Due to popular demand, here are my four Hendrix/Robert Ludwig rips from 2009 again. The same rips, but slightly improved (see text).
I do not necessary support my view from 11 years ago anymore that these rips are the best available sounding versions out there for all tracks. They are what they are; Bob Ludwig's excellent masterings on slightly rumbly early 70s USA vinyl. They still sound very nice and definitely have something going for them. But we have also gotten very acceptable CD reissues of Cry of Love and Rainbow Bridge in the meantime, and although Hendrix In The West has been reissued with a slightly altered tracklist, it can easily be corrected on the HD with two tracks from the Purple boxset. That leaves only War Heroes, I guess.
Enjoy.
PS
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Jimi Hendrix - The Cry of Love - Orig. USA Robert Ludwig Cut (2009)
16bit/44.1kHz (CD Quality)
01 - Freedom
02 - Drifting
03 - Ezy Rider
04 - Night Bird Flying
05 - My Friend
06 - Straight Ahead
07 - Astro Man
08 - Angel
09 - In from the Storm
10 - Belly Button Window
All songs by Hendrix
Produced by Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Kramer & Mitch Mitchell
Engineered by Eddie Kramer, John Jansen, Dave Palmer & Kim King.
Source: (Side 1: MS 2034 A 31184 - 1A / Side 2: MS 2034 A 31185 - 1A Sterling RL on both sides)
Technics 1210mk2 w/ AT-150 MLX stylus -> Yamaha CA-1010 (1979 Solid State Amp) ->RME ADI-2 A/D Interface (conversion to 24 bit, 96kHz) -> Click Repair (Cl: 18, Cr: 0) -> Adobe Audition 1.5 -> CueListTool v1.7 -> CueSplitter -> TLH (Flac 8)
(NB: Audition 1.5 was used for adjusting DC bias, editing, (incl. manual removal of clicks and pops), adding gain, and making the cue points.)
Vinyl Transfer & Restoration by Prof. Stoned
v1.0: 04-02-2009
v1.1: 19-07-2020 (same rip and restoration, EQ curve applied to re-balance the sound of the Audio Technica 150MLX for a more neutral presentation)
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(Notes from 2009)
Prof. sez:
Ok, here's a little something sweet for you.
This pressing is hands down the best sounding source for all these tracks, both on CD & vinyl. I will add IMO, as I'm sure there are folks who prefer the UK Track(s). But let's face it, the album was produced in N.Y.C.and Sterling Sound was located only a few blocks from the Electric Ladyland Studio's. It seems unlikely that the mixdown mastertapes were shipped to London, rather a 1:1.
The LP sounds better than the original 1985 Reprise CD which was mastered by Lee Herschberg. It also most definitely sounds better than the EH release 'First rays of the new rising sun' which although sourced from the original mixdown tapes was mastered like a Foo Fighters CD. The sound on the LP sparkles, the mids are lively and it has a deep low-end, something that is lacking a bit on the REP CD (though it still is excellent in its own right).
Cut from the original mastertapes by vinyl cutting/mastering genius Robert Ludwig, who has done no less than five original US Hendrix pressings. This is not a coincidence, as a lot of albums in which Eddie Kramer was involved as a producer/engineer from this era were initially mastered & cut by Ludwig (amongst others Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie & Cactus.) I will also upload a new rip of the RL cut 'Rainbow Bridge' soon & maybe 'In the West' as well.
This was transferred from a near mint copy, still in its shrink with sticker. The only drawback with some records from this era is the somewhat less than stellar vinyl quality. There are only two words for that: oil crisis. This vinyl is quite thin and you *may* hear some rumble during the quiet passages (if you listen on headphones) but nothing distracting, I wouldn't have uploaded it otherwise.
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The Making Of....
(written by PS)
'The Cry of Love' was the first Hendrix Studio album to appear after his untimely death. Many people feel it is the only posthumous album that Hendrix would have been satisfied with. But even though it is a great album that assumption is not near the truth. Hendrix' death had left a lot of recordings in various stages of completion. A couple of songs were already mixed down to (near-) perfection, but most of them were still incomplete.
After his passing, Michael Jeffrey (Hendrix' manager) hoped to compile three albums out of the enormous pile of tapes that Hendrix left behind. One of them would have to be a soundtrack album to a film called Rainbow Bridge -a project in which Jeffrey was deeply involved- and which he was desperate to turn into a commercial success. However, first there would have to be a regular album containing the strongest recordings. Jeffrey opted not to release a double album because he needed to fulfill his contractual obligations with Warner Brothers.
Eddie Kramer, who was chief engineer of Hendrix' new Electric Lady Studio's and who had been closely involved with the recording process until Jimi's death, was given the unenviable task of completing the album that Hendrix had never finished. Together with Mitch Mitchell, he went through the many tapes that Hendrix had recorded over the past two years. This process that must have been painful to these two people who had worked so closely with Hendrix over the last four years. Although a large share of tapes were not available at that point, (the sessions that Experience had done at the TTG studio's in Oct. 1968 and many of the Record Plant sessions from the spring and autumn of 1969 with the Band of Gypsys), it was correctly assumed that the best material was among the works from the last six months prior to Hendrix death.
But even though Hendrix had written some real strong material in this period, most of it had not been fully realized on tape yet. Therefore, Kramer and Mitchell decided to add overdubbed drum parts on some somes and vibes to 'Drifting' (which Hendrix had considered) in an attempt to upgrade the material. A couple more studio tricks had to be pulled to get to a more finished sounding end result, but -unlike Alan Douglas later- Kramer and Mitchell were keen not to disrespect Jimi's wishes.
The resulting album is great but one cannot help but wonder what it would have been had Hendrix lived. At the same time, 'The Cry of Love' does give a complete image of the musical direction that Hendrix was heading into, more than any other posthumous album. Songs like "In from the storm", 'Freedom", "Drifting" -to name just a few- are masterpieces and we should be happy that Hendrix lived to record these. It's a shame that these songs hardly get played by those classic rock radio stations.
Enjoy!
Jimi Hendrix - Rainbow Bridge - Orig. US Robert Ludwig Cut (2009)
16bit/44.1kHz (CD Quality)
01 - Dolly Dagger
02 - Earth Blues
03 - Pali Gap
04 - Room Full Of Mirrors
05 - The Star Spangled Banner
06 - Look Over Yonder
07 - Hear My Train a-Coming (Live)
08 - Hey Babe (The Land Of The New Rising Sun)
All songs by Hendrix except 5 Trad. adapted by Hendrix
Produced by Jimi Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell, Eddie Kramer & John Jansen
Engineered by Eddie Kramer, John Jansen, Dave Palmer, Kim King & Abe Jacobs
Source: (Side 1: MS 2040 A 31260 - 1A / Side 2: MS 2040 B 31261 - 1A Sterling RL on both sides)
Technics 1210mk2 w/ AT-150 MLX stylus -> Yamaha CA-1010 (1979 Solid State Amp) ->RME ADI-2 A/D Interface (conversion to 24 bit, 96kHz) -> Click Repair (Cl: 20, Cr: 0) -> Adobe Audition 1.5 -> CueListTool v1.7 -> CueSplitter -> TLH (Flac 8)
(NB: Audition 1.5 was used for adjusting DC bias, editing, (incl. manual removal of clicks and pops), adding gain, and making the cue points.)
Vinyl Transfer & Restoration by Prof. Stoned
v1.0: 09-02-2009
v1.1: 19-07-2020 (same rip and restoration, EQ curve applied to re-balance the sound of the Audio Technica 150MLX for a more neutral presentation)
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(Notes from 2009)
Prof. sez:
This is another breathtaking 'RL cut', done by vinyl cutting/mastering genius Robert Ludwig, who has done no less than five original US Hendrix pressings. For some reason, this album never got an official CD reissue but in 1997 'Experience Hendrix' finally did release 6 of the 8 tracks in their original mixes on the CD's "First rays of the new rising sun" and "South saturn delta". The remaining two tracks appeared respectively on the 4CD boxset from 2000 and Voodoo chile: The Jimi Hendrix Collection from 2001.
