RIP Buddy Miles

[flickster]

Buddy Miles Passes

Buddy Miles, the drummer in Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys and a hitmaker under his own name with the song “Them Changes,” died on at his home in Austin, Tex. He was 60.

Mr. Miles suffered from congestive heat failure, his publicist, Duane Lee, said, according to Reuters. Mr. Lee said he did not know the official cause of death.

[Carson_O_Genic]

That’s pretty young.
I associate him more with the Electric Flag period,not that I don’t like Gypsys.It seemed Hendrix’ choice of Buddy was responding to pressure to be more “Black” than it was musicianship,since Mitchell worked with him subsequently.

[KneadToKnow]

Just a polite request … can we not use the verb “pass” when referring to someone whose initials are BM?

Thanks.

Rest in peace, Buddy.

[Wee_Bairn]

I’ve never heard any of his solo material - all I know of him is this capsule review from Robert Christgau of the Them Changes LP. Does his criticism have any legitimate merit?

Them Changes [Mercury, 1970]
His work on Band of Gypsies and Devotion surpasses anything he ever did with the Electric Flag, but that’s due to the artistic maturity of Hendrix and McLaughlin, not of Buddy Miles. His singing is too thin to carry two consecutive cuts, his drumming has to be exploited by subtler musicians, and the title cut is the only decent song he ever wrote. C

[flickster]

While I spent MANY hours listening to his Them Changes album, I’ll admit to not being all that familiar with his work since. However, I find Robert’s review unduly harsh.

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

@Wee Bairn

Does his criticism have any legitimate merit?

The shot at Miles’s songwriting talent is probably true, but still off-base in that songwriting was never his thing anyway. I think his best known songs as a solo artist, besides the obvious classic “Them Changes,” were his covers of the Allman Brothers’ “Midnight Rider” (he did a bunch of Allmans covers) and Neil Young’s “Down by the River.”

[Marley23]

@Wee Bairn

I’ve never heard any of his solo material - all I know of him is this capsule review from Robert Christgau of the Them Changes LP. Does his criticism have any legitimate merit?

Them Changes [Mercury, 1970]
His work on Band of Gypsies and Devotion surpasses anything he ever did with the Electric Flag, but that’s due to the artistic maturity of Hendrix and McLaughlin, not of Buddy Miles. His singing is too thin to carry two consecutive cuts, his drumming has to be exploited by subtler musicians, and the title cut is the only decent song he ever wrote. C

I’m sorry to hear about Miles’ passing, I don’t like to criticize dead people in obit threads, and I don’t often agree with Christgau. Having only heard Miles’ drumming on Band of Gypsys, though, I think Christgau is onto something.
I don’t think Buddy Miles was one-fourth the drummer Mitch Mitchell was, and he wasn’t a good singer or songwriter. The Gypsys version of Them Changes is amazing, but that’s because Jimi turned in perhaps the greatest wah-wah performance of all time - which allows you to overlook the fact that the singing is nothing to write home about, and in terms of variety, the lyrics are only about a notch better than Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?

I may just have a bad impression of the guy. Somehow I always felt that he saw himself as the star or co-star in Band of Gypsys.