|
Jimi Hendrix First Rays of the New Rising Sun Average Rating: 
|
|
If you like "First Rays of the New Rising Sun", you might also like ...
Axis: Bold as Love |
Electric Ladyland |
South Saturn Delta |
Are You Experienced |
Blues |
| Customer Reviews 1-5 of 92 | NEXT >> |
2008-06-30Posthumous reconstuctions of unfinished works are inherently dangerous, pricipally because even the most capable scholar or producer can only make, at best, an educated guess as to how the work in question would have been completed. Indeed, in dealing with some such peices, you're sometimes lucky to get the work of the artist claimed (the Mozart Symphony No. 37 is a case in point -- it doesnt exist; the peice once labeled Symphony No. 37 and atributed to Mozart is now known to have been authored by Michael Haydn); and while there's no question that the songs on this CD were recorded by Jimi Hendrix, even the people who worked on the sides with him can't say which songs would have ended up on the finished version of First Rays of the New Rising Sun (assuming that he even ended up using that title for the album), or what embellishments he would have added to any of them in the course of completing them, or even if he might not have totally reconcidered such matters as tempo and approach to any of them. In the end, First Rays of the New Rising Sun is a little like any of the various "performing editions" of Gustav Mahler's never-completed Symphony No. 10, in that what's here is impressive, but may have little to do with what would finaly have been heard by the public, had the artist lived to finish it -- we don't know if Mahler would have scored a parituclar passage for horns or strings, or Hendrix would have put another, diffrent lead guitar part, or a second (or third) guitar part on to any of these songs, or added choruses, or re-thought his vocal performence? Hendrix had gone so long between albums, seemingly adrift stylistically at various times, that there's no telling exactly what direction he was finaly going to end up working toward. All of that said, this is a superb album, and a worthy if very diffrent, earthier successor to Electric Ladyland's psychedelic excursions -- the later tracks, ironicly enough, cut at that album's long promised and long-delayed studio namesake -- and also show him working in some genuinely new directions. For starters, Hendrix's voice emerges here as a genuinely powerfull instrument in its own right -- his voice was never as exposed in the mix of his songs as it is here; partly this is because Hendrix and engineer Eddie Kramer never finished embellishing the songs, or completed the final mixes. But whatever the reasons, the change is refreshing -- Hendrix's voice is not only powerfull and expressive throughout, but a more melodic instrument than it seemed on his earlier releases; indeed, hearing these sides is a bit like listening to those middle-years Muddy Waters recordings when Chess Records had the Chicago blues legend abondon his guitar playing in favor of concentrating on his singing; the results might not be what all fans expected, but it sure sounds good, because it turns out that Hendrix had an expressive voice and was also moving his music into new areas that were stimulating him. A lot of the material here shows Hendrix, for the first time, moving his songs specifically into a black music idiom, embracing R&B and funk elements in his singing, playing, and overall sound; some of it could qualify as Hendrix's extension of his years playing with the Isley Brothers. Songs here such as "Freedom," "Izabella," "Angel," and "Dolly Dagger" show him finaly acknowledging that musical world that he had largely by-passed, and the closer, "Belly Button Window," is one of his most succesful traditional bluesy outings. The psychedelic workouts are more jam-like and experimental, and the ballads are prettier and even more dreamlike in their background soundscapes. "Astro Man" also captures a light moment for the artist, as he opens the guitar workout with a quote from the Mighty Mouse theme song, sotto voce beneath the guitar. And speaking of the guitar, dispite the prominance of Hendrix's vocals on a lot of this album, the guitar playing is pretty much up to the standard that one would expect, if not neccessarily the final versions of some of the songs. Most of the material on First Rays of the New Rising Sun surfaced amoung the various posthumous Hendrix LPs issued from the 1970s through the early 1990s, but a lot of it was tampered with, mostly in the form of posthumous overdubbed embellishments supervised by producer Alan Douglas -- all of that has been stripped off and the multi-track masters retrieved and restored. What he would have eventually come up with and released as his next musical statement is anyone's guess, but this gets you as close to that answer -- and that vision -- as you're ever likely to get. It is the best representation of where the songs were at the point that he died, and it's fully competitive, in terms of merits and suprises, with his trio of completed studio albums.