I'm sorry to bash Eddie Kramer/George Marino's mastering work yet again but this pressing is hands down the best sounding source for all these tracks, unless you prefer the IN YO FACE mastering of the CD releases (FROTNRS being the worst offender by far, the boxset is well tolerable). This LP rip brings you back to the original sound. This was transferred from an EX+ copy. You *may* hear some noise on some intro's and outro's (if you listen on headphones) but overall the result is very clean.
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The Making of..
(written by PS)
The story behind this album starts in late 1969 when Michael Jeffrey -Hendrix manager- had a vision about a road movie which would equal the success & cult-status of 'Easy Rider'. Jeffrey had been impressed by both the scenario and commercial success of said film, and was determined to come up with something even better.
Michael Jeffery was a man with many faces. Legend holds him as the bold & untrustworthy manager who had made Hendrix a star but who -in the end- relentlessly milked his artist's fame. But there are two sides to every story. Jeffrey was a very sly businessman, who had mastered the art of manipulation like no one else. But there was also a deeply insecure side to his personality. Jeffrey was scared of getting older and was very sensitive for the current hippie trends of the times.
In 1969 the relationship between Jeffrey and Hendrix had severely deteriorated. During the first years, Hendrix had been deeply grateful for everything that Michael & Chas Chandler had achieved for him. But Jimi had started to get more and more frustrated with the relentless tour schedule, the pressure to record new albums, and the lack of privacy that comes with being a superstar. He blamed Michael for all this but failed to acknowledge that this was the life that he had always wanted and that his own excessive lifestyle was taking its toll on his mental and physical health.
It was in this period that Jeffery realized that his contract with Hendrix wasn't going to last forever and that he needed to bet on more than one horse. Jeffrey -who always had always been fascinated by the film industry- met Chuck Wein and together they envisioned 'Rainbow bridge'; a movie that would throw the world of conventional filmmaking upside down and which would become a blistering artistic and commercial success. Wein (a former Yale student and former Warhol protégé) would be the director, Jeffrey would take care of the business side. 'Rainbow bridge' was a vanity-project for both men and was destined to become a failure but Wein had considerably less to lose than Jeffrey.
Jeffrey managed to convince Warner Brothers to finance the project. Back in 1967, when Jeffrey had set up a record deal with Warner Brothers for the American market, he had also managed to include a special clause into the contract. If Hendrix was to record a soundtrack album, Warner would not have the rights to release it, but they would be given the first option to buy the rights. It didn't seem important at the time, but when Jeffrey told the Warner executives (who were already desperate for new Hendrix product) in early 1970 that the next Hendrix album was going to be the soundtrack to the film and asked if they wanted to buy it, they exploded with rage. Needless to say, they were forced to come to an agreement with him. Meanwhile, Hendrix had no idea what his manager was up to and wished to steer clear from the whole 'Rainbow bridge' project.
With a budget for the film secured, Chuck Wein started filming the movie on Hawaii in the spring of 1970, without a script... To him and his crew, the vibrations of the environment he was filming were far more important than an actual story or plot. After a while, Jeffrey started to realize that the film was flushing thousands and thousands of his dollars through the drain, and left him without a satisfying result. So in an attempt to save the project, he managed to convince Hendrix to do open-air concert on the Maui crater which would be filmed.
After Hendrix' sudden death in September 1970, Jeffrey and Wein decided to change the accent of their film from a 'documentary about a spiritual journey' to 'a tribute to Jimi hendrix'.
Jeffrey could no longer deny that the project had become a failure and by upgrading it with all the film footage of Hendrix that he owned, he hoped to make the most out of it. At the end of 1970, the film had been more or less completed and was previewed at a small cinema in New York. However, the full 123 minute version was edited down to 75 minutes on instigation of the
Warner executives, to great frustration of Chuck Wein, who blamed the flopping of the film on the fact that the edit "lacked any coherence".
