Jimi Hendrix's 'The Cry of Love' and 'Rainbow Bridge' Treated to Reissues (pt2)

Continued from here:

Jimi Hendrix's 'The Cry of Love' and 'Rainbow Bridge' Treated to Reissues

 

Old School...

Isn't it More Experience that has "Little Wing" listed as "Little Ivy" on the back cover of the original vinyl?

Seems that a buddy of mine had that when we were in our teens, and he said, "Man, check out this song called 'Little Ivy!'" And I said, "Fool, that's 'Little Wing'! Now, pass me that J and shut the hell up!"

It's amazing how much runout groove we listened to, back in the day, because nobody wanted to get up and turn the friggin' record over. I'm sure I could probably tell you which album it is just by listening to those grooves.

 

The tracks on Experience/More Experience(which I listened to on cassette the other day) They must be spread across several compilations by now. Anyone care to map those two titles out?

 

"I also agree that Kramer' original intentions for the album were far superior to what he ultimately released; although I would have kept Straight Ahead on there in place of Belly Button Window." - PacificOceanBlue Part1 of thread

I agree with you PacificOceanBlue as Straight Ahead sounds more finished to me than Belly Button Window.

I am also not sure how Stepping Stone and Izabella figure in as they were originally going to be on Rainbow Bridge and ended being held back for War Heroes.

 

A ridiculous typo error by Ember. The typographer must have simply incorrectly read a hand written track listing and they rushed it out before checking properly.

 

I would have rather had it the way Kramer originally wanted with Dolly Dagger and Room Full Of Mirrors instead of Straight Ahead and My Friend.

But they needed DD and RFOM for Rainbow Bridge instead. Without them RB would be really weak.

 

Not with Drifter's Escape, Lover Man, and Cherokee Mist available. Clearly, holding back Dolly Dagger and Room Full Of Mirrors strengthened Rainbow Bridge, but there was other material that Hendrix had been actively mixing that was not considered that should have been.

 

In addition, Kramer had originally kept Stepping Stone and Izabella for Rainbow Bridge but was then told to save them for the next release which became War Heroes so they were replaced with the live Berkeley version of Hear My Train A Comin'.

Two other possibilities for Rainbow Bridge were the studio versions of Message To Love and Power Of Soul that Hendrix and Kramer had been actively working on and mixing. Come Down Hard On Me Baby from Loose Ends was also a possibility.

 

I believe the copies I have are on cd but I don't remember if they are on the Ember label.
John Fell

The original Albums were put out on Ember / Bulldog. Some slight differences between the US and UK issues tho' I'm not going to check and list them now.
Sound wise, they vary. That is one of the albums suffers more than the other and sounds poor. I know because I checked early this year for a debate either here or at Crosstown Torrents, probably the latter. Either way the sound is better on more recent releases. I'd have to pull the CD [CD's?] I have of this material to see just how different the sound is [don't think they are Ember], again not now as I'm enjoying RB [Grundman mastering] right now on the 'phones and I'm only getting up to visit the fridge

 

Nectar NTRCD036 original soundtrack from the feature length Motion picture "experience" Jimi Hendrix.
Little Wing
Voodoo Chile
Room Full Of Mirrors
Purple Haze
Wild Thing
The Sunshine Of Your Love
Room Full Of Mirrors [extended version]
Bleeding Heart [Extended version]
Smashing Of Amps
C# Blues [people, people people]

As it says on the rear cover

 

All valid points. It goes back to what I said in Pt. 1 of this thread with regard to his philosophy surrounding content for VoN and PHA; while Kramer had the right intentions back in '71 (and subsequently), I am not convinced he always has had the best judgment when it comes to material and track-selection. It is easy to play monday-morning-quarterback and judge in hindsight and from afar, but clearly Kramer was very aware of the material available and of Hendrix's own intentions. And yes, there were political issues and Jeffery to deal with, but there were some odd decisions surrounding content on both COL and RB to say the least. Again, to this day, the July/August 1970 sessions and relevant associated material has not been properly presented on album.

 

It seems to me that the easiest thing to do would have been to take the tentatively planned First Rays double album material and split it into 2 single albums for the Cry Of Love and Rainbow Bridge lps.

 

Yes. Jeffery/Jimi were contractually bound to give a "Rainbow Bridge" soundtrack to Warners and they couldn't use the live tapes, so it makes sense Jeffery/Kramer tried to save some good material for the soundtrack. But it seems like War Heroes was already on the cards when they compiled Rainbow Bridge, necessitating padding out with non-First Rays material ("Look Over Yonder", "Star Spangled Banner") in place of First Rays material saved for War Heroes - "Izabella", "Beginnings", "Stepping Stone".

