Hendrix - Where to go next

Talk about getting it right the first time and constantly trying to reinvent the wheel!

(Caveats of course the original running order with Dolly and Room Full of Mirrors, but let's just deal with the reality we have )

 

This is exactly the type of thing I'm talking about. Frankenstein-ing. As you said, musical necrophilia. I don't think anyone has suffered more of this type of cash grab and desecration than Jimi. It's sad and disgusting.

 

I stopped giving any $$ to Janie and Co. a LONG time ago. You don't sem to understand my personal position on this. I do not buy anything Hendrix. If you do you're aiding and abetting a sick cash grab and desecration of his memory.

 

Wow harsh! I do agree Voodoo Soup was not the best title. I can live with the artwork but liked Cry Of Love artwork better. I do seem to be in the minority in that I actually really like Voodoo Soup. No matter what one thought of Douglas in my opionion it is nice to have an alternate vision of the “4th album” to Eddies. In reality other than the 4 tracks Jimi had made final mixes for no one really knows what Jimi would have come up with for the final product not even Eddie or Mitch. Eddie obviously feels strongly the majority of the material on COL througb War Heroes did not need to be altered at all as evidenced by how that material is exactly the same on First Rays and South Saturn Delta.

I like the view EH has given us since South Saturn Delta of other studio material. None of it is attempt to be the “4th studio album” Most of it just shows ideas, alternates and jams Hendrix was fooling around withwhich I enjoy too. I am happy to bave albums like Valleys, Both Sides of the Sky etc.... as well

 

I see where you're coming from; I'm just not sure if anyone can truly "desecrate" a memory, an image, or whatever from a dead person. It's this contrivance that I question, not how one spends their money.

I doubt anyone in here is like, "Oh, they Frankensteined this track. My image of Jimi is ruined."

I've bitched to high heaven about these patched together tracks. I don't think it should be done. There's no need to. I've given EH the stink eyes. Most recently over the EL 50 debacle.

On the other hand, EH has given us a lot more quality goods over the last 20 years than they have music that's been futzed with.

A cash grab? By and large that's called business.

Yeah, a lot stinks about EH, but I wouldn't claim that they are pissing on his grave. Even if they were, the man is dead.

 

Funny part of VS is Alan didn't use two of those four tracks! Guess he knew better...or his daughter

I've mellowed on it since it's not the end of the line it was in 1995. But for the OP's situation, I'd put off Voodoo Soup until much later in the agenda. Not only is it an alternate tracklist, but everything is alternate mixes, some good, some...not.

 

Give something else a try besides the AYE MCA '97.
I had a MCA 4CD box. They were all bettered easily. I got the first Reprise for AYE but I've not heard the 2010.
I have the same EL Polydor and I'm fine with that but you will probably find differences if you try other versions so it's ultimately up to you as usual.

 

Analogue Productions Axis Hybrid SACD redbook is hot. I don't have an SACD player.

 

Plus u get the mono mkx on the hybrid Axis SACD too which is essential for me. So if u are inclined to upgrade your core 3 Jimi CDs in CD land and not vinyl the recent Analog Production Axis SACD Hybrid is the way to go. The AYE SACD will be out soon as well and it will also contain the AYE mono mix. For ELL there is the new boxset with the 2.0 mix in Blu Ray Audio as well as a new 5.1 mix (that is really cool) along with a lot of other material. Both of the blu Ray ELL mixes trounce the 97 and 2010 CDs.

Rather than search out the reprise or Polydor CDs I would gonthis route

 

I'm holding back on the AYE SACD until reviews come in. I doubt there will be anything screwy with it, but I'm a little gun shy after EL 50.

I love, love, love the Axis SACD, though. I don't think it can get any better than that.

 

LOL I forgot about the comments about consukting his daughter at the time of Voodoo Soups release to get “a more up to date view” of what was still relevant. He specifically mentioned Earth Blues sounded dated and that is why he didn’t include it on Voodoo Skup. Earth Blues doesn’t sound dated to me even now and I believe that song is more relevant than ever today. Yes Douglas (and his daughter...) made some weird choices. Just the same I still like Voodoo Soup as an alternate view.

 

Funny Thing is that on WCSB EH go to pains to tell us they have researched and restored the original Hey Baby (inexplicably split) and with it's Bolero intro!

 

Peace in Mississippi !!!

 

Yes indeed. Good fun.

correction:
I misspoke in the post quoted above.

One of the extra tracks in the Purple Box reissue is actually fairly pointless -- Burning of the Midnight Lamp.

It's a BBC performance -- a live vocal over the pre-recorded studio backing track. Not exactly earth-shattering.

The other 3 extras are very much worthwhile.

 

The ones I remember his daughter really didn’t like was Dolly Dagger and Izabella, songs that Jimi felt slightly more positive about.

Earth Blues is a bit of a throwback, but it shares its music roots with Message of Love coming from the Nine to the Universe jam, and that made Voodoo Soup.

The exclusions make the album for me a well sequenced collection of alternate mixes instead of an attempt at crafting a fourth album.

 

@ChazFromCali - I'll add, however, that though I don't think it's a desecration, per se, that whole changing Jimi's face for the Both Sides of the Sky album is an abomination, inasmuch as it was totally unnecessary and just...bizarre!

To me that was worse than any recent chopped up tracks.

