Guitar virtuoso played 1968 set with Jim Morrison, Johnny Winter and Buddy Miles
Despite having a career cut short by his untimely death in 1970, Jimi Hendrix remains one of rock ‘n’ roll’s finest guitar players. A rarity among musicians, he is an artist who boasts more live recordings than studio albums.
Hendrix’s best work appears on jam sessions, many of which seem impromptu. He played with the likes of Stephen Stills, Steve Winwood and Al Kooper during his short but illustrious career. And at many of his shows, Hendrix performed other artists’ tunes and broke into unrehearsed jams at a moment’s notice.
One such jam session was captured live in New York City in 1968 when Hendrix joined with drummers Buddy Miles (who later was in Band of Gypsys with Hendrix and bassist Billy Cox) and Randy Z.; lead vocalist of the Doors, Jim Morrison (who despite being obviously inebriated provides harmonica and some obscene lyrics on “Morrison’s Lament”); guitarists Johnny Winter and Jim McCarty; and bassist Randy Jo Hobbs.
The eight-song set, “Woke Up This Morning and Found Myself Dead,” opens with a rocking version of Hendrix’s own “Red House,” which is nearly 11 minutes in length. That jam serves as a lead-in to the title track, another Hendrix original, which then transitions to the Elmore James classic “Bleeding Heart,” which was a standard at Hendrix concerts.
Morrison then takes the stage, moaning and screaming for more than five minutes. While he is obviously wasted, vulgar and incoherent, he provides the set with an edgy charm, the likes of which endured him to fans of the Doors until his death in 1971.
Morrison continues to moan aimlessly as Hendrix and the band perform the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows,” a song created as John Lennon experimented with LSD.
The compact disc concludes with “Uranus Rock,” “Outside Woman Blues” and a rendition of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love,” penned by Bruce Brown, Jack Bruce Eric Clapton, Hendrix’s one-time rival and fellow guitar god.
“Uranus Rock” is a rare Hendrix original, and the eight-plus minutes of “Outside Woman Blues” is a traditional blues rendering of Arthur Reynolds’ song, which was arranged by Clapton for Cream and reworked for this set by Hendrix himself.
This CD is a must for Hendrix fans – if it can be found – as it captures him (and Morrison to a lesser extent) at their raw and unrefined best. And it is a stirring live document of the first psychedelic era of rock music.
