Thursday, March 18, 2010

Record Collector on the "Final" Jimi Hendrix Album

Somebody was kind enough to post these scans from Record Collector on the latter, unreleased recordings by Jimi Hendrix.  The article was inspired by the 1995 CD release Voodoo Soup, which was one of many attempts to reconstruct the "Final Jimi Hendrix Album."  Since then, the Hendrix family gained control of his vast output, and eventually released the CDs First Rays of the New Rising Sun and South Saturn Delta.

I think this subject arose because of the newly-released 2010 album Valleys of Neptune, which is entirely composed of never-released tracks and alternate versions of classics like "Stone Free."  Because it's not a reconstruction, but an honest collection of songs, it's being received warmly, and may become part of the hallowed Jimi canon.

I've generally avoided the posthumous Jimi albums, because you can never tell where the artist's original vision ended and the record producer's ambitions begin.  I've seen enough pillaging of Tupac's tomb to know better.  That said, I have a Robert Ludwig pressing of the 1971 LP The Cry of Love, and it's absolutely fantastic.  On some days, it's my favorite Jimi album, if only because of its earthier, garage rock sound.  It sounds just like a Seattle Rock album from the '90s.


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