Had Hendrix lived, he would've turned 68 last month. What would he have been doing on his birthday? What kind of career would he have had? Would he have stood up to glam, disco and punk in the 70s? Embraced synthesizers and hip hop in the 80s? Impossible to know of course, although I suspect that he would've chosen a path down the funk / jazz / soul route of the early 70s, similar to that of Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, and Gil Scott-Heron. And CD 4 of this recently released "Anthology" gives a few good examples.
First of all, just how many songs did Hendrix not only write, but record in his career?! Every couple of years a new album comes out with "never before heard" tracks, which mostly end of being loose jams but throw up an occasional gem (like a few on last year's "Valleys Of Neptune" collection). There have been so many compilations of studio outtakes over the years that my guess is Hendrix recorded hundreds of songs in his final few years. He virtually lived in his studio and worked for hours on end, and luckily for us (for the most part), all of it was recorded on tape.
Hendrix, in various guises, released four albums in his lifetime: Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold As Love, Electric Ladyland, and Band of Gypsys (which is a live album of new material). Since he died in 1970, there has been a further eight "studio" albums, about the same number of live albums, countless bootlegs, and about 20 compilations. A lot of this stemmed from problems in the 70s, when the Hendrix estate lost control of the music rights, and his ