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

Just listened to PHAA for the first time ever to prepare myself for this new release, and it's pretty awful IMO. Boring, inconsequential scraps. I think I'll pass on this third volume. Shame on Experience Hendrix!

 

There's a risk that we're getting "Linda" with a badly chopped up vocal to cover the timing differences between the tracks then...

Concerning the bass on Valleys of Neptune: Ultimate Hendrix mentions that Billy Cox was MIA on the September 24 session (back in Nashville) but doesn't say whether he was present or not during the September 23 session, when VON was cut.

 

As I've said, I was primarily referring to "Fast Life Rider", which is the song on SW that mostly closely aligns with the part of the post that Olompali boldfaced. If you or others don't think that "Fast Life Rider" represents some of Johnny's worst playing, then so be it, I do. (His poor use of a wah-wah pedal, which didn't suit his style, obscures but does not ultimately hide just how poor the soloing on that song is.) But my main point was, as I've said, that Johnny's playing on Second Winter is not like that on Jimi's CoL. I don't want to go any further OT on this Hendrix thread, so I'll refrain from posting more on this point. Nothing else to say about it anyway.

 

I believe it was Noel's diary and Jimi clearly plays most of the guitar on Dance.

 

But you were (I assume) combining the two full recordings/mixes, no? Assuming that they're dealing with mutitracks where the vocal is isolated, they can stretch/speed up/slow down/etc the vocal to some reasonable acceptability - though I'm sure not acceptable to the hardest of hardcore fans who have lived with both versions as performed for several years (if not decades) - but enough to fool those more casual fans not "in the know"

As for VON - that was presented as if it was a "new" finished Hendrix song (which was even released/promoted as a single). That wasn't going to happen with the bass-less version. But that doesn't mean the bass-less version won't come out - I'm sure it will eventually. Its just that (including the Frankensteined version they've already released) they now have three versions to release rather than just two.

What I figure anyway is that anything they release as a composite first, means that at some point at least one (if not both) of the uncombined takes will eventually come out on a future mainstream release (and if the other uncombined takes is considered too bare bones for mainstream consumption - well that's what Dagger is for - and if they've given up on using Dagger for studio material, there's always the next multi CD boxset which is a bit wider in scope than the individual CD 'new album' releases.

So (as a guess) I'd say the bass-less version with the vocal will probably be on a future "new album" and the instrumental version will be on a future Dagger (or perhaps instead on another career spanning boxset like WCSB which due to its length can afford to dig a bit deeper than a single CD - not to mention its price means its most likely to be bought by hardcore fans who actually want them to dig deeper than a single CD would allow)

That is of course unless they very much want to try to hide the fact (from mainstream release only/non bootleg consumers) that they've been compositing different takes, and therefore don't want to show their hand by releasing the constituent parts individually as well. But with an ever dwindling vault, eventually they may be left with little choice.

 

I'm not a Hendrix expert but, "Hear My Train A Comin" seems to be on every release.

 

Lover Man appears a lot as well.

 

Is Hendrix turning into Prince?

 

I also want to shave that one little patch of hair he (or the artist) missed........

 

at least its not "astro man"

 

they both dig purple

 

Unique titles in the studio stuff may be rationed, but they are nowhere near short on studio outtakes. There's easily 20 albums worth of alternate takes of songs/jams that are well known. Think the Axis title track alternate take on the Purple box. Why do Miles/Elvis fans get that stuff but Jimi fans don't - including mainstream releases?

Why give his old manager half(?) of the proceeds from the initial sales of the album, when Jimi could keep all of it?

Have these cancelled dates ever been published? I think I've only seen one poster turn up.

Recent digital tools allow changing the speed of a track without changing the pitch. Unlike magnetic tape era technology. Radio stations use it when ads have inhumanly fast fine print that doesn't sound like a chipmunk.

