Studio – 2010s releases

The DVD: “Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child”

In 2009, Experience Hendrix announced plans to release a definitive box set of the “core catalogue”, an ultimate “best of” collection, which is something that has never been done. However, it was later announced that they were planning another rarities collection along the same lines of the 2000 MCA box “The Jimi Hendrix Experience”. Unfortunately, this is box is nowhere near as strong but it does have its moments.

Disc 1 is composed of pre-Experience recordings featuring a young Hendrix as a sideman (see my Before Fame section for details). It is a lot of fun and a very listenable collection of mid 60s RnB. There’s not a lot of Jimi presence here but it’s interesting to hear how he worked with these various acts. There is a lot of standard (and often tedious) 60s R’n’B with the odd little solo from the young Jimmy.
First of all, the Isley Brothers tracks are not the original single versions but are the early 70s remixes of the songs which featured new vocal tracks from the Isleys! Stupid! At least Jimi’s guitar comes over clearer I suppose. Similarly, that “Instant Groove” is in fact the King Cutis 1969 reworking of the single which he had put out with Ray Sharpe three years earlier: “Help Me get That feeling (Part 1&2)”! 
Another blow is the fact that due to copyright complications there are no Lonnie Youngblood or Curtis Knight tracks here. That’s unfortunate as it rules out the Curtis Knight & The Squires single “Hornets Nest”/ “Knock Yourself Out” which was of great historical importance as the two instrumentals were Hendrix’s very first compositions ever to be released on record! Also, some of the backing tracks that Jimmy laid down with his friend Lonnie Youngblood were quite interesting.

Four years after the release of this box set, Experience Hendrix purchased the Curtis Knights tapes from Ed Chalpin and in March 2015, the 1965/66 recordings were issued on the albums “You Can’t Use My Name – The RSVP/PPX sessions”, “No Business” and “Live At Georges Club” (see Before Fame section). One can imagine that some Knight tracks will find their way onto a re-release of this box set.

Disc 2:
1. “Fire” – The original four track recording of each instrument (before the four-track to four-track mix reductions) with Mitch’s drums in stereo. In fact this is a superb alternate mix of the track we all know from “Are You Experienced”. The two guitar tracks have been seperated to left and right, the bass is less dominant, the backing vocals are away from the left (which was plain daft on the original stereo mix) and we get the actual ending of the song, rather than the albums slow fade out. It sounds fantastic and I’d love to hear all of “AYE” with mixes like this (can you hear me Eddie?).
2. “Are You Experienced?” – A raw instrumental outtake with some lovely improvisation from Jimi. A rough diamond.
3. “May This Be Love” – This differs from the original with its double tracked vocal and slight extra guitar overdubs (and the awesomely beautiful solo is more up-front in the mix – fantastic).
4. “Can You See Me”– The mono mix which was on the vinyl versions of the original Are You Experienced album. When the CD era came, the stereo version was substituted (which had first appeared on the US version of Smash Hits in 1969).
5. “The Wind Cries Mary” – Live: previously seen in the Stages box set (Radiohuset, Stockholm, 5 September 1967).
6. “Love Or Confusion” – Already previewed on a two track CD, it’s an alternate version with only slight differences (alternante vocal and guitar parts). Like with “Fire”, the mix here is far superior to the original stereo version (which was practically mono apart from Jimi’s voice which was stuck on the left).
7. “Little One” – An excerpt of this instrumental had appeared on “Lifelines” and this is well know to collectors from a multitude of bootlegs. The debate is still on as to whether it’s Dave Mason or Brian Jones on sitar. Apparently Noel had said that it was Jones and “Jam with Brian Jones” was written on the tape box!  It’s possible that Mason and Jones are in there. This instrumental was also found in shops unofficially on Purple Haze Record’s “Axis Outtakes”. Nice to hear it here with very good sound reproduction. In 1988 Noel added his own lyrics and vocals to this and it surfaced in 2003 as “There Ain’t Nothing Wrong” on the official compilation “Noel Redding – The Experience Sessions”. 
8. “Mr. Bad Luck” – As opposed to the version with 1988 overdubs that appeared recently on the “Valleys Of Neptune” album, this is the original stereo recording. This version should have been on “Valleys Of Neptune” for chrissakes!!! It had previously appeared in hissy mono on the “Lifelines” radio documentary box set.
9. “Cat Talking To Me” – I love this instrumental bash. This is the original instrumental recording of the song (as opposed to the version with the Mitch Mitchell 1988 vocal that was released recently as a B-side on a US vinyl single – see above).
10. “Castles Made Of Sand” – A fascinating raw instrumental demo.
11. “Tears Of Rage” – This great little home demo features Jimi on electric guitar recording the Bob Dylan/Richard Manuel song, accompanied by his old Greenwich Village friend Paul Caruso. Jimi learned the song from listening to a privately circulated copy of Bob Dylan and the Band’s unreleased ‘Basement Tapes’ as the song had not yet officially appeared on disc by either Dylan or the Band at the time of this recording. An edited demonstration version of this has circulated on the bootleg “Happy Birthday Jimi”. This brings the number of Jimi’s Dylan covers to five songs!
12. “Hear My Train A Comin” – A great new track for us, from the much talked about Paul Caruso tape. Jimi on electric guitar with Caruso on harmonica.
13. “1983 (A Merman I Shall Turn To Be)” – Also from the Caruso tape (but without his accompanyment this time. Similar of course to the (better) version that had appeared on “Jimi By Himself” back in 1995.
14. “Long Hot Summer Night” – An rare acoustic demo from Jimi’s personnal tape recorder, already known with poor sound quality on the bootleg “Acoustic Jams” for example (which in reality featured very few acoustic tracks).
15. “My Friend” – Known to collectors as a sample tape, this is a nice solo acoustic demo of the song. Great vocal.
16. “Angel” – From the 1968 New York hotel room demo and already seen on CD “Jimi By Himself” (which was included in the graphic novel “Voodoo Child – The Illustrated Legend Of Jimi Hendrix”).
17. “Calling All The Devil’s Children” – This has also already circulated and it’s one of Jimi’s strangest recordings. It opens with a monster Link Wray type riff and continues with a brooding native American feel then finishes with Jimi shouting like he’s at a political rally adressing a crowd with his manifesto! Infuriatingly, it fades out before the “drug bust” ending which is on the much circulated bootleg version. Experience Hendrix censorship?
18. “New Rising Sun” – This much circulated instrumental features Jimi playing all instruments as he evokes the feel of his later composition “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)”. It was also on the Alan Douglas compilation “Voodoo Soup” in an edited form. It is charming but ambles on a little too long. It was only a personnal demo it must be remembered.


