Rock Revival Trivia: How Many Songs Do You Know Covered By Jimi Hendrix ?

Introducing a new regular segment, Rock Revival Trivia, for all the bits of info needlessly occupying neurons that are needed for other more important things

We all know Hendrix covered 'All Along the Watchtower', 'Wild Thing', even 'Sgt Peppers' but he did so many more, tracks that blew me away when I heard them, especially his version of Day Tripper

Here's the list; know any more ?

"Blue Suede Shoes" (Carl Perkins) on the "Loose Ends" album

"Born Under A Bad Sign," (Albert King) on the "Blues" album

"Day Tripper," (Beatles) album "on "Radio One."

"Drifters Escape," (Bob Dylan) on "Loose Ends."

"Gloria," (Van Morrison) on "The Essential Jimi Hendrix Volume Two."

"Mannish Boy," (Muddy Waters) on "Blues."

"Stairway to Heaven," (Led Zeppelin) on "Rocks Forever."

"Sunshine Of Your Love," (Cream)on "The Last Experience "

"Tomorrow Never Knows," (Beatles) on "Sunshine Of Your Love."

Image: MCA Records

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Scandinavia Volumes 1 and 2 Limited Editions

Check out these two rare box sets available at the excellent on line spincds.com, released on Voodoo Chile Records, the quality is a bit wanting, but still very interesting for a Hendrix addict, for more info go to http://pagesperso-orange.fr/hendrix.guide/radioactive.htm

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - 'Scandinavia Vol. 1'

Seven 1967/68 performances from Sweden and Denmark on 6 cd'S- only 2000 copies world-wide.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - 'Scandinavia Vol. 2'

Seven 1969/70 performances from Sweden and Denmark on 6 cd's - also only 2000 copies world-wide.

Image: Courtesy MCA

Jammin with Jimi: New Hendrix Release March 2008 6 cd Set Jimi With Elvin Bishop, Eric Burdon, Paul Butterfield, BB KIng and more

A six CD box set featuring live cuts with Jimi Hendrix and various artists has just been released (http://www.cdjapan.co.jp.) on 25/2/2008

Featured artists include B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Buddy Miles, Elvin Bishop, Eric Burdon, Lee Oscar, Paul Butterfield, Tracy Nelson, Billy Cox, and Mitch Mitchell.

Tracklisting

1.	LIKE A ROLLING STONE
2.	JAM SAN-HO-ZAY
3.	INTRO JAM BY B.B.KING
4.	SLOW BLUES
5.	FAST BLUES
6.	IT'S MY OWN FAULT
7.	INTRO BY B.B.KING
8.	BUDDY GUY JAM
9.	HOOCHIE COOCHIE MAN
10.	EARTH V.SPACE(INCLUDES MIDNIGHT LIGHTNING/GYPSY EYES/MACHINE GUN/RED HOUSE)
11.	THINGS I USED TO DO,THE
12.	SKY IS CRYING,THE
13.	JAM PT.1 WE GOTTA LIVE TOGETHER
14.	JAM PT.2 FEEL SO GOOD/SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE
15.	JAM INC.MESSAGE TO LOVE/TRAIN KEPT A ROLLIN/POWER OF SOUL
16.	JAM PT.2 INC.EARTH BLUES/HEAR MY TRAIN A COMIN'
17.	JAM PT.3 INC.VOODOO CHILE
18.	JAM PT.4 EXPRESS HORNS JAM
19.	IZABELLA/MACHINE GUN JAM
20.	UNIVIBE JAM
21.	MESSAGE TO LOVE
22.	MANNISH BOY
23.	MANNISH BOY/IZABELLA/YOU MAKE ME FEEL
24.	DANCE,THE
25.	IZABELLA
26.	IZABELLA
27.	IZABELLA
28.	MESSAGE TO LOVE
29.	JAM BACK AT THE HOUSE
30.	JAM IN E
31.	JAM BACK AT THE HOUSE
32.	MACHINE GUN/IF SIX WAS NINE
33.	SUNDANCE
34.	FREE FORM JAZZ
35.	LOVER MAN
36.	LOVER MAN
37.	JAM(ALT.MIX)
38.	HEAR MY TRAIN A COMIN'
39.	SPANISH CASTLE MAGIC
40.	JAM VILLANOVA JUNCTION
41.	JAM 1 PT.1 GYPSY BOY/NEW RISING SUN
42.	JAM 1 PT.2 FREE THUNDER
43.	JAM 1 PT.3 SWIFTS WING
44.	JAM 1 PT.4 DOWN MEAN BLUES
45.	JAM 1 PT.5 FRIED COLA
46.	JAM 2 FLYING VIRTUOSO(AKA FEELS GOOD)(AKA SPIKED WITH HEADY DREAMS)
47.	JAM 2 PT.2 MONDAY MORNING BLUES
48.	JAM 3 LIFT OFF
49.	JAM 4 MADAGASCAR
50.	KEY TO THE HIGHWAY(AKA JIMI IS TENDER TOO)
51.	CAVE MAN BELLS
52.	STEPPING STONE(AKA SHE WENT TO BED WITH MY GUITAR)
53.	VILLANOVA JUNCTION(AKA STROKIN' A LADY ON EACH HIP)
54.	EARTH BLUES(AKA GIRAFFE)
55.	BABY CHICKEN STRUT
56.	DANCE,THE
57.	SUNDANCE
58.	JAM INCLUDES EARTH BLUES
59.	STAR SPANGLED BANNER If you know more about this release please let me know, where have these tracks been released before, is this an approved release, has anyone heard it ? Image: Courtesy Reprise/Polydor/Barclay

