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

Perhaps, but the playing on the RB version is beautiful and suits the song. A bunch of overdubs would have detracted from it rather than enhance it, in my view.

 

You have to look at how he worked with songs from that era, going back in and filling in spaces with guitar tracks playing harmonies most people wouldn't have thought of. It's a beautiful song in its raw form and fine as it is for what it is, but we'll never know what a fuller version would have sounded like. Maybe something along the lines of 1983 or the TTG New Rising Sun (would've been cool to pull that out and make a full New Rising Sun Suite for Side 4)

 

I actually find it hard to guess what Jimi would have added to "Hey Baby". He never really layered lead guitars on ballads. Perhaps another rhythm guitar. He would have replaced the lead vocal for sure (at least the tossed off delivery of the opening couplet), and perhaps added vocal harmonies.

 

Agreed.

 

I agree. I like it just as-is -complete with informal guide vocal.

 

I'd picture something along the lines of what he was doing with Drifting, some tasty little fills along the way. Bolero may have ended up with a counter lead, but it's not extant on any of the versions out there, just the main melody.

 

I think Bolero needed a whole lot of work; it's just not very interesting as it is. He must have had grander plans for it.

 

Well Drifting is one of the better examples of what additional overdubs can do to enhance a song, but I think he had more songs (in the can at time of death) where the opposite is true -too many overdubs complicating and crowding a fine song. I am still thankful Belly Button Window is sans many overdubs.

 

Yeah, there's one mix out there of Drifter's Escape with two or three guitars going at the same time, gah!

BBW is a good example of something that's just about perfect as it is. Even though it's just two guitars and a vocal, it's completely realized. The band version really doesn't add anything to it.

 

While I certainly can appreciate that perspective, I disagree. I think "Hey Baby" was compelling and showed quite a bit of promise, but I think it does sound incomplete from Hendrix's standards circa 1970. It only contained a fraction of what Hendrix was going to do with it, particularly because the objective when it was recorded was to secure a working master. Look at the layers of overdubs Hendrix added to his 1970-era recordings and it is easy to conclude that "Hey Baby" was going to receive its share of additional work.

 

I appreciate your perspective as well.

A "fraction"? I think that's probably overstating it. Unless the fraction was 95%.

Some additional work, yes, but when I listen to his soloing on this, with its wonderful phrasing, intimacy, and dynamics, I don't hear the kind of space that would be right for significant overdubs. Some subtle background stuff, OK, but not anything that would have really altered the song. It's a gem, imo, as is.

 

I hear ya, but the Maui and BOG versions are kind of cool imo.

 

The Maui version is probably my favorite, especially combined with the video. That one note where he bends it and bends it until it can't go any further...then bends it some more!

 

Yes, although, as I assume you'd agree, that's a somewhat special song, stylistically, and a different kind of song, guitar-wise, than what we hear on "Hey Baby", with its more typical soloing.

 

I do not think "Hey Baby" sounds like it is nearly finished, which is what 95% completed would imply. It sounds like a basic backing track that needs to be built up (which is what it actually was), but it was an inspired performance nevertheless, and the reason why Hendrix allocated it as the working master. An example of 95% would be "Freedom" or "Drifter's Escape," songs that for all intents and purposes were completed, lacking only final mixes and perhaps relatively small overdubs.

 

So the 12/31/69 second set Foxey Lady has never been released.

The 1/1/70 first show Foxey Lady is on the 2013 cd single and 1991 Japan bonus track. New mix has not been released on vinyl.

A 4:45 length Maui Foxey Lady would fit better on a 45 than the 6:36 Fillmore East Foxey Lady.

I just don't see a JHE era version when the new album release is later Hendrix.

 

What's wrong with presenting his stuff as works in progress? The box sets are fascinating.

Annoying the fan base you already have is not a good idea. Many in this thread are indifferent to these albums and only really cherry pick a couple tracks. I was much more excited over the several "jam" discs from Dagger than VON/PPH/BSOTS.

The first few "fake" Douglas albums may have created new fans, but sales really dropped by the end of the 70's. What's the evidence that PPH, VON or BSOTS pulled in new fans in a way that proper album reissues, live videos or compilations could not?

 

Lover Man -> 15 December 1969, Record Plant
Fox(e)y Lady ->10 November 1967, Vitus Studios, Bussum, Netherlands
Jimi Hendrix - Lover Man / Foxy Lady (Vinyl 7") | vinyl-digital.com shop | de
(posted over at CTT)

 

It's both....'Chile' is the slow blues version...it's a US Southern black slang pronunciation
'Child' is the rock version

 

I was joking about the 95%. My point was that the word "fraction" suggests that the song on RB was only a very small part of what it would have been, and I think that that is inaccurate. 95%, no, but certainly much more than a fraction. For one thing, even Jimi couldn't just knock out the kind of playing that you hear there.

 

I agree.
Wouldn't want him to get overdub happy on that one like he did with the version of Drifters Escape on SSD.
Even the extra percussion on the version from WCSB seems to clutter the song up a bit.

 

I love it but surely it was loosely regarded as the working master it's still pretty rough even in all it's glory

 

That’s an interesting choice, same session as the :blues Catfish Blues correct? Haven’t heard the rest of that, worth a full release?

 

The 12/31 Foxy Lady is on WCSB, end of disc three

 

Agreed. I think Hendrix finally laid down the song's foundation to his satisfaction; a foundation he could finally build off of with layers of overdubs and a clean vocal, and that it is why it was deemed the working master. Of course, no other work was completed on the track prior to his departure for Europe.