 

There are several tracks Jimi recorded with "Slow" in the title. Slow Part, Slow Version, Slow Blues. Slow Time Blues.
I think calling that track Pali Gap, to make it identifiable from the rest is a good thing. Most of the tracks on Rainbow
Bridge actually do appear in the film. Earth Blues plays over the opening credits

Dolly Dagger plays in this scene while Pat Hartley rides around Southern California. Pali Gap starts at 7 minutes into the clip

 

^I havnt seen any of the RB footage since one of those Midnight theatre showings ions ago. Thanks for posting.

 

I have this CD version on Bulldog Records:

http://www.discogs.com/Jimi-Hendrix...gth-Motion-Picture-Experience/release/3446130

which replicates the track listing of the Ember vinyl, except you get More Experience followed by Experience (no, I have no idea why! ). Jimco also released this material in Japan, but I don't have it.

Sound quality is variable, but it is still listenable, although there are some odd truncations during the More Experience tracks (both albums run to less than an hour, so they were not time limited for vinyl back in the day!). If you can find it cheap, well worth picking up until they do a definitive RAH set.

 

I am not convinced any of those three tracks would have been part of the First Rays album (assuming that would have been the title). Stepping Stone and Izabella had already been released as a single. And while it has been insinuated that Hendrix continued to tinker with the tracks (even Mitch with his hazy memory asserting Hendrix requested a drum overdub on Stepping Stone), the tape logs do not show Hendrix was actively reworking these songs during July and August 1970. Beginnings is listed on Hendrix's handwritten notes as a possibility for the album and the track was certainly mixed, so who knows, but it seems he had much more compelling instrumental pieces he could have included on any such album, particularly Cherokee Mist. Nevertheless, Jeffery was stretching things when he contracted with Reprise to release War Heroes. Perhaps more live material from Berkeley should have been considered for Rainbow Bridge -- it would not have been out of character for a label to assert the live recordings were indeed from Maui. All that said, two very strong albums could have been constructed in a different way with the work-in-progress First Rays material.

 

I have a cd called Jimi Hendrix The Last Experience on the Timeless Treasure label which has the almost the same track listing and order except track 1 is called
Little Ivey and has 1 additional track -Fire between RFOM & PH. my cd also states this is the original soundtrack from the feature length motion picture "His Final Live Performance"
...which I know ain't true but the sound isn't terrible & I remember getting this back in' 97 at Circuit City

 

Some songs were held back for Rainbow Bridge like Dolly Dagger and Hey Baby (New Rising Sun) because live versions were played at the concert at the crater. That is also how they justified using the live version of Hear My Train A Comin' from Berkeley. A live version was played at the crater concert. However, they also played Message To Love, Ezy Ryder, Freedom, Straight Ahead, Beginnings and Lover Man. If that was their thinking, then they could included studio versions of some of these on Rainbow Bridge as well.

 

The "Rainbow Bridge" cassette tape I showed a picture of held a surprise. On it is an narrator introduction saying it was a Hawaii concert in Maui....etc. I think I must have recorded it off FM radio:

Tracks
Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)
In From The Storm
Here My Train
Voodoo Chile
Foxy Lady
Red House
Ezy Ryder
Purple Haze
_________
Dolly Dagger

Edit: This must be where most of the above is from:

http://www.discogs.com/Jimi-Hendrix-Last-American-Concert/release/778563

Edit:

According to an obscure 1970s bootlegger called Jupiter Records, this bootleg was recorded live in Maui, HI, on July 30, 1970, and contains Jimi Hendrix's last performance in the U.S. But the 1978 edition of the bootleg reference guide Hot Wacks (which collectors regard as a reliable source of information) tells us that while Last American Concert really was recorded in Hawaii, it doesn't contain his final American concert; furthermore, Hot Wacks doesn't confirm that the Hawaiian show heard on this LP is actually the one that took place on July 30, 1970. (Hot Wacks does confirm that the Trademark of Quality bootleg Maui, Hawaii was actually recorded in Maui on that date.) But whenever Last American Concert was recorded, it's definitely one of the best-sounding Hendrix bootlegs that surfaced in the 1970s. Obviously a soundboard recording, Last American Concert boasts generally excellent stereo sound and explosive performances of "Purple Haze," "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)," "Foxy Lady," "Red House," and other gems. Now for the bad news: Last American Concert is extremely rare, so when copies do turn up at vinyl swap meets, they don't last long.

