Jimi Hendrix Both Sides of the Sky - new album coming March 9, 2018

Have you ever transferred to digital? It's possible for something to be cut loud enough that it overloads your A/D converters even though you're recording at a lower level. What looks like limiting on the needle drop looks more to me like an overload of the input of the hardware used. It was then recorded at a lower level with the actual software used to record it. The first vinyl reissue of Axis: Bold As Love was cut so loud that it clipped before it even reached my software. It was too loud for my hardware.

 

Isn't the version on the 'purple' box set a proper guitar solo(Kramer '97 mix)(replaced the verse)...as on West Coast Seattle Boy version(Hendrix/Kramer mix '70).
Seems Kramer went with Douglas(Crash Landing mix) as to what version to release...tho the final mix with Hendrix(8 '70) had the verse left in.

 

I don't think we're sure where that solo came from. It's pretty harshly edited into the take there, jarring in and slightly less jarring out. It might have been from another take, or another song altogether.

I believe the history is:

Dec '69-Jan '70-Song recorded with BoG
Aug '70-Jimi & Eddie do a mix
1974-Douglas edits the middle eight out and puts the solo into the master.
1975-Released on Crash Landing with some additional precussion (can't really hear it if you ask me, but...)
1995-Released on Voodoo Soup (same fade out, but no extra percussion)
2000-Released on 'purple box' with no fade out
2010-Released on WCSB as Aug '70 mix with verse but no solo

Unless we get a full bunch of session recordings to compare other versions, I'm going to say the official version had no solo. Now, I think it sounds empty without it and made an edit with both that's my go to, but that's the best info we have at the moment.

 

I did the same thing. Used the WCSB mix from the intro through the middle eight, then the Purple Box mix from the solo till the end. Sounds great.

 

An outtake from the Crash Landing project makes it clear the original had no solo. Douglas looped a verse, removed the vocals and put the solo over it.
Jimi of course also also muffs the vocals in the "middle eight", which is really the chorus of the tune.
So, the Douglas version is perhaps the most musically realized version, the original is fine but obviously unfinished.

 

These two have the 3rd verse unedited too, compared to Crash Landing. Though Jimi flubs the words here too.

Unless Jimi and Kramer copied part of the backing track, edited it into the master and overdubbed the guitar solo over it (and all after the August 1970 mix - unlikely), then the original did not have a solo.

Which makes it quite surprising that Kramer remixed the Crash Landing master for the Purple Box.

 

I am trying to do what you have for fun but can not work it out any chance you can put the exact time(s) of the edits so I can cut in the right place etc ?

 

The only thing I can think of is they didn't have the Aug '70 mix until after the Purple Box. For that one he just stripped off anything added and released what they had.

 

Cut the WCSB version at 1:13, then tack on the purple box version from around 55 seconds in. I did mine digitally in Final Cut and was shaving off frames to get it synched as best I could.

 

What John said.

 

Well, that's what gets me....I don't think he did...there was some over dub work done on it in Jan 17 '70...but I don't have any tracks in the '70's studio set from that date....I mean does it sound like the guitarist Douglas hired for Crash Landing? or is it Hendrix doing the solo.
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but then again...when Hendrix and Kramer did the Aug '70 mix...it's not there.
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now I believe that solo in Crash Landing on the People,Hell & Angels is a flown in from a totally unrelated session.
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Yeah...I have the Funkydrummer mix of the 2 versions as well...runs about 15sec. longer.

 

Yep, my Message Of (To) Love run 3:53.

That's a Jimi solo, it's got his tone and his inflections. Where from? Got me.

The Crash Landing on PHA is another take altogether than the one Douglas used as a base. You can hear the guitar tone change as he clicks on the effects as the solo begins. I've tried the same mix & match with the original CL with the one on PHA and you just can't do it. The breaks don't match up. Which is too bad because the solo is the best part of the song. If they could find a way to fly that solo into the original Crash Landing, I wouldn't complain too loudly.

Now you want to hear a flown in solo, check out the one on the Douglas version, that definitely sounds like it's from a total different song!

 

Definitely a Hendrix solo on Message To Love, just not something that was part of the original recording.

 

Speaking of "Crash Landing" on Crash Landing, the flown-in solo is definitely Jimi, but there are some lead guitar licks that are definitely not Jimi but session guitarist Jeff Mironov.

 

great thanks

 

Here's an interesting thing related to the album: I just heard an Amazon Alexa commercial over the internet where a dad tries to turn his son onto classic rock and asks Alexa to play some for him: "Playing Jimi Hendrix Stepping Stone" and the version playing was the one from this album. Hey, however they can spread the word.

 

the problem I am having doing this SHTV Edit of Message Of Love is I can do the edit but matching the tone is difficult because you can tell they are generations apart so it sticks out like a sore thumb for me

 

What is it about Stepping Stone that everybody likes so much? Its one of his few songs I cant get into. Nor do I enjoy the lyrics or his vocals or understood why it was released as a single. Is it really that popular for an Alexa commercial? Not sure what he saw in the song, but he saw something to still tinker with it as late as the summer of 1970. Seems he had other songs with greater potential at the time to me.

 

Yep, that is an issue. The mixes with the solo (especially the Douglas one) are generally brighter than the Aug '70 one. I just adjusted the volume here and there and went with it, best I could do.

 

I think they were just picking a song from the new album to use in the commercial.

I suppose it's one of those songs like Valleys and Burning Desire that he must have heard something in his head that wasn't getting down on tape. He got closer with Stepping Stone compared to those two since he actually released one. Lyrically, I don't know if it was tied into his relationship with Devon as closely as the Dolly/Crash Landing/Freedom cycle, or more of a general saying about relationships. The unique approach to the BSOTS version almost makes it a different song.

 

I have done it much better now it was best just to insert the 'extra verse' (55 Secs) from the West Coast version rather than take the all the first 1:13 mins of that version so the whole song is the Purple Velvet boxset version apart from that extra verse etc (more complex to do but sounds the best), works really well !!

 

It'd sound more consistent since you just have that one section changing quality. But it is a bit more difficult, you need to blend the part right before the solo/middle eight on each just right.

 

I agree with you on this. I never really got into myself, although I have to say with the new one there is finally a version I like.

 

I like the new version -- and I 'like' all the versions of "Stepping Stone" generally. But it's never been even on my top-25 list of Hendrix tunes.

Not absolute bottom of the barrel either, but I'm generally pretty ambivalent about the song, at best.

 

It's a fantastic rock/rap number laced with terrific guitar playing.