Customer Reviews
a must have collection
all of the hits plus live versions are here. if you are just getting started on your Jimi Hendrix collection then this is a good place as any to start. Hendrix of course is known for his Guitar playing and the incredible Innovative tones and sounds he created with his bare hands. but he also played other instruments and he created a hybrid of Arrangements and Grooves that have inspired countless musicians over the years. he had alot of Groove and Passion in his playing and he didn't leave anything behind as a Artist. a Great Artist and collection. Hendrix played the Blues and had everything else to go along with it and his own bag of playing and styling.
Mediocre Best of Release
First of all, the digipak packaging for this release is by far the worst I have seen. Now, if you are a huge Jimi fan - and I am - please read the review before clicking the "not helpful" button. The manufacturer's plastic pegs wear down (they don't break) and eventually the discs won't stay on the spindles. The plastic just "feels" really really cheap - like it was vacu-formed. The booklet is glued into the packaging so even if you want to change the CD box, you can't. Experience Hendrix should have looked at the digipaks that Impulse used for their John Coltrane remasters or those used by ABKO for the Rolling Stones remastes. I cannot stress enough just how lousy this packaging is, perhaps the worst I've seen in all my years collecting CDs. Even the paper in the booklet feels flimsy. It's clear that they put this package together on the cheap like a KTEL or Ronco release.
Disc one has a good selection though if this is truly a best of collection aimed at a new generation of buyers, I don't know why the track selection includes alternate takes rather than the masters of some of Hendrix's better works like All Along the Watchtower and Spanish Castle Magic. Now, that said, I find them interesting but there is a reason they are alternate takes. Jimi was a perfectionist in the studio and these alternate takes don't represent his best work. So again, for that new generation of buyers that this package claims to be aimed at, this seems wrong headed to me.
Disc two has a great selection of Jimi live; however, I can't for the life of me understand why they are not presented in chronological sequence the way the studio stuff is. My only guess is that when you hear the stuff from late spring and summer of 1970 it is very clear that Jimi was tired of the rock star thing. His singing is really pretty terrible in these later tunes. His playing, though pretty wild is also very noisy and sloppy. Maybe it's out of sequence in order to diminish the impact of these sub-par (with respect to Jimi's other live work) performances? I used to have an Lp when I was a young man called 'In the West" that seemed a far better representation of Jimi's live work. Actually, the photo on the cover for this set looks very similar and might even be the same photo from "In the West" To be quite honest, I have not found another Hendrix live release that is anywhere close to as satisfying as "Band of Gypsys", one of the great live recordings of that era.
If you are interested in Jimi, what you really want to do is buy the remastered CDs in this order:
1. Are You Experienced
2. Axis Bold as Love
3. Electric Ladyland
4. Band of Gypsys (always bugs me that the plural of Gypsy is spelled incorrectly on this release!)
5. First Rays of the New Rising Sun
6. Live at Fillmore East with the Band of Gypsys (outtakes from BOG)
7. South Saturn Delta.
8. Live at the BBC
Then move on to some of the other stuff like Jimi Plays Berkley and Live at the Fillmore.
Personally, I believe this 2 disc set is a dis-service to this remarkably gifted artist's legacy but I've been listening to Jimi since 1969 so maybe I'm just not getting the marketing angle.
A Breathtaking Collection From A Rock Legend
What is left to say about this man? He's only widely considered to be the most creative and influential guitarists in rock and roll. Jimi Hendrix. His songs are among the most powerful songs in music, and every guitar player who came both before and after him still looks up to him in awe.
"Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection" is a two disc cd compiled by Rhino as well as Experience Hendrix, a production company run by Jimi's surving relatives that controls his entire recorded output.
The first disc of this collection contaisn all of Hendrix's most popular studio tracks (some in alternate versions), including the timeless "Purple Haze", the brooding "Hey Joe", the solemn "The Wind Cries Mary", the sweltering "Fire", his blazing cover of "All Along The Watchtower" and the passionate, ethereal "Angel". The sound quality is absolutely fantastic. This is Jimi the way he is meant to be heard.
The second disc is a 12 track collection of live performances. Though only a few songs are (or were back in 2001) previously unavailable, this disc gives perfect insight into the electrifying vibe present at a Hendrix concert. This disc includes his classic performance of The National Anthem at Woodstock. Once again, the sound quality is terrific.
The packaging is beautiful and includes insightful liner notes by Kurt Loder.
If you are just starting to experience the genius of Hendrix, this disc is the perfect palce to start your collection.
Are you experienced. . . ?.
. You can see a complete list of all Jimi Hendrix discography, or go back to the Jimi Hendrix tabs
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