Meanwhile, engineer Eddie Kramer & drummer Mitch Mitchell (with help from assistant-engineer John Jansen) had completed the first posthumous Hendrix album. It had been quite a struggle to complete Cry of love, but Jeffrey was quick to send them off to work again on the second posthumous studio album, which would be the soundtrack to Rainbow bridge. However, Kramer & Mitchell soon found they didn't have enough quality material to work with and told Jeffrey to convince Warner to send them the many multitrack reels that they still held in their archives. These included the sessions that Experience had done at the TTG studio's in Oct. 1968 and many of the Record Plant sessions from the spring and autumn of 1969 with the Band of Gypsys. Both Mitchell or Kramer had little idea what to expect from these recordings, but when Warner executive Mo' Ostin finally ordered the tapes to be sent to the Electric lady studio's in February 1971, they turned out to offer surprisingly little useable material. Only 'Look over yonder' and 'Star Spangled banner' were selected for inclusion.
After being released in October 1971, the album proved to be far less successful than its predecessor. The reason for that lies clearly in the content itself, despite the smooth presentation and good sound. The album sounds unfinished and some of the material is just plain weak. Hendrix would never have approved this album in a million years. That being said, there is enough to enjoy here and it is still better than the next studio album 'War heroes', although the difference in quality between those two and the first two is less big.
Together with 'War Heroes' & "In the West, 'Rainbow bridge' was deleted from Warner's catalogue in 1975, after WB's chief Mo' Ostin decided that Alan Douglas was far more capable of maintaining the quality of Hendrix's posthumous discography than Jeffrey and Kramer had been. History has proven him wrong but the fact that nearly all Warner executives at the time hated Michael Jeffery (who died in a plane crash in 1973) probably played a role in this decision. As the 'Rainbow bridge' album had been exclusively licensed to WB, it has stayed out-of-print in the states ever since, although the German division of Reprise started re-pressing the album on vinyl during the 80's. 'Rainbow bridge' never got a re-issue on CD, although at some stage pre-productions for a CD release were done and it even got a catalogue number.
Enjoy!
Jimi Hendrix - War Heroes (1972) - Orig. US Robert Ludwig WLP Cut (2009)
16bit/44.1kHz (CD Quality)
01 - Bleeding Heart (Elmore James)
02 - Highway Chile
03 - Tax Free (Bo Hanssen / Janne Karlssen)
04 - Peter Gunn (Henry Mancini) / Catastrophe (Bloom / Gade)
05 - Stepping Stone
06 - Midnight
07 - Three Little Bears
08 - Beginning (Mitch Mitchell)
09 - Izabella
All songs by Hendrix except those indicated.
Produced by Eddie Kramer & John Jansen
Engineered by Eddie Kramer, John Jansen, Gary Kellgren,
Dave Palmer, Kim King, Bob Hughes & Tony Bongiovi
Remix at Electric Lady Studios by: Kramer / Jansen
Executive Producer: Michael Jeffrey
Line up:
Jimi Hendrix: Vocals, Guitars
Billy Cox: Bass
Noel Redding: Bass on 2, 3, 6, 7
Mitch Mitchell: Drums
Albert & Arthur Allen: Backing Vocals on 9
Source: (Side 1: MS - 2103 A 31472 -A- 1H / Side 2: MS 2130 31473 -B- 1H Sterling RL on both sides)
Technics 1210mk2 w/ AT-150 MLX stylus -> Yamaha CA-1010 (1979 Solid State Amp) ->RME ADI-2 A/D Interface (conversion to 24 bit, 96kHz) -> Click Repair (Cl: 20, Cr: 0) -> Adobe Audition 1.5 -> TLH (Flac 8)
(NB: Audition 1.5 was used for adjusting DC bias, editing, (incl. manual removal of clicks and pops), adding gain, and making the cue points. CueListTool v1.7 & Mediaval CueSplitter were used for generating the .cue's & .m3u's. )
Vinyl Transfer & Restoration by Prof. Stoned
v1.0: 27-05-2009
v1.1: 19-07-2020 (same rip and restoration, EQ curve applied to re-balance the sound of the Audio Technica 150MLX for a more neutral presentation)
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(Notes from 2009)
Prof. sez:
Here is the fourth and last offering in the Hendrix/RL series I've done, consisting of the original US vinyl pressings of Hendrix' initial posthumous releases. These were cut by vinyl cutting/mastering master Robert (a.k.a. Bob) Ludwig and have been highly rated among fans for their exquisite sound quality. The album was originally mixed and mastered in New York and so -in combination with Ludwig's cutting and mastering skills- it shouldn' t come as a surprise that this pressing is the best way to go for this album on vinyl. Apart from the three other ones I uploaded, Ludwig also mastered the original US pressing of 'Band of gypsies' on Capitol (' 70). This will not be included in this series as I feel it has been sonically superseded by the all-analog reissue on Classic Records (2001) of which I'm gonna do a new rip soon. But maybe someone else feels the need to do a BOG/RL rip sometime?
