Experience Hendrix “has made it known many times in the past that no such film, were it to include original music or copyrights created by Jimi Hendrix, can be undertaken without its full participation,” the company said in a statement.

The move will come as no shock to the makers of “All Is By My Side,” reportedly about to begin product in Ireland. The film covers the period in which Hendrix emerged in London and went on to stun the world with the debut album “Are You Experienced.”

Benjamin, of course, is a famous musician as well, being half of the progressive group Outkast. The film’s writer-director is John Ridley (“Three Kings”). IMDB does not list the film on either man’s credits/projects page, however.

The production company is Richard Kelly’s Darko Entertainment, working with Subotica Entertaiment and Matador Pictures, the Hollywood Reporter said in confirming the Hendrix film plans.

The lack of actual Hendrix recordings no doubt could be circumvented by use of covers, which Hendrix recorded throughout his career. The best known is Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” The movie would not need the estate’s permission. This technique was used successfully in a few Beatles-related projects, notably “Backbeat.”

Despite the continuing fascination with the psychedelic guitarist’s life and work, no biopic of consequence has survived pre-production. Showtime did a cable film in 2000 with Wood Harris (“The Wire”) and Billy Zane.

The Hendix estate said it “had not ruled out a biopic in the future.”

“Producing partners would, out of necessity, have to involve the company from the inception of any such film project if it is to include original Jimi Hendrix music or compositions,” the statement released to Billboard said.

Hendrix’s name, music and image were heavily exploited in the years following his death. The family eventually sorted out its internal disputes and took control of the legacy. It has closely guarded all things Hendrix.

The three-CD “Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake: Deluxe Edtition” officially drops in the U.S. on July 3, although Amazon U.S. currently carries it as an import. The recording went on sale in Britain on May 7.

The Small Faces (along with Faces) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 14.

“Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake” was famed in 1968 even by those who hadn’t heard the music. The circular unfolding cover, based on an old tobacco tin, proved both odd and revolutionary. Stoners loved it, along with the album’s trippy second side tied together by the babbling of U.K. comic Stanley Unwin.

Decades later, the concept album’s key song, “Lazy Sunday,” resurfaced as the inspiration for a “Saturday Night Live” video that went super-viral.

The Small Faces are best known for the heavily phased single “Itchykoo Park,” which, unfortunately, wasn’t included on the album despite being recorded a few months before. That pop psychedelic classic’s spirit and production style infuse the album, however.

While “Nut Gone Flake” has solid psychedelic era cred, the Small Faces were very much a soulful rock and roll band. The ringleaders were singers Ronnie Lane (bass) and Steve Mariott (guitar). The group spanned the mod and psychedelic eras of the 1960s but remained relatively unknown in the States. Lane later found Stateside success with Faces (Rod Stewart), while Mariott worked the colonies with Humble Pie.

The two surviving Small Faces members — keyboardist Ian McLagan and drummer Kenney Jones — participated in the Small Faces remasters project, with some multitracks coming from Jones’ collection. (Jones reports that many tapes have been stolen.)

The Ultimate CD Edition is limited to 5,000 copies, distributor Universal says.

Disc 1 contains the mono version of the album. Disc 2 presents 14 sonic artifacts, including alternate mixes and backing tracks. Disc 3 has the stereo version of “Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake.”

Jones told Uncut: “We’ve fixed the tinniness (of previous CDs), and pulled Ronnie’s bass out more.”

In addition to sonic upgrades, the CD set includes a 10-page booklet that seeks to replicate the interactive original album cover. There also is a 24-page booklet.

Tomorrow was one of the three “underground” acts to play Joe Boyd’s UFO Club in London of 1966-67. The best known, then and now, of course, is Pink Floyd. Next is line was the prog-jazz outfit Soft Machine. Both of those bands found their places in rock history.

Tomorrow was another matter. Today, those who know of the the band generally do so for one of two reasons:

1. Steve Howe of Yes Fame was the group’s brilliant young guitarist;
2. The single “My White Bicycle,” beloved by many over the years but bought by few at the time. Despite its head-spinning charms, the song failed to even chart.

