Jimi Hendrix: Purple Box Disc-by-Disc

Wasn't Jimi thinking of making the unfinished "New Rays" project a triple album at one point?

Deluxe editions of the albums could be ok, since past versions were either compressed, had wonky EQ or didn't use master tapes. Quite frankly some store won't stock it if wasn't attached to something familiar.

 

I've been away all weekend, but tomorrow morning I intend to start up with disc 2, so in the meantime, everybody fire that one up.

 

That was a consideration. There certainly was enough quality material for a 3 album set, yet all indications from August 1970 point to a double album.

 

As someone who is too young to have ever owned (most of) the music on the purple box on earlier releases, I enjoy the box very much. I think the sequencing is very good and musically it holds up to the incredible high standard of his studio releases.

 

For many years I have been happy with the 3 Experience albums for my Hendrix fix but of late have supplimented with this set and Band of Gypsies.
I would like to pick up more live stuff but there is a lot out there, where is the best place to start, official stuff then the Dagger releases?

 

The release is called "Band Of Gypsys" (even if that itself is a misspelling). You can get more music from the same concerts on "Live At The Fillmore East".
http://rateyourmusic.com/release/al...e_east__band_of_gypsys__12_31_1969_1_1_1970_/

Not a bad place to start, the legendary performance at the Monterey Pop Festival 1967 is also absolutely essential.

 

Many thanks for the feedback... Apologies for the typo. I will write it out a 100 times and ensure it doesn't happen again.

 

That is the American way. As a German I would prefer a three-page essay on the question, if Hendrix's misspelling was intentional and if so, what his intention could have been. Extra credit for general discussion on spelling mistakes and their use in contemporary art.

 

With a recent Acetate sale there must be some new stuff released very soon, not by EH though.

 

1. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (Lennon/McCartney) – 1:51
2. "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" (Hendrix) – 4:06
3. "Little Wing" (Hendrix) – 3:23
4. "Little Miss Lover" (Hendrix) – 2:21
5. "The Wind Cries Mary" (Hendrix) – 4:11
6. "Catfish Blues" (Petway) – 5:26
7. "Bold as Love" (Hendrix) – 7:09
8. "Sweet Angel" (Hendrix) – 4:12
9. "Fire" (Hendrix) – 2:43
10. "Somewhere" (Hendrix) – 3:48
11. "Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)" (Hendrix) – 1:28
12. "Gypsy Eyes" (Hendrix) – 3:43
13. "Room Full of Mirrors" (Hendrix) – 1:26
14. "Gloria" (Van Morrison) – 8:53
15. "It’s Too Bad" (Hendrix) – 8:52
16. "Star Spangled Banner" (Francis Scott Key, John Stafford Smith, arr. Hendrix) (Studio version) – 4:12

* Track 15 is a previously unreleased recording.
* Tracks 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 are previously unreleased alternate recordings.
* Track 16 is a studio recording.
* Tracks 1 and 2 recorded live at Stockholm, Sweden, September 5 1967.
* Tracks 5 and 6 recorded live at Olympia Theatre, Paris, France, October 1967.
* Track 9 recorded live at Clark University, Worcester, MA, March 15 1968.

 

I never get what 'Unreleased Alternate Recordings' mean, that it has been released but they have a different new mix, I think on this disc there were only 3 tracks that had not had an official release (be it grey market releases, which at the time were legit), so IMO this was quite a disapointing disc

 

this may not be the right place to ask this question, and if so forgive me, but is anyone willing to speculate why EH would not have done a vinyl release of Electric Ladyland in connection with the big 40th anniversary CD/DVD release they did. I mean, it's out of print and unavailable on vinyl and you can't find a decent used copy. If they sold out the original pressing of 5,000 that they did, why wouldn't they do another vinyl printing for the 40th?

Anyone have any ideas?

 

Now that Clarkophile has the second disc posted: what in your opinion is the best recorded Hendrix version of Sgt. Pepper (keeping in mind that they're all live)?

 

I had a lot of this material previously, so I too, found this disc less interesting as a whole. The Stockholm material being some of my all time favorite live Jimi (esp Purple Haze, which isn't here), however, kicks it off superbly. The Olympia material is also fine, with lots of energy and fine playing.