There are two different CD reissue of this album, both have gone out of print. The first one is the now highly sought after Polydor cd from 1988 which went out of print
in the early nineties. This CD sounds quite good but when comparing it to this new rip it clearly has more hiss and less dynamical sound, just like 'Hendrix in the west'. My guess is that the CD was sourced from the 1972 UK lp masters, which would have to be one or two generation below the mastertapes. The 2nd one was an early 90's reissue which essentially used the same source material but was treated with peak limiting and noise reduction.
All of the tracks have since been reisued on EH releases, most of them on ' First rays of the new rising sun' and 'South Saturn Delta'. As I have said before, these CD's do leave something to be desired from an audiophile point of view (as well), as they have been digitally limited quite heavily. This vinyl rip offers these tracks (and that includes "Highway Chile") in the best sound quality I have heard so far. End of story. This was transferred from an EX copy. You *may* hear some noise on some intro's and outro's but overall the result is very clean. The distortion you hear in Tr. 08 is in the recording itself.
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Researched and Written by Prof. Stoned (Updated on 25/10/2007)
'War Heroes' was the third posthumous Hendrix Studio album to come out under Michael Jeffery's (Hendrix' manager) supervision.
Had it been tough for Eddie Kramer and Mitch Mitchell to complete the 2nd posthumous studio album 'Soundtrack of the film Rainbow Bridge" to a satisfyting result, the compiling of 'War Heroes' was what Eddie Kramer called 'scraping the bottom of the barrel'. With only two recordings that Hendrix had more or less approved during his life (Izabella & Stepping stone) and two older recordings which had not been released in the States yet (Highway Chile and Stars that play with laughing's Sam's dice, which would eventually turn up on Loose ends from 1973), Kramer -now fully assisted by John Jansen- once again went through all the tapes in the hopes to find useable pieces of music.
The collection they came up with did indeed not live up to the standard that was set with Cry of Love, Rainbow Bridge & the live album In the west. But for a more than average fan, War Heroes does not disappoint. It has a few blistering instrumentals, that Hendrix may not have wanted to be released, but who demonstrate his fine talents on the guitar nonetheless. Only '3 little bears' and 'Peter Gunn/Catastrophe' are throwaway's. Apart from the fact that Kramer wanted to offer a glimpse of Hendrix working (and joking around) in the studio, he probably also had another motive for including these.
Kramer realized that Michael Jeffrey and Warner Bros. would want him to compile more studio albums, and by using these two tracks he was able to back-up his argument that there simply were no quality studio recordings left in the vaults. When Kramer delivered 'War heroes' to WB, he also made a silent statement by not delivering any background information on the songs for the sleeve. The gloomy front cover and the unexplained album title (was it supposed to be a link to 'Izabella' ?) only added to the confusion. The album sold a moderate 180.000 copies, and reached 48 in the US charts.
*** The tracks
"Bleeding Heart"
Recorded with on March 24, 1970 at the Record Plant Studio in New York City.
Overdubs were added in June 1970 at the Electric Lady Studios (ELS).
Mixed by Eddie Kramer and John Jansen at ELS on March 11, 1971.
Previously played by the Experience as a slow blues (a sublime rendition can be heard on Reprise's 'Concerts'), this version takes a more funky approach.
Originally produced by Jimi Hendrix.
"Highway Chile"
Recorded with the Experience on 3 April 1967 at Olympic Studios, London, UK.
This song reflected on Hendrix' restless time as a traveling musician on the Chitlin' circuit. In Europe it became the B-side of the "Wind cries Mary' single (released: 5 May 1967 in the UK) and later appeared on the Track/Polydor version of 'Smash hits', but wasn't released in the States until 1972 when 'War heroes' came out. This track only existed in mono until 2000 when EH released a newly made (but IMO disappointing) stereo mix on the box set.
