Hey what about the story he had acid stitched into his socks for almost every US show in 68, 69 and 70? How true is this?
Sure, edit out enough of the shows and what we have is a "perfect Jimi"! I get the commercial side but then again it's odd we get substandard recordings bundled into a mainstream set like EL. Something not quite balanced or honest about the "commercial" side somewhat! I listen to the Larry Lee stuff more often than most I guess, simply as I go to my collectors set rather than the official release for Woodstock. RAH Wild Thing. Of course it wont be included, just like Voodoo Chile [sr] is / will be edited
It's not a question of "perfect Jimi" in IMO, or substandard audio recordings. I mentioned a few musical performances that musically are absolutely painful to listen to and adds nothing positive to the legacy. The Bowl concert recording is substandard, but there's nothing wrong with the performance as such. I also listen to the complete boot version of Woodstock, but it was a pretty sound decision to edit it for commercial release. We collectors and super fans can find what we want anyway.
While I agree as this fits the commercial aspect of Jimi we do need to keep in mind we ain't gonna see the guy perform any time soon! With that in mind, how much is the reasoning to edit whole songs, bad tuning [by any specific band player] etc simply a way to manage Jimi's legacy? Next we'll have stories about him not taking drugs, smoking cigarettes, sleeping with women outside of wedlock and even murder!
And to note, I never have thought the flute was mixed too low on the official Winterland release. But as its a moot point, I'll sit with this set and specifically this track [which I love] over the weekend on a different TT set up. If for no other reason than to satisfy my original thinking.
We already know Jimi was a devout Christian who never did drugs and didn't funk hundreds of women thanks to Janie. I see sniping bits of atrocious tuning as a relatively minor thing. I have far more of a problem with Eddie Kramer playing around in pro tools and combining recordings that were never meant to go together, and doing it very amateurishly.
Random Jimi thought for the day: my biggest fear regarding EH is that one day we are going to hear the dreaded word - hologram.
It's part of a sequence from Purple Haze to Wild Thing to Smashing of the Amps. Since it's short, I hope they leave it in since we waited so long for the thing to come out! May as well milk it for every second of sound...
Well, it has already appeared on hundreds of cash-in compilations already. You know, those that mix low-fi Albert Hall tracks with funk tunes by unknown artists from the mid 70s, some snippets from the Scene Club jam ("Whoa Eeh" etc.), some Lonnie Youngblood stuff, some Curtis Knight stuff.
Why pick on Eddie? Busy with more important things right now so can only go on my ( ageing) memory. Am I correct in thinking Eddie only ever did merge live material just the once? I would have to sit with the original winterland recordings again to remind me of the original recordings of SSB and why he ( or whoever) chose to edit 2 separate pieces as one. Then again, I recall a very nice article in jimpress that covered this point!
I've got four of them myself! Had splice together the concert onto a 90 minute tape from four or five different albums. But this will be THEIR chance to finally put it out. I was going to say nicely and properly mixed, but these days...
This is what I'm going to do with Winterland. Do we know if the Bob Terry tapes are complete? I never asked. At the time that I got them I wasn't on such a Hendrix binge. I'm not asking you in particular, Gordon, just the group, but as I recall the inclusion of the audience tapes from Winterland sort of rounds out the set. Landmark performances, no doubt. It makes me wonder about some of Jimi's other brief residences at venues, never recorded, if they were special, as well, but we'll never know.
Would have to sit with a lot if material to know how complete the Terry tapes are. I do have the dubs of Al Hendrix's copies to compare with.
This is the RAH disc I found back in the 90's - some great photos in the booklet: Jimi Hendrix - Experience
One thing to keep in mind, even if the Bob Terry tapes are complete and sound good overall, I know from folks who were attempting fan mixes that not all of his tapes run at the correct speed. To quote the old G.I Joe show, "knowing is half the battle"
Or, "Ignorance is bliss." Unless the tape speeds vary by many multiples, a few cents, give or take, isn't going to destroy the enjoyment. It would have to be really, really off to kill the feel. I don't think I want to go that deep into it, unless it's egregious (and it could be. I don't know).
Fair enough. If I'm familiar with the music at hand, anything more than about 3.5% off plus or minus starts to drive me a bit nuts. Of course, that may just mean that I'M nuts ! I've pitch corrected a LOT of Jimi from trader's tapes in my time.
I had to do that to fix Hollywood Bowl. The audience tape differed from the soundboard tape by...3.5%
I could do without that whole sequence of RAH. There is some really nice sustained tasty playing and general clarity of sound but the footage has most of the crowd less than enthusiastic. Jimi has to resort to the 'smash it up ' to get audience excitement. He is seen afterwards shaking his head. Obviously I'm not a completist and realise others will want the whole document.
I have no problem with them editing the tapes as long as they do the following. 1. Document and acknowledge all edits in notes that come with the recordings. 2. Make the entire recording that has no edits is easily available. If they cant or wont do this suddenly I have a big problem.
The problem is, as we all know, it's already out there in umpteen different forms. It'd be more conspicuous by its absence. It's how the show ended, so gotta deal with it as such.
If I remember correctly, the regular guy that mixed the H went "on vacation". The dealer not wanting to miss out on business decided to do that himself. Without any idea of what he was doing. Janis wasn't the only one to OD on that batch. Just the most famous.
