In early 1970, Hendrix recorded an autobiographical song cycle in his
Greenwich Village apartment that he titled
Black Gold. Months later, at the
Isle of Wight Festival, Hendrix gave tapes to his drummer
Mitch Mitchell to have him listen and comment on the necessary rhythm section requirements for recording the songs. After Hendrix's death in September 1970, Mitchell simply forgot about the tapes, apparently unaware that they were one-of-a-kind masters. For 22 years, the
Black Gold tapes sat in a black
Ampex tape box that Hendrix tied shut with a headband and labelled "BG". Hendrix's producer
Alan Douglas discussed another tape in his possession in a 1974 interview. The tape included "eight tunes, running for about 30 minutes". He described it briefly: "the quality might be OK for us to put it out in audio form, but it is such an incredible story that I'm thinking along the lines of an animated film". At the time of the interview Mitchell's tapes were as-yet undiscovered, so Douglas' single cassette was presumably a different item. It was not until 1992 that Tony Brown, the avid Hendrix collector and biographer, interviewed Mitchell and learnt that the mythical
Black Gold tapes, thought to have been stolen from Hendrix's apartment by vandals who ransacked it for collectibles soon after his death, were lying in Mitchell's home in England. Mitchell also possessed the Martin guitar that was used to create the material. Brown was invited to review the tapes and published a summary of his account, though not the tracks themselves. Mitchell was in possession of the tapes at the time of his death in 2008, leaving the whereabouts of the
Black Gold tapes uncertain. In March 2010, Janie Hendrix was described as being a "custodian of a vast stash of unreleased material", and stated that
Black Gold will be released "this decade", though that did not eventuate. "Suddenly November Morning" was included in the album
West Coast Seattle Boy: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology, released in November 2010. The first track on the
Black Gold suite, it was released as the last track on the album. This is the only track from
Black Gold ever released. Douglas died in 2014, and the status of his copy is unknown. ==Contents==