 

Sure, there' a near endless supply of instrumental recordings of both jams and backing tracks of songs without a vocal, but I can't see them ever putting more than say four instrumentals on any mainstream single CD release, so they're still pretty limited in what/how much is left to release (at least through retail channels). However (as they've already shown us) any particular song only needs to have been sung by Jimi once and pro-tools can do the rest - "magic in" a vocal onto every other (instrumental) version/take of the song, so I suppose taking that into consideration, perhaps the well is far from running dry.

 

Gordon Johnson said: ↑
I still fail to see the / any benefit of waiting such a length of time!
SoundaAdvice said:
Why give his old manager half(?) of the proceeds from the initial sales of the album, when Jimi could keep all of it?

Great point but for a man who had zero business acumen that would require great forward thinking on his part!

He had plenty of nearly completed material he failed to complete. He is shown to have dragged his feet on all of his previous releases too.
I think the point you make, while as valid as any, is really overthinking to present that opinion.

I don't see any way a business deal would have been achieved that would have given Hendrix "all of it" regardless as to who he chose as manager.
While we often lambast MJ lets remember that CC had also been part of a deal that screwed the guy.
Wasn't JH looking to get a fresh business deal with CC at the point of his death?

But we digress from the thread so I'm leaving that there SA.

What I do know is that neither JH or MJ will see a penny of the upcoming release regardless of its merits.

 

It is a valid concern. Hope it doesn't happen. Man, I wish the acoustic version was being released....

 

Had Hendrix parted ways with Jeffery, it is possible that he would have paid some sort of settlement or that Jeffery would have been entitled to certain royalties on additional albums. Jeffery was tied into Hendrix and various projects (including Rainbow Bridge), as well as being a 50% partner in Electric Lady. Separating from Jeffery was going to be a major undertaking for Hendrix.

 

While not perfect, I thought the album Valleys of Neptune was really great. Killer opening track, with that unique(?) arrangement of "Stone Free". The so-called Frankenstein version of "Valleys of Neptune" works pretty well, far as I'm concerned. Not entirely 'authentic' - but a noble attempt to craft a more fully-realized version. Killer version of "Sunshine of Your Love" too. The rest is all good to great, but more importantly, I think the whole thing hangs together nicely as an 'album'-experience. In terms of letter-grades, I'd give it a solid B in my book, and maybe a B+ considering what they had to work with.\

People, Hell, and Angels is a LOT more of a mixed bag - but I still enjoy quite a bit of it, even if it doesn't hang together as an album very well (at all).

I don't expect any better from this Both Sides of the Sky, BUT - I think there's a really good chance I can build a more proper-sounding album (perhaps as good as Valleys of Neptune), out of the best tracks from PHA and BSotS. Assuming Amazon, or Best Buy (or Target - hopefully with bonus tracks) will have it on sale for $10, which is a price-point I'll find hard to ignore.

I still love Valleys of Neptune, and spin it a fair bit even now - and I think it does feel a lot like a proper-album. People, Hell, and Angels only gets a spin once or maybe twice a year, at most -- but half of it is still pretty good.

FWIW, I was a Hendrix devotee back to when I was in high school in the mid-80's, and Jimi was my very first really deep musical love. By the time I graduated high school in '87, I think I had about 20 vinyl boots, along with everything legit, and a fair bit of the pre-fame material too.

I think Eddie Kramer's efforts have nearly all been positive, and the far lesser of multiple 'evils' that could (and have) been foisted on us before. I don't mind his (I'd argue) judicious edits on the Winterland material, and what were surely some edits on the live stuff on West Coast Seattle Boy. Some of those tightened-up tracks are way better as a result, far as I'm concerned. A little tinkering with history isn't always a bad thing, in my book -- depending on who's doing the tinkering, of course. Thank goodness Kramer's still around, and making (again, I'd argue) good creative decisions.

I take a bit of a "glass is half full" attitude about this kind of stuff, and at least up to this point, the glass has been at least 60%-70% full. My only complaint is the speed with which this stuff is coming out. I don't mind the drip-drip, so much, as long as the drips were faster. 1-2 good releases per year would be great. I'm pushing 50, so I'll be around to enjoy this stuff a good while longer -- but in 10 years, half the audience for these kinds of releases will be gone (or on their way).