Disc 3:
1. “Hear My Freedom”– I know this jam from the “Ball & Chain” bootleg. It mainly features an organist (thought to be Lee Michaels) backed by Buddy Miles’ funky drumming. It’s a good example of how Jimi’s dynamic playing could lift a pretty run-of-the-mill jam. Jimi also puts in a spontaneous scat/rap vocal.
2. “Room Full Of Mirrors” /
3. “Shame, Shame, Shame” – A rather drab jam from early 1969 with Rocky Dzidzournu on congas. This is known from the “Studio Haze” bootleg among others. This features the 1988 added overdubs from Mitch and Noel.
4. “Messenger” – Also known from the “Ball & Chain” bootleg, this is just a sketch of a piece from Jimi as he hammers away on a repetitive ascending riff, which doesn’t really go anywhere. The piano parts are played by Jimi (and not Lee Michaels as the bootleg incorrectly stateded). Tedious.
5. “Hound Dog Blues” – An off-the-cuff 1969 jam with Chris Wood on sax and film maker Jerry Goldstein (who filmed the 1969 Royal Albert Hall concerts) on piano! Nothing special despite one or two nice flourishes from Jimi. Tedious.
6. “Untitled Basic Track”– A great instrumental piece recorded by the Experience in October 1968. Jimi really was into heavy monster riffs in late ’68 but after the intro there follows some superb soloing which is akin to what he did on “Midnight” for example. A pity that it doesn’t have a title.
7. “Star Spangled Banner”/
8. “Purple Haze” – Los Angeles Forum, April 26, 1969 and previously seen in the Alan Douglas assembled “Lifelines” box but presented here with the original mix which was done for the abandoned 1969 live album.
9. “Young/Hendrix” – A edit of this was previously on the old vinyl “Nine To The Universe”. This version is 21 minutes long!! Wonderful stuff.
10. “Mastermind” – A studio run through of the song that Larry Lee sang at Woodstock (that live version has never been officially released). It’s a cute little romantic R&B song penned by Lee himself in an Impressions kind of way and it’s in fact very similar to the old single “(My Girl) She’s A Fox)”  by The Icemen (see CD1) on which Jimi played some similar licks. It was generous of Jimi to let Larry do his thing here (and at Woodstock) and curious how it it brought him right back to where he had come from – R’n’B. It is a bit flat and amateur sounding but Jimi puts in some lovely guitar backing and fabulous soloing towards the end.
11. “Message To Love” – The original full length master and Jimi’s last work on the song. It’s interesting to hear this, even if it is not as rich as the version that is on the purple box (and should really have been on “South Saturn Delta damnit!).
12. “Fire” – A Band Of Gypsys live at The Fillmore East on New Years Eve 1969. An extract of this was featured in the Band Of Gypsys DVD and it’s a very bizarre and disjointed version of the classic Experience song thanks to Buddy Miles’ backing vocals and staccato drumming. Jimi goes into quite a long instrumental passage with Miles trying unsuccessfully to make something of it.
13. “Foxy Lady” – This is a killer. Same date as the previous track with Jimi putting in some simply awesome guitar here. It then goes into quite a long chugging jam until Jimi half decides to segue into “Purple Haze” but unfortunately lets it drop before it can get under way.

