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.
― clemenza, Friday, 15 March 2013 05:25 (eleven years ago) link
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
― some dude, Friday, 15 March 2013 12:23 (eleven years ago) link
First Rays of the New Rising Sun = his best work, IMO.
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 16 January 2017 22:22 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Mr. Snrub, Monday, 16 January 2017 23:28 (seven years ago) link
Nah, that sleeve has always been recognised as being more than a bit naff. It's still the worst thing about the release.
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 01:28 (seven years ago) link
TS: That Cover vs. Voodoo Soup
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/402/MI0002402601.jpg?partner=allrovi.com
― "I must believe that my charm was not in my ass." (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 02:12 (seven years ago) link
lols that rising sun cover is so crappy
Voodoo soup cover is great though
― a but (brimstead), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 02:20 (seven years ago) link
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?
― It's called, "giving a shit". (stevie), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 08:54 (seven years ago) link
a loose coalition of pubes?
― It's called, "giving a shit". (stevie), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 08:55 (seven years ago) link
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
― Bongo Herbert (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 09:02 (seven years ago) link
"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
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 09:08 (seven years ago) link
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).
― Gavin, Leeds, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 10:23 (seven years ago) link
Actually Hendrix is served pretty poorly by his album covers:
AYE - boring (US version is a bit better I guess)Axis - pretty tackyElectric Ladyland - sexist original, replaced by another boring one
― Gavin, Leeds, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 10:30 (seven years ago) link
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
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 10:38 (seven years ago) link
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.
― increasingly bonkers (rushomancy), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 13:03 (seven years ago) link
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.
― candyman, Tuesday, 22 December 2020 13:34 (three years ago) link
I kinda love the moebius painting on the cover of Voodoo Soup
― brimstead, Tuesday, 22 December 2020 22:17 (three years ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/13/jimi-hendrix-family-dispute-escalates-over-use-of-name-for-music-school
― candyman, Friday, 15 January 2021 08:06 (three years ago) link
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.
― candyman, Thursday, 21 January 2021 16:15 (three years ago) link
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, 21 January 2021 16:26 (three years ago) link
Still too far many of those plodders like Isabella, dolly dagger, freedom, etc. Yue best songs I think from FROTRS are in from the storm, angel, drifting, belly button window, hey baby new rising sun, beginnings, my friend. The rest mines a very repetitive seam.
― candyman, Thursday, 21 January 2021 16:33 (three years ago) link
the new live in Hawaii live album is really great
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 21 January 2021 16:34 (three years ago) link
Theres a rainbow bridge thread for it...he was still so amazing live. Just a shame all the axis and ladyland songs barely got played.
― candyman, Thursday, 21 January 2021 16:39 (three years ago) link
Izabella is a monster at Woodstock. That new LIve In Hawaii LP is the bomb.
― Ray Cooney as "Crotch" (stevie), Thursday, 21 January 2021 17:34 (three years ago) link
yeah listening to the Hawaii shows now — totally smokes.
― tylerw, Thursday, 21 January 2021 17:44 (three years ago) link
some of the sounds on voodoo child ... i guess the dude could really play guitar, haha.
― tylerw, Thursday, 21 January 2021 17:58 (three years ago) link
i actually like some of the off-kilter drum overdubs ... gives it an almost royal trux vibe.
― tylerw, Thursday, 21 January 2021 17:59 (three years ago) link
I like this one. I wish it was used for First Rays...:
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4LrAkzfpSmM/S7IfssaNfWI/AAAAAAAAI6M/pdoqWLc7f3Q/s1600/Jimi+Hendrix+-+%281968%29+The+Electric+Church.jpg
― birdistheword, Thursday, 21 January 2021 22:53 (three years ago) link
I think the thing missing from dolly, Isabella, etc, is the melodies just arent nearly as strong as what he was writing before. I know theure a bot different as theres a funkier feel to them, but they're not quite funky enough to compensate. Even power of soul and message to love are stronger songs. I'm going to assume he just wasnt done yet with most of what has come out after his death...
― candyman, Friday, 22 January 2021 06:51 (three years ago) link
*a lot different
I'd agree with that (and that's a lot of what I feel about Band Of Gypsys too). He was definitely in a transitional mode.
What a fucking loss.
― Ray Cooney as "Crotch" (stevie), Friday, 22 January 2021 07:08 (three years ago) link
There are few rock deaths where I genuinely think, beyond the human tragedy, we lost *so* much music that might have happened.
Also weird that these songs also sound a bit over worked, or over produced even? I know he loved doing far too many takes, but they lack vitality. Partly that might just be him adapting to the new decade, idk, ir just what was happening to lots of 60s acts, but they are a bit flat to me. But yeah, cant imagine anyone seeing these as definitive. I dont think he knew what he was doing next. Tragic we will never find out. I think he needed a new chas Chandler maybe, someone to help steer him along. Tempted to read the chas book he wrote now.
