Blues Man

A week late, I know. While I grew up vaguely familiar with B.B. King's oldies radio hits, I never actually listened to an album of his until way into the 90's. A co-worker/dope dealer friend of mine who was in retrospect a clear-as-day bad fucking seed surprised me one afternoon by dropping this CD on the boom box and insisting I teach him how to play a few of the riffs on guitar in exchange for some cheaply cut blow. I bit. What actually occurred that afternoon was us getting high as fucking kites while listening repeatedly to the wah-wah grooves of "Everybody Lies A Little" for ten hours. To this day I can't get that song out of my head and my buddy still can't play a lick of guitar. Rest in peace Mr. King.

The thrill is not gone...

Jam Sessions...

Alan Douglas gets a lot of flak for his handling of the Jimi Hendrix archives. Oft-criticized for going overdub-happy on posthumous releases Crash Landing (1975) and Midnight Lightning (1975), the recent "official" re-releases by the Experience Hendrix crew show how ahead of his time Douglas really was. One thing casual Hendrix fans don't understand is that a lot of Jimi's recorded material were simple down-and-dirty jams - full of mistakes, wandering solos, missed cues and unexpected nadir mixed in between all the genius. I can't imagine being presented with reels of this material (a la Douglas) and being expected to splice the stuff together into something coherent enough to stand up to Hendrix's legendary "true" studio LPs. I personally think the recently released Hendrix compilations, all claiming to be "original" and "digitally remastered" (ugh!) sound vastly inferior to the 70's records - really amateur in a lot of ways (of course purists will claim these are the way "Jimi would have wanted it", blah blah - in reality these were at best demos to Jimi and would probably have never seen the light of vinyl). Douglas wasn't interested in simply releasing raw rehearsals, sessions outtakes or jams as is - he was trying to piece together "real" songs and understandbly needed session musicians to glue those loose ends together. With all that being said, 1980 saw the release of Nine To The Universe. Culled from jam sessions at NYC studios the Record Plant and Hit Factory throughout 1969; musicians ranged from Mitch Mitchell to Band Of Gypsys' Buddy Miles and Billy Cox to organist Larry Young and guitarist Jim McCarty. Douglas pulled hours of material and edited them down to a cohesive 40-minute album showcasing some of Hendrix's jazziest jams - wonderful stuff. There are bootlegs floating around out there which contain the full uncut recordings but in my opinion these are bogged down by technical glitches (drop-outs, pops, mic switches, etc) as well as simply running on for too long - the jams tend to get a little boring. Douglas really did this material a favor and should be commended for it (compare "Easy Blues" on this release to the version on the recent People, Hell & Angels and you'll see what I mean). Ripped from original vinyl - enjoy.

8/2/14 update: I just ripped my personal copy of this unheralded masterpiece and it sounds a fuck of a lot better than the previous LP rip I scammed from some FLAC website. A lot warmer and heavier - the usually shittier cassette medium actually contributes to the sound on this one. Enjoy.

Remember

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Some cuts from the Master...

I'm not sure where I picked up this compilation - it's the umpteenth one I have, yet surprisingly has a few interesting tracks mixed in with the same 'ol recycled stuff. One the highlight is an older (mono?) mixed version of "Freedom" that appeared on his posthumously hurried Cry Of Love album - since that's been replaced on the record shelves with the remixed/mastered/edited First Rays Of The New Rising Sun it's nice to hear the old-school version. The epic, 15-minute recording of "Red House" is without a doubt one of the finest live versions I've heard of his blues masterpiece - it slows down and builds up over and over again with the force of a tractor beam - you're left reeling when it's over. Other tracks were culled mostly from his Blues album but they are all tight and listenable - the last real treat is a live version of Them's "Gloria" where Hendrix starts rambling about Noel's girl who's "breath smelled like wet pussy... Yeah!"

Jimmy James

 
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