A few myths did attach themselves to the song over the years.

Howe and others have been known to call it the first British psychedelic single, although the Yardbirds’ “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago” predated “Bicycle” by seven months.

The song’s breathtaking backward/double-tracked/phased guitar work wasn’t unique to the band, either — although it certainly could be argued that Tomorrow was among the first rock acts to use the technique and make it pleasurably musical.

“It had been done by the Beatles or the Byrds or somebody … everybody (in rock circles) had touched it,” Howe recalled years later. (George Harrison used backward guitar on “I’m Only Sleeping” the summer before.)

A rock folk tale says the “White Bicycle” refers to LSD father Albert Hoffman’s famed two-wheel trip, but alas that one doesn’t stand up, either. The song was inspired by a Dutch socialist scheme of the day in which hundreds of white bicycles were strewn about Amsterdam for the use of one and all.

Vocalist Keith West, who co-wrote the song (as Keith Hopkins), makes the most of his joyride. After a brief psychedelic intro, the guitar digs into the hook. The band quickly adopts a pumping beat and West sings:

Riding all around the streets
Four o’clock and they’re all asleep
I’m not tired and it’s so late
Moving fast everything looks great

My white bicycle
(My white bicycle) …

“(The main guitar theme) is like a droning sitar sound,” drummer John “Twink” Alder recalls. “We were listening to Ravi Shankar and Gabor Zarbo at the time. So our influences were Indian mainly. Steve may have picked up on that … or he may have just pulled it out of the air.”

Howe credits producer Mark Wirtz for leading him into double-tracking: “I’m suddenly playing and then he says to me, “Let’s play it again,” and I said, “Didn’t you like that?” He said, “That’s great, let’s do it again double-track,” and I kind of went wow. … The way that all got edited was I think quite mystifying to us at first.”

How could so good a song — one with hooks, novelty, ace musicianship and a terrific beat — be simply ignored? Competition probably explains a lot. 1967 was no time for the almost-great. The song came out two months after Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” mind-fucked the pop world, for example.

Perhaps some of that Beatle magic rubbed off on Tomorrow and its signature song. The Beatles were neighbors at Abbey Road Studios, working on “Sgt. Pepper.” The liner notes to a reissue of Tomorrow’s only album says the Fabs were even present during the mixing. There’s a great rumor in there, somewhere …

Side notes: In 1999, EMI rereleased the “Tomorrow” album. The remastered recording, done from the original tapes, includes a stereo version of “My White Bicycle,” a first. … “My White Bicycle” came out as a single while the band was still recording the album. … Tomorrow disbanded as singer West found fame with producer Wirtz’s concept LP “Excerpt From a Teenage Opera.” Howe joined Yes in 1970. … Club guru turned producer Joe Boyd remembered the song. He wrote a book called “White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s.” … Steve Howe revived the number as the final number of his “Pulling Strings” solo tour and album. … The persistence of “My White Bicycle” can be attributed in part to its inclusion on compilation sets such as “Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968.”

As usual, psychedelic music bands are well represented. The spotlight will fall on the exclusive standalone LP release of the Grateful Dead’s epic “Dark Star” from the Europe ’72 tour — clocking in at just under 20 minutes.

There are follow-ups from on the Black Friday RSD releases from the Byrds, Janis Joplin and Pete Townshend.

The two Joplin albums are companions to Columbia’s April 17 commercial release of “The Pearl Sessions.” One offers “almost-never-heard alternate takes and early versions of classic songs,” while the other is the rare mono mix of the original album.

Other 1960s psychedelic bands repping on Record Store Day 2012 include the Small Faces, the Blues Magoos, Chocolate Watch Band and the Flaming Lips.

Over in the prog aisle, the big news is an eight-CD box set from King Crimson.

We’re spoiled here in California (L.A. and San Francisco) with the massive indie record seller Amoeba, but of course most of the record stores being honored are small shops, run by music-addicted guys and gals.

