search & destroy: the posthumous Jimi Hendrix catalog

ok getting frustrated that i cant seem to buy a legal download of killing floor off of radio one anywhere.

song that btw made me stop being a "oh hendrix YAWN" dick and getting what the big deal was.

ship first rays is both my fave posthumous jimi and the one i hand to "oh hendrix YAWN" types

hendrix is one of those, like the doors, that i have a lot more fun listening to when i make a deliberate effort to ditch the context. i like to imagine i'm listening to some light in the attic lost psych soul album or something and it really lets me hear it with fresher ears

Driving South

the jimi hendrix concerts is worth grabbing if you see it, if only for the ripping i don't live today.

http://images.emusic.com/music/images/album/277/118/230/11823097/300x300.jpg

any thoughts on this?

not heard that... second that the bbc sessions set is wicked for hearing the trio straight rip it up. helps me ditch the context as hoos said upthread, and get a sense for what a bomb this guy was dropping back then.

i mainly fell in love with hendrix as a teenage guitar player. i would jam "pali gap" on repeat back then but i never tried to pick out any of the licks. it just sounded too otherworldly for me to fuck with or something. that was the version on voodoo soup - not sure if others out there are different.

Any views on the Valleys of Neptune album just released?

I was desperate to hear it today so bought it off itunes - and they did a good job. You get two extra tracks apparently, and lyrics, photos and line notes/credits etc.

Hendrix is one of those artists, if you are in to his music, pretty much all of it is worth hearing once. The obscure thing I used to have on cassette when I was in high school that I would like to find was one that was called "Band of Gypsies 2", it had maybe eight live tracks from various sources including a great band version of "Hear My Train A Comin'" that was from I think Atlanta if I remember right.

It looks to me like the Sweet Thing disc that some dude [3/16/10] asked about is another one of those dreaded re-hash jobs with things from the Curtis Knight and/or Lonnie Youngblood sessions. Jimi was a sideman during those sessions & his participation is blown out of proportion. In some cases session guitarists dubbed in Hendrixesque guitar tracks just to make it sound convincing. That's some pretty unscrupulous shit right there. This also goes for old LPs like Rare Hendrix, Moods, Get That Feeling, etc.

damn, thx for the heads up. Valleys Of Neptune is pretty enjoyable though,

Yr welcome. And I agree: Valleys of Neptune is really good. South Saturn Delta is also a good selection of outtakes, alternate takes, etc. - therefore Search. I really want to compare Voodoo Soup to First Rays of the New Rising Sun on consecutive listens sometime. Much of the material is the same, but First Rays supposedly has far superior mix/mastering & its been a very long time since I heard Voodoo Soup.

Search: Live at Fillmore East, Winterland, BBC Sessions, First Rays, Blue Wild Angel, Berkeley, Stages [for the LA Forum show], Live at Woodstock, all the stuff on Dagger Records. Also early titles like Rainbow Bridge, Cry of Love, In the West, The Jimi Hendrix Concerts, Soundtrack From the Film Jimi Hendrix, Isle of Wight.

Destroy: Midnight Lightning, Get That Feeling, Two Great Experiences Together, Rare Hendrix, Moods, Birth of Success.

Surprisingly Good: Crash Landing, Jimi Hendrix At His Best [Despite the misleading dates on these, they're actually recordings of Gypsy Suns & Rainbows woodshedding in upstate New York in preparation for Woodstock.]

posted this on the nirvana / hendrix thread, but it belongs over here: http://theheatwarps.tumblr.com/post/1129618708/saturday-will-mark-40-years-since-jimi-red-wined

http://i.imgur.com/zh01il.jpg

eesh, this new winterland box set is pretty smokin'. on spotify now.

like i would not think i need to hear foxy lady again, but they're ripping it up.

The standalone Winterland cd that Rhino did is one of my favorite Hendrix things. Will have to check this out.

this new thing -- People, Hell & Angels -- is actually pretty solid. kind of amazing that they're still digging through all of this stuff.

USA Today talked this sister, who's currently handling the estate, and she said this wuld probably be the last time they dip into the studio stuff. She went on to say that their new focus will be on the live archive.

...and also slapping Hendrix's name on anything even tangentially related
http://www.guitarworld.com/files/imagecache/featured-node/Dunlop_JH70.jpg

you know you want one
http://www.entertainmentearth.com/images/AUTOIMAGES/VN34170lg.jpg

^^Does it come with a thermos?

http://www.artofmusiclv.com/images/products/WJH008/default.png
sold separately.

