Jimi Hendrix - "Black Gold"... okay, when?

I doubt there's anything in the Hendrix vault worth hearing that hasn't been released. They already scraped the bottom of the barrel on releases like Morning Symphony Ideas. Why would they sit on something this long, such as a nearly finished album of unreleased material called Black Gold? They even gave us Valleys of Neptune.

 

Well, that's sort of the question, isn't it? We know it exists. One track was released on the West Coast Seattle Boy boxset. The quality was pretty nice. So, yeah, why don't they go ahead and release it? Even as a Dagger release it would do pretty well. I would imagine that's money in their pockets.

 

The tape consists only of Jimi alone, putting down rough demos of songs. According to Kramer, there's nothing "finished" or "nearly finished" left in the vault.

 

I'm not an expert but I disagree with your statement. My problem with EH has been their decisions of what aspects of Jimi's career to promote - iirc they have done very little with the JHE era and concentrated in an unfocused way on the unfocused period that followed. I believe there are some jimi proposed tracklistings for post EL albums but EH didn't follow them and the available live footage post JHE just doesn't present him in a good way. I don't enjoy IOW 1970 and a bunch of their other choices leave me non-plusssed.
However there has been some very good stuff from them too.
I think Dagger Records was a great idea that should have been continued. I believe they should be offering whole concerts flac downloadable from an official source/site and most importantly stop releasing greatest hits packages or reissues with one bonus unreleased track - that pees me right off - like the general public give a toss about an unreleased track. Unfortunately EH have the same problem as Apple - they think the "new" album should be for the world but unfortunately the world doesn't care anymore. By and large it's the fanbase who stick with them and i don't believe they're happy either.
Release Black Gold in it's entirety in flac via download with money going to a good charitable cause. I will buy it faster than Jimi could play E7sharp9.
and while you're at it sort out the bbc stuff properly once and for all.

 

It's the "Carnival of Lights" in the world of Hendrix fans.

But really Kramer is a little full of it. We've yet to have the unaltered studio version of "Machine Gun" and "Midnight Lightning," the takes that Alan Douglas used to cobble together his versions.

...and those are just off the top of my head. You can hear them on boots. A lot of stuff on boots that is better than much of the takes on recent Hendrix releases.

 

I'm still waiting for a remastered War Heroes

 

At this point, I'd like to see EH essentially just release the Is This Legal?/Willjamz '66-'70 Complete Studio Outtakes set in as high of quality as is possible. I don't really care how it's piecemealed out and monetized, but, any fan that is dedicated enough to Hendrix's music that they'd still be buying these kinds of releases is obviously dedicated enough to appreciate the attention to chronological detail that those sets provide.

I'm a fan of the commercial releases, despite their flaws, but, really, the frankenstein tracks need to stop, especially after how critical Kramer & Co. have been of Douglas' work in the past.. Just release complete "Session Sets" as they see fit, leading up to the BG tapes for 2020.

 

According to the Black Gold book, not all the songs are acoustic and some are recordings of live Experience performances. There are actually 7 tapes.

 

Regarding the live shows, you realize there isn't all that much live material that was professionally recorded, right? Personally I don't think shows like IOW or Atlanta '70 would've ever seen the light of day if Jimi's management had done a "Grateful Dead" style job of capturing his live performances. I question some of their decisions too, but there's only so many times/ways you can milk a cow that only "produced" for roughly four years (Experience era to the bitter end).

 

That makes complete sense. I think if Black Gold had any value it would have been released decades ago. As it is, it's probably not even salvageable by way of Crash Landing style overdubs. It may be worse than the "Jimi Hendrix at his Best" series of budget priced albums featuring Mike Ephron that we all laugh about here.

 

Oh yeah, but i think they can have one outlet for nerdy want everything fans like me (flac/mp4 download of all surviving studio/concert audio/video recordings no matter how bad) while presenting interesting , high quality and well thought out sets to go in the shops for yer casual punter - they ain't doing that either.
I'm always up for hearing a new Hendrix show even if the microphone was hidden in some ugly dude's underpants. It's Jimi. However, these kind of recordings might not be suitable for public consumption.
I'm sure there's got to be joke in there somewhere. I'll sit back and wait....

 

Have you actually heard "Suddenly November Morning" from the West Coast Seattle Boy boxset? It not only confirmed that it was in the Hendrix family hands after Mitch Mitchell died (if not before), but the quality and the clarity is pretty damn good.

It was a tease. I don't have the booklet with me, but I'm pretty sure the liner notes reads that it's from the Black Gold suite.

I think you just need to check this out. I remember Janie saying it would be releases before the decade is out:

Black Gold (Jimi Hendrix recordings) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia »

 

No, you've got it wrong. As Evolvist points out, the extract on West Coast Seattle Boy is just beautiful. These are songs not doodles and with be a fascinating glimpse inside the artists sketchbook of great works ahead.

 

I haven't read that book but I think what you're saying refers to the bundle of tapes that Jimi passed on to Mitch at Mauii, one of which was the Black Gold tape - detailed here:

black_gold »

 

Yes, some good raw warts-and-all studio workouts are still candidates for a future collection - perhaps on Dagger Records - but there's nothing "near finished" in the vault anymore.

 

The book considers all of the tapes as "The Black Gold Tapes".

 

An error.

 

Actually I love to listen to "Scorpio Woman". It´s fascinating to hear Jimi jammin. (and his phone ringing )

I think that´s an important fact!

A collection of acoustic demos would indeed be a good idea for a release (ft.Black Gold).

There are still some great jams from the Drake Hotel tapes.

 

I believe he calls the first cassette Black Gold but refers to the tape cache as the Black Gold tapes if I remember correctly.

 

And I am still waiting -- still waiting! -- for a nice and thoughtful reissue of Band of Gypsies. Who knows?! By the time it comes out, I may still (Still!) be interested...

 

Part of the problem with Band of Gypsys is that LP was put out by Capitol (instead of Reprise in the U.S. where Jimi was signed) as a settlement. What this has meant since then is they have been contractually limited on what they can release (meaning they can only re-issue the original LP as is, not with bonus tracks). It's possible Sony and Capitol could come to (or have come to) an agreement, but historically that's been the reason why there has been no "deluxe" BOG re-issue.

 

I have wondered. Thanks for the explanation! RH

 

Wouldn't "Live at the Fillmore" qualify as a deluxe BOG release?

 

In the meantime , how about a Royal Albert Hall release ?
It's just sitting there...

 

No. I would call it "Band Of Gypsys 3 and 4".