We’ll be spotted at Amoeba in L.A. and Freakbeat Records in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Here’s a list of selected psychedelic/1960s releases for Record Store Day 2012:

Blues Magoos: “So I’m Wrong And You Are Right”/”Wild About My Lovin’”/
“The People” on 7-inch 45 rpm vinyl. (Sundazed)

The Byrds: “It’s No Use”/”Feel A Whole Lot Better” on 7-inch 45 rpm vinyl. (Sundazed)

Captain Beefheart: “Diddy Wah Diddy” / “Who Do You Think You are Fooling”
“Moonchild” / “Frying Pan” on 7-inch 45 rpm vinyl. (Sundazed)

Chocolate Watch Band: “Psych Trip”/”Midnight Hour” on 7-inch 45 rpm vinyl. (Sundazed)

The Grateful Dead: “Dark Star: Europe ’72 Olympia Theatre: Paris, France 5/4/72″ on 180 gram LP. “Longest and previously unavailable version” of 1972 tour at 19 minutes 21 seconds. Also slightly shorter take. Rhino.

Janis Joplin: “Highlights from the Pearl Sessions” on 10-inch LP. Vinyl companion to the double-CD reissue of “The Pearl Sessions.” (Columbia)

Janis Joplin: “Pearl” in mono, on vinyl LP. “From the original master.” Not exclusive but first release to RSD. (Columbia)

King Crimson: “21st Century Bundle” in eight-disc boxiest. More than 100 tracks. (Discipline Global Media)

Small Faces: “Itchykoo Park” and “I’m Only Dreaming” on 7-inch 45 rpm. Original sleeve artwork. (Snapper Music)

Small Faces: “Tin Soldier”/”I Feel So Much Better Now” 7-inch 45 rpm. Original sleeve artwork. (Snapper Music)

Pete Townshend: “Quadrophenia Demos Part 2″ on 10-inch LP vinyl. Overseen and produced by Townshend. UMe.

The Flaming Lips: “A Spoonful Weighs a Ton” on 7-inch 45 rpm vinyl. Original track with cover by Mastadon as part of the Side by Side series. (Warner Bros.)

The Flaming Lips: “With Heady Fwends” double LP. Guests include Nick Cave, Yoko Ono and Chris Martin. (Warner Bros.)

View the full list of Record Store Day 2012 exclusives and first-releases. .

Record Store Day, launched in 2008, has grown from 300 participating stores to more than 1,000. It is largely a celebration of records on vinyl. The event is held on the third Saturdays of April, although there was the Black Friday edition.

The band plans a one-off concert in L.A. to support the CD “Wake Up Where You Are,” released in late March by the indie label Global Recording Artists.

“We are holding our breaths,” keyboardist Mark Weitz says. “It could go somewhere or nowhere. But at least it will go!”

(Update: The band played before a youthful and appreciative audience in Silver Lake. The new songs went over very well.)

“Wake Up Where You Are” is a mix of new SAC songs, two covers and reinterpretations of some of their psychedelic rock classics (but not “Incense and Peppermints”).

The band chose their cover of Sky Saxon’s “Mr. Farmer” as the lead-off track. The song may surprise fans with its infectious blast of hard rock, sung by Weitz. If the CD has a hit single, this is it. (Two versions of the song appear on the album — a single and a seven-minute take with some serious acid rock going down.)

The band — Mark Weitz, George Bunnell, Randy Seol, Howie Anderson and Gene Gunnels — will perform April 25 at the Satellite Club in L.A.’s Silver Lake district. (That’s the old Spaceland space.)

What about touring plans beyond the L.A. gig?

“Probably,” Weitz says. “If we make it through this concert successfully, barring anyone dying or succumbing to a wheelchair, we’ll be for sure having more work on the horizon.

“This is our ‘last-chance gas station tour,’ so to speak,” Weitz says with a grin. “I’ll have to admit, it’s more a race against arthritis and time! Ouch.”

The Strawberry Alarm Clock collectively qualifies for AARP discounts these days, true. And the group lost one of its key original members, Lee Freeman, to illness in early 2010.

But Weitz needn’t alert the paramedics just yet. The Strawberry Alarm Clock plays with passion and verve these days. They last performed in public in late 2010.

