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Jimi Hendrix - 69-02-24 Royal Albert Hall (1969)

Track listing:
CD1
  1. Jimi Raps With The Audience/Tune-Up 1:23
  2. Lover Man 4:47
  3. Stone Free 12:32
  4. Hear My Train A Comin' 10:02
  5. I Don't Live Today 5:45
  6. Red House 12:01
  7. Foxy Lady 5:37
CD2
  1. Sunshine Of Your Love 6:54
  2. Bleeding Heart 8:04
  3. Fire 3:37
  4. Little Wing 3:25
  5. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) 8:54
  6. Room Full Of Mirrors 8:08
  7. Purple Haze 4:28
  8. Wild Thing 5:53

Notes

Live Royal Albert Hall. Feb 24 1969

This concert has probably some of the more interesting history of all Jimi's concerts. This concert has been bootlegged many times, including some tracks included on official releases! The story goes that Jimi's manager at the time, Michael Jeffrey, would allow pretty much anybody to record or film the Experience in concert but wanted, in exchange for publishing of the material, nearly all profits and rights from the sales of the material which would make it next to worthless to the person. This concert was filmed and recorded professionally, but the company responsible could never come to an agreement with Michael Jeffrey or to the estates who came into control following Jeffrey's death. At some point Eric Burdon, former lead singer for the Animals, came into posessions of the tapes, remastered them, and put them out on his own personal label. Not long after, the second CD was found to be slightly off in speed, and was corrected and reissued. The story doesn't end here though. Recently, a deal/injuction with Experience Hendrix (the estate run by Jimi's family) halted sales of the 2 CD set and video. One can only hope that this is just a step towards an official release of this concert on the Experience Hendrix label.

This has come out many times under such titles as Experience, More Experience, The Last Experience, and Listen To This Eric, but all of these don't compare to this set. Remastered and complete, this set features some great playing by the Experience. Stone Free appeared on the Jimi Hendrix Concerts CD previously (and caused quite a legal stir when it did), Getting My Heart Back Together Again, Red House, and People People (Bleeding Heart) are the blues at it's finest. Little Wing, always great, along with Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and also Red House appeared previously on the In The West album, though credited to the San Diego Sports Arena to avoid legal problems (didn't work though). An early and embryonic Room Full Of Mirrors makes an appearance. Purple Haze and Wild Thing close out the concert, and can you think of anything better to end with than a smashing of the amps?

Quality on this release is excellent. This release was remastered from the original safety masters(backup copies of the actual master tapes), and beats any other release of this material hands down. Be warned though, there are two versions out there, the difference as far as I know being with CD 2 of the set. Though the difference will be hardly noticed by anybody except those with a trained ear, or a Hendrix fanatic. As this one is now no longer in print, expect it to be bootlegged to death in the near future.