Someone should manufacture an "If 6 Was 9" plastic finger.

(xpost)
To be fair, those "Limited Edition" effect pedals have a more than tangential connection. The three smaller ones are recreations (functionally speaking) of devices that were used by Hendrix back in the day. Two of them (the Fuzz Face and the Octavio) have circuits that are component-for-component accurate.

my friend used this in our high school band
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSSgTdZ1dLo9u5DNwBVgeoToMbqMoX6ARRIyIAywO7E-Bz1SDlq
we made fun of him for it.

If jimi had lived on through the 80s, The Jimi Hendrix System would have been a great group name for him.

yeahhh totally. maybe w/ ian wallace on drums and john paul jones on bass.

yeah checked out the new one on spotify today. i've never delved much into the posthumous hendrix outside of this four-sided mix thing someone made that i think you posted about tyler

but this is good. it sounds like jimi hendrix songs i've never heard. i guess i thought it would be more scraps or snippets of studio jams or really bootleggy at this point. but it *sounds* really polished like a studio album.

yeah, i'm enjoying this a lot more than i thought i would any more studio scraps in 2013.

Haven't heard this, probably never will, but I was just looking at Billboard's album chart online, the kind of thing you do at 1:30 in the morning, and I found it somewhat amazing to see him at #2. I realize that chart doesn't mean today what it once did--it may not mean anything anymore for all I know--but it was disorienting nonetheless.

eh album sales down but a #2 album on the Billboard 200 is still a pretty solid indication that's probably the 2nd most popular new release of that week

First Rays of the New Rising Sun = his best work, IMO.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41GU8wHR8XL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Hey Millenials: Back in the 1990s album covers really were this terrible and nobody realized it.

Nah, that sleeve has always been recognised as being more than a bit naff. It's still the worst thing about the release.

TS: That Cover vs. Voodoo Soup

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/402/MI0002402601.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

lols that rising sun cover is so crappy

Voodoo soup cover is great though

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/56/Jimi_Hendrix_-The_Cry_Of_Love.jpg

this was one of my first Hendrix purchases (poss after Electric Ladyland, my first Hendrix) and I still have no idea what the sleeve is supposed to be - a tree? a flock of birds?

a loose coalition of pubes?

Voodoo Soup cover is by Moebius and is great, though the original image has been cropped and recoloured in unsympathetic ways. Moebius drew Hendrix a number of times - love this one too:

https://i0.wp.com/grafiktrafik.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/tumblr_mtqul65xEQ1qz9b3ko1_1280.jpg

Also love this Druillet cover:

http://jpdubs.hautetfort.com/media/02/01/261148281.jpg

"Pali Gap" is one of my all-time favourites. I've got it on Rainbow Bridge but I'm pretty sure it's on some of these other posthumous comps as well. Just an unbelievable slow-burner (and a perfect warm-up song to DJ ime)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz9fh_jimi-hendrix-pali-gap_music

Hey Millenials: Back in the 1990s album covers really were this terrible and nobody realized it.

Heh, yeah this is always one that comes to mind whenever I think of mid/late-'90s style sleeve design that's aged terribly (another is John Fahey's Return of the Repressed).

Actually Hendrix is served pretty poorly by his album covers:

AYE - boring (US version is a bit better I guess)
Axis - pretty tacky
Electric Ladyland - sexist original, replaced by another boring one

AYE - boring (US version is a bit better I guess)

UK version is solid but looks more like a single cover. US version is totally classic imo and it's in a distinguished tradition of rock covers i.e.

http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/al6.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/Are_You_Experienced_-_US_cover-edit.jpg/480px-Are_You_Experienced_-_US_cover-edit.jpg https://images.genius.com/07797fca78f4184f9509c3fca3cb0448.500x500x1.jpg

etc

Axis - pretty tacky

dead to me

was pretty impressed to learn that hendrix himself hated the uk cover on grounds of sexism.

probably my favorite hendrix cover is the "john peel voodoo doll" cover of band of gypsys.

The first Ray's cover, whether the pink or blue one, sucks, but a lot of the posthumous artwork sucks, esp the stuff on the dagger label.

I kinda love the moebius painting on the cover of Voodoo Soup

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/13/jimi-hendrix-family-dispute-escalates-over-use-of-name-for-music-school

listening to first Rays for the first time in a very long while, it does strike me how bsamey and leaden a lot of the rockers are. He seemed to be really running dry or just tired at this point. I know they had to make an album according to his notes but who knows if this is what he would have gone with. Still, 7 keepers isnt bad.