“We are gonna kick some psychedelic ass” at the Silver Lake show, the keyboardist vows.

The album takes its name from “Wake Up,” a heavy new song from guitarist Anderson. The track features psychedelic touches such as backward guitar and cymbals. The extended ending came from a studio jam that broke out after “Wake Up” was recorded but proved too good to throw away.

Longtime band collaborator Steve Bartek (Oingo Boingo) produced the album and played on most of its tracks.

Unlike many ’60s hitmakers, the Strawberry Alarm Clock weren’t looking to cash in by rerecording their glory-days songs. The tracks were cut to get the band back into studio shape, but ultimately the musicians liked the results enough to release them.

“Our real intention was to write and record new songs,” bassist George Bunnell says. “We just wanted to get back to our roots a bit, establish a method and move on from there.”

“Wake Up Where You Are” is available exclusively via the Strawberry Alarm Clock page on the GRA web site as something of a fan presale. The disc will be available via Amazon and the usual other outlets later in the spring.

Sundazed recently rereleased the band’s first album, “Incense and Peppermints.”

Transparency time: Psychedelic Sight built the psychedelic band’s new Web site.

Apple Corps. is releasing the 1968 psychedelic animated film on Blu-ray and DVD, along with a new CD version of the soundtrack album.

Extra features include a feature-length commentary by producer John Coates with some input from art director Heinz Edelmann; an odd 7-minute introductory piece from 1968, “Mod Odyssey”; various drawings and photos; and a trailer. These bonus features are almost certainly the same as those found on the DVD release of 13 years ago.

Pixar’s John Lasseter wrote the new booklet essay, calling the film a “revolutionary work.” The discs come packaged with reproductions of animation cells.

Beloved by Boomers and widely considered the second best of the Beatles movies, “Yellow Submarine” has been allowed to rust over the years, with the previous DVD version currently out of print.

MGM released a single-disc “Yellow Submarine” DVD in 2009, with a 5.1 mix Dolby Digital soundtrack that was highly praised at the time (although it sounds a bit thin these days).

No major restoration of the film had been undertaken in well over a decade, despite the obvious need to update the images. As with all things Beatles, the finger probably points to legal complications.

The new “4K digital resolution” was done by Paul Rutan Jr. and his Triage Motion Picture Services. “Due to the delicate nature of the hand-drawn original artwork, no automated software was used in the digital clean-up of the film’s restored photochemical elements,” Apple said in confirming the rerelease. “This was all done by hand, frame by frame.”

Rutan’s restoration credits include two other Beatles films — “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help” — as well as “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

George Dunning, who worked on the Beatles’ Saturday morning cartoon series, directed the original film. It was released in 1968 to the delight of a stoned generation. Any top 10 of psychedelic movies would include the animated feature, which was surprisingly strange and included obvious drug references.

The Beatles had little involvement with the film, but agreed to appear at its end in a live-action sequence. They reportedly were fans of Edelmann’s psychedelic imagery.

“I thought from the very beginning that the film should be a series of interconnected shorts,” Edelmann says in the commentary. “The style should vary every five minutes or so to keep the interest going until the end.”

While Edelmann has some comments spliced into the feature-length commentary, it’s mostly producer Coates’ talk, and he does a terrific job, dishing up insider info on topics such as the (once-)deleted “Hey Bulldog” sequence. (Edelmann died several years ago.)

Apple did not offer details on the new soundtrack CD. Songs appearing in the movie and used on the previous soundtrack CD include the title track, “Eleanor Rigby,” “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” “All You Need Is Love,” and “It’s All Too Much.”

The proper “Yellow Submarine” album has long been a love-hate item for Beatles fans, who got a half serving of Fabs songs (six) along with George Martin’s orchestral score. That original “Yellow Submarine” album was rereleased in September 2009 along with the rest of the Beatles catalog.

The “Yellow Submarine” Blu-ray, DVD and soundtrack CD will be released May 29 in the U.S. and a day earlier in Europe.