2008-04-28The tracks display a vibrant Jimmi & band combining Rock, R & B in an exciting new direction. It really doesnt matter some of them were left unfinished - what did surface showed a great but unfulfilled promise.
God only knows what he could've acomplished. Great stuff !
2008-04-15Ever since Jimi's untimely death in September 1970 people have debated over what exactly his last album would have sounded like had he lived to finish it. severeal posthumous releases have attemted to put this issue to rest. The offical "First Rays Of The New Rising Sun" is the best attempt to date. However, it could have been a lot more comphrehensive and true to Jimi's vision.
As noted by previvous reviews, the producers should have concidered Jimi's own handwritten notes. He left pretty detailled instructions about the title to use, songs to include, cover art and even the running order. Unfortunately, most of this was disregarded by Experience Hendrix/MCA.
For details on Jimi's wishes for his fourth studio album read the artical on Wikipedia on First Rays or the book "Black Gold" by Steven Robey.
If I could take over Experience Hendrix for a day, I'd issue a 2CD set
called "People Hell and Angels" and include the majority of actual
songs (not jams) that Jimi recorded for his planned triple album. Anything from May 1969 to his late sessions in August 1970. I would have used the cover art Jimi drew up in the summer before his
death. Without a doubt, Jimi probably would have changed his mind about what he wanted on his next album. But Jimi's handwritten ideas are better than the guess work that's been going on since 1970.
Here's my version of a 2 disc version of First Rays Of The New Rising
Sun. All of the songs are included on the offical First Rays except
where noted. Maybe EH will reissue the album as a deluxe edition and include more of these tracks.
DISC ONE
1. Dolly Dagger
2. Night Bird Flying
3. Room Full Of Mirrors
4. Belly Button Window
5. Freedom
6. Ezy Ryder
7. Astro Man
8. Drifting
9. Straight Ahead
10. Drifter's Escape (from sourth Saturn Delta)
11. Come Down Hard On Me (from the JHE box set)
12. begginings
13. Cherokee Mist (from the JHE box set)
14. Angel
15. Stepping Stone
16. Izabella
17. Hear My Train A Comin' (the outstanding May 1969 Band of Gypsys version. An outtake from the :Blues album)
DISC TWO
1. Bleeding Heart (from sourth Saturn Delta)
2. Earth Blues Today
3. Country Blues (from the JHE box set)
4. Midnight lightening (from sourth Saturn Delta)
5. Burning Desire (edited version of Baggy's rehersal studios 1st take)
6. Valleys Of Neptune (Heard on Lifelines but unavaliable commerically)
7. Heaven Has No tommorrow (Heard on Lifelines but unavaliable commerically)
8. Sending My Love (Heard on Lifelines but unavaliable commerically)
9. Pali Gap (from sourth Saturn Delta)
10. Hey baby (New Rising Sun)
11. Message To Love (from the JHE box set)
12. Power of Soul (from sourth Saturn Delta)
13. Once I Had A Woman (from :Blues)
14. Bolero (cool instrumental. Unavaliable commerically)
15. In From The Storm
My version would feature 2 1/2 hours of music. If 2Pac can put out a
2CD posthumous studio album so can Jimi! And I'm sure people would buy
it.
2008-03-23There is only two songs I thought worth buying. Audio is bad on some cuts. CD does not play reliably in my truck. Hurray for MP3s. This one is already in bottom of my closet. :(
2007-09-04Great CD. If you like Jimi you must buy this disk. Very good music from a very good artist.
1-5 of 92 | NEXT PAGE OF REVIEWS >>
| Editorial Review |
If you like "First Rays of the New Rising Sun", you might also like ...
|
Axis: Bold as Love |
Electric Ladyland |
South Saturn Delta |
Are You Experienced |
Blues |
