{"id":1714,"date":"2017-07-18T21:43:23","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T20:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/?p=1714"},"modified":"2021-04-09T12:10:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T11:10:00","slug":"jesse-ed-davis-washita-love-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=1714","title":{"rendered":"Jesse Ed Davis: Washita Love Child"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Native American guitar prodigy\u00a0JESSE ED DAVIS was sidesman\u00a0for legends such as John Lennon, Gene Clark, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, and released a trio of solo albums in the early \u201870s. THOMAS PATTERSON hears personal memories of a man who\u00a0died\u00a0young but burned brightly from Mike Johnson, producer of new compilation\u00a0<em>Red Dirt Boogie: The Atco Recordings 1970-1972<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>I was\u00a0a big fan of Jesse, because I\u2019m a Beatles\u2019 freak. I had a lot of the bootlegs, going back into the early\u00a0\u201870s. I had the\u00a0<em>Walls and Bridges<\/em>\u00a0session that he was very prominent on.<\/p>\n<p>Being in LA, I read in the\u00a0<em>LA Weekly<\/em>\u00a0that Yoko Ono was doing an\u00a0art show. This was in 1985, and I thought,\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m going to crash it and see if I can get in.\u201d\u00a0I was\u00a0waiting in line\u00a0at the\u00a0gallery, and I noticed Jesse was in line a few people back. I invited him up to\u00a0where\u00a0I was standing, two from the door. I said, \u201cI\u2019m a big fan, I know your work.\u201d I ran his discography by him. He was very interesting, he wanted to\u00a0talk. When the door opened, we went in and mingled, and Jesse saw Yoko, and took me with him,\u00a0and introduced me. \u201cMike Johnson, this is Yoko Ono.\u201d And I\u00a0thought,\u00a0\u201cHoly cow, I\u2019ve arrived!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We spoke for a few minutes then Jesse took Yoko off to the side. I don\u2019t know what they talked about but it looked very serious and then she left. Was he there to ask her for money, was he there to ask for a favour, as he there\u00a0just\u00a0out\u00a0affection? I never knew and I never asked. But while we were in line, we exchanged phone numbers.\u00a0A\u00a0few days went by and he actually called me. I was at work,\u00a0and he asked if I were ever around, could I give him a lift? And I said, \u201cSure,\u00a0I can take you\u00a0wherever\u00a0you need to go.\u201d\u00a0And that\u2019s where it started.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jesse Ed Davis Washita Love Child\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FMTMise5hmE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I was always really honoured when Jesse would call and ask for a favour like that.\u00a0It\u00a0was just really cool having that\u00a0audience\u00a0with him, one on one in my car as we\u2019re driving some place. Many times I didn\u2019t ask him why we were going somewhere, it was kind of weird. Of course, this was way back before Uber. But by picking him up and driving him places, I could ask him questions.<\/p>\n<p>He lived on\u00a0Sawtelle\u00a0in Palms.\u00a0Often,\u00a0I\u2019d be in his apartment and he\u2019d show me\u00a0things \u2013 he had tapes, he had\u00a0photographs.\u00a0I was seeing Polarioids and photographs that weren\u2019t in an album but were in a shoebox. And he this old TV tray, and underneath this tray was the box of photos. He\u2019d loan me cassettes, things like Taj Mahal live at The Fillmore.\u00a0He was a giving\u00a0sort, it was tit for tat.\u00a0And sometimes he\u2019d come and hang in my condo in Redondo, and\u00a0he\u2019d sit on the sofa and play\u00a0the blues.<\/p>\n<p>One\u00a0day I showed up\u00a0at his, and he said \u201cDid I ever show you this?\u201d It was\u00a0<em>The Rolling Stones\u00a0Rock\u00a0And\u00a0Roll Circus<\/em>. It was a rough cut,\u00a0years before it\u00a0came\u00a0out andhe said Bill Wyman had given it to him.\u00a0And I sat and watched it in his\u00a0apartment. I thought,\u00a0\u201cWhat a wonderful in into this world.\u201d And all I had to do was occasionally loan him twenty dollars and drive him someplace.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jesse Davis - Golden Sun Goddess.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3oNfyMuLlLU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes there was a tinge of sadness.\u00a0One time I drove him to a county fair in Palm Springs where Richie Havens was playing and he told me he was going out to collect on a debt.\u00a0And\u00a0one time I drove him to a pawnshop where he was\u00a0hawking one of his guitars. But there was nothing I could do. I was always glad to give him a lift and hang, but sometimes after\u00a0it was over, I would drive\u00a0home and\u00a0think,\u00a0\u201cThat was kind of weird.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The one time I got a call: \u201cMike, can you drive me to the Palomino?\u201d And I said \u201cNo, I\u2019m in Redondo and the Palomino\u2019s all the way up in North Hollywood, I\u2019d have to leave work early.\u201d And of course that was the Taj Mahal show at the Palomino with George Harrison and Bob Dylan. So I didn\u2019t take him to the show of the century! I tell you that only because this project I did is cosmic payment for not going to that gig. He introduced me to Yoko, he could have introduced me to Bob and George, and all I had to do was drive!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jesse Ed Davis - Tulsa County\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nbiSKBXhEFA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He wasn\u2019t doing\u00a0too\u00a0much\u00a0(musically)\u00a0and that was the sad thing.