― candyman, Friday, 22 January 2021 07:16 (three years ago) link
Listening to a lot of the recent releases, they really are mostly just rehearsal tapes. Its sort of interesting and disappointing to hear a lot of this stuff. Hendrix was capable of more. Pretty fucked up that we will never know what exactly. I think he had lots of rock musician identity issues, but not 100% sure if it would have worked for him to be in a mahavishnu orchestra type jazz rock band either.
― candyman, Friday, 22 January 2021 07:22 (three years ago) link
Absolutely. In terms of great lost work, Jimi is probably at the top of the list, simply because he was recording so much at the time of his death and mapping out so many new directions that he never had the chance to really explore. So much promising music, gone. Otis Redding would be a close second. He recorded so much right before his death, partly because he was stuck at home recovering his voice and wound up writing so much. Unlike Jimi his posthumous legacy has been curated with far more care, and a lot of it is not only held in equal regard but even more popular than his previous LP's.
I wish I could add Kurt Cobain but he was such a mess, mentally and probably physically, that it may have been too debilitating. Buddy Holly was only 22, and he was still writing some gems, but I'm not sure if he would've continued that long as a recording artist, and it's impossible to say how he would've fared as a producer over the course of the '60s. Same with Sam Cooke - his last records like "A Change Is Gonna Come" were easily his best and breaking new ground, but he actually wasn't recording a whole lot during his final months. It's possible he was planning to become more of a producer/label owner than anything else.
― birdistheword, Friday, 22 January 2021 07:29 (three years ago) link
Don't forget the Gil Evans collaboration that was planned but never came to pass.
Presumably THIS would have been the cover. Wild.
https://www.matiklarweinart.com/images/gallery/jimi-hendrix-1970.jpg
Evans did go on to record a Hendrix tribute instead. It's good...maybe a little forced without the natural fire I would have hoped, but still good.
― birdistheword, Friday, 22 January 2021 07:33 (three years ago) link
Theres also the less enticing, maybe just plain cynical possibility that he might not have found any satisfying direction to pursue... but I'd like to think he would have found a way to draw it all together.
― candyman, Friday, 22 January 2021 08:33 (three years ago) link
If Hendrix had lived even a few months longer, it would have been a boon for his legacy, because at least he would have finished a new record, and we could know what of that output he considered wheat and chaff.Otis Redding is different because he was recording completed songs live with a band, without a lot of post-production (other than seagull sounds), so anything he did is going to sound more complete than Hendrix jamming on a riff with guest musicians, trying to figure out what he wants to do.
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 22 January 2021 15:44 (three years ago) link
Reinvestigating this stuff has clarified that Hendrix only made three studio albums. Four if you include the different uk/us are you experienced versions. Everything else is just off cuts. Def weird to see ppl earlier in this thread saying first rays is the one they will be recommending newbies.
― candyman, Friday, 22 January 2021 16:04 (three years ago) link
― Ray Cooney as "Crotch" (stevie), Friday, January 22, 2021 2:08 AM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
And it wasn't just a loss of the music Hendrix might have made; it was a loss in terms of the direction of the many, many major figures he influenced. Miles obviously did tons of groundbreaking work that was deeply influenced by Hendrix, but how might his approach have differed if Hendrix had lived (and/or they eventually collaborated, as was tentatively planned)?
Hendrix had so much momentum, and so much of the (for lack of a better term, and broadly defined) "rock scene" revolved around that momentum. It was like when Coltrane died: what do we do/where do we go now that he's gone?
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 22 January 2021 16:24 (three years ago) link
This is an interesting attempt at First Rays
http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/2012/06/jimi-hendrix-first-rays-of-new-rising.html
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 22 January 2021 16:57 (three years ago) link
Never thought it was brick walled or over compressed. Not sure that would dramatically change the album but would be interesting to hear that.
― candyman, Friday, 22 January 2021 17:28 (three years ago) link
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.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 22 January 2021 17:32 (three years ago) link
I can’t remember the name, but my favorite post-EL jimi studio track might be the one with the high pitched “la la la”s in the background...
― brimstead, Friday, 22 January 2021 18:13 (three years ago) link
Earth Blues?
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 22 January 2021 18:20 (three years ago) link
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.
― birdistheword, Friday, 22 January 2021 20:05 (three years ago) link
The version of stepping stone on both sides of the sky is so much more spontaneous sounding than the one on first Rays.
― candyman, Friday, 22 January 2021 20:58 (three years ago) link
xxp yep that’s the one!
― brimstead, Friday, 22 January 2021 21:01 (three years ago) link
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 oneStepping stone (both sides of the sky) this version is much livelier than the one on first RaysDrifters escape (south Saturn delta)Beginnings (first rays)Hear my train (people hell angels)Angel (first rays)Side twoPali 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)
― candyman, Friday, 22 January 2021 21:48 (three years ago) link
nice
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Friday, 22 January 2021 22:10 (three years ago) link