This is a selection from the alternate studio recordings which first officially appeared on the "purple velvet" box set, confusingly yclept The Jimi Hendrix Experience. I rarely dip into box sets, and hardly ever play them through (Waka/Wazoo is an exception), so this saves me the effort of having to tweezer out the stuff I want to hear, which from this, is mostly this. The tapes were in Chas Chandler's sock drawer for decades, but smell sweet as sandalwood. They have more than just archival interest, and some of the differences are marked.
His playing on Spanish Castle Magic (f'rinstance) leaps from the speakers and shakes you like a mongoose shakes a snake. Nobody sounded this outrageously alive, this fucking furious, before or since. It's not about technique and fretwork dexterity - Hendrix was a sloppy virtuoso. It's about the sound of his soul. At his best, and there are moments in this collection, he snaps you awake with a neon static surge nobody else knew how to unleash.
We don't really need an excuse to spend some time with Jimi, but this may provide you with one. It's at a digestible album length (seventeen-minute sides!) and there's a new cover, inspired by the groovy alternate artwork for Electric Ladyland [above - Ed.]. In this Alternate Universe, you're lifting it out of the racks on the day of release, the sun is shining through stained glass, and there's wind chimes, and Jimi never dies.
This post homologated by the Federal Bureau Of Mind Expansion
https://workupload.com/file/WMgAyfDYXwc
ReplyDelete" I dips me lid".
ReplyDeleteAgreed, the Purple Box has many revelations. As does Waka/Wazoo; especially the Atmos mix!
ReplyDeleteAtmos!!!! There's posh for you!
DeleteMy 1st real atmos. I'm a cheap date, but was quite impressed!
DeleteCool post. Love the art. I don't have the physical purple fuzz box anymore, but I do still have the digital files. Hendrix rules! - useo
ReplyDeleteThanks Farq. What he did in those few short years is indeed remarkable.
ReplyDeleteCram
Thanx, Farq!! From the very 1st time I heard "Hey Joe" on the radio I've been a JimiFanBabe!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have that memory too - on a cheap but precious transistor radio with a deaf-aid earpiece, tuned vaguely to Luxembourg or London, late at night when the airwaves were clearer.
DeleteThanks Farq, I never tire of listening to Hendrix. I watched a BBC 90 minute documentary last week, 'Music, Money, Madness, Jimi Hendrix live in Maui in July 1970', telling the story of the film and album Rainbow Bridge, to be honest it was more about the original very far out film maker than Hendrix, and although I have lots of post Electric Ladyland albums I still don't think you can beat the three original Experience albums.
ReplyDeleteThere's some coverage of the Rainbow Bridge movie and its "soundtrack" you might find of interest over at deadhendrix.blogspot.com
DeleteThanks, yes the film is somewhat underwhelming, I saw it twenty years ago, as was the documentary I saw last week, however one thing I didn't know was that all the drumming on the film was re-recorded in the studio by Mitch Mitchell because it did not record properly in Maui.
DeleteBambi, this is the legendary 'Maui Wowee' "Boot", which is Bob Terry's excellent soundboard tape.
DeleteRainbow Bridge Vibratory Color/Sound Experiment, Haleakala Volcano Crater, Maui, Hawaii
July 30, 1970
https://mega.nz/file/RbcykSSI#TYWW-8lDpPOYjx0KIO3zD1PuWivX4hoS9671x6zcLRA
Enjoy!
This is an excellent soundboard recording of Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King with the backing of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (Elvin Bishop, Al Kooper, Buzzy Feiten, Phillip Wilson), at Generation Club, New York, April 15, 1968
ReplyDeletehttps://mega.nz/file/0WU1XTLb#iMdePR1fos99lRlJZaknIlB7ROdxnIDn-lNjo1XmXrw
The Capricorn Tape is a "Boot" with extraordinary good audio, of outtakes from '68-'70.
ReplyDeleteI'm led to believe the tracks were prepared and/or considered for "Blues" and "Voodoo Soup"
https://mega.nz/file/wWsDhQgb#fPBeTPsg2MrX0jdLBNinSMeX3eTdWd7PrKMeaRnMPUI
I had a chat with Joe Gastwirt a few years back, after he'd read my deadhendrix piece. He certainly isn't in the Anti-Douglas camp, but he had nothing to add for the piece. I told him - truthfully - that I thought his masters (the ones in the unfortunately revamped "generic" signature covers) were the best-sounding. He'd had some criticism from people who think they knew everything for "not using the master tapes", which he did. Hendrix was and still is surrounded by people who claim to know best, people with a vested interest and those who pretend to be purist fans. The "Hendrix Estate"? Just more grifters.
ReplyDelete