New Hendrix cd "People Hell and Angels" coming in November

Yeah, Douglas is out to lunch. I doubt that Kramer and McDermott have no idea where the two Voodoo Soup follow-up projects are located in the archives. Say what you want about McDermott, but the guy has a level of expert knowledge about Hendrix's sessions and tapes in the archives that Douglas never possesed.

The scary thing about Douglas is that he always felt he knew what was best for Jimi's artistic legacy - and he clearly still believes it. In his mind, his vision for Jimi's music was superior to what Jimi actually produced. He really didn't appreciate what Hendrix actually created. Douglas appreciated Hendrix's gift as a guitarist and believed it was he, Alan Douglas, that needed to shape recordings into relevant songs. In Douglas' mind, Hendrix had the talent, but lacked the vision. Douglas believes he had the vision. At least Kramer worked extensively with Hendrix and was part of the creative process. Douglas was always a fraud.

 

Just heard the Amazon samples and the lead guitar I am hearing in a lot of songs sounds out of tune and terrible Villanova Junction Blues 1:45 what a fing joke when my version lasts 27 mins, i guess this pitiful "1:45" is EH's own sample for us. I wonder if the next version will even make 5mins

 

Don't agree, it is EH that are doing all the, as you say 'shape recordings into relevant songs' now though isn't it ? So substitute Janie/EH/Kramer with Douglas then and it is the truth today At least Douglas got the full un-doctored recordings out to us, as I am listening to a lot now (full Villanova Junction at the mo) so a true Jimi Hendrix fan like myself praises him for what he did for me personally, if you have not got access to all this great stuff then I am so sorry for you because you really are missing out and the current weak EH Albums are not a substitute, because EH sure as hell are not going to let me listen to Hendrix as he should be heard so thank god I have what I have !!

 

EH did release there own version of an all blues Hendrix album in 2003: Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues - Jimi Hendrix. It contained material left off the Douglas Blues album (It's Too Bad, Country Blues, Hear My Train A Comin' (studio version) plus 2 previously unreleased songs "Georgia Blues" and "Blue Window." It's a great album and compliments the "Blues" disc well.

One surprise about the "Blues" reissue is that they didn't remix & remove a lot of the Douglas edits. Most the songs aren't in their original form. "Voodoo Chile Blues," "Mannish Boy," "Once I Had A Woman," "Born Under A Bad Sign" and "Electric Church Red House" are all edited down. This is why many Hendrix fans refer to Alan Douglas as "the butcher." Check out the excellent bootleg "Raw Blues" if you want to hear the extended versions.

 

As stated previously Douglas was limited by the format, EH are not now so no excuse to edit IMO

 

You're right, EH does edit down tracks for whatever reason. Luckily, we have the raw bootleg mixes on most. Some examples:
Calling All The Devil's Children: The official version cuts out 2 minutes, mainly the drug bust skit at the end where the studio gets raided by the "fuzz." Guessing this is because Janie's Christian. I'm shocked they released this it all.
Hear My Freedom: The full unedited version is over 7 minutes. I think this is part of the "Electric Church Jam" which runs even longer. The intro is on "Electric Church/Red House." Not sure whey this got chopped down to 5 1/2 minutes.
It's Too Bad: About 2 minutes is removed at the end when the jam breaks down. Not missing much.

Midnight: The original instrumental is around 9 minutes long. I doubt a 9 minute jam would have fit onto "War Heroes."
Easy Blues: Over 10 minutes. The Douglas edit eliminates a lot of the mistakes.
Valleys Of Neptune: The original 1969 vocal version is nearly 6 minutes. I prefer it to the official version we got 2 years ago which removes Jimi's fantastic middle section. Assuming Kramer edited this down so they could release it as a single. Silly.
Villanova Junction Jam: The original is over 25 minutes. On Burning Desire, it's seperated into 3 different tracks "Villanova Junction Blues," "Record Plant 2X" and "Slow Time Blues." Guessing they didn't think fans could sit through a 25 minute jam.
Bolero: Bootleg mix is over 6 minutes. No idea why the official mix is shorter.

 

These samples are exciting to me ... that is the wonderful Hear My Train that has never had an official release ...that is not the 27 minute Villanova Jct. ...it sounds like one we have never heard before ... short but awesome ... there is a ton of stuff on here I cant wait to hear the full tracks of ...

 

One last thought, Experience Hendrix really should release a "Hendrix Archives" type boxed set for collectors. A multi-disc set featuring all the original, unedited versions of these various tracks "warts & all" as someone said.

 

Not only are they edited, but some are composites from various takes. Douglas was producer, but IIRC, Mark Linett was the butcher on Blues under Douglas' supervision.

The Scorsese compilation is fine and certainly worth the price of admission for Blue Window, but again, if you look at the session information, there are a lot more "blues" tracks that Hendrix laid down on tape throughout '69/'70. Whether they are fragments or disjointed jams, there are some intriguing titles.