The Bold As Love take was a real joy to listen to. Yeah, it gets a little sloppy in places with some soloing that doesn't quite work, but it amazes me to hear how many different ideas Jimi could get going with over the same theme. A lot of brilliance in that outtake.

I found "It's Too Bad" to be pretty uninspired and lackluster, though. And I suppose they had to do something with the studio Star Spangled Banner, since it came out on Rainbow Bridge and that never made it into the offical canon on CD, but I'd heard that a million times already.

 

Wrong again Phil. 6 of the 16 performances here were not only completely unreleased but also unbooted. A further 4 of the 16 are mixes that had not been released or booted either so that makes 10 of the 16 tracks new.

 

Both "Little Wing" and "Bold as Love" showcase how great Hendrix was at rhythm and some of the complicated voicings and little fills he would constantly create on the go.

It's especially apparent because the vocals aren't there-the songs don't really suffer though.

 

Excellent/rare live version of BOTML.

Awesome alternate/extended instrumental takes of "Axis..." and "Little Wing", where Jimi goes apes**t on his guitar. Probably the two biggest of highlights of the entire set.

A nice/more complete/better mix of the "Angel" band demo than was previously released on "South Saturn Delta", showing its still unfinished state from the 'Axis...' sessions.

Good live version of "Fire" played at a slightly faster tempo.

An unbelievably beautiful/sparse but, unfortunately, incomplete early version of HYEB(TEL). It's a shame Jimi didn't do a complete version in this way (without all the overdubbing - and despite how good the song still turned out)...

 

For me, the centrepiece of disc 2--and quite possibly the entire box--is the seven-minute workout of 'Bold as Love.'
What a truly extraordinary performance. I would have loved to have witnessed the interplay between these three guys that day, but even with audio-only some things are obvious: You can feel Mitch feeding off of Jimi as soon as he kicks into high gear/volume just past the two-minute mark. The tension, the sense of expectation, is palpable. It's not surprising then, to hear an off-mic wail of encouragement at the 3:10 mark (is it Mitch? Or maybe Noel?) as Jimi lays into one dazzling run after another.

There are enough riffs/themes for a dozen songs here, and Jimi incorporates them all into one single breathtaking performance. Just when you think he can't possibly top the previous run, he comes up with something that reaches even farther into the stratosphere. Guitarists may perform autopsies on this to dissect missed notes, etc., but this is Hendrix at his most artful and eloquent. It just doesn't get any more beautiful than this performance.

I've come to the conclusion that any personal problem can be solved by listening to this at an extreme volume.

 

Yeah that is a "chills" moment when he turns the volume up on his guitar into full blown glory. Like I mentioned earlier this particular song does not suffer from any missing vocals and is it's own thing. It's like much of the great stuff about Hendrix as guitar player and a musical composer in one song.

 

Good question, I'll have to check when I get home. Probably Isle of Wight for sound quality and 12/67 Xmas on Earth Continued for performance (this is on the Jimi Plays Monterey film).

There is a studio version that is a bit of a mystery. It has been a bootleg staple forever but no one seems to know when/where it was recorded and AFAIK EH doesn't have it in their tape library. It sounds more like a rehearsal but the quality is perfect. Undoubtably a pro studio recording of the JHE. Maybe one of the rehearsals at De Lane Lea that were done in preperation for the Axis sessions at Olympic?

 

Isn't that a fake which comes from a guitarist of all places Wales, UK?

 

Yeah 56 songs from the cd box are on the LP version and since I recently imported needledrops of the whole affair ( 16 LP sides ! ) I listened to 28 songs in a row via iTunes after reading this topic and I must confess it flows just fine, esp. good are 3rd Stone Fom The Sun and the version of If 6 Was 9 imo; but i like nearly every track so far: definitely a good collection of Live trax, alternative versions and edits ....

 

Nope. What I'm thinking of is the JHE running through the Sgt. Pepper title track and Driving South in the studio at an undocumented session.

Pretty exciting isn't it

 

I know exactly what you mean Great post