http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs03192010.html
Spirits of the Red House
By RON JACOBS
March 19 - 21, 2010
My friends and I used to fantasize about a life after death in a rock
and roll heaven. Although there would be many guitarists present in
the heavenly jam, the guy at the front of them all--sharing leads,
riffs and chord changes--would be Jimi Hendrix. His clarion strings
would stretch notes beyond the elysian boundaries, challenging
Orpheus himself. As if to prove me right, a new disc from the master
himself was released from beyond the grave on March 9th. Titled
Valleys of Neptune, the disc contains twelve never-before-released
songs or versions of songs. The title song, a version of Cream's
"Sunshine of Your Love" and "Crying Blue Rain" were recorded in early
1969 with the best-known lineup of Hendrix's band the Experience
(Mitch Mitchell on drums and Noel redding on bass) and percussionist
Rocki Dzidzornu (who played percussion on the Stones song "Sympathy
For the Devil"). The majority of the other material was recorded
later the same year.
For those who don't know much about Hendrix's brief and fiery career,
the year 1969 was probably the most chaotic and cataclysmic of them
all. His band The Experience was dissolving in front of him due to a
number of reasons--personal and business. Indeed, by the time of the
April recording sessions where some of the songs on Valleys of
Neptune were recorded, bass player Noel Redding was gone. In
addition, according to some biographers Jimi's drug use was reaching
dangerous heights while his management was pushing him harder and
harder to tour more and more. This pressure in turn led him to use
drugs more, creating a vortex not unfamiliar to the lives of many
performers and artists.
By the end of 1969, Jimi would be playing with a new band featuring
bass player Billy Cox and drummer Buddy Miles. It would be this
group--known as the Band of Gypsies-- that played at the Fillmore
East on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day of 1969-1970. The album
recorded those nights was the only live album by Hendrix ever
released while he was still alive.
Later that year, a reformed Experience minus Redding toured the US
and Europe. This tour included the shows at the Berkeley Community
Theatre in Berkeley, CA. that were made famous in the concert film
Jimi Plays Berkeley. The portion of this film that has the band
playing Hendrix's "Machine Gun" while antiwar protesters fight with
police outside is one of those cinematic moments where film captures
the zeitgeist of a time. This time happened to be at the end of a
month that began with the US invasion of Cambodia and included the
murders of four students at Kent State University by National Guard
troops, the murders of two more students at Jackson State University
and a national crisis.
Most folks who knew Hendrix's music back then can remember their
emotions upon hearing about Hendrix's death on September 18, 1970. I
recall being at home in Frankfurt am Main, Germany listening to the
radio. The announcement was made during the regular hourly broadcast
of the news headlines. Friends of mine who lived and breathed
Hendrix were beyond distraught as they smoked pipe after pipe of
hashish with fellow mourners--German and American--at an unofficial
memorial service in Frankfurt's Grüneburg Park the next day.
As for the CD itself, let me discuss a few of the
highlights. After opening with a version of "Stone Free" that opens
with a contrapuntal syncopation that resolves itself with a classic
Hendrix guitar adventure tailspinning to the song's end. The title
song is a psychedelic blues that one can easily imagine dancing
to. The lyrics talk about erasing the world's pain ahead of a new
world to come. The guitar work carries the lyrics with an
understated beauty that hints at that new world.
The version of "Red House" is a masterpiece in and of
itself. Slower than other recordings of the tune, Hendrix's guitar
becomes that lyre invented by Hermes and played to perfection by
Orpheus himself. This song has always been one of my favorite
Hendirx tunes, from its rendering on Electric Ladyland to the
multitude of versions present in the bootlegs and official releases
that populate any Hendrix fan's collection. The guitar work here
debates and enhances Billy Cox's bass playing without ever giving an
inch on either side of the dais. The spirit of every bluesman from
Robert Johnson to Charley Patton and Son House are present in the
lead put forth here.
My other favorite is the reworking of the Cream song "Sunshine Of
Your Love." This tune was a fairly big hit in 1968 after its release
in December 1967. Written by bass player Jack Bruce and guitarist
Eric Clapton, its introductory measures are among rock music's best
known bars. Hendrix and the Experience played this song quite often
in 1968 and 1969 in their concerts, so it's not much of a surprise to
find it on this disc.
Now, a cynic might say that it's easy to recycle some old tapes and
make a buck off of them. If they were referring to this collection,
they would be completely off the mark. This disc enables the
listener to hear Hendrix in a brand new way. The members of the Jimi
Hendrix Memorial Project that have committed themselves to
maintaining and enhancing Hendrix's legacy have certainly done the
man right with this release. It is definitely worthy of that rock
and roll paradise referred to above.
--
Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the
Weather Underground, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs'
essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch's collection on
music, art and sex, Serpents in the Garden. His first novel, Short
Order Frame Up, is published by Mainstay Press. He can be reached at:
rjacobs3625@charter.net
.
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