 

It won't happen, there business model seems to be to Edit or as they would claim 'Enhance' the material as they seem fit for maximum possible albums, everything we hated about the very worse stuff that Douglas did, it seems Michael Jackson is also being done this way, i suppose the advantage of Hendrix releases is they can not fake his 'vocal or guitar' because at least it has all been heard, unlike the crap Jackson fan's have to put up with

 

from that short preview It sounded terrible compare to the 27 min version, Jimi sounds out of tune to me and hitting bum notes, must have another listen !!

(Edit: If that is the best we have for a studio Villanova Junction then what a shame Have EH released the 27 min version on anything, even an edit etc, if not (and if they have the master tapes) they are hoarding some pure Hendrix Gold, if that is what they are releasing instead )

 

Don't know about you folks, but I'm not too keen on the title "People Hell and Angels"".

I like "Hell and Angees" a hell of a lot better.

The Elmore James song (Bleeding Heart) does start out "People's, People's .."

Maybe that has something to do with the title.

 

This might help. It's from a post I did a while back over at another Hendrix forum...

Where in the hell did they get the title "People, Hell and Angels" from?
Janie Hendrix: “It was Jimi’s title that he wrote down during the time he was creating the songs."

Actually, from what I've read, that particular title comes from a discussion Jimi had with Mike Jeffrey's receptionist shortly before his death. By the fall of 1970, he had enough new songs to fill 3 LP's. He was thinking of dropping the First Rays Of The New Rising Sun moniker and calling his highly anticipated 4th album something else. He toyed with the idea of releasing a triple album titled People Hell and Angels.

Jeffrey thought this was commercial suicide and that no one would buy a 3 record set. Then the overwhelming success of the recent multi-LP Woodstock soundtrack convinced Jimi it might work. However, if Jeffrey & Warner Bros. insisted on a single LP Hendrix was thinking of calling it Strate Ahead orBetween Here and Horizon. (He'd given about a dozen different album titles to the press over the past 2 years).

 

That is true. The bottom line is that the final title of the 4th album was still undecided - but it appears that the contenders were "First Rays Of The New Rising Sun," "People Hell and Angels," and "Straight Ahead."

I never heard that Hendrix may have been under pressure to deliver a single disc, versus a double album. My guess is that he would have won the battle over the length of the album based on the exhaustive work he had put into shaping up so much material for potential inclusion. It is unlikely he would have backed down. And of course, no one should forget that he also owed Warner a soundtrack for Rainbow Bridge, which I am guessing would have been comprised of masters that didn't make the 4th album along with some live tracks.

 

Though I'm team EH, at least Douglas repsected "Peace in Mississippi" enough to put it on an album. Not some pain-in-the-a$$ to find single country single.

I think one of the follow up is the Dylan EP - complete artwork was done including liner notes by Bob!!! EH have knowingly sat on this for 18 years as it's mentioned in the Black Gold book. Such low hanging fruit for EH and could make a great 12 inch for Record Store Day.

Redding and Chandler both had similar statement about Jimi's "focus" in the studio.

2 little known facts about Alan Douglas: He gets 25 cents per cd from EH as part of the Eh settlement. Jimi respected Douglas so much he was having an affair with his wife.

Don't some of the DVD's have drug innuenedo in them? Did EH keep all the dirty improv lyrics in Gloria?

Isn't Kramer coked out in the 1973 interview footage they released?

I got half of my Dagger's used. If you really need to find the music you can. i live 3 hours drive from Seattle and find the postage fees they ask silly.

 

I was not aware of this. I know EH paid Douglas around $5 million dollars as part of the settlement, but did not realize he received a royalty rate for EH cds as well. I also believe the Woodstock DVD that tied into EH's 1999 Woodstock CD had something to do with Douglas -- not that he actually produced it, but that he had certain rights or control over it. Douglas made out pretty well considering that in the early '70s he was a total outcast in the Hendrix world and then was able to subsequently take control over the musical administration of the Hendrix legacy. Pretty savvy.

 

These two disappoint me. I was really thinking we would get the full version of Gyspy Boy, especially after EH had it removed from my Youtube account. I'm glad to have the pristine sound quality but they really should have left the full intro in.

For that short of a snippet of Villanova Junction, they may as well have included the beautiful version Jimi jams on after the master take of Three Little Bears.

It is looking like Hear My Train A Comin will be the highlight of the disc.

 

Errr...what happened in 2003?

 

I mainly want to know about the Bonus Tracks that Target will be releasing on People Hell & Angels
13. Ezy Ryder (Target Exclusive)
14. MLK Jam (Captain Coconut) (Target Exclusive)

Any good? Where Are they from?

http://www.target.com/p/jimi-hendri...t-target/-/A-14431505#?lnk=sc_qi_detailbutton

albeit

The extra tracks released with the Valleys of Neptune were pretty cool from Target in my opinion, (Slow Version, Trash Man), instrumental.

Also, the bonus tracks on my album of Smash hits were pretty cool too (51st anniversary, Highway chile). Never can quite find where this particular album came from as Ive never seen another with these tracks.