\u00a0I talked to\u00a0(DJ) Allen\u00a0Larman\u00a0one time and said \u201cCan we arrange to get Jesse on stage\u00a0somewhere?\u201d\u00a0but it never happened.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t working but it was also the time of The Graffiti Band so he was doing stuff with John Trudell. But I don\u2019t know how much involvement Jesse had. Trudell was definitely the mover.<\/p>\n<p>In essence, I think in the three or four years I knew him, he wasn\u2019t working or performing. But he got involved with Graffiti Band, but it never really went forward.<\/p>\n<p>I knew he was using. You could see his health was seriously deteriorating.\u00a0It was about week\u00a0after\u00a0our\u00a0last drive\u00a0when a\u00a0friend called me\u00a0and said \u201cDid you hear Jesse died?\u201d And it truly wasn\u2019t a surprise.\u00a0They\u00a0found him in the laundry room of the apartment. It was an overdose of heroin, he was shooting. And a couple of the last times I saw him, he was using a cane. I think\u00a0he\u00a0was 44.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jesse &#039;Ed&#039; Davis - Ululu\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UIOy0sq9is4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I knew his stuff well,\u00a0I was\u00a0a fan of all\u00a0the\u00a0musicians on\u00a0his albums, but I really got into them after he died. And it was like \u201cCrap, now he\u2019s gone, this is all we have.\u201d\u00a0And there\u2019s a bootleg of a radio broadcast of him in 1974 at the Santa Monica Civic. It runs for about 45 minutes, perfect quality. And I listen to that and I think, \u201cMy God, he really could do it.\u201d I don\u2019t know if he was shy, or was too high or just wanted to be in the background\u2026<\/p>\n<p>But he was proud of his records. I know that Jesse would\u00a0sometimes say in retrospect, \u201cI was rushed, that wasn\u2019t really my sound, they didn\u2019t capture me right.\u201d\u00a0But I\u00a0think every musician says that, and\u00a0when\u00a0I would ask him about those records, he was very proud of them.<\/p>\n<p>I have a caveat here, and Jesse would say to me\u00a0with a sigh, \u201cYou know, just one day the circus left town.\u201d And I\u2019d think about that for a long time because you can imagine, here he is,\u00a0hanging\u00a0with these cats, and he\u2019s got all this work and everybody\u2019s calling him.\u00a0One of the cassettes\u00a0he loaned me was his phone message. Harry Nilsson was on there:\u00a0\u201cHey Jesse, this is Harry, we\u2019re in town,\u00a0gimme\u00a0a call!\u201d And there was one from Lennon: \u201cHey this is\u00a0Dr.\u00a0Winston\u00a0O\u2019Boogie, calling from outer space.\u201d Just wonderful messages from everybody.\u00a0There was\u00a0definitely a time when he was on the A-List and everybody wanted him\u00a0to come out to play. But I don\u2019t know if it was just his addiction, or what it was that made the circus leave town. That was one of the big pieces I never figured out. But\u00a0there\u00a0was that magic decade where everybody wanted him.<\/p>\n<p>So, during this time and to the present, I\u2019d been working in the music industry. I was with Rhino for a long time in the A&amp;R department and I\u2019m now one of the archivists and I\u2019ve been there 13 years, actually in the main vault. So when a tape is needed for a project, I\u2019m one of six people in the whole company who facilitate assets either physically or electronically. So by proximity to his ATCO\/Atlantic recordings, I see them all the time, I walk by these tapes on 16-foot shelves. And by the way we organise things, they\u2019re not in one place, they don\u2019t live as one unit, they come to us at various times, so they\u2019re all over the place. So I\u2019d be re-filing things, think of it as being a librarian, some things would go out, things would come in, you\u2019re constantly circulating assets, and I\u2019m walking past these things all the time and I\u2019d see all these multi-tracks. He left behind a LOT of work. Coming from Rhino I had produced or co-produced many projects, I\u2019ve been involved with over 200 CD titles on the production side. So I thought \u201cI\u2019ve got to get Jesse back out on the street, I\u2019ve got to get these back out there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jesse Ed Davis \/ Ching ching china boy (Santa Monica73\uff09\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JIi0xgUCLnk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Just trying to push this thing through the system took about five years of asking. Because I couldn\u2019t get the support needed. I don\u2019t have the money to do this myself, so I need a label with clout, and money to be able to licence this stuff. It\u2019s matter of shopping and pushing business affairs. But I just kept pushing. I got a lot of \u201cno\u2019s\u201d. A lot of \u201cNah, we\u2019re not interested.\u201d But I was persistent. I kept on knocking on the same doors and I wore them down. I\u2019d had some successes with Gordon Anderson at Real Gone Music, and a couple of years ago I did this gigantic box set of unissued Bob Wills\u2019 Tiffany Transcriptions I\u2019d discovered, and it turned out super nice so I\u2019d proved my worth with Gordon by doing that package, so I just kept after them on this project. Eventually they said \u201cDo it, here\u2019s the budget. Go for it.\u201d And it came together really quickly.