Disc 4:
1. “Stone Free” – Another track from the same concert and interestingly the riff here echoes what Jimi did with the song during the 1969 studio re-recording. Unfortunately Buddy Miles again puts in some of his characteristic soulful backing vocal and horrendous drumming but there’s some good playing from Jimi even though you can sense that he is a little thrown out of kilter by Miles’ over-excited and unimaginative slamming.
2. “Burning Desire” – A January 16, 1970 session for one of my least favourite Hendrix compositions. Some nice passages from Jimi but this brings back depressing memories of the awful “Loose Ends”/”Baggy’s Rehearsals” version. Miles slams away and does his painful drum rolls. It’s awful.
3. “Lonely Avenue” – An interesting November 1969 jam with Buddy Miles on an old Ray Charles number! In Jimi’s hands, the song becomes an erratic funky rap which doesn’t come to much unfortunately.
4. “Everlasting First” – An alternate and unedited version of the song which turned up on Love’s “False Start” album. Jimi guested on lead guitar. Not a great song unfortunately.
5. “Freedom” – A live-in-studio tryout of the song which is basically just rhythm and it’s a waste of space. It  shouldn’t have been included.
6. “Peter Gunn/Catastrophe” – This light hearted studio interlude was on “War Heroes” back in the early 70s. This version is a little longer and has different mix.
7. “In From The Storm” – Alternate studio recording. Very similar to the “Cry Of Love”/”First Rays” version.
8. “All God’s Children”– An unknown and uncirculated recording from a June 1970 session. Begins nicely and after a slight lull it continues on with some fabulous soloing.
9. “Red House” – Berkeley Community Theater,  May 30, 1970 (previously seen on a CD in 1991 which was free with the Jimi Plays Berkeley videocassette (it was also in the shops on Radioactive Records in 2005).
10. “Play That Riff” – This is the short sequence of Eddie Kramer asking Jimi to play his little riff that he integrated into “Midnight Lightning” (known from the “Freak Out Jam” bootleg). He would also integrate it into”Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” occasionally (Cologne ’69 for example).
11. “Bolero” – Known to collectors from many a bootleg this long and mainly rhythmic exploration was intended by Jimi to be the introduction to “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)”, which is repectfully the following song here. This is a work-in-progress effort and you can tell that Jimi hadn’t fully defined it. It goes on and on repetitively and rather boringly before it sort of fizzles out, leading to the gentle opening of the following song.
12. “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)” – This is just a slightly different (not as good) mix of the studio version we already have and is only here to demonstrate the link with “Bolero”.
13. “Suddenly November Morning” – At long last, an extract from Jimi’s long “lost” home demo tape “The Black Gold Suite”. It is just Jimi alone on acoustic guitar going through an early sketch of this previously unheard of song. This leaves us all in utter anticipation of the entire tape of the “suite”. However this perhaps reveals that Experience Hendrix do not have the hotel room tape on which Jimi performed a few overdubs (with the help of Alan Douglas). Where the hell is it?

So there you have it. A strictly “collectors only” box set with some fascinating pieces of the Hendrix puzzle. Again, it’s a shame that all of CD1 has been filled up with pre-Experience recordings and although some moments are interesting, it’s obvious that Experience Hendrix really are scraping the bottom of the barrel here and filling in the gaps with alternate mixes of material that fans have already. I would have prefered to have seen the rarities here collected together on Dagger releases but this set is obviously more potent from a marketing point of view and creates a bigger media buzz. At least it gets Jimi talked about all over the planet.
Note that the Band Of Gypsys Fillmore recordings here are from the multi-track tapes (“Live At The Fillmore East” had only used soundboard tapes).

The DVD is titled “Voodoo Chile” and has already been aired in some countries (either complete or as a truncated 75 minute version). Why the hell the film wasn’t called “West Coast Seattle Boy” is beyond me! The way the film is constructed, it fits that concept, beginning with Jimi’s childhood and early years as an amateur then professional musician before moving through his short career. What an error of coordination.
That aside, the film is nicely done as it presents Jimi’s life story in his own words, from his letters, post cards, personnal notes and interviews, which are for the most part narrated by Bootsy Collins, who’s soft voice echoes that of Jimi. There are some rare bits of footage to be seen here and there. At one point it makes you think that some footage of Paris Olympia 1966 is included but this seems to be just a clever montage of some Saville Theatre footage.
After that, I think we’re done with documentaries about Jimi, it’s been done to death and we know it by heart. We want the “Black Gold” tape, Royal Albert Hall,…

The title “West Coast Seattle Boy” came from a song that Jimi had written but never got the chance to record in any way (as far as we know). The alternate title for the unfinished song was “If Found Lost… Please Return To Body”.