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Jimi Hendrix - Black Gold [Midnight Beat, MBCD 058-062]

Track listing:
Volume 1
  1. I Was Made To Love Her _ Ain't Too Proud To Beg (Pts. 1 & 2) [Bbc-Radio] 8:35
  2. Voodoo Chile [Takes 1-15] 32:43
  3. Long Hot Summer Night (Pts. 1 & 2) [Hotel-Tape] 4:21
  4. 1983.... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) [Hotel-Tape] 4:00
  5. Moon Turn The Tides... Gently, Gently Away [Hotel-Tape] 3:28
  6. Angel [Hotel-Tape] 3:22
  7. Cherokee Mist [Hotel-Tape] 3:12
  8. Getting My Heart Back Together (A_K_A Hear My Train A Comin') [Hotel-Tape] 1:21
  9. Voodoo Chile [Hotel-Tape] 6:07
  10. Gypsy Eyes [Hotel-Tape] 5:53
  11. Gypsy Eyes [Hotel-Tape] 4:14
Volume 3
  1. Had To Cry Today 16:30
  2. Paper Aeroplanes 26:41
  3. Blue Suede Shoes Jam 11:36
  4. Izabella Ovrdub Session 3:51
  5. Izabella 4:41
  6. Honey Bed 7:50
Volume 4
  1. Mannish Boy 39:55
  2. Closer To The Truth 22:04
Volume 5
  1. Voodoo Chile Take 1-5 36:44
  2. Instrumental Jam 23:48
  3. Little Bears 2:13
  4. Gypsy Eyes 2:38
  5. 1983 . . . 4:27
  6. Untitled Instrumental 0:44

Notes


CD1:
Playhouse Theatre, London, 06oct67 (track 1)
Record Plant, New York, 03may68 (track 2)
Drake Hotel, Jimi Solo, New York, 17apr68 (tracks 3-11)

CD 2:
Record Plant, New York, 14jun68 (track 1)
Record Plant, New York, 10jun68 (tracks 2-4)
Record Plant, New York, 14may68 (track 5)
Electric Ladyland Studiod, New York, 16jun70 (track 6)
Record Plant, New York, 24mar69 (track 7)
Record Plant, New York, 24sep69 (tracks 8-9)
Olmstead Studios, New York, 04mar69 (track 10)
Record Plant, New York, 21apr69 (track 11)

CD 3:
Electric Ladyland Studiod, New York, 23jul70 (track 1)
Record Plant, New York, 21nov69 (track 2)
Record Plant, New York, 23jan70 (track 3)
Record Plant, New York, 07nov69 (tracks 4-5)
Sheridan Square, Greenwich Village, New York, 10sep69 (track 6)

CD 4:
Record Plant, New York, 07jan70 (track 1)
25 Brook Street, London, Home Rec., 10mar69 (track 2)

CD 5:
Record Plant, New York, 01may68 (track 1)
Greenwich Village, New York, Home Rec., 01feb70 (track 2, medley)
Record Plant, New York, Jimi solo, 20apr68 (tracks 3-6)


Jimpress Forty Eight - August 1995:

Volume one of this set is a double CD which begins with the Hendrix/Redding/Stevie Wonder jam I Was Made To Love Her/Ain't Too Proud To Beg (8:35) which has long since reached BTD (Bootlegged To Death Gregg Fields) status. The next track consisting of Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) (1-3, 5-16, 17-21) (32:44) has not appeared that much but was released definitively on The Voodoo Sessions so is totally superfluous here.

The next block of tracks have been lifted from a copy of Acoustic Jams or one of it's derivatives. If you listen through headphones it will make you realise just what a good clean up job was done when some of these were officially released (in stereo - they are mono here) on Jimi By Himself - The Home Recordings.

Long Hot Summer Night (2 & 3) (4:21).
1983...A Merman I Should Turn To Be (4) (4:03)
Moon Turn The Tides...Gently, Gently Away (2) (3:28)
Angel (5) (3:23)
Cherokee Mist (3) (3:13)
Hear My Train A'Comin' (6) (1:21)
Voodoo Chile (l0)/Cherokee Mist (5)/Gypsy Eyes (5) (12:01)
Gypsy Eyes (7) (4:15)

Disc two opens with South Saturn Delta (3) (3:29) which was also previously available on Acoustic Jams.

Tracks 2, 3 and 4 are on bootleg for the first time and are listed as:

Rainy Day, Dream Away
(Overdub session take l) (0:5)
Rainy Day, Dream Away (take 2) (2:19)
Rainy Day, Dream Away (take 3) (10:25)

Tracks 2 and 3 are actually the Rainy Day Practice Session whilst track four is Still Raining, Still Dreaming (2).

Another first time on disc for.

Calling All Devils Children Bass And Drum Jam and JS26 which are misleadingly grouped together on the disc as Third Stone From The Sun/Villanova Junction Blues (14:05).

