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Jimi Hendrix

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Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock
Performed on Day 3
Started at 9.00 am, Monday, 18th
Played for 130 min.
Further Information
Festival Day Chronology
Prev. artist Sha Na Na at 7.30 am
Next artist end of day 3

Jimi Hendrix and his band were known under several names. They were introduced by Chip Monk as The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Jimi Hendrix called themselves Gypsy Sun & Rainbows. Some might know them also under the name Band of Gypsys, a very short-lived formation after Woodstock. Anyway, beside his backing band, it was Jimi Hendrix playing.

The band was scheduled as the last performance of the festival, Sunday night, but due to several delays, they eventually played on Monday morning, 9.00 am, when most of the audience had already left.


Contents


[edit] Musicians

  • Jimi Hendrix - guitar, vocals
  • Billy Cox - bass
  • Larry Lee - rhythm guitar, vocals
  • Mitch Mitchell - drums
  • Juma Sultan - congas
  • Gerardo "Jerry" Velez - congas

[edit] Setlist

  1. Introduction
  2. Message to Love
  3. Getting My Heart Back Together Again > Hear My Train a-Comin'
  4. Spanish Castle Magic
  5. Red House
  6. Mastermind
  7. Lover Man
  8. Foxy Lady
  9. Beginning > Jam Back at the House
  10. Izabella
  11. Gypsy Woman
  12. Fire
  13. Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
  14. Stepping Stone
  15. Star Spangled Banner
  16. Purple Haze
  17. Woodstock Improvisation
  18. Villanova Junction
  19. Hey Joe

[edit] Details

After all the years and the possibility to analyze and compare individual Jimi Hendrix shows with each other critics weren't satisfied with his Woodstock performance. The significance and sheer greatness of this festival leads to the assumption that the headliner would deliver the musical highlight, the grand finale. But somehow he didn't deliver. That may have various reasons.

The most obvious one is that he has restructured his band. The Jimi Hendrix Experience had just Mitch Mitchell on the drums and Noel Redding on the bass. For Woodstock Billy Cox (an old friend of Hendrix) replaced Redding and he also added a second guitarist, Larry Lee, and a rhythm section. There wasn't much time for rehearsal, or to quote Hendrix: "Like we only had two rehearsals so we'll only do a primary rhythm thing".

And so it was again almost only a power-trio that performed at Woodstock. Though you can see all the musicians on stage playing you can only hear Cox, Mitchell and Hendrix - the percussionists and the second guitar mixed far in the background. That was probably not in favour of Jimi Hendrix who kept looking for some jamming during the longer, improvised songs. Juma Sulatan[1] claims that Eddie Kramer and Hendrix's people hated the new band format and didn't want to waiver from the three piece format which is the reason that Messrs. Lee, Sultan, and Velez are turned down in the mix. On the other hand it was him that left little room for other musicians to step in front. The whole structure of the show is centered around Hendrix guitar work and he constantly had to deliver.

The setlist was a mixture of well known Jimi Hendrix Experience songs as well as some new material. That includes "Message to Love" (called "Message to Universe" by Hendrix), "Jam Back at the House", "Izabella" and "Villanova Junction". They added some new aspects to the rendition of Hendrix œuvre but generally the band was more familiar with the older songs.

"Spanish Castle Magic" for instance has besides Hendrix amazing solos a small but nice rythm section where the congas players are really audible. The blues guitar on "Red House" is immanent, always contextually responding the currently sung text line. And of course Hendrix brings out the "Voodoo Child" with its recognizable guitar signatures. Here is Larry Lee quite well listenable and the guitarists are able to interact though Lee mainly focuses on rhythm guitar.

The later songs finally bear the true genius of Jimi Hendrix and stick out of every Woodstock collection. It's also his furious version of the "Star Spangled Banner" (the national anthem of the United States of America) that made Woodstock so famous. Though he played it also on other occasions, the Woodstock version is the most radical. He imitated the fire of guns, the dropping of bombs and flying rockets within his guitar work, criticising the politics and condemning the Vietnam war.

The cacophony suddenly transforms into the well known "Purple Haze", a drug-influenced song that he already played two years before at the Monterey International Pop Festival. Following "Purple Haze" is an improvisation (simply entitled "Woodstock Improvisation") by Jimi Hendrix alone. He breaks out with a lot of fascinating guitar riffs, many of them which could have formed great songs if he lived somewhat longer. It's simply amazing watching him play, totally in control of what he's doing yet he's still improvising or playing song patterns from memory. When the rest of the band rejoined they continued with their last number "Villanova Junction", a fine instrumental Blues song.

Jimi Hendrix and his band returned for the encore with "Hey Joe". A slow and simple song thematically dealing with a man who has murdered his wife and is now fleeing. But the lyrics bare more than a man who shot his lady. After all Jimi Hendrix was asking the audience: "Where you gonna run to now? Where you gonna run to? Where you gonna go?".

After all had finished and Woodstock was closing there was no more reason to stay. The normal rules of life had been suspended for a long weekend. Instead of predicted anarchy and murder there was peace and love. Now they had to return to their usual life, fleeing from what was once and never will be again. But one can be sure that the spirit of Woodstock is carried on.

[edit] Miscellaneous

"Master Mind" and "Gypsy Woman" are sung by Larry Lee.

During "Red House" a string on Jimi Hendrix guitar snapped but he kept on playing.

"Jam Back at the House" includes a short drum solo by Mitch Mitchell.

Larry Lee's guitar is clearly heard on a number of songs, which include rhythm work supporting Jimi's solos, and lead guitar work as he follows Jimi's lead in "Jam Back at the House". As his guitar rig was identical to Hendrix' his contribution could have been mistaken for that of Jimi.

Before the encore Hendrix considered playing the very rare "Valleys of Neptune" which was only released posthumously, mostly on bootlegs. But he didn't play the song (and never played it for the rest of his career on stage). He can be heard saying: "Ok, now don't laugh at us. We gonna try this one song called Valleys of Neptune... oh, no I forgot the words of that, I forgot the words of that! I can't do it." This is quite ironic because "Valleys of Neptune" doesn't have any lyrics - at least it wasn't recorded with lyrics, so why should he play it at Woodstock with lyrics? But maybe Hendrix couldn't remember the guitar patterns and notes or it was totally unplanned anyway. Instead he launched into "Hey Joe", a more classic song.

[edit] Availability

Jimi Hendrix was already a legend so the sound engineers and camera team paid attention to capture every bit of him. His music is available on several official and unofficial releases. Here are only the most important ones listed:

[edit] Audio

[edit] Video

[edit] Recording Notes

Most official recordings have the second guitar of Larry Lee and the congas of the rythm section edited out. There exists an unedited soundboard copy of this show where these instruments can be heard, although far in the background.

Note that all official recordings are missing the songs "Master Mind" and "Gypsy Woman" which are both sung by Larry Lee. However, they are present on the soundboard copy.

[edit] Images

Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock

Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix and Gerardo Velez

Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix and Juma Sultan

Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix playing the guitar with his teeth

Jimi Hendrix again doing the little teeth trick

Overview of the stage

The band

The band, nice view from above

Gerardo Velez, Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox (from left to right)

Mitch Mitchell on the drums

Mitch Mitchell

The band

Juma Sultan

Larry Lee, for some reason his shawl before his face never made it to Vogue...

Bassist Billy Cox

The band

Jimi Hendrix and all that was left of the audience on Monday morning

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ↑ Unpublished interview with Jack Lokensky conducted on 10/25/2009 at the Living World Chapel in West Hurley, NY
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