Walt Disney Pictures was listed as a co-producer of the “Yellow Submarine” remake attempted by director Robert Zemeckis. Disney pulled the plug on that project about a year ago, reportedly over concerns about its cost and planned used of 3D via motion-capture. Lasseter is chief creative officer at Disney Animation.

Britain’s Pinewood Studios updated the Yes film with high-definition images and a 5.1 surround sound restoration. While the Blu-ray debuts in the U.K. on April 30, no U.S. release has been announced.

A spokeswoman for U.K. distributor Odeon Entertainment said via email that the PAL disc would play in U.S. Blu-ray machines.

Artist Roger Dean, famed for his psychedelic landscapes for Yes album covers, produced four new postcards for the release. The Blu-ray includes an hour of “new and unseen” extra features, including a 2012 documentary with core Yes members Steve Howe, Roger Dean and Chris Squire, and a 12-minute short with guitarist Howe.

Yes members Rick Wakeman and Alan White also starred in the concert film, filmed in 1972 at London’s Rainbow Theatre and originally released to theaters in quadrophonic sound. (Wakeman was about to exit the band, and White had just filled the drummer’s seat vacated by Bill Bruford.)

The “Yessongs” Blu-ray will have a restored mono track as well as the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 remix. The Blu-ray lists the film as 84 minutes, while IMDB says the original ran 12 minutes shorter.

The 35mm film was directed by Peter Neal (“Glastonbury Fayre”). It was edited by Philip Howe, Steve Howe’s brother.

Yes was touring behind “Close to the Edge.” Keyboardist Wakeman also performed parts of his solo effort “The Six Wives of Henry VIII.”

Yes classics in the film include “I’ve Seen All Good People,” “Your Move,” “Clap,” “And You and I,” “Close to the Edge,” “Roundabout,” “Yours Is No Disgrace” and “Starship Trooper: Würm.”

“Yessongs” was released theatrically in the U.S. in 1975. Image Entertainment released a DVD version in late 1997, bemoaned for its images taken “from a ragged print” and “bootleg quality” audio.

The Yes live CD of the same name is not the soundtrack to the film, although two performances are shared.

Adding to the mountain of Dead software that’s been released in the past 12 months, we have on the horizon the 14-DVD box set “All The Years Combine: The DVD Collection” from Shout! Factory.

The Dead box set drops April 17, just in time for workingman Dead fans to tap their tax refund checks for the $100.

Shout! as you may recall rereleased “The Grateful Dead Movie” in high definition Nov. 1. The movie (this time in standard def) anchors the upcoming DVD box set.

Second billed is “The Closing of Winterland,” a lengthy and well-regard Dead-only film that Rhino originally released to DVD in 2003. The double-DVD has about four hours of footage from the last night of Winterland on New Years Eve 1978.

Then there’s “Dead Ahead,” another existing DVD, with three hours of footage from Radio City Music Hall in October 1980. (The Shout! box retains the extra hour of bonus footage from the 2005 Monterey Video DVD.)

Making its DVD debut is “So Far,” a highly regarded title last seen on VHS in 1991 (Arista). Jerry Garcia gets a co-directing credit on this experimental 1987 movie, which highlights the Dead drummers and a swarm of trippy computer graphics. “We were after the idea of electronic mind-altering and consciousness-altering,” Garcia wrote of the hourlong film. “And on that level, I think it’s pretty successful.”

Other DVDs in the Shout! set include “Ticket to New Years” (Oakland, 1987), “Truckin’ Up to Buffalo” (1989), “Downhill From Here” (Wisconsin, 1989) and the four “View From The Vault” titles.

A bonus disc features Justin Kreutzmann’s video “Backstage Pass” (1992), an interview with archivist David Lemieux and a handful of bonus Dead performances.

Shout! also is selling “The Grateful Dead Bundle,” which throws in the fall 2011 “The Grateful Dead Movie” on Blu-ray for another $8.

A 40-page booklet includes liner notes by Deadhead journalist Blair Jackson, who wrote the book “Garcia: An American Life.”