The next thing you know they'll do album art with what they think he'd look like, today, in his 70s, had he lived.

 

I would hope the AYE SACD would fall closer to Axis than ELL since they're put out by the same company. We'll see if it turns up next week and go from there.

 

But why is that funny? It appears to be true.

 

Agree but it is the Irony, when they themselves cut up or fuse things together.

 

Provided you still love Jimi's music, what's your alternative? It would have to be torrent sites, I guess. There's some good stuff on those sites, but to get the whole picture, you're going to need the official side as well. The phrase "cash grab" gets bandied about a lot, but I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean.

The Douglas releases were considered a joke and a desecration for a long time, and now the Experience Hendrix products are regarded in much the same way by some fans. I don't know...I'm not a huge Jimi bootleg guy, but Jimi's like Coltrane for me -- anything that comes out officially is worth consideration. I honestly don't have time for forensic analysis of everything. The Electric Ladyland 50th is considered a huge disappointment, and the Hollywood Bowl recording is apparently crappy, so I'm staying away.

Anyway -- I picked up Burning Desire today, based on all the good reviews. It's sort of a companion to Hear My Music, which I stumbled on about a month ago. To my knowledge these are the only completely instrumental Jimi albums released. If there are others, I'd love to know.

 

There is also Morning Symphony Ideas and speaking of Douglas Nine To The Universe as well. I don't find Morning Symphony Ideas to be quite at the level of Hear My Music and Burning Desire primarily because most of the tracks don't have bass. I think only 1 track actually has bass. The other tracks are either Jimi by himself or Jimi with Mitch or Buddy. There are also some vocals on MSI but not many. Nine To The Universe was mostly praised when it came out and it is all jams no vocals. These aren't altered like other Douglas studio albums but the jams are edited. Most if not all of them have been released in now in more complete form over a variety of EH releases.

I do think EH has done a better overall job than Douglas but Douglas did do some things well and I wouldn't completely write off his releases. I don't think the venom is quite as strong with EH as it was with Douglas and you do see a lot praise for EH too. Mostly it is the Monday Morning Quarterback syndrome when it comes to EH. Oh if they would have only done it like this... and used this instead of that..... etc....

 

That’s your prerogative.

 

Cry Of love
Rainbow Bridge
War Heroes
Hear My Music
Burning Desire
+ purple box

Way to go.

 

Update: Managed to get to some bigger record stores this week and went a bit crazy, ended up with the following CDs:

Cry of Love - 2014 Bernie Grundman remaster
Rainbow Bridge - 2014 Bernie Grundman remaster
South Saturn Delta - 2011
Winterland - single disc

Also picked up Are You Experienced & Electric Ladyland 2010 Legacy to update older versions.

I see from reading this and various older topics that the general consensus is that First Rays was a missed opportunity to gather certain songs together all in one place (some baffling omissions and questionable inclusion of the older song My Friend), was maybe too long, with a not great running order, and not sounding great (at least on CD). Now I have CoL, RB & SSD, I will have fun in putting together my own version of my favourite post Electric Ladyland songs. Are there songs on War Heroes (other than the 3 on First Rays) and/or the Purple box that I should hear for this purpose? I may get the box at some point but I'll be honest, I've never been crazy for alternate versions, random live tracks, etc. But if there are originals over the 4 discs worth hearing then what are they please? Its s shame EH didn't just put all his post EL songs out on one release, even if it was over 2-3 CDs, than dotted about all over the place.

Also is there a reason why Bernie Grundman didn't remaster War Heroes whilst he was doing CoL & RB anyway? I guess it was maybe left on the back burner to possibly do it & release sometime in the future, or is there more to it than that? I am enjoying the 2014 CoL & RB, but just have one issue with RB which I don't know if anyone else has too. . . Whilst importing it into iTunes, halfway through Hear My Train importing it simply cut out and the disc icon vanished from iTunes as if I'd taken the disc out. Check the disc (which was brand new) and not a mark on it. Did the same for Hey Baby, only a few seconds into importing. Hoping the CD itself plays ok on the stereo but I'm missing those 2 songs on my iPod which is annoying.

 

Nice!

Key possibilities from the Purple box for FR are Cherokee Mist, Come Down Hard on Me and possibly Lover Man as an option (it made my list at one point). You can also use Bleeding Heart from War Heroes/South Saturn Delta as one of your choices. There are also songs from Crash Landing one generation back from Alan Douglas's futzing around, but not quite the original tracks: Somewhere and Message of Love. There's also the Band of Gypsys version of Earth Blues with Buddy's drums instead of Mitch's which Jimi did a mix of in late August 1970. if you get one box, this is the one to get. WCSB is a little more for the Hendrix hardcore with the sideman disc but it has the original mix of Message of Love and the full version of Hey Baby with the Bolero intro, so those tracks are worth adding to the mix.

That's EH's call on what to reissue and what to hold off on. There's a sense of hoping that it will at some point be reissued (it's high on my Hendrix release want list right now). If they do, it will make the 1997 First Rays essentially obsolete, but it seems that album is out of print anyway at least on CD. If they go the next step and reissue the material on Loose Ends in some form (either on its own or tacked onto War Heroes), it will make South Saturn Delta 2/3 obsolete.

Haven't had a problem with Rainbow Bridge, hopefully just a hiccup.