Search - Jimi Hendrix :: Jimi Hendrix - His Greatest Hits

DO NOT GET THIS CD

sleaf | 07/15/1999

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Instead of wasting your money on the greatest hits, buy the first three origianal albums plus "band of gypsys." Then get "live at woodstock" supplemented by his "Blues" album and the "BBC sessions." Then you'll be set. When you're all done with that get "new wave of the first rising sun" and "live at the fillmore." JIMI was too good of a guitarist to have people only get a greatest hits album. You need to hear the songs not played on the radio to fully understand the magic that was JIMI HENDRIX!"

It allright

sleaf | 07/19/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this on a whim (it was only 10 bucks) and got what I paid for. This album is from the Last Experiance. That was the last concert of the Jimi Hendrix Experiance. That was in 1969 i beleave, right before the Band of Gypsies. This album has some good stuff (Vodoo Child, Hous of Mirrors, ect.) which were by no means hits. (In fact, to be frank none of his songs where until after he died.) Nevertheless this is a semi solid CD, but the sound quality is bad in some tracks and it doesn't have many of the songs they play'ed at the concert. A better CD of the concert would be "The Last Experiance" just to let you know."

Royal Albert Hall - February 24, 1969

Enamorato | Washington, DC United States | 08/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I found this CD on a whim in the bargain bin of my local Tower Records. It was cheap. I loved obscure bootleg Hendrix (which is what I assumed this was), so I bought it. Not expecting much when I first popped it into the CD player, I was surprised to be greeted with quite decent sound quality and some of the most nuanced performances I've ever heard of "Little Ivey" and "Room Full of Mirrors." There is also a pretty exciting, animalistic cover of Chip Taylor's "Wild Thing" and Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love."



Nowhere on the packaging or the insert is any mention of where these recordings came from other than a tiny note on the back: "From the soundtrack 'The Last Experience.'" Then it all made sense.



"The Last Experience" was originally a film of a concert Hendrix gave at Royal Albert Hall in London on February 24, 1969. The film was never officially released, but audio recordings have proliferated since the 1970s. It has apparently become one of the most commonly bootlegged Hendrix recordings out there. In 1995, Eric Burdon (of The Animals fame) came into possession of the master tapes of this concert, and subsequently released it on his Risin' Sun label called "The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live at Royal Albert Hall" (although this released was later suppressed by the Hendrix Estate).



This recording, from a fly-by-night label called "Legacy International" and contains pieces of the concert. In particular, it's missing "Hey Joe" and "Foxy Lady" that were also performed at the concert. There is apparently a full version of the concert, featuring similar cover art, called "The Last Experience" although I haven't seen a copy of it since the 90s. That album perpetuated a myth that this was "Hendrix's last live performance" which is not the case. It certainly is among his last before his death the next year, but it is not his last performance by any stretch.



While the sound quality is surprisingly good by bootleg standards, it's not clean enough for an official release from the Hendrix Estate. Lots of feedback (not the good kind that made Jimi famous) and a few moments of distortion. Furthermore, according to Burdon, the master tapes (from which these recordings are apparently derived) were recorded slightly fast - something that was corrected for the Risin' Sun release.



All the same, it's still got my favorite performance of "Room Full of Mirrors" and "Little Ivey" and the energy emanating from the stage is just electric."