Umm... you could try the Hendrix collection called "Blues":
1. Hear My Train A Comin' Hendrix 3:05
2. Born Under A Bad Sign Bell/Jones 7:37
3. Red House Hendrix 3:41
4. Catfish Blues Traditional 7:46
5. Voodoo Chile Blues Hendrix 8:47
6. Mannish Boy Diddley/L/W 5:21
7. Once I Had A Woman Hendrix 7:49
8. Bleeding Heart Traditional 3:26
9. Jelly 292 Hendrix 6:25
10. Electric Church Red House Hendrix 6:12
11. Hear My Train A Comin' (Electric) Hendrix 12:08
it's being re-released on vinyl in December, according to the quick search on cdnow.com. Don't have any details about whether or not this is an audiophile pressing. |
To follow up on Mwilsons post, Jimi Hendrix: Blues is being released December 6 by Classic Records (so I would call it an audiophile pressing). Here's a link:
http://www.classicrecs.com/frames/newreleases_frameset.htm |
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I resonate with the title of your thread, in the figurative sense. I was too young to be aware of him yet when he died, but hearing all his stuff on the radio during the day due to the 60th anniversary of his birth has me missing him as if I knew the guy. You just cannot hear Hendrix's degree of intrinsic, naked artistry, creativity, and expression in any rock (or even blues) made today. A once-in-the-history-of-a-music-genre phenomenon.
When I was learning to play the guitar at 11 years old, 'Purple Haze' was one of the very first rock tunes involving single-note picked lines that I made a dedicated effort to be able to play, as much as I could. My best friend and I got my little portable cassette recorder and did a cute little version of it: He wanted to be a drummer but had no drums, only sticks, and I just had a nylon-string acoustic guitar, but we got piles of magazines for him to beat on, and I shoved the side of the guitar up against the condenser mic and turned up the gain all the way, yielding my first 'fuzz-box' distortion sound. It actually came out amazingly well for what it was - I wish I still had that tape.
Oddly enough, speaking of anniversaries, when I was out searching for records in the hinterlands last week, a Hendrix single in a pile of records in a country antique store caught my eye. "Hey Joe" I thought, no big deal, but why couldn't I remember hearing the flip, "51st Anniversary"? Curious, and the record being very clean and very cheap, I bought it along with the other stuff I was getting, even though I was sure I had this song on 45. Turns out that the common single issue of "Hey Joe" is on the flip of "The Wind Cries Mary". The earlier A-side version was his first single release (and possibly his first release under his own name on record?), and books for up to $100 - obviously somewhat rare now, as is its obscure flip-side tune. Too bad the pic sleeve wasn't there; it goes for five times that much!
But this brings me to a question: I have always just stuck with owning Hendrix's studio and live releases originally issued on Reprise during his lifetime and shortly after his death, including the Alan Douglas-'finished' material. I have shied away from trying to wade into all the posthumous issues of 'jams', outtakes, radio sessions, more live recordings, etc. etc., with the exceptions of the "Winterland" disk and "Nine to the Universe". Any connoisseurs out there have some good suggestions about the real winners in the currently available plethora of further isssues, especially since his surviving family started directing things? Thanks in advance, and 'fly on', everybody. |
If you like Hendrix doing the blues, you should check out Buddy Guy. There are numerous similarities and the recordings are far superior to the Hendrix stuff. You won't be disappointed. I remember well the one, two, three punch of losing Jimi, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison in such a short time frame. Drugs have certainly left a lot of bodies in their wake. |
All of the material that his family has remastered and restored is fantastic. All of the studio albums and the album that he was working on when he died "New Rays of the Rising Sun" is fantastic, a bit more funky. Also check out "South Delta Saturn" and "Live from the Fillmore East", all released by his family on the Experience Hendrix lable. |
I don't have a lot of guitar blues records anymore, but I do have some '60s and '70s Buddy Guy, precisely because of his commonalities of spirit and technique with Jimi Hendrix in that special juncture of blues and r&b. Lugnut's fine insight linking the two men was better known among astute musicians and fans "back in the day" than now, I think.
I see less commonality between the lives and deaths of Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison. Their deaths certainly made great headlines, but the natures of their lives, their music, and their drug usage differed significantly. With their deaths occurring in close proximity, the media created a grand story of martyrs/victims of sex-drugs-and-rockandroll. |
The BBC sessions of Jimi are reasonably well recorded. The snag is, I don't know if they're out on cd... |
The latest splash in the Experience Hendrix pond is Blue Wild Angel, the complete 18-cut Isle of Wight Concert on 2 CD's in original festival programming. On vinyl too. It contains Hey Joe and Red House. Here's a blurb from the previous, incomplete, 9-cut, Australian Polydor CD:
"Legions of European fans made the pilgrimage to witness his long-awaited Wight light of August, 1970. What they heard was the swan song of a genius and an era. Eighteen days later Jimi died in London."
