Song of the Day-Burning of the Midnight Lamp

Maybe the coolest guitar jam from what is probably the greatest Jimi Hendrix Experience album "Electric Ladyland," "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" was released in August of 1967 as a mono single in England. It charted at number 18. It was re-released in stereo on the "Electric Ladyland" album. It was Hendrix first recorded US of "wah wah" pedal, a sound that he became associated with. He also plays keyboards on the track. Whitney's mother, Cissy Houston provided backup vocals, as did the "Sweet Inspirations" notable for their years of work with Elvis. The song starts off slowly as a ballad, and builds to a crescendo, ala the Beatles "A Day In The Life."  A track very much ahead of it's time.

I wanted to include her a very cool cover version by the Chicago band Rotary Connection. A band that sprang from the fertile brain of Marshall Chess, son of Chess Records' founder Leonard Chess. In the wake of the big success of Sly and the Family Stone, a multi-racial rock band fronted by Minnie Riperton, a receptionist for Chess who had a multi-octave voice, was a savvy idea indeed.

Rotary Connection could be a challenging listen, not particularly radio friendly, given to long versions of songs associated with "psychedelic" artists like Cream and Hendrix. They recorded about 5-6 albums before breaking up. There records are out-of-print for the most part, and when re-released tend to play up the Riperton angle due to her later solo success (remember "Loving You"...is easy cause you're beautiful). Rotary Connection sounded nothing like the radio-friendly pop soul Riperton hit the charts with in the 70's. In fact, on much of their material, she is nothing like a traditional "lead" vocalist.

I have a copy of their first, probably best album which I downloaded from a "grey" market site. It has covers of "Ruby Tuesday" and "Lady Jane" by the Stones and "Like A Rolling Stone" by Bobby Dylan. Their version of "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" which is cool and different from Jimi's is on their 4th album "Songs." I have thrown it up the Chadwick's Listening Room playlist on Spotify if you want to give it a lesson. Couldn't find a youtube version to post here.

Minnie Riperton, who was the mother of Saturday Night Live, "Bridesmaids," and "Up All Night" star Maya Rudolph (I did NOT know that) died of Breast Cancer at the age of 32 in 1979.