A disapointment from Hendrix

It's a hsame that Jimi had to go out on such a mediocre album in my mind. Although I hae the South Saturn Delata and First Rays... albums, booth of which are interesting to hear, this is his last album. In certain parts it's good, but in other parts it's a little embarresing. Instead of a mere couple sentence review like other people do, I will now disect it song by song:



Who Knows- It just goes on too long. It starts off well, but Buddy Miles does that scatting type of music, which I never excepted.



Machine Gun- Definatley the highlight of the album. Check out other versions of this, like Isle of Wight. The solos are cool. Maybe it goes on a little too long, but I like it.



Changes- Oh my God. How many more times* will Buddy Miles play this song on an album? The version here is good. But I'm so sick of this song.



Power of Soul- I never liked this song. It's just to pop-like for me, and i find it too repetitive.



Message to Love aka. Message to the universe- I've heard way better version of this song. It seems out of tune here. Check out the studio version and the Woodstock version.



We Gotta Live Together- good song, but it again goes on a bit too long. It seems like a good closer to this album, but there has to be a lot more material from the New Years concert out there. Maybe a deluxe edition someday...

A promising future

This is the best glimpse I can think of for what Jimi Hendrix might've evolved into, at least during the early 70s. Like Jeff Beck, the only rock guitarist of that era to share Jimi's stubborn refusal to be pigeon-holed, Hendrix's future was likely to be an on-going quest to find new musical inspiration. The soul, funk, and rock medley of genres in this live collection of the best of the short-lived Band of Gypsys Fillmore East concerts is a passionate and exciting peek into what would've been a fruitful next stage in his career. For a man whose time in the spotlight was extraordinarily short, the excessive amounts of recorded materials on the market make it difficult to distinguish between the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sadly there is far too much of the latter and far too little of the former. Without Jimi around to scrap the crap, record execs pushed for everything and anything to be dumped on the public, especially as is the case with his most zealous fans, a voracious lot who devour it all and still beg for more.

Hendrix, in my opinion, made up in guitar work what he lacked in songwriting, leaving us with a plethora of dated, trippy, groovy, and plain annoying hippie fodder which clouds any point his lyrics were attempting to convey. Although his guitar brilliance may have been enough to overlook the silliness of the lyrical content, it also lent itself to a meandering nature that overtakes some of the material, especially the unauthorized stuff, and much of the live recordings.

I'm glad that this cd offers little of those short-comings. While "Power to Love" has some of the aforementioned lyrics, the chorus is good and the riff and rhythym of the song are strong enough to allow you to forget the b.s. about jellyfish having no backbone.

Another strong component of this offering is the vocal duties of Buddy Miles, who relieves Jimi of some of the front-man responsibilities and allows him to indulge us with his guitar work. Buddy's well done "Changes" is a highlight of the recording and his scat work in the opening "Who Knows" is jazzy and fresh. "Machine Gun" and "Message of Love" are more well-known songs and are given excellent work-outs here. This is, to my knowledge, the only live recordings of Hendrix that the man himself had a hand in and his choices are sound and don't include sloppy rambling guitar fireworks as do many of the releases elsewhere, even those put out by Experience Hendrix. The songs are long-ish jams, but are still tight enough and focused enough to keep the listener attentive. Extended live songs are a risky business, but as is the case with the Allman Brothers Live at the Fillmore East record, when done well they are remarkable. This is Hendrix live as it should be, and is the best live materials I've heard of Jimi. The box set, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, has some excellent material as well, particularly those culled from the old "In The West" album, but even that has far too much that doesn't cut it. Band of Gypsys is an excellent piece of work from a man who left far too much potential on the table with his tragic early passing. While the saddest thing about listening to this record is thinking what might have been, it is still a rare chance to listen to a preview of where this transcendent guitarist was going.

prophetic funk rock

This album is uneven and marred by a bit too much of Buddy Miles (sub) James Brown caterwauling (even more so in the 2 cd Live at Fillmore East). However, it features some of the most mind boggling electric guitar impovising i have ever heard. "Machine Gun" is an absolute masterpiece. And in 'Who Knows' and 'Power of Soul' the band locks into grooves that would pre-figure '70s funk