Engineered by Eddie Kramer. Produced by Chas Chandler.
"Tax free"
Recorded on January 26 & 28 1968 at the Olympic Studios, London, UK and Record Plant, NYC, 1 May 1968.
Mixed by Kramer/Jansen January 26, 1972 at ELS.
This was written by Sweden's Bo Hanssen and Janne Karlsson. Hendrix heard this instrumental while touring Sweden in 1967 and decided to record it. The Experience recorded five basic tracks, the fifth being successful. When production switched to over to the Record Plant Studio in New York, Hendrix worked on the track again there, trying to add some overdubs. The Experience added Tax Free to their set list during early 1968 and continued to play it live until early 1969. A live version can be heard on the now out-of-print "Live at Winterland" album.
Originally produced by Chas Chandler.
"Peter Gunn / Catastrophe"
Recorded mid-summer of 1970 at the Electric Lady Studios, NYC.
'Peter Gunn' was the first song that Jimi learned to play during his Seattle childhood days. 'Catastrophe' is a take-off by Jimi of the song 'Jealousy' popularized by Frankie Laine in late 1951. During the improvisation of 'Catastrophe' Jimi invented his own lyrics. This little ditty was added to the album by Eddie Kramer just to give a little insight into Hendrix's sense of humor, and is without a doubt the weakest selection. Maybe even the weakest Hendrix studio performance ever officially released.
Engineered by Eddie Kramer. Originally produced by Jimi hendrix
"Stepping stone"
Originally recorded on January 7, 17 & 20, 1970 with the Band of Gypsys at the Record Plant, NYC.
Drum overdubs were added at Electric Lady Studios, NYC. June 26, 1970.
This recording was rush-released as a single with 'Izabella' on the B-side (Reprise 0905, Rel: 13/04/70), and quickly withdrawn again. Only a few copies of this single leaked out, making it a ultra-rare item. According to Hendrix: "Some of the copies out there have no bass on them. I had to go out somewhere and tell the guy to remix it but he didn't. Sure, it matters..." The single contained a mix with Buddy Miles on drums. Jimi -who was still working on the recording- later opted to erase Miles' drums from the multitracks to be replaced by Mitchell's. However, the drums were never fully completed to Hendrix's satisfaction during his life and therefore it's a pity that Kramer and Jansen did not use the original mix with Miles' drums for this album. While being a far more technically skilled drummer than Miles, Mitchell failed to lay down the steady beat that this track really needs.
Engineered by Bob Hughes at the Record Plant and Eddie Kramer at Electric Land Studios.
Originally produced by 'Heaven Research Unlimited' (=Jimi Hendrix).
"Midnight"
Recorded by the Experience at the Olmstead studio's, New York, April 1, 3, 1969.
These sessions were booked to record the fourth Experience studio album, which never materialized. The group cut a similair instrumental during these sessions called 'Trashman', that was eventually released (with lots of overdubs & editing) on the inferior Alan Douglas' produced 'Midnight lightning' album from 1975.
Engineered by Eddie Kramer and mixed by Kramer/Jansen at ELS January 28, 1971.
"3 Little bears"
Recorded on 2 May 1968 at the Record Plant, NY.
Another left-over from the 'Electric Ladyland' sessions. The first half of this extended jam was released on 'War Heroes'. The U.S. lp version had parts of Hendrix' frustrated comments censored by wiping them out or mixing them down very low ("Oh, fuck me" and "stop that shit, stop it"). In 1999 EH released the Jimi Hendrix "Merry Christmas and happy new year" EP, which made '3 little bears' available again. The complete extended version is only available on bootlegs; "The mixdown master tapes 1-3", for example.
Originally produced by Jimi Hendrix
"Beginning"
Recorded on 1 July 1970 at Electric Lady Studios, NYC.
A guitar overdub was added later on 22 August.It was mixed by Kramer/Jansen on January 24, 1971 at ELS. This instrumental had previously been known as 'Jam back at the house' and was developed during the Woodstock rehearsal sessions in the summer of 1969. It first appeared as a strongly edited live version on the 'Woodstock 2' triple album in March 1971. It's not very likely that Mitch Mitchell actually composed this track, he was probably given this credit in an attempt to compensate him financially for his tireless dedication over the 1967-1971 period.
