Hey, Joe, want to get your hands on some ultra-rare Jimi Hendrix?
Be prepared to open up the checkbook: a song written and recorded by the late guitar god, but never released on any of the dozens of compilation albums and bootlegs over the years, will be going on the block Oct. 26. The auction was announced Tuesday by Ocean Torno LLC, a Chicago-based merchant bank specializing in intellectual property assets.
Hendrix wrote the tune "Station Break" with Jerry Simon, president of R.S.V.P. Music, during a New York studio session in 1966--just before he formed the Experience, the power trio that launched him to stardom.
Ocean Torno spokesperson Wendy Chou says the track went missing and was never issued, unlike other songs from the same recording session like "U.F.O.," "I'm a Fool for You," "Kato's Special," "Flying on Instruments" and "No Such Animal."
"There was really no explanation why it was never released. I think it just got lost," Chou told E! Online.
Simon's widow, Celeste Simon, said that "Station Break" didn't resurface until 1994, when her husband was rummaging through a closet in the couple's home in Woodstock, New York.
"Jerry stumbled across this old recording in the closet and realized that nothing had ever been done with this recording," she said. "It just slipped through the cracks."
Proceeds from the song's sale will be divided evenly between Celeste Simon and the Hendrix estate, which has administered the rights to his records since his death at the age of 27.
Chou said that she could not predict how much the "Station Break" copyright and original reel-to-reel recording might fetch at the sale, set to take place at New York City's Capitale.
Janie Hendrix, the rocker's stepsister and president and CEO of Experience Hendrix, which oversees his legacy, told Reuters that the estate was unaware of this particular song until it surfaced.
"We have acquired most of these but there are still a few stragglers. I did not know about this one," she said. "We will have to have discussions about this as there could be copyright issues."
The Hendrix family is used to legal squabbles over the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's songs. In 2004, Janie Hendrix and Experience Hendrix faced off in a Seattle court against Hendrix's brother Leon, who accused Janie of frittering away money from Jimi's estate and sought to have her removed from her post as administrator.
Janie called the charges ludicrious and a judge agreed, rejecting Leon's claim to a stake in his brother's estate, worth an estimated $80 million. Leon appealed, but on Monday, a state appellate court in Washington decided against him and upheld the lower court's ruling.