Rock Revival's Time Capsule (1970): Jimi Hendrix Meets Miles Davis to Discuss His Future in Jazz

Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix met early in 1970, just before Jimi’ s death, in what could have been one of the greatest and most fascinating collaborations in rock. Miles understood Jimi’s Jazz leanings:

‘He liked the way Coltrane played with all those other sheets of sound and he played the guitar in a similar way. Plus he said he had heard the guitar voicing that I used in the way I played trumpet’

Miles on the other hand fully understood Jimi’s psychedelic rock, mastering and extending the genre on his seminal live album ‘Bitches Brew’, the album that pretty much invented the jazz fusion of Mahivishnu Orchestra and others and set jazz greats Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett on their way.

Both seriously contemplated a collaboration with the greatest jazz arranges of all time, Gil Evans.

His white fans would have been shocked, however, they still screamed for Purple Haze and expected him to set fire to his guitar, long after Jimi himself had outgrown these inclinations.

Craig Werner (2002), in his groundbreaking book, A Change is Gonna Come: Music, Race and the Soul of America believes that this was one of the pressures that contributed to Jimi’s despair and eventual death.

Jimi:’ The main thing that used to bug me is that people wanted to many visual things from me. When I didn’t do it people thought I was being moody, but I can only freak out when I really feel like doing so. Now I just want the music to get across, so that people can just sit back and close their eyes and know exactly what is going on without giving a damn about what is going on on stage”

Well, we never got to hear Jimi, orchestrated and with Miles, breaking ground into the 70’s. Perhaps it would have changed the history of rock as we know it, perhaps not, but one thing is for sure; We all miss Jimi !

Image: Courtesy Columbia

Legal Troubles Over Massive Haul of Hendrix Bootlegs

Fuego Entertainment claims to have 200 live bootleg perfomances, representing the greatest haul of unheard Hendrix recordings of all time. This haul amounts to ELEVEN double albums that it has planned to release for public consumption. Experience Hendrix, which owns and manages Hendrix material has taken legal action, insisting that Fuego desists from releasing them due to their inferior quality. Experience Hendrix has already blocked their release by their prior owners Purple Haze Records. Fuego is the same company that recently claimed to have unreleased Beatles recordings from Hamburg (1962) (see post on this blog).

Image: Courtesy MCA

Highly Recommended Classics: The BBC Sessions, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Yardbirds, Jimi Hendrix

The BBC Sessions are a series of albums released from 1997-2000, consisting of never before released, but often bootlegged live tracks, from these four giants of rock. They make for some pretty amazing listening !

The Led Zeppelin album was the first live set since The Song Remains the Same more than twenty years prior, consisting of music from 3 live events recorded for the BBC. It includes standards like Heartbreaker, Black Dog and the Immigrant Song but the most interesting tracks are those that had never before been heard. The full version of Robert Johnson's Travellin Riverside blues is an example, freed from the contraints of the Lemon Song with the most excellent slide guitar. Eddie Cochran's Something Else also features, with a total of 24 tracks on the double album. This is almost as good as the other live set released after the break-up of Led Zep: No Quarter, Plant and Page Unledded. Check out the magical acoustic version of Kashmir on this album, complete with Plant's Bedouin pals. One of the most glorious 12 minutes of live music ever.

The Yardbirds album has 26 tracks recorded between 1966-68, just after Clapton left the band, with the line up including Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Again you hear all the standards but also covers of the beach Boys, Dylan and Chuck Berry. There are also 26 tracks on the Who album, including Shakin All Over, Good Lovin and Dancing in the Streets.

The ultimate of these four albums, however, is the Hendrix one, including recordings from Top of the Pops and live radio. The legend Alexis Korner provides an introduction, there is Stevie Wonder on drums and a revelation, The Beatles Day Tripper. You can also hear two tracks that formed part of Hendrix's early repetoire, Howlin' Wolf's Killing Floor and Dylan's Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window.

These albums provide a remarkable glimpse into what it might have been to hear these four incredible bands live: they are less produced than their other live albums, sound more spontanious and bring new life into tracks we thought we had heard before.

Image: Courtesy MCA