Jimi Hendrix - 1968 [1987] "Live At Winterland"

Live at Winterland is a live album by English-American rock band The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It compiles performances from the band's three concerts at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, where they played two shows each night on October 10, 11 and 12, 1968. The album was released posthumously by Rykodisc in 1987 and was the first Hendrix release to be specifically conceived for the Compact Disc format.

Live at Winterland was released by Rykodisc in 1987 and became the best-selling album from an independent label that year. With sales of over 200,000 copies, it sold more than any other Jimi Hendrix recording had in years. In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau was highly impressed by the performances compiled for the album, which he said is ideal for the emerging CD format and surpasses previous live recordings of Hendrix: "The sound is bigger and better in every way for an artist whose sound was his music". He named Live at Winterland the tenth best album of 1987 in his year-end list for The Village Voice. Christgau remarked on its significance to Hendrix's discography in a retrospective review for Blender magazine:

"It's been eclipsed sonically (Berkeley) and conceptually (Woodstock). But this pioneering digitalization, piecing together songs from three San Francisco nights in October 1968 to simulate one uninterrupted concert, redefined posthumous Hendrix and remains a surpassingly realistic live keepsake."

In 1992, Live at Winterland was re-released with a bonus disc, which contained three additional songs from the same concerts. A 4 disc box set (titled Winterland) drawn from all 6 performances was released on September 12, 2011. A limited edition sold exclusively on Amazon.com includes a 5th bonus disc containing a bootleg soundboard recording of a performance at the Fillmore Auditorium on February 4, 1968.

Jimi Hendrix's sonic assaults and attacks hypnotized, frightened, and amazed audiences in the late '60s. His studio recordings helped him attain his reputation, but his live works validated it. That's the case on the 13 songs from a 1968 Winterland concert that made their way onto CD in 1987. Whether he was doing short, biting songs like "Fire" or stretching out for sprawling blues statements like "Red House" and "Killing Floor," Jimi Hendrix turned the guitar into a battering ram, forcing everyone to notice and making every solo and note a memorable one.

No questions asked, if you like Jimi Hendrix, buy this album. The concerts are from a series of live recorded performances at the Winterland concert hall in San Francisco, just before Jimi went to work in New York City at the sessions destined to produce Electric Ladyland, one of the finest albums of the rock era, and one of the greatest works in music history (up there with Mozart, Beethoven etc.)

I consider many of Jimi versions of the songs here definitive versions, because after a while Jimi became disillusioned with playing "Fire" and "Hey Joe" and other songs that made him a star. If you listen closely with headphones you can hear why.
Before one of the songs, you can hear some [person] yell out, "Burn the guitar!!." Jimi hated the reputation he carried with him since the infamous performance ( and inferior recording) at the Monterey Pop festival (Monterey California 1966).
Jimi started to get weirder in his playing of his so-called famous songs after this time (check out recording Live at the LA Forum 1969, if you dont believe me).

Fortunately, his guitar playing on "Fire," Hey Joe," and "Foxy Lady" is revelatory. Wow, no one can produce the sound that Jimi was able to produce. Listen to his amazing solo on "Hey Joe." "Sunshine of your Love" (insturmental) is terrific ...P>If you want to hear why Jimi Hendrix is remembered fondly by so many people, buy this album as an example of his live performances, you will be very happy. However, I believe any serious rock fan would have this album along with the three albums Jimi produced in his lifetime - The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Axis - Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland. If you want other albums, the other Rykodisc album Radio One is interesting for the things it includes, such as "Burning of the Midnight Lamp"

https://jazz-rock-fusion-guitar.blogspot.com/search?q=Jimi+Hendrix

Tracks Listing:

1. Prologue - 0:57
2. Fire - 3:12
3. Manic Depression - 4:46
4. Sunshine of Your Love - (Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Pete Brown) - 6:25
5. Spanish Castle Magic - 5:32
6. Red House - 10:58
7. Killing Floor (Chester Arthur Burnett) - 8:05
8. Tax Free (Bo Hansson, Janne Karlsson) - 8:00
9. Foxy Lady - 4:50
10. Hey Joe (Billy Roberts) - 6:44
11. Purple Haze - 4:34
12. Wild Thing (Chip Taylor) - 3:05
13. Epilogue - 0:30

Personnel:

* Jimi Hendrix - guitar, vocals
* Mitch Mitchell - drums
* Noel Redding - bass guitar, backing vocals on track 11
* Jack Casady - bass guitar on track 7