Jimi Hendrix: Live
at Woodstock
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: A- Music: A
Upon seeing the entire Jimi Hendrix Live at Woodstock, something new and interesting
dawned on me that never had before.
Being a long-time fan of Hendrix and guitar player what I realized is
how radical he was and how much of a decline in music there has been
since. What I mean by radical is simply
what he stood for as a African American playing psychedelic rock music like no
one had heard before or since in such a passionate way that refined a
generation to such a degree that it’s nearly impossible to think of the
movement of rock without mentioning somewhere along the lines the influence of
Hendrix and his abilities as a songwriter, artist, and musician to fuse together
such an achievement before he died at the age of 27.
What baffles me most now, looking back, is what the heck
happened? Where did music suddenly take
a turn for the worst and most of all, the musicianship level has been turned
sideways to the point that, even with all the various genres of music,
everything now sounds like the same old tired music. There have been very few artists that have truly left an
impression like this, but more than that, if you look at what Hendrix stood for
it was such a marvelous thing. His
music was raw, powerful, deep, rooted, and most of all it was evolving and
changing. His music stood for something
more than just himself, but it stood for a generation of people that were
fighting against a government, fighting against each other, fighting against
Vietnam, fighting for just about everything, yet even amidst that there was the
movement of peace that stemmed from music like this that basically took words
like ‘freedom’ and made them mean something.
This 2-Disc set contains as much of the performance from
Woodstock for Jimi Hendrix as there is, this is from the Michael Wadleigh’s
award winning film Woodstock, which
is also available on DVD. The DVD has a
great insert that details some interested aspects Woodstock as well as the
technical details since this was shot in 16mm color film, but also there was a
Sony CV 1/2” video recorder, which captured some different angles of the
performance, although at this time the primitive tape format could only get
about 200 lines of resolution and in black & white, but all this footage is
available on disc two in the set, plus it contains a missing track from the
performance, which is the song Hear My
Train a Comin’ and makes for a great comparison, plus a welcome
addition!
Performance-wise this is one of the more sought after
‘live’ recordings of Hendrix, mostly because of the infamous version of The Star Spangled Banner, but also
because it features him doing live versions of songs that he did not perform
elsewhere such as Izabella and Red House. Here at this site we have covered quite a bit from Hendrix
including Jimi Plays Berkeley as
well as Jimi Hendrix-The Last 24 Hours,
Classic Albums-The Jimi Hendrix
Experience: Electric Ladyland, and an incredibly thorough review of the The Monterey Pop Box Set released by
The Criterion Collection. Woodstock
would be a performance with material that far outweighs what he was doing
previously, but I prefer the presentation from The Monterey performances, while
not necessarily the song choices. His
repertoire was expanding and by the time Woodstock rolled around Hendrix was at
his pinnacle. In raw form Hendrix puts
on a show that would be the showcase of Woodstock.
Set List:
Message
to Love
Spanish
Castle Magic
Red
House
Lover
Man
Foxey
Lady
Jam Back
at the House
Izabella
Fire
Voodoo
Child (Slight Return)
Star
Spangled Banner
Purple
Haze
Woodstock
Improvisation
Villanova
Junction
Hey Joe
The songs are not always spot-on as they could or should
be and Hendrix tends to become a little chaotic at times and the songs get a
little lost in the translation, but the opening of Voodoo Child is a terrific example of his ability to create the
studio sound live, even on the guitar parts that utilize a great amount of
feedback and other effects. Izabella lacks some of the rhythmic
needs that the song is designed around, but aside from that it’s a fairly good
live version, while Purple Haze is
awesome as is Hey Joe, while the rest
are mostly mediocre in terms of their overall punch, but then again this is
compared to the studio versions, if such exists. Similar to the audio options with the Monterey Box I reviewed elsewhere on this site, this 2-Disc set
from Universal Music includes 2.0 Dolby Digital, 5.1 Dolby Digital, and 5.1
DTS, which give the listener some choices, although the DTS track is much
preferred as usual. The quality here
varies and this live recording always had some trouble, even in CD form. The main reason behind that would of course
be the fact that Hendrix was not a perfectionist when it came to his live
playing and it was mostly improvisational and spur of the moment. Sounds were furious and loud, making it
difficult to get a good clean channel of sound. In short, Hendrix live is not nearly as polished as in the
studio, but there are often little nuances that are added live, plus the energy
of his live work is amazing. Not only
that, but having the DVD allows you to see the performance rather than just
hear it.
The DTS 5.1 mix sounds far more ‘lively’ and brings in
some more of the performance than the two Dolby options. It brings the music to a more expanded feel
and gives some of the approximations of being there as it were really
happening. This mix seems to have been
fairly cleaned up and the original audio source seems to have survived
well. The 1.33 X 1 full-frame image
looks decent as well, although it shows the limitations of 16mm film and the
lighting is not always that spectacular as well, despite being during the
daytime.
While just having this entire performance on DVD is
essential the fun only begins there.
Added to this is a documentary called The Road to Woodstock,
which features some performance footage of Hendrix, but also interviews with
Woodstock promoters Michael Lang as well as Hendrix band members Billy Cox,
Larry Lee, and Juma Sultan, which make up the core rhythm and groove of the
Hendrix experience. There is also a
Press Conference section that is taken 2 weeks after Woodstock as Hendrix
recalls his rendition and memorable version of The Star Spangled Banner.
There are other interviews with Larry Lee and Billy Cox that detail more
of the relationship with Hendrix in general and famed recording engineer Eddie
Kramer gives insights into mastering this production from a sound point of
view.
Universal Music has gone to great extents to make this
release as awesome as possible and really makes a terrific collectors item and
a must-have for Hendrix junkies. It
would be great to have a new edition of Woodstock the film remastered onto DVD
in it’s full glory and with the inclusion of DTS 5.1 as the case here, so
perhaps this is the start for something like that. In the meantime be sure to pick this winner up along with the Monterey
Set, which is equally impressive, although being a 3-disc set from Criterion
it’s a hard package to beat.
- Nate Goss