This version is slightly edited as well, and a complete version can be found on bootlegs.
Originally produced by Jimi Hendrix.
"Izabella"
Recorded on 17th of January 1970 at the Record Plant, NYC,
It was released first as a B-side on a quickly withdrawn single (see 'Stepping Stone' details). Further guitar and drum overdubs where added in June 1970 at Electric Lady Studios. After that, Hendrix considered the recording complete and only a final mix was needed. But he never got that far, and the mix here was made by Kramer and Jansen on January 31, 1971 at ELS for the inclusion on the 'Cry of love' album (which it didn't make).
Originally produced by 'Heaven Research Unlimited' (=Jimi Hendrix).
Sources:
'Setting the record straight' by John McDermott & Eddie Kramer
Booklet "First rays of the new rising sun" by John McDermott
'Black Gold' by Stephen Roby
'Electric Gypsy' by Harry Shapiro and Caesar Glebbeek
Jimi Hendrix - Hendrix In The West - Orig. US Robert Ludwig Cut
16bit/44.1kHz (CD Quality)
01 - The Queen
02 - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
03 - Little Wing
04 - Red House
05 - Johnny B. Goode (1st set)
06 - Lover Man (2nd set)
07 - Blue Suede Shoes (soundcheck)
08 - Voodoo Chile
Produced by Eddie Kramer & John Jansen
Recording Engineers: Abe Jacob (Wally Heider Recording),
Pye Recording London, Chas Chandler.
Remix: Eddie Kramer and John Jansen at Electric Lady Studios, NYC, 1971.
Recorded at
Tr. 1-2: Euston Farm, Pilton, Isle of Wight (UK) September 30, 1970
Tr. 3,8: Royal Albert Hall, London (UK) February 24, 1969
Tr. 4: San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, CA (US) May 24, 1969
Tr. 5-7: Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA (US) May 30, 1970
Line up:
Jimi Hendrix: Vocal, Guitar
Mitch Mitchell: Drums
Billie Cox: Bass
Noel Redding: Bass on 3, 4, & 8
Source: (Side 1: MS 2049 A 31296 - 1A / Side 2: MS 2049 B 31297 - 1A Sterling RL on both sides)
Technics 1210mk2 w/ AT-150 MLX stylus -> Yamaha CA-1010 (1979 Solid State Amp) ->RME ADI-2 A/D Interface (conversion to 24 bit, 96kHz) -> Click Repair (Cl: 20, Cr: 0) -> Adobe Audition 1.5 -> CueListTool v1.7 -> CueSplitter -> TLH (Flac 8)
(NB: Audition 1.5 was used for adjusting DC bias, editing, (incl. manual removal of clicks and pops), adding gain, and making the cue points.)
Vinyl Transfer & Restoration by Prof. Stoned
v1.0: 12-03-2009
v1.1: 19-07-2020 (same rip and restoration, EQ curve applied to re-balance the sound of the Audio Technica 150MLX for a more neutral presentation)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Notes from 2009)
Prof. sez:
Here is yet another 'RL cut', done by vinyl cutting/mastering master Robert (a.k.a. Bob) Ludwig, who has done no less than five original US Hendrix vinyl pressings. The album was originally mixed and mastered in New York and so -in combination with Ludwig's cutting and mastering skills- it shouldn' t come as a surprise that this pressing is the only way to go for this album on vinyl.
'Hendrix in the west' has only had one CD reissue in its original form so far. This is the now highly sought after Polydor cd from 1988 which went out of print in the early nineties. This CD sounds quite good but when comparing it to this new rip (and also with the purple boxset tracks) it clearly has more hiss and less dynamical sound. My guess is that the CD was sourced from the 1972 UK lp masters, which would have to be one or two generation below the mastertapes. All of the tracks have since been reisued on EH releases, namely the purple box set, the Voodoo Chile/JH Collection, Blue Wild Angel and Live At Berkeley. But Tr. 01, 02 & 06 have so far only re-appeared as newly made remixes, so for authenticity you'll have to hear the vinyl or the original CD.
