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
Jimi Hendrix: Vocal, Guitar
Mitch Mitchell: Drums
Billy 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)
Vinyl Transfer & Restoration by Prof. Stoned
Prof. sez:
'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. 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 It has however been superceded by the 2nd disc of the EH Voodoo/ Chile/Collection 2001 set and also by the live material that has been selected for the Box set (although there is some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.
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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.