The well recorded live albums still sound fresh. Be careful with the bootleg concerts; some sound great over the headphones at the shop but lack punch through real speakers.
If you prefer the earlier stuff, check out the 1987 Rykodisc - Live at Winterland - from concerts in October, 1968. It has both Hey Joe and Red House. This is digitally remixed and sounds pretty good.
Some Red House playing times:
from Smash Hits - 3:50
Winterland - 10:58
San Diego Sports Arena - 13:12 (from Hendrix In the West LP)
Woodstock - 5:40
Isle of Wight - 12:37 |
The BBC sessions should still be in print on CD. I haven't seen a copy on LP yet however. The Hendrix family has a good bootleg titled Live At Oakland Colisuem on Dagger Records. The sound quality is not good, but the spirit is.
It is better to listen to on headphones and boom boxes than your main system. |
Error correction: Sorry, I screwed up in my post above - the common 45 of "Hey Joe" is on the flip of "Foxey Lady" (there is no 45 of this tune shared with "TWCM"). My apologies if I confused anyone. |
In 1971 I bought an import LP entiled "Hendrix in the West". It was a live album and had a 15 minute version of Red House Blues that was some of the best Hendrix imaginable. As I remember the sound quality was quite good, too. I've checked Amazon, CD Now, etc. and it appears this is not available on CD. |
That version of "Red House" is amazing, and the LP was also released domestically under the same title. Don't know about on CD, though. |
I have the LP import of Hendrix in the West and the whole recording is great quality. His rendition of Johnny B. Good is particularly excellent as well. |
Lugnut is on the right track here in referring to Buddy Guy. When I play Buddy's newest CD ("Sweet Tea"), the first reaction of many people is "Damn! He sounds like Jimi Hendrix!"
Truth is, Jimi was in Buddy Guy's band way back when and learned from the master. So, it's more accurate to say that Jimi sounds like Buddy, not the opposite. |
I've never heard that one before, Cpdunn99, can you give details? Any recordings together? (I should say that I'm actually not a Buddy Guy fan myself, and much prefer the way Jimi plays the blues.) |
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"Sweet Tea" is on Jive Records (released in 2001).
My opinion on this CD is in line with the reviewer at Amazon:
"Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Very few artists have attempted--or succeeded in--improving the standard template for classic blues records set some 40 years ago in the golden age of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. Perhaps R.L Burnside's recent heavily produced work on Fat Possum Records has come closest to adding an original slant.
On his new album, Buddy Guy looks to the same source for inspiration; seven of the nine songs here are written by Fat Possum's hill-country blues roster, including T-Model Ford and Junior Kimbrough. Working with producer Dennis Herring (Counting Crows, Jars of Clay) and a small collective of Mississippi-based musicians, Guy sings with a passion that can only come from the same source as the songs. The noise generated in the studio through vintage amplifiers has a live and dangerous feel to it. The acoustic opener, "Done Got Old," does not prepare the listener for the colossal aural assault of "Baby, Please Don't Leave Me." Fading in on a percussion track, Guy's guitar hits its cat-strangling best and never looks back, while the voice sounds energized, vital, and wholly contemporary. Through the 12-minute "I Got to Try It, Girl" to the closing Guy composition "It's a Jungle Out There," Sweet Tea has all the hallmarks of a classic blues album, mixed with a twist of the new. --Rob Stewart"
It's on my personal "essential" list and it's a great stocking stuffer for blues lovers!
As for joint Buddy/Jimi recordings...there are none in existence that I know of. Shame.
If you like the way Jimi plays, then you really must give this a listen! You can hear Jimi's roots. Borrow a copy (or listen at a record shop). |
Do you know of any source for info on Jimi's stint with Guy's band? As for the Guy record, I know many folks like his work, but I've heard him lots of times (and also seen him in performance on the tube) and doubt he could show me anything to change my mind about his style. That 'cat-strangling' (apt description in my view) aspect the reviewer refers to about Guy's guitar work is a large part of the reason why, but you should also probably know that I am not really a fan of any contemporary blues, stopping pretty much with electric blues recordings made by the late 60's/early 70's (although there were certainly some older-school performers I enjoyed seeing live into the 90's, but sadly most of the best ones are inevitably dead by now).