The project is billed as “in collaboration with Rhino,” reconnecting the original Rhino people at Shout! with their old label, long owned by WEA.

More Dead content:
Grateful Dead exhibit at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Jerry Garcia documentary feature film
Dead brings to life Dave’s Pick CD series

Highlights are to include five Jerry Garcia guitars, “finished and working manuscripts” for classic Dead songs, gear from the Owsley “Wall of Sound” PA system, and artworks such as Fillmore posters and album graphics.

The Grateful Dead Archive at the University of California-Santa Cruz “loaned a significant number of items” from its collection, the Rock Hall said. Rock Hall curator Howard Kramer said he had full access to the Dead’s warehouse.

Longtime Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart will perform at the exhibit opening. One of his psychedelic custom-painted drum kits will among the museum offerings.

The first major showing of the Grateful Dead archives at the University of California Santa Cruz was at the New-York Historical Museum in early 2010.

The Rock Hall said “The Long, Strange Trip” exhibit “explores the band from a non-linear point of view. Individual sections within the exhibit will be devoted to Grateful Dead as a recording group and a touring band, the fans who devotedly followed them, tapers and fellow travelers.”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exhibition “Grateful Dead: The Long, Strange Trip” runs through December at the Cleveland, Ohio, museum.

The Dead and partner Rhino Entertainment will offer “an exclusive line of merchandise around the exhibit.”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Grateful Dead in 1994.

The specialty label Analogue Productions released the Pink Floyd album “Wish You Were Here” on a 5.1 SACD late last year, and now reports that it’s “easily the biggest SACD title in the catalog.”

First a bit of history: Super Audio CD (SACD) was introduced in 1999 but failed to catch on with the public, despite quality that’s sometimes billed as four times as good as CDs.

After a burst of activity (2002-2005) that saw releases of classic albums such as Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” and the Who’s “Tommy,” the format staggered and appeared to be pretty much a goner by the end of the 2000s.

“In retrospect, SACD and (rival format) DVD-A never had a chance,” the Guardian duly reported in 2007.

Yet SACD soldiered on, catering mostly to classical music fans. Audiophile label Analogue Productions (aka Acoustic Sounds), now a decade old, also found a market in jazz albums from Blue Note. Longtime audiophile specialists Mobile Fidelity also remains active with SACDs. (Both labels are quite active in high-end vinyl as well.) Now, improbably, SACD has made a comeback.

“Wish You Were Here,” the Pink Floyd album that followed “Dark Side of the Moon,” arrived on SACD as part of EMI’s huge Why Pink Floyd…? campaign that began last fall. The SACD was created via the original analog master tapes with the 5.1 mix done by the band’s producer/engineer James Guthrie, who reportedly worked on the project for several years.

It is first multichannel presentation of “Wish You Were Here,” Analogue Productions says. The label has “exclusive distribution rights” to the album, which comes to SACD with a price tag of $35. (It’s not available on Amazon as of this writing.)

Critics and fans are turning in raves, mostly. “Guthrie’s expert, musically impeccable multichannel remix added depth and clarity to the superb original,” the Audio Beat’s Paul Bolin wrote in November. “How he got Richard Wright’s ARP string to orbit the room several feet above my head has to be the result of some sort of voodoo.”

Guthrie has said he’d like to make “The Wall” the next Pink Floyd multitrack album, if and when there are more SACDs.

On Nov. 4, EMI rereleased the CD of “Wish You Were Here” in “Immersion” and “Experience” editions.

In addition to the two Pink Floyd albums and “Tommy,” currently available SACD titles with a psychedelic flavor include all of the Doors’ studio albums; the Moody Blues’ “On the Threshold of a Dream” and “To Our Children’s Chidren’s Children”; the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds”; and Santana’s “Caravanserai.”

(As with all things audio, the potential for excellence does not always equal excellence, so be sure to check out the reviews.)

Some current Blu-ray players are built to handle SACD signals, as is the PlayStation 3 game console. Hybrid SACDs such as “Wish You Were Here” will play on all CD players since traditional stereo tracks are included, but performance would be the same as from a well-made regular CD.