<\/p>\n<p>There were maybe 60 or more multi-tracks. Two inch 16 track reels. There were 24 songs I\u2019d never heard before including \u2018Little Wing\u2019, and it\u2019s got Eric Clapton on it, I determined because of the date. But I couldn\u2019t get anybody to finance that because it\u2019s expensive, about $300 per reel to get those run down. Just to even listen to them, it\u2019s about $300. I wasn\u2019t able to preview much unissued stuff although the tapes sit there. It\u2019s one of those Catch 22 situations. There are tapes but nobody has the money to run them down. That\u2019s the frustration \u2013 you see all this genius music that just sits there and I can feel no avenue to get it to the public because it\u2019s very expensive still. Nobody\u2019s going to digitise it. It\u2019ll be 30 years before anybody thinks of digitising those.<\/p>\n<p>But there sit all those multi-tracks and I could ascertain the dates all the recordings were made just by pulling the tapes and just writing down, say, \u201cIt was recorded at Criterion on this day and these are the performers\u201d. And I could look at the legal contracts and verify the players and on and on. I also used to do research at the Musicians\u2019 Union, so I had access to the AM\/FM recording contracts too, so I knew the dates of the recordings. As I said, I loved this guy.<\/p>\n<p>There was one tape that inspired this project. Five years ago, I came across a tape there that was the spark. I reproduced the front of the tape box in the liner notes of the new package. It was two-track analogue tape and it had Jesse\u2019s handwriting on it. And it was a demo tape he\u2019d put together for Jerry Wexler. And written on the tape was \u201cHere\u2019s the demo recording Jerry, let me know what you think.\u201d And this is the first tape I know of that Jesse part together to send to Jerry Wexler at Atlantic to get a recording contract. And that was one I had run down.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s where the two unreleased songs in the package come from. One is a backing track for \u2018Rock N Roll Gypsies\u2019 without the overdubs, and the other is \u2018Washita Love Child\u2019 which I just love, but there\u2019s an intro that is like a Native American Pow Wow that runs for a couple of minutes. He definitely chopped that off. He didn\u2019t use that, but there it is, there\u2019s his Native American roots right there, so that was really important to me. There were a couple of songs I left off. \u2018Oh Susanne\u2019! What were you thinking, Jesse? So I cherry picked the best. But this easily could have been a double or a triple if we had the budget.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jesse Ed Davis and Bobby Jameson Work Track  Mary Please Forgive Me\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CWlx_pMjBvk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s\u00a0cosmic payback. He made me feel like a million bucks and all I had to do was drive. Or occasionally open the wallet and stop at a 7\/11 and buy him a packet of cigarette. And I knew he was a self-destructive person. He loved to just answer my questions. At some point I ran out of things to ask him. But whether I was an easy mark or we were really\u00a0friends\u00a0or it\u00a0was a combination of the two, it really was a pleasure to have him in my life.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1718\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/61c7zJHkdnL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/61c7zJHkdnL.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/61c7zJHkdnL-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/61c7zJHkdnL-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/61c7zJHkdnL-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/61c7zJHkdnL-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/61c7zJHkdnL-450x450.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Red Dirt Boogie: The Atco Recordings 1970-1972\u00a0<em>is out now on Real Gone<\/em><\/p>\n<span class=\"synved-social-container synved-social-container-share\"><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F1714&#038;t=Jesse%20Ed%20Davis%3A%20Washita%20Love%20Child&#038;s=100&#038;p&#091;url&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F1714&#038;p&#091;images&#093;&#091;0&#093;=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shindig-magazine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F07%2F61c7zJHkdnL.jpg&#038;p&#091;title&#093;=Jesse%20Ed%20Davis%3A%20Washita%20Love%20Child\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-twitter nolightbox\" data-provider=\"twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F1714&#038;text=New%20post%20on%20our%20site\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"twitter\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-mail nolightbox\" data-provider=\"mail\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share by email\" href=\"mailto:?subject=Jesse%20Ed%20Davis%3A%20Washita%20Love%20Child&#038;body=New%20post%20on%20our%20site:%20https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F1714\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"mail\" title=\"Share by email\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/mail.png\" \/><\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Native American guitar prodigy\u00a0JESSE ED DAVIS was sidesman\u00a0for legends such as John Lennon, Gene Clark, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, and released a trio of solo albums in the early \u201870s. THOMAS PATTERSON hears personal memories of a man who\u00a0died\u00a0young but burned brightly from Mike Johnson, producer of new compilation\u00a0Red Dirt Boogie: The Atco Recordings [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[421],"class_list":["post-1714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-jesse-ed-davis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1714"}],"version-history":[{"count":-2,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}