 

I am not sure they can chop up Linda and make it work - but it remains to be seen...who knows? I didn't expect we'd hear the Stills session of Somewhere grafted onto the front of that track. Obviously the original Buddy Miles version as gone AWOL? Only in poor quality unofficially...In regards to VoN - I have never heard an official version with bass - the only one with bass is L&U/Lifelines - I always wondered if Douglas added that...but it ain't very good. In fact I have discussed in the past whether people wouldn't mind Billy overdubbing...at least he was in Jimi's band...but I guess that rather controversial...

 

Right you are...but I still think the tempos are too far apart - even with the multis...on the tracklist it says recorded with Billy and Buddy - so they are probably just going to give us the instrumental...

Also in regard to your comments about the archives and eventually releasing constituent parts - you could well be right...

 

Yes, I am aware of this - in fact I have some experience in doing so - including "finishing" the Hit Factory version of VoN by adding the 1970 bass. I have also timestretched all three released versions of Burning Desire up until the breakdown section...and it works well...but I have tried to timestretch the vocal version of Linda to the instrumental - and it just doesn't work... There is a possibility that the multis have an isolated vocal which might make it possible - but I always thought the vocal demo was live in the studio...it sounds it. The guitar and vox may be isolated on different channels...I don't know...I thought they were just releasing the instrumental run through...we'll see, I guess...

 

I can certainly appreciate your enthusiasm, and there are some great performances on the release; the two 2/17/69 Olympic "rehearsal" performances are worth the price of admission. But those 1987 Redding/Mitchell overdubs are terrible. The title track is disjointed and unfinished, even in its hybrid state (Hendrix had a lot of work to do on that track). Some of the songs meander too much, like the "Crying Blue Rain" and the early incarnation of "Night Bird Flying," "Ships Passing Through The Night." I like some of this album, but it really has an eclectic, grab-bag feel to these ears. EH clearly was focused on and committed to a single disc, commercial compilation; but I think compiling a lot of this material as part of an expansive box set would have been a better approach.

 

Jimi knew he was having major issues with MJ as a manager and was telling people before he died that he would be gone. AFAIK, after the 12/1/1970 the only way MJ had power over Jimi would be renting out one of the ELL studios when Jimi wanted it. I don't think MJ had a piece of his sales/publishing after that date, as revealed by tax returns used by EH in court against some "grey market" releases in the UK. I think it was Sharon Lawrence that said MJ didn't even sign the 5 year Jimi contract.

I think the Chas conversations in Sept 1970 were built around producer work to finish the album. Not sure about Jimi management. IIRC, Chas was a very smart businessman for all parties when he managed Slade.

 

I could see the 4 CD boxes being able to host 50% instrumental recordings. The rest can be alternate vocal takes and excess live stuff(ie: unused Winterland takes).

 

Michael Jeffery continued to earn commissions on Hendrix's revenues during 1970, and after Hendrix died (from the posthumous albums he put together as Hendrix's representative). It has been awhile since I have revisited the business dealings with Jeffery/Yametta and Hendrix, but IIRC, Yametta controlled all Hendrix revenues (one of the reasons Hendrix was fleeced out of so much money) and had a piece of publishing. In fact, Yametta was the production company that signed with Warner to deliver Hendrix product. A key question is whether Jeffery shared in publishing revenue only for his time as manager, or for publishing from the 1967-1970 period in which he he represented Hendrix which would be in perpetuity. It is unclear what the Jeffery estate did with his Hendrix-related assets; they sold off his ownership of Electric Lady, but did they also sell off his rights in any publishing and record royalties? What happened with Yametta (Jeffery allegedly cleaned out its cash and assets after Hendrix died)?

 

That's nice

I'll be buying it, as one simply can't have too much Hendrix.