Another one bites the dust...

If I were to take the original master tapes of the 3 Jimi Hendrix Experience records and mix them according to who was still alive today, you wouldn't hear anything (not including guest musicians, which was especially prevalent during Electric Ladyland).

That's right folks; I just found out via Tim Napalm's Myspace blog, and Pitchfork Media that the last surviving member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Mitch Mitchell, was found dead in his Portland hotel room this morning. Natural causes, they say. A real shame. A real drag. Jimi died in 1970. Bassist Noel Redding died in 2003, and now Mitch Mitchell has joined them.

Mitchell was an extraordinary drummer, and one of the most underrated. He emerged in an era where drummers began to gain the spotlight in music, and he competed with the ranks of Ginger Baker, Keith Moon and John Bonham. With the exception of Bonham, Mitchell, in my opinion, was a far better drummer than the drummers of that era. It was that Jimi Hendrix was a bona fide guitar god, and people were marveled by his antics that Mitchell's drumming, always a source for acclaim, was kind of left in the dark. His drumming was frantic, jazzy and inventive. Motherfucker could create some killer drum fills. Listen to the drum fills in "Manic Depression," and you'll know what I'm talking about. Whenever I had a conversation about the Jimi Hendrix Experience, I always recognized Mitchell's drumming, in addition to the obvious genius of Hendrix. It's a shame that he didn't do too much, aside from under-the-radar session work, after Hendrix's death in 1970. He did however, just complete a tour with a few fellow musicians (Kenny Wayne Shephard, Buddy Guy and Aerosmith's Brad Whitford, to name a few) dubbed the Experience Hendrix Tour 2008, which celebrated the life and music of his former bandmate.

Predeceasing Mitchell this year was another Hendrix collaborator, Buddy Miles, who played with Hendrix during his short-lived Band of Gypsies. Miles died in February.

Damn! These classic rockers keep dropping like flies! And all the good ones, too!

Here's some classic Jimi Hendrix Experience