 

I guess this version of Rainbow Bridge <that I actually liked and sounded pretty darn good> is useless now :

http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=3229500

 

I gave it a nice cranking in the car driving around today. I do think it sounds much better than my old cassette version. I still think (and always though) that that particularly anemic version of SSB doesn't fit with the rest of the record. Hey Baby is my favorite later period Jimi.

 

I picked up the "Rainbow Bridge" CD today & it sounds fantastic! Compared to the same tracks found on the "First Rays ........ " CD,
there is absolutely no comparison. It makes the new "Rainbow Bridge" disc sound like a friggin' $30 audiophile disc. Money well spent.

I asked this back on Pt. 1 of this thread, and I know that one or two members responded, but I will ask again .......... I already have the old non-RE1
Reprise CD of "Cry of Love" and think that sounds very good already. Has anyone compared the new "Cry Of Love" CD to the old one, and if so,
do you find the new one significantly better or about the same? These are cheap enough, but if the old Reprise CD sounds just as good as the new one,
then I will just save my money.

 

I stuck with the old reprise one. I hate buying new pressings of stuff I already have. There is too much other music out there. But just for argument's sake . . anyone able to respond to street legal's question ?

 

Okay, here's the skinny, comparing the DR ranges of my original 1987, pre-RE-1, Cry of Love CD, Catalog# 2034-2 with the new 2014 Cry of Love, Grundman master.

1987
Freedom - DR 13
2014
Freedom - DR 12

1987
Drifting - DR 13
2014
Drifting - DR 12

1987
Ezy Rider - DR 13
2014
Ezy Rider - DR 12

1987
Night Bird Flying - DR 12
2014
Night Bird Flying - DR 11

1987
My Friend - DR 14
2014
My Friend - DR 13

1987
Straight Ahead - DR 14
2014
Straight Ahead - DR 12

1987
Astro Man - DR 13
2014
Astro Man - DR 12

1987
Angel - DR 14
2014
Angel - DR 12

1987
In From the Storm - DR 13
2014
in From the Storm - DR 12

1987
Belly Button Window - DR 14
2014
Belly Button Window - DR 9

Take all of that data as you will. Nevertheless, for the sake of brevity I took the song with the largest gap between dynamic ranges, "Belly Button Window," to compare Wav files (frankly, I thought it was unimportant to compare the rest, since the gaps are not large).



The top one is the 1987 and the bottom one is the 2014. I don't think anybody needs to see anymore Wav files, do you?

After spending the last few hours in A/B mode with both versions of Cry of Love I've come to the conclusion (though I could be wrong) that Grundman used the 1987 master as his template. They are very, very close. I don't really know how to describe the difference, except that the 2014 Grundman, despite a slight dip in DR has a slight edge in "warmth," which I know is not that descriptive, but hey, they are that close! The only one I would prefer is 1987 "Belly Button Window," not due to the large gap in DR, but because the vocals seem only a tad bolder in the Grundman master (but hey, you might like that). (Oddly enough, I'm pulling a DR 14 on my Blu spec 2 "Belly Button Window" from FROTNRS, while all the rest of the tracks are DR 7-9 max.)

In short, only a fool would pass over the 2014 Grundman master, because EH hit it out of the ballpark by deciding to dust these off and having a master, master these recordings. Simply beautiful.

Now...Rainbow Bridge...

I'll compare these with the Blu spec 2 tracks from FROTNRS (where applicable, because I'm too tired to pull out some other recordings I don't have on disc)

Grundman
Dolly Dagger - DR 12
FROTNRS
Dolly Dagger - DR 8

Grundman
Earth Blues - DR 11
FROTNRS
Earth Blues - DR 7

Grundman
Pali Gap - DR 11
SSD
Pali Gap - DR 9

Grundman
Room Full of Mirrors - DR 11
FROTNRS
Room Full of Mirrors - DR 7

Grundman
Star Spangled Banner - DR 8 - ouch!
Purple Box
Star Spangled Banner - DR 7

Grundman
Look Over Yonder - DR 11
SSD
Look Over Yonder - DR 8

Grundman
Hear My Train A Comin' - DR 11
N/A

Grundman
Hey Baby (New Rising Sun) - DR 12
FROTNRS
Hey Baby (New Rising Sun) - DR 9

Again, take that as you will. I'll say this right now, though, "Room Full of Mirrors" is worth the price of admission, alone. Not only does it have the original ending that people are talking about, but I don't think I've ever heard it sit in the pocket so well in my life. Much of the same can be said for "Dolly Dagger."

My verdict is simple. I have original CDs and needledrops, "imports" and "grey releases," and these two new releases makes a world of difference without spending a lot of money. I'd gladly go for the whole catalog, AGAIN, if it was treated like this.