As for Jimi, I consider him to be far and away the best blues player to have worked mainly in the rock idiom, and one of the amazing things about him is that, had he never had his uniquely ground-breaking, paradigm-shifting, and meteoric rock career, he still would be qualified as one the greatest and most important second-generation post-war, urban-electric black American straight blues artists even without it.
But as far as the Guy comparsion, other than the fact that he routinely strays into rock mode with his blues, I don't think there really is any comparision IMO concerning their respective levels of touch, soul, meaning, sound, skill, or invention, although I'm sure Guy at the beginning of his career would be much more interesting and tolerable for me to look into further (and I have to admit that his subsequent work has caused me to pass on really checking out his roots), and of course more relevant to any Hendrixian influence-spotting. And I will add that other of Jimi's blues-guitar heros and influences are also easily recognized, like T-Bone Walker, Otis Rush, Guitar Slim and Lightnin' Hopkins, to Chess label rockers Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, and beyond. |
In the November issue of Tower Records' free mag Pulse there was an article wherein various artists reflected on their relationship to Hendrix. Buddy Guy said Hendrix used to come to see him play but Guy neither mentioned nor implied any collaboration. He did however take lopsided credit for some kind of permanent musical influence on Hendrix. Guy's arrogance gave me the blues.
A coupla Labor Day's ago, Buddy MILES played a pool party at a private home in Dallas. Following a few songs on the drums, he closed the set with his own electric guitar work. It was awesome in its tonality and intensity, hypnotic too, and asserted a unique personality of its own to the universe. Take a lesson Mr. Guy. |
As I said above Rockvirgo, if Jimi did play with Buddy Guy, that would be news to me. I will wait and see what Cpdunn99 comes up with - you never know, anything might be possible - but your citation would certainly seem to put a bit of a damper on the idea. |
STOP PICKING ON MR. GUY! He's my main man. Jimi had numerous musical influences (Otis Rush, Guitar Slim, Curtis Mayfield, Hubert Sumlin, etc.), but it's very clear, at least to my ears, that Buddy Guy was one of them. In turn, Hendrix then influenced Guy's later playing. Although primarily know for his electric guitar work, Buddy is particularly engaging on acoustic guitar. Check out "Buddy & the Junoirs", an album he made with Junoir Wells (harmonica) and Junoir Mance (piano) or Muddy Water's "Folk Singer". As a live performer Guy is something of a crowd pleaser. He has a tendency to go for over the top flash. At its worst its superficial, but at its best it will get you on your feet and put a smile on your face.
One last point, Buddy is also a superb blues vocalist. |
I'm a fan of both Mance and Wells, but hadn't known of this collaboration, which sounds very exciting - is Guy's work on that album acoustic? I tend to agree with you in a sense, that BG may be at his best as a sideman. |
zaikesman,
I have read about the Hendrix/Guy connection and am damned if I can remember where. Rolling Stone? Or maybe it was in a "Sweet Tea" review in the Chicago Tribune. I'm going to ask Greg Kot (Tribune) about this, because I did not make it up. If it proves to be unsubstantiated, then I'll publicly offer a mea culpa. |
Follow-up to Rockvirgo's list of Red House times from my CD collection:
Los Angeles Forum, April 26, 1969: 11:07
Stockholm, Sweden, Sept. 1, 1969: 11:56 |
Zaikesman,
I contacted Greg Kot (rock reviewer for Chicago Tribune and Rolling Stone) and asked about the Hendrix-Buddy Guy connection. He did not know if Jimi actually played with Buddy or not (I'm still trying to find the source of this), but did say that Jimi attended Buddy Guy's live sessions and picked up some of his technique directly.
This is what Greg told me (nothing new, really): "Buddy Guy's live performances in the early and mid '60s are legendary for how they advanced the sound and technique of electric guitar playing, and Hendrix witnessed a few of those and incorporated Guy's innovations into his own playing." |
Do you have any recommendations for electric BG stuff of that era to check out? |
Some nice choices for electric blues guitar are Robert Lucas and Robin Ford. |
There is actually a CD out by the name of Hendrix Blues, don't remember the lable right off. Just took it with me on a road trip and it's a pretty kool disc. I also have a cassette i got a loooong time ago that has over 45 minutes of different live renditions of Red House. |
Just noticed all the Buddy Guy Hendrix refs above. Check out Jimmy Thackery. I've seen him do the Hendrix thing live and it was amazing. WHen Thackery is on he cooks ole Buddy |
