2] Hammond remembered Al Kooper and Barry Goldberg occasionally sitting in on keyboards[23] and Hendrix performing one solo number by Bo Diddley, possibly "I'm a Man".
[24] Other musicians who recalled their shows include Buzzy Linhart (who later added vibraphone to Hendrix's "Drifting"), Robbie Robertson, John Sebastian and Stefan Grossman.
[23][25] Jimmy James and the Blue Flames managed to attract a lot of attention during their short run and the Animals' Chas Chandler was the first to offer the all-important deal.
Chandler had just heard Tim Rose's folk-rock arrangement of the Billy Roberts song "Hey Joe" and thought that it might be a good vehicle to launch a new artist and his career as a producer.
[26] By chance, when Linda Keith brought him to hear the Blue Flames in August, the first song they played was "Hey Joe"; in the often repeated Bob Kulick quote, Chandler "became so excited he spilled his milkshake all over himself".
It also allowed him to raise his expectations – after one last gig with Curtis Knight and the Squires, where he was again criticized for being too flashy and loud, he ripped out his guitar cord and announced, "That's the last time I play this shit.