Experience Hendrix L.L.C. and Legacy Recordings,
the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, are releasing Machine Gun:
The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69, fully documenting the debut performance
of Jimi Hendrix's short-lived but eternally influential Band of Gypsys on
September 30. The group played four historic concerts at the Fillmore East in
New York City - two on New Year's Eve 1969, and two on New Year's Day 1970.
Never before has the first of these sets been available in its entirety. The
vast majority of the performances have never seen the light of day in any
configuration.
Machine Gun:
The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69 was produced by Janie Hendrix, Eddie
Kramer and John McDermott, the same team who have overseen all of Jimi
Hendrix's audio and audio visual releases by Experience Hendrix L.L.C. since
1995. Kramer served Jimi Hendrix as his primary recording engineer throughout
his lifetime and the newly mixed Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show
12/31/69 from the original 1" 8 track master tapes. The album was mastered
by Grammy Award winner Bernie Grundman and will be simultaneously released, on
CD, 2 LP 180 gram vinyl, high resolution SACD and digitally. Machine Gun: The
Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69 is available for pre-order on CD:
http://smarturl.it/jh_mg_cd and Vinyl: http://smarturl.it/jh_mg_vinyl
Machine Gun:
The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69 marks the first ever Jimi Hendrix SACD
and high resolution digital release. Additionally, Experience Hendrix is also
releasing People, Hell & Angels on the same day. People, Hell & Angels,
a collection of previously unreleased studio recordings, peaked at #2 on
Billboard's Top 200 Album chart in March 2013. The album features studio
versions of many of the songs featured on Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First
Show 12/31/69.
Over the
course of four extraordinary years, Jimi Hendrix placed his indelible stamp
upon popular music with breathtaking velocity. Measured alongside his triumphs
at Monterey Pop and Woodstock, Hendrix's legendary Fillmore East concerts
illustrated a critical turning point in a radiant career which boasted of
indefinite possibilities.
The
revolutionary impact Jimi Hendrix, Billy Cox, and Buddy Miles had upon the
boundaries and definitions of rock, R&B, and funk can be traced to four
concerts over the course of two evenings on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
These performances were first celebrated by Band Of Gypsys, which featured six
songs from the two January 1, 1970 concerts including "Machine Gun,"
the album's dramatic centerpiece. Issued in April 1970, Band Of Gypsys
challenged and surprised the guitarist's wide following with its extended
arrangements and vibrant mix of rock and soul. Nonetheless, the album proved to
be a runaway commercial success and sadly, with his death in London in
September 1970, would become the last album Jimi Hendrix personally authorized
for release.
Machine Gun:
The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69 documents the first of the group's four
legendary Fillmore East concerts. This set presents an assortment of fresh,
exciting new songs such as "Earth Blues," "Ezy Ryder,"
"Stepping Stone," "Burning Desire," and "Machine
Gun"--none of which had ever before been issued on disc. Moreover, nearly
all of the group's material had never been performed before an audience.
"We decided that we couldn't do any songs that had already been
released," explains Billy Cox. "We wanted to give them something
different. So we went at the project in a joyous, creative posture and
ultimately developed the repertoire of the Band of Gypsys."
While
promoter Bill Graham had advertised the concerts as 'Jimi Hendrix: A Band Of
Gypsys', few could have anticipated what Hendrix had in store. "We had two
shows New Years Eve and two shows New Years Day," remembered Cox. "We
didn't know what to expect from the audience and the audience didn't know what
to expect from us, but from the time we hit that first note, they were in awe.
You had Jimi Hendrix, a drummer who had been with the Electric Flag and Wilson
Pickett, and I was the new kid on the block."
With the
anticipation of the sold out Fillmore audience heightened to fever pitch,
Hendrix led his trio through a scintillating, seventy-five minute opening
performance. None of the eleven songs presented had yet to grace an Experience
album. In the place of signature songs like "Purple Haze" and
"All Along The Watchtower" were confident renditions of "Power
Of Soul" and "Hear My Train A Comin.'"
Jimi
generously extended center stage to Buddy Miles, providing a showcase for
"Changes" and a charged rendition of the Howard Tate R&B hit
"Stop". "We had rehearsed "Changes" and a few others
for Buddy," explains Cox. "All of the songs we performed had been
rehearsed. We didn't look at it as Buddy's part of the show. We were all there
to give. We were all there to help and material went on whether it was written
by Jimi or not." Former Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke, who
authored this collection's liner notes, describes "Stop" as being
something akin to "a psychedelic power-trio Temptations." Hendrix's
scalding version of Elmore James' "Bleeding Heart" is the set's only
other cover, underscoring the new band's emphasis on the blues.
As the
Fillmore audience roared with approval, the Band Of Gypsys left the stage
confident that they had validated Jimi's new music before his loyal followers.
"After the gigs were finished, Jimi was quite relieved," remembers
Cox. "We felt the concerts went well. I might add that in previous gigs
with the Experience he had used a fuzz face [tone control pedal] and a Wah-Wah
pedal, then at Woodstock he used a fuzz face, Wah-Wah pedal and Uni-Vibe, but
at the Fillmore East he used a fuzz face, Wah-Wah pedal, Uni-Vibe and Octavia
and it was incredible. In fact you could hear all of it kicking in on 'Machine
Gun.' It was incredible. There were people in the audience with their mouths
open."
"Machine
Gun" stands as one of Hendrix's finest and most influential compositions.
Hendrix pushed Delta blues into places its pioneers could not have imagined,
fusing his extraordinary instrumental skills within his passionate expression
of man's inhumanity to his fellow man. "Machine Gun" endures as a
classic amongst the already classic-drenched Jimi Hendrix canon. Fricke notes
of this version, the first that Hendrix and company had ever played in concert,
"..Here it is, after 46 years, another revelation - a stunning essay in
pain, rage and determined survival, fully formed in its initial outing."
Long sought
after by the guitarist's worldwide following, Machine Gun: The Fillmore East
First Show 12/31/69 presents the complete performance in its original sequence.
Jimi Hendrix
- Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69 (release date: September
30)
1) Power Of
Soul
2) Lover Man
3) Hear My
Train A Comin'
4) Changes
5) Izabella
6) Machine
Gun
7) Stop
8) Ezy Ryder
9) Bleeding
Heart
10) Earth
Blues
11) Burning
Desire
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