What may be interesting to note is that the sleeve of the orig. US has a different song order than the actual album: Tr. 06, 05, 07, 04, 01, 02, 03, 08. It's very likely that this was the trackorder that the producers had in mind but that it was Ludwig who came up with the revisited order to make sure the lacquer cutting would be more convenient (because this way side 1 would have been 25 minutes long and side B about 16). The original European pressings (including the 1988 CD) also have a slight trackorder twist: the A & B sides were reversed, making Johnny B. Goode the opening track.
For a long time, this was the best commercially available Hendrix live album. It has however been superceded by the 2nd disc of the EH Voodoo/ Chile/Collection 2001 set and also by the live material that has been selected for the Box set (although there is some overlap). What keeps this album from being a stone classic is the fact that it is marred by some weak performances (Tr. 07 most of all) and also the somewhat less than perfect recording and mixing quality. But then again, there are some killer performances here (like Tr. 5 & 8) that any Hendrix fan needs. This was transferred from an EX+ copy. You *may* hear some noise on some intro's and outro's and maybe a bit of distortion on the loud parts of Tr. 4 & 8 (if you listen on headphones) but overall the result is very clean.
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The Making of..
(written by PS)
"Hendrix in the West" is one the best albums that was released after Hendrix' death under the supervision of his original manager Michael Jeffrey. It was originally supposed to be a accompanying soundtrack album to the "Jimi Plays Berkeley" movie, hence the misleading title. A film student named Peter Pilafian and his crew had shot vision footage of the two Berkeley shows on 30 May 1970 on instigation of Michael Jeffrey, who had been considering making a Hendrix live movie. However, when Pilafian came to ask for his allowance for expanses afterwards, Jeffrey refused to pay a penny without having seen one single shot, causing Pilafian great financial debts.
Jeffrey's attitude changed after Hendrix died unexpectedly a couple months later: he came to terms with Pilafian. The film footage appeared to be a incomplete mish-mash job, but Jeffery was determined to make it work, and ordered the director to use every inch of film to get to a respectable length. Eddie Kramer & John Jansen were sent to work to mix, edit & sync the soundtrack for the film from the multitapes which had been recorded by Abe Jacob, Hendrix' long time live sound engineer.
Jeffrey wanted an album to accompany the film, preferably compiled from the two Berkeley shows. However, Eddie Kramer managed to convince Jeffrey that there were not enough performances among these two shows that where up to standard to fill an album, and suggested to use other live recordings as well. But despite the many years of touring, Kramer & Jansen soon found that they didn't have that many well recorded multi-tracked shows to choose from. They had to work with Isle of Wight '70, Berkeley '70, San Diego '69 & LA '69. Not all of them were equally inspired performances. Atlanta '70 & Maui '70 had simply been too poorly recorded & the Monterey '67 recording was not available. They overlooked or didn't have access to the Winterland '68 tapes.
Kramer was especially interested in the multitrack recordings of the Royal Albert Hall show from 24 February '69. But after the initial recording, there had been a legal battle going on between the initiators Gold & Goldstein (who had filmed more Hendrix concerts for an planned road movie) & Michael Jeffrey about who owned the rights to the audio and video footage. Jeffrey actually owned the multitapes of that show, even though he didn't own the legal rights to do anything with them. So, one day he came walking in the studio with a few brown unmarked tape boxes, and handed them over to Kramer and Jansen. Both men immediately knew what these tapes contained but Jeffrey reassured them and told them to use these. Kramer/Jansen choose two blistering performances from the London show, which tremendously helped giving the album more body.
When the album came out, it turned out that the credits of these two songs had been changed to "San Diego". But Michael Jeffrey soon found he had underestimated Gold & Goldstein because they filed a claim of millions against him, Kramer & Jansen. The charges against the two producers were dropped later though and a partial settlement was achieved. 'Hendrix in the west' was a huge success and went to 12 in the US charts.
(N.B. "Setting the record Straight" by John McDermott & Eddie Kramer.has been an invaluable source for the above information. It's also my favorite Hendrix book by a mile.)
Enjoy!