KipB:
How did Hear my train A commin never get a offical release when it was on the Blues album as acoustic 12 string and electric versions?

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B2064IY/ref=dm_sp_alb

My reactions to the extracts - typed while I listened:

Earth Blues - A pretty sparse demo run-through with Buddy Miles' terrible "cement mixer" (as Mitch described it) metronome drums. Pretty thin material to kick off a "lost album" with. Think of kids who buy this and think that this is what a Hendrix album sounds like.
Hear My Train - ditto. Horrible sound. There's must be some good soloing along the way however.
Bleeding Heart - So this is a garage band album. Hell this is turning into a Buddy Miles nightmare. Lovely guitar of course. Is it the same take as on Blues?
Let Me Move You - Oh yes, the Youngblood jam. Back to his roots with a psychedelic sauce. A fun jam with Jimi going wonderfully beserk on the wah-wah pedal. Sounds like fun.
Izabella - Another scrappy run. I bet it sounded better in the studio with the drums bouncing off the walls. Again, the guitarist is cool.
Easy Blues - Funny, were back in the garage again. The sound isn't hi-fi on Amazon but the mix sounds to brittle and raw. On "Nine To The Universe" it sounded nice and warm. More "finished". Oh bollocks.
Crash Landing - Who's on organ. Buddy? Interesting but a little clumsy. Half baked.
Inside Out - Quite a nice variant on the Lullaby For The Summer/Ezy Ryder theme.
Gypsy Boy - Another tatty demo. Jimi sounds like his axe is out of tune. Blunt.
Mojo Man - Yeah! Sounds terrific! Gimme an album of stuff like this please.
Villanova Junction Blues - A nice coda but again it's an off the cuff tryout jam.

 

I too remember being very disappointed with Voodoo Soup. This was the early 90s and two tracks I was especially after were Room Full Of Mirrors and Stepping Stone with Buddy's drums. Of course these were the two overdubbed tracks on VS! I also thought that Voodoo Soup was basically most of Cry Of Love with some other tracks so it was a bit pointless release, for me anyway. Why weren't the Rainbow Bridge tracks (most of them unavailable on cd at the time) included? And I thought those new mixes were horrible.

Also, the liner notes (which were actually fine) had this long, long list of songs that Jimi was considering for release on First Rays or whatever it was going to be called. VS omitted most of that stuff so why bother mentioning it in the liner notes at all! Frustrating.

Concerning the unreleased Douglas albums, I recall an interview with Douglas from around VS in which he spoke about album called On The Run which would have been a live album taken from various shows (i.e. most likely another greatest-hits-live type of thing).

 

Considering how EH are now definitely into the game of chopping up, mixing & matching and frankenstein-izing the recordings, I wish they weren't so precious about respecting "original" titles that Jimi might have come up with off-the-cuff, for all we know. PH&A seems so arbitrary in respect to the compilation's contents, making it pretentious and cringe-worthy.

 

Yeah, the samples don't sound too good. It's always nice to get more Jimi but I get the impression that these tracks were just thrown together without rhyme or reason. In other words - it doesn't flow like an album no matter how much they are trying to sell it as such.

I feel that at this point the best way to release Hendrix would be through box sets like Purple Box and WCSB. The box set format would put the material in wider context and would be more clearly directed at hard core fans / collectors.

 

Here are quotes from the GW July 1995 interview with Alan Douglas:

"The basic criterion for VS was to pick great songs"

"I don't believe these kids give a **** about what was happening 25 years ago! I don't care how good Jimi's playing is: if the song doesn't work for them, they are not interested. A perfect example is Earth Blues. It's not on VS because, i felt it was too dated. I listen Earth Blues and i get off on it. Me, personally. But my daughter Kirby doesn't give a **** about any of that. She's 22 years old. She says: 'What are you playing this for, Daddy? That's not great Jimi Hendrix'. And she knows. One of kids from Jimi Press asked me, 'We've had it this way for 25 years. Why do you have to change it now?' My response is, 'Go listen to your ****ing old records, man. You don't have to pay any attention to what i'm doing.'"

Then Alan Douglas tells his opinion about some of the songs.

"I feel that the song just doesn't work today." (Dolly Dagger)

"He never sang Izabella right one time. Not once." (Izabella)

"Straight Ahead is one of those not-so-great songs. I mean, it was a message song. It was written for the f******n Sixties. It was a counter-culture rave song. Listening to it now, it sounds f*****n corny." (Straigh Ahead)

"Corny." (Astro Man)

"Ridiculous." (My Friend)

"Utterly ridiculous." (Three Little Bears)

Make no mistake, that Douglas-dude was quite something.

 

Correct. It's OK to put this sort of loose material out (many tracks will undoubtable have some superb guitar playing) but not dressed up as if it a conceptual album or even an "album in progress". It would have been fine to release this stuff with titles like "Studio Outtakes", "In The Studio""Studio Sessions (like Radioactive and their derivative labels did). At least that would give the more casual punter an idea of what was within. The marketing approach that Experience Hendrix and Sony employ is just cheap, ugly and dishonest.