Earth Blues?

Very few of the reimaginings (or, I guess imaginings, since it never existed in full in the first place) seem to get the sequencing right, especially, and oddly, the official ones. That albumsthatneverwere sequencing looks really solid, though.

The only fault I'd have with it is the use of those two 45 mixes - Hendrix rejected those and wanted to work on them further, and I definitely prefer the First Rays mix for one of them, but otherwise I generally prefer what he's got and would say it's better than any other official or fan-made recreation I've heard.

The version of stepping stone on both sides of the sky is so much more spontaneous sounding than the one on first Rays.

xxp yep that’s the one!

Made a playlist of a range of songs from the final years that cover alot of his instrumentals too, rather than focus so heavily on all those similar rockers he made at the time. If you've never heard easy blues, you really should.

Side one
Stepping stone (both sides of the sky) this version is much livelier than the one on first Rays
Drifters escape (south Saturn delta)
Beginnings (first rays)
Hear my train (people hell angels)
Angel (first rays)
Side two
Pali gap (ssd)
My friend (first rays)
Easy blues (pha)
Drifting (first rays)
Cherokee mist (bsots) this is a bit reminiscent of gypsy eyes and doesnt sound totally complete but is quite weird so would be a good piece to have here.
Side three
Night bird flying (first rays)
Midnight lightning (ssd)
Things I used to do (bsots)
Side four
Villanova junction blues (pha)
In from the storm (first rays)
Hey baby new rising sun (first rays)

nice

It's strange listening to the studio versions of the BOG songs actually. In a way I feel the same way about his attempts to broach soul of the time as I do with prince trying to incorporate hip hop edginess or language and posturing in the 90s, which is weird lol

Forgot to write, that version of hear my train is the last one he cut in the studio IIRC, and I think maybe the best one (its fierce!), though the acoustic one from the film is great too, but that already came out in his lifetime so I excluded it.

yeah it's really good. it sounds really complete, produced, finished.

pali gap sometimes is my favorite hendrix track ever. so laid back yet so much attitude. and the rhythm section just hammering that vamp.

Also just gorgeous.

i think i know every note of it by heart.

Send my love to Linda is another good one from the last sessions, but it's like loverman, great guitar work, but not much of a developed song there. Would be a great b side though.

Pali gap is def a cousin of hey baby new rising sun, or uses the same guitar tone/effects at least. He was def trying to use a diff guitar palette at this point.

My favourite "Hear My Train a Comin'" is the one on Valleys of Neptune, I prefer the slower, grinding pace to the rush of the People Hell and Angels version.

Train is also a monster on the Woodstock album

I know it was a bit controversial to erase or not record the percussion on the Woodstock show but going from the first Ray's songs, it often just sounds surplus to requirements. Just too busy. I get he was trying to work in Latin, soul and funk influences, but it's much busier than those genres tend to be, while also still more earth bound or street bound than his older songs somehow. A weird tension. I wish someone told Hendrix he didnt have to worry about being outside of modern black music.

https://www.loudersound.com/features/hendrix-the-gigs-that-changed-history-10-atlanta-pop-festival-2

This has some good versions of freedom, room full of mirrors. Really prominent bass in the mix too.

how had i never heard cherokee mist?? like an alternate universe where jimi played in the velvet underground. incredible weird metallic sound on the guitar. hypnotic!

Found another stepping stone which is actually the best one, on the voodoo child compilation. Quite different feel to the rest and more complete than the south Saturn delta one. Just nuts how many alternative takes there are! Theres another Cherokee mist too, but quite different.

My favorite take on First Rays is the John Scannell remix:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120325214917/http://letamancomeinanddothepopcorn.blogspot.com/2008/09/first-rays-mix.html

I never found any of the other versions very satisfying -- not Cry Of Love, not the 1997 First Rays, and especially not Voodoo Soup (with a hapless drum overdub by the Knack's Bruce Gary that constantly drifts in and out of tempo). But the Scannell remix feels like canon to me.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, January 21, 2021 11:26 AM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'd like to hear this but the links on that wayback machine capture are rapidshare... has it been reposted elsewhere?

I'd like to hear it too, though tbh the studio versions of a lot of those songs dont seem good enough.

Strongly recommend checking out stepping stone and loverman from the Fillmore east shows on spotify. If he wanted to really change his sound, post-experience, these are really great, scaled back examples of how it could have gone.