RIP Buddy Miles

Driving home from work today listening to NPR I heard that Buddy Miles died. Buddy Miles was one of the great drummers of the late sixties. He made his name as the drummer for the Electric Flag and for Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsies. Later he formed the Buddy Miles Express and in the 80's he sang "I heard it through the grape vine" as a California Raisin. But really, all that aside, celebrate the man's life by cueing up Machine Gun from the Band of Gypsies album. Recorded during a series of new years shows at the Filmore East in 1969/1970 Machine Gun is still a funky wild angry ride. Hendrix dedicated it at live appearances to "...all the soldiers fighting in Chicago and Milwaukee and New York.. and, oh yes, all the soldiers fighting in Vietnam." Check out Miles' singing somewhere around the ten minute mark as well as his drumming throughout the whole piece with its staccato 'machine gun' bursts.