Last night, I broke out the 4 CD box set, “The Jimi Hendrix Experience,” for the first time in months and scanned over the content. This is a must-have for any Hendrix fan. It is a nice alternative route to take when exploring Jimi’s music. Prior to its release in 2000, a lot of the material had previously been available on out-of-print titles in various forms, but it is nice to have all these performances in one place and finally properly mixed and mastered by Eddie Kramer.
As always, when I play any of the music from this box set, I have to spin Jimi’s rendition of “Johnny B. Goode” from his 5/30/70 Berkeley Community Theatre afternoon concert.* He precedes the song with some tuning and banter:
“Dig, um, we got this other thing called, um…I don’t know, we’d like to do a little loose jam kind of thing….Johnny B. Goode, what the hell.”
And off he goes, as he tears into a nuclear version of Johnny B. Goode. He turns this Rock N’ Roll standard inside out with his energetic, supersonic assault. It is almost like at the last minute he temporarily ditches the concert set list due to a burst of outside inspiration.
While Jimi’s current direction at the time was quite progressive as evidenced by the unfinished masters found on Experience Hendrix/Universal’s posthumous “First Rays Of The New Rising Sun,” he was a Rock N’ Roller and Bluesman at heart and during any concert it was not uncommon for Jimi to give a mind-blowing performance of his Blues original “Red House” or a lengthy work-out of his other Blues anthem, “Hear My Train A Comin.’”
So, it is not surprising that within the first five minutes of his afternoon set at Berkeley he was inspired to go into the Chuck Berry songbook to have some fun. This gem is a fantastic and energizing live performance from one of music’s greatest talents and innovators. Seek out Johnny B. Goode from “The Jimi Hendrix Experience” box set and prepare to be dazzled.
*The evening concert has been officially released by Experience Hendrix/Universal, but only two individual performances ("Johnny B. Goode" and "Hear My Train A Comin'") from the afternoon set have been officially issued to date. Hopefully the entire afternoon concert is issued down the road as the Berkeley Community Theatre engagement was one of Jimi's finest from 1970.
As always, when I play any of the music from this box set, I have to spin Jimi’s rendition of “Johnny B. Goode” from his 5/30/70 Berkeley Community Theatre afternoon concert.* He precedes the song with some tuning and banter:
“Dig, um, we got this other thing called, um…I don’t know, we’d like to do a little loose jam kind of thing….Johnny B. Goode, what the hell.”
And off he goes, as he tears into a nuclear version of Johnny B. Goode. He turns this Rock N’ Roll standard inside out with his energetic, supersonic assault. It is almost like at the last minute he temporarily ditches the concert set list due to a burst of outside inspiration.
While Jimi’s current direction at the time was quite progressive as evidenced by the unfinished masters found on Experience Hendrix/Universal’s posthumous “First Rays Of The New Rising Sun,” he was a Rock N’ Roller and Bluesman at heart and during any concert it was not uncommon for Jimi to give a mind-blowing performance of his Blues original “Red House” or a lengthy work-out of his other Blues anthem, “Hear My Train A Comin.’”
So, it is not surprising that within the first five minutes of his afternoon set at Berkeley he was inspired to go into the Chuck Berry songbook to have some fun. This gem is a fantastic and energizing live performance from one of music’s greatest talents and innovators. Seek out Johnny B. Goode from “The Jimi Hendrix Experience” box set and prepare to be dazzled.
*The evening concert has been officially released by Experience Hendrix/Universal, but only two individual performances ("Johnny B. Goode" and "Hear My Train A Comin'") from the afternoon set have been officially issued to date. Hopefully the entire afternoon concert is issued down the road as the Berkeley Community Theatre engagement was one of Jimi's finest from 1970.
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