Hendrix blues

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