10 Greatest Albums That Never Happened

Who knows what level of musical brilliance Hendrix might have reached had he not died in 1970. Since his death numerous studio sessions, demos and live recordings have been remastered and released as part of his ongoing legacy. But, no other collection of recordings are as highly sort after as the Black Gold tapes.

Black Gold was intended to be Hendrix's next album. It was a far grander and more ambitious project than anything he had undertaken before. The concept was intended to be an autobiographic tale of a rock star on the road. The music would be set to an animated film. Hendrix recorded the demos for his new project on a small recording tape deck with only an acoustic guitar. Legend has it, that he entrusted the tapes to his drummer Mitch Mitchell, not long after.

Like all good myths, there are multiple theories as to where these tapes eventually ended up. One theory was that they had been stollen after Hendrix died. When Mitch Mitchell passed away in 2008, it was alluded to, that he still had the originals somewhere at his home. Producer Alan Douglas also claimed to have copies, but after his death in 2014, they never materialised.

Jimi Hendrix's half-sister is known to have a collection of unreleased Hendrix material, apparently including the original Black Gold tapes. In 2010 the track, Suddenly November Morning, was released as part of a Hendrix Anthology. It is the only official release attributed to the original recordings.