Graham Reid | | 1 min read
While there's certainly no paucity of Jimi Hendrix Experience live albums, this previously unreleased one – which had openers Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys (whom Hendrix produced) and Chicago Transit Authority (edgy feedback rockers, soon to become simply the more mainstream Chicago) – is of some interest.
It was one of the last shows by the original Experience which was recorded and although Jimi readdresses (again) his catalogue of Foxey Lady, Red House, Purple Haze and Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) – which he was growing tired of – he also unleashes a jam (with a Mitch Mitchell drum solo) on a searing Tax Free.
Despite his weariness with those cornerstone songs the audience expected, he delivers a thrilling Foxey Lady and Spanish Castle Magic.
And four months before Woodstock plays a measured but still slightly violent version of The Star Spangled Banner which segues into Purple Haze (“S'cuz me while I kiss that policeman” he sings in response to the police trying to control stage invaders at a venue not accustomed to rock concerts).
By this time Hendrix was physically and emotionally exhausted, had a large group of camp followers in his entourage, Black Power members accusing of being an Uncle Tom for not supporting the movement and playing with white musicians for white promoters, and – of course – the drugs had changed from pot and acid to coke.
On the night however Jimi is relaxed – despite the stage invasions – as he jokes with the crowd, and changes lyrics on a deep, slow treatment of Red House which soars into the skies at the midpoint of its 11 minutes then, after a breakdown, is a loose free-form blues jam.
The standout however is the 12 minute Spanish Castle Magic, not a song you'd expect could sustain such an explosive and lengthy deconstruction.
Less than 18 months later – after a drug trial, numerous studio sessions for the unfinished First Rays of the New Rising Sun, fighting law suits, a riot in Denver at what would be the final Experience concert, Woodstock, almost recording with Miles Davis and his new Band of Gypsys -- Jimi Hendrix was dead at 27.
It'd been less than five years since he'd arrived in London, played at the Scotch of St James and changed the landscape of popular music and the sonic possibilities of the electric guitar.
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You can hear this album at Spotify here
There is an enormous amount of Jim Hendrix at Elsewhere starting here.
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