Beginning (1) (5:45) has been released before, on Triangle's 'First Rays' amongst others, but Bleeding Heart (6) (3:50) is another debutante.
The following three tracks:
Bolero (5) (listed as Pride Of Man take I) (1:27)
Bolero (6) (listed as Pride Of Man take 2) (2:18)
Midnight Lightning (7)/Bolero (7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14) (listed as Midnight/Valleys Of Neptune Arising (Takes 1-7) (14:54)
should have been an exciting addition as none have been released previously, however the session is incomplete with Bolero (9) and Come Down Hard On Me Baby (1) missing. It's also worth mentioning, in passing, that Bolero (l0) has not surfaced anywhere yet.

Closing the disc is Send My Love to Linda/Live And Let Live (6, 7, 8) (ll:05) is another welcome addition, coming from the May 1969 session with Stephen Stills and Dallas Taylor, never previously released.

Volume two is again two CDs, The first disc opens with Had To Cry Today (16:30) which is actually the complete session that we called the 'Lee Michaels Jam' in From The Benjamin Franklin Studios. It consists of two sections; JS 14 Jam #1 In G (8:44) and Hear My Freedom (7:46). Both of these tracks appeared on Ball And Chain which we reviewed last issue. Paper Airplanes (26:42) consists of the Power Of Soul Session from the Record plant, 21 November 1969. It runs as follows, the engineers words are in quotes to help you. He gets a little confused early on:


(6) Take #1 (2:45)
(7) Jimi runs through song (3:09)
(8) Take #2 (0: 14)
(9) Take #3 (0:57)
"Take four"
(lO) Take #4 (1:15)
(11) Take f5 (0:30)
"Five"
(12) Take #6 (0:20)
"Six"
"Seven"
(13) Take #7 (0:30)
"Eight"
(14) Take #8 (0:30)
"Nine"
(15) Take #9 (0:15)
"Ten"
(26) Take #10 (1:39)
"Eleven"
(17) Take #11 (0:32)
"Twelve"
(18) Take #12 (0:34)
"Take thirteen guitar and drums"
(19) Take #13 (3:05)
"Fourteen"
"Take fourteen"
(20) Take #l4 (2:35)
"Fifteen"
(21) Take #15 (3:02)
(23) Take #l7 (3:l0)
(26i)Take #20 (1:45)


This is identical to the incomplete way that this session was presented on Earth Tones.

Blue Suede Shoes (2) (11:36) from the Record plant on 23 January 1970 with the Band Of Gypsys line-up was previously released on Freakout Blues amongst others.

The next track Izabella (25) (3:52) is totally new, originating from the Hit Factory, 29 August 1969 with the Gypsy Suns line-up. According to the book 'Sessions', reel four take three was used as the working master and guitar and percussion overdubs added. Here, however, the engineer marks this as "reel four, take two" at the start. The backing track is quite low with the overdubs and vocal up front.

The second Izabella (4:41) is actually both Izabella (l2) (0:33) and Izabella (13) (4:08) which previously appeared on Earth Tones.

Finally on this disc is Honeybed (7:51) which although listed as five takes actually consists of (1-4), more material which was found on Ball And Chain.

So onto disc two of volume two. The CD player shows only two tracks. The first of these is the Mannish Boy (35-44) (39:55) session from 22 April 1969 session at the Record Plant. These ten takes previously appeared on, you guessed it, Earth Tones.

The second track is far more interesting, Listed as Closer To The Truth (Room Full Of Mirrors) (22:04) it consists of Jimi reciting poetry over a recording of Closer To The Truth by Eric Burdon And The New Animals. A top five single it isn't but at least it is previously unreleased. We listed this in Fram The Benjamin Franklin Studios as Room Full Of Mirrors Poetry Recital.

Finally the single disc Volume 3. Voodoo Chile (The Blues Sessions Takes 1-5) (36:44) is a waste of time since there is 2:42 missing from the start of the session which was presented on the definitive Voodoo Sessions bootleg. The first take (1) is missing here as is the first minute of (2) which leaves us with (2i, 3, 4, 5 and 8).

Another disappointment is the next track which is listed simply as Instrumental Jam. This is, in fact, JA 17 Jam With Mitch Mitchell (23:48). Although this is the longest version so far to make it onto bootleg, it is annoyingly incomplete coming to an end a few minutes early after the second outing of Here Comes The Sun. Some of the individual themes in the jam are listed on the sleeve (Stepping Stone, Send My Love To Linda, Freedom, Here Comes The Sun, Cherokee Moist, Calling All Devil's Children), see Appendix A in From The Benjamin Franklin Studios for full details.

Next come four tracks only previously available on Acoustic Jams (in slightly better quality here):

Three Little Bears (2:14)
Gypsy Eyes (2:38)
1983...A Merman I Should Turn To Be (4:27)
Untitled Instrumental (0:44)

The instrumental passage has previously been treated as part of 1983 but is really another Gypsy Eyes as it features part of the middle riff. So, to put things straight, it will henceforth be known as Gypsy Eyes (12), another new addition to FTBFS.

So, after seeming to be just another nicely packaged compilation of previously released studio sessions this one turns out to contain 97 minutes of previously unbootlegged material.