Jimi Hendrix – Blues
West Coast Seattle Boy – The Jimi Hendrix Anthology
Jimi Hendrix Experience – BBC Sessions

Experience Hendrix LLC/Legacy Recordings

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, boys and girls: sooner or later, we’re going to run out of Jimi Hendrix music. Not that there won’t always be (and deserves to be) plenty of Jimi’s tunes to be played – but someday there just isn’t going to be any more music that the man recorded during his too-few years on this planet that we haven’t heard before. (Or should have heard.)

In the meantime, here we are, with a new round of Jimi releases to dig into from Legacy Recordings and the family-owned Experience Hendrix LLC. To be fair, this is a mix of music of two categories: excellent recordings previously released and now being offered in value-added “Deluxe” versions; and sounds that have leaked out over the years in various bootlegged presentations, but have never been heard in this manner, shape, or form.

First, let’s take a quick look at a couple of the newly-released Deluxe editions. Both BBC Sessions (chronicling Jimi’s appearances on British TV and radio) and Blues (offering Jimi’s explorations of some classic blues numbers) have been available for years. The perk over the originals offered in the Deluxe versions are the inclusion of new liner note booklets and 30-minute DVDs with each. Is it worth it to replace your original copies of these collections with the new offerings? Your call, folks. However, if you don’t have the originals, it’s a no-brainer: go for it.

The real Jim-Dandy-rock-candy-tip-top-jackpot release out of this latest cornucopia of Jimi is West Coast Seattle Boy – The Jimi Hendrix Anthology. This one is truly essential listening, boys and girls – for the un-Experienced and Hendrixheads alike.

What we have here is a 4-CD/1-DVD collection that provides an audio-visual timeline of Jimi’s career from his early days as a sideman to an intimate moment with just the man and his guitar recorded during the last year of his life.

Note: the 90-minute Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child DVD is worthy of a review all by itself. Telling you that it is narrated by funkmaster Bootsy Collins (using quotes from Jimi’s writings and interview excerpts to tell the tale in his own words) doesn’t do it justice. Believe me – in lesser hands, this same presentation could’ve come off hokier than hell. Voodoo Child, however, is done with class, love, and respect. Collins doesn’t come across like a Jimi impersonator; rather, he simply captures the vibe and delivers it well. This is a documentary that future chroniclers of music could learn from.

We’re here to talk about the audio portion of West Coast Seattle Boy, however – and what a portion it is. Spread across the collection’s four discs is a mix of rare and unreleased tracks recorded between 1964 and 1970. There may be OCD-driven collectors that have cobbled together bits and pieces of this music over the years from bootlegs … but they can’t hit the multi-changer with a 4-hour-plus stream of beautifully-remixed Jimi. (It’s worth noting that Eddie Kramer manned the board for this project – it’s essential to note that, actually. Eddie Kramer’s presence and involvement with this project is as important as having George Martin at the controls for anything Beatles. Kramer was Jimi’s trusted co-pilot in the studio back in the day … there was a reason for that.)

Disc One offers you the chance to play “Where’s Jimi?” with 15 tracks from his days as a sideman. From the well-known (Isley Brothers, Little Richard) to the maybe-not-a-household-name-but-shoulda-beens (check out Don Covay and Rosa Lee Brooks), it’s cool to hear a burst of sound here and there and be able to recognize it as a young Jimi who was already finding his own thing deep inside himself.

The other three discs offer a mix of recordings that have never been officially released. There is everything from live Experience and Band of Gypsys performances to roll-tape-and-play hotel room sessions. (Of the latter, Jimi’s take on the Dylan/Manuel classic “Tears of Rage” with Paul Caruso backing him on harp and vocals is particularly lovely.) And there are versions galore of familiar Hendrix tunes you’ve never heard quite like this before.

For example, put your ears to “Are You Experienced?” as offered on Disc Two. This is the initial take, comprising just Hendrix’s guitar, Mitch Mitchell on drums, and Noel Redding’s bass. Jimi’s psychedelic snakedance of rhythm/lead work without any effects applied is a great example of just how good a magician he was – even when you know how the rabbit got into the hat in the first place. Or how about Jimi’s sit-in with his fellow space travelers Arthur Lee & Love in March of 1970? As captured on Disc Four, Lee’s “Everlasting First” is the perfect setting for Jimi to just dig in and wail with a tone that’s just a bit dirty, slightly ragged, and absolutely right. Elsewhere there are dollops of the kind of sound that Jimi’s then-newly-built Electric Lady Studios was capable of inspiring in the summer of 1970. And the final cut, “Suddenly November Morning”, is nothing but the West Coast Seattle Boy himself, his acoustic guitar, a tape recorder, and a lovely song that never got to grow older.

Is there more music in the Experience Hendrix vaults deserving of this kind of compilation? Only time will tell. What’s certain is that West Coast Seattle Boy is a collection offered up for all the right reasons – and it shows.