Band Of Gypsys
Capitol - Capitol
Jimi Hendrix
Release date: 1998-01-13
Audio CD
Acid Rock, Album Rock, Blues-Rock, Hard Rock, Pop, Pop/Rock Music, Psychedelic, Rock, Rock/Pop
1. Who Knows
2. Machine Gun
3. Changes
4. Power to Love
5. Message of Love
6. We Gotta Live Together - Jimi Hendrix, Miles, Buddy
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Band Of Gypsys
Date undefinedThankfully Hendrix captured his brief stint with a more homegrown blues-rock pair in this 1970 New Year's concert slice. It starts out a little unbalanced, which is to say that the first two songs seem to always dominate the mix, cutting through any fat, right to the purity of an unhinged solo. Despite that, the less jam oriented, though equally funky majority reveals a worthy vocalist in Miles and tight southern rock which unabashedly rocks to a demographic marketing restrictions would have excluded prior.
Band Of Gypsys
Date undefined"...Happy New Year, first of all. I hope we have a million or two million more of them."
Recorded live at the Fillmore East on December 31, 1969, Band Of Gypsys (1970) was the last album that Jimi Hendrix personally authorized to be released before he died on September 18, 1970. The Band Of Gypsys was a new group put together by Jimi after he dissolved The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It consisted of Hendrix, Electric Flag drummer/vocalist Buddy Miles and bassist Billy Cox (Jimi's old Army buddy).
"...I'd like to dedicate this one to, uh, to the draggin' scene that's going on. All the soldiers that are fighting in Chicago and Milwaukee and New York. Oh, yes...and all the soldiers that are fighting in Vietnam. I'd like to do a thing called Machine Gun."
If for no other reason at all, get Band Of Gypsys for Machine Gun, an awesome twelve minute guitar screaming electric storm that protests the violence in America and Vietnam during the 1960s. The song is really the main reason this album is getting a five-star rating from me. It features rapid-fire drumming and siren-wailing guitar feedback sound effects, and is quite possibly the greatest rock guitar recording ever made. Jimi cries out in pain from the perspective of a soldier being hit with machine gun fire.
Machine gun
Tearing my body all apart
Machine gun
Tearing my family apart
The rest of the album features then new Hendrix material and two Buddy Miles songs (Changes, We Gotta Live Together). The atmosphere is 1969/70 in-the-streets-hip, socially aware and informally intimate. The opener, a laid-back and funky Who Knows, sounds a lot like a loose jam session with Jimi and Buddy trading lead vocals, and Jimi adding some nice effects-pedal guitar work. The soulful Power To Love and Message To Love highlight the fact that Hendrix was moving into a more thoughtful, and less flamboyant, direction with his music.
I said find yourself first
And then your talent
Work hard in your mind
So you can come alive
Jimi's guitar playing here is fantastic as always, and especially because most of the songs were new material at the time, Band Of Gypsys is essential to any Jimi Hendrix collection. I wouldn't start my Hendrix collection with this one, but don't leave it out, either. There are some classic Hendrix moments here.
Band Of Gypsys
Date undefinedHello!
Machine Gun alone is a reason for buying this CD. It is well worth the price of admission!
