It's Too Bad

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In 1969, Jimi Hendrix's half-brother, Leon Hendrix, was suffering from drug addiction and other problems.{{Citation |at=sec. News, p. B1 |work= Seattle Post-Intelligencer |date=August 16, 2002 |title=Leon Hendrix Wants A Bigger Share Of Estate Brother Of Famed Guitarist Jimi Says He Was Denied His Rightful Inheritance And Will Sue |author=Gene Stout |access-date= January 26, 2013 |url=http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Leon-Hendrix-wants-a-bigger-share-of-estate-1093674.php}} After Leon approached his successful half-brother Jimi and asked him for money, Hendrix wrote, "It's Too Bad".{{cite news |agency= Reuters |date=September 8, 2000 |title=Hendrix emerges from Haze with boxed set |author=Dean Goodman |access-date= January 26, 2013 |url=http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/straitstimes20000911-1.2.84.36.1.1.aspx}} On Tuesday, February 11, 1969,{{Citation |page=123 |title=Jimi Hendrix - from the Benjamin Franklin Studios 3rd Edition Part 1: The Complete Guide to the Recorded Work of Jimi Hendrix |author1=Gary Geldeart |author2=Steve Rodham |edition = 3|publisher= Jimpress |date=2008 |isbn=978-0952768654|access-date= January 26, 2013 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JEdeJ6TcNM8C&q=%22it%27s+too+bad%22+hendrix&pg=PA123}} Hendrix was at Record Plant Studios in New York City producing the song "I Can See" for his friends in the Buddy Miles Express band at a recording session that went from 12:00 am to 4:00 am.{{Citation |page=140|title=Ultimate Hendrix: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Live Concerts and Sessions |author1=John McDermott |author2=Eddie Kramer |author3=Billy Cox |publisher= Hal Leonard Corporation |date= 2009|isbn=978-0879309381|access-date= January 26, 2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6ty_6SqPE4C&q=%22It%E2%80%99s+Too+Bad%22+hendrix&pg=PA140 }} With musician Buddy Miles on drums and Duane Hitchings on organ,{{Citation |at=sec. Arts & Lifestyle, p. 37|work= Boston Herald |date=September 12, 2000 |title= Music; Experiencing Jimi; New four-CD set of breathtaking Hendrix leftovers enhances guitarist's legend|author=Larry Katz |access-date= January 26, 2013 |url=http://business.highbeam.com/3972/article-1G1-65178971/experiencing-jimi-new-fourcd-set-breathtaking-hendrix|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006155644/http://business.highbeam.com/3972/article-1G1-65178971/experiencing-jimi-new-fourcd-set-breathtaking-hendrix|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 6, 2014}}{{Citation |work= Yamaha Corporation |date=2010 |title=A Country Writer's Rock Roots - Duane Hitchings |access-date= January 26, 2013 |url = http://www.yamaha.com/allaccess/artists/issue10-hitchings_duane.asp?issue=issue10 }} the Buddy Miles Express band recorded "I Can See" (later retitled "Destructive Love") as Hendrix operated the mixing console. After the song was recorded, Hendrix came from behind the control room console to play guitar for two impromptu originals, "World Traveler", a guitar-and-organ duel between Hendrix and Hitchings, and "It's Too Bad". Both songs were recorded in one take. Hitchings remarked about his experience recording with Hendrix, noting in 2010: "Jamming with him was an amazing experience. I was scared to death!".

In the 1969 song track, Hendrix plays the roles of both himself and his brother Leon. Backed by modern-day blues, the song begins with "It's too bad, Lord, my brother can't be here today", to explore Hendrix's uneasy relationship with Leon, a theme that Hendrix also explored in his 1969 song, "Shame, Shame, Shame".{{Citation |work= NPR All Things Considered |date=November 22, 2010 |title=Unreleased Material From Jimi Hendrix Reflects A Life Of Music And Money Woes|author= Melissa Block|access-date= January 26, 2013 |url=http://m.npr.org/story/131512327|quote=It's a shame, shame, shame, shame, shame that my brother can't be with me today./Well, the last time, the last time that I seen him, he asked me for help, and I turned him right away./He asked me for help, and I turned him away.}} In "It's Too Bad", the song notes how Hendrix sent Leon "a-crying away", and goes on to address Hendrix's uneasy relationship with other African-Americans, noting: "So I'll go way across the tracks{{nbsp}}... And man they treat me the same way as you do{{nbsp}}... [They] say man until you come back, completely black, go back where you came from too". Music reviews attributed the uneasy community connection expressed in the song to 1960s-1970s African-Americans' objection to Hendrix's "colorblind vision" by accusing Hendrix of "achieving stardom by pandering to rock's largely white audience".{{Citation |at=sec. Fanfare, p. D18|work= Newsday |date=September 15, 2000 |title= Under His Influence - Thirty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix is still teaching wannabe guitar gods how to be players|author=Letta Tayler |access-date= January 26, 2013 |url=http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/fanfare/cover-story-under-his-influence-thirty-years-after-his-death-jimi-hendrix-is-still-teaching-wannabe-guitar-gods-how-to-be-players-1.407851}} The song also makes reference to Hendrix's 1968 song "Room Full of Mirrors", which refers to a cracked mirror metaphor Hendrix used to convey the many sides of his emotions.{{Citation|author=Matthew Greenwald |work=Room Full of Mirrors - Jimi Hendrix, Listen, Appearances, Song Review, AllMusic |date=2013 |title=Jimi Hendrix Room Full of Mirrors |publisher =Allmusic|access-date= January 26, 2013 |url=http://www.allmusic.com/song/room-full-of-mirrors-mt0013804423}}

After Hendrix died without a will in 1970, his father, Al, received the rights to Hendrix's estate, including "It's Too Bad".{{Citation |at=sec. A, p. A10 |work= New York Times |date=September 25, 2004 |title=Judge Settles Long Family Feud Over Jimi Hendrix's Estate |author= Brian Alexander|access-date= January 26, 2013 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/25/national/25hendrix.html?pagewanted=print&position=&_r=0 }} A little more than thirty years after the song was recorded, it was one of four Hendrix songs newly discovered and added to The Jimi Hendrix Experience, a four-disc box set.{{Citation |at=sec. Ticket, p. H14 |work= Seattle Times |date=August 18, 2000 |title=Rocknotes |author=Patrick MacDonald |access-date= January 26, 2013 |url= https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20000818/4037672/rocknotes}} In reviewing the song on The Jimi Hendrix Experience (2000), producer and audio engineer Eddie Kramer noted about the tune: "I think it's very clever, and very, very emotionally charged. It has a tremendous wallop". Two years later, Hendrix's father died and Leon sued their father's estate and Hendrix's stepsister Janie to gain control over about one-quarter of US$80 million. After Washington Superior Court judge Jeffrey M. Ramsdell limited Leon's claim to a single gold record left to him when his father died in 2002, Janie remarked in 2004 about the lawsuit: "Jimi wrote a song about Leon and it was called, 'It's Too Bad'. The lyrics to that song are what this is all about".

{{Reflist}}

• Lyrics of "It's Too Bad" at {{Citation |page=83 |title=Jimi Hendrix: The Lyrics |author1=Jimi Hendrix |author2=Janie Hendrix |publisher= Hal Leonard Corporation |date=2003|isbn=0634049305|access-date= January 26, 2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nVZAPcv2MIC&q=%22Lord%2C+my+brother+can%27t+be+here+today%22&pg=PA83}}
• Sheet music first page for "It's Too Bad" at {{Citation |work=MusicaNeo Sheet Music |date=2013 |title=It's Too Bad by J. Hendrix - sheet music on MusicaNeo |publisher =MusicaNeo|access-date= January 26, 2013 |url=http://www.musicaneo.com/data/upload/97360_w_560x720.jpeg}}

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Category:1969 songs

Category:Songs written by Jimi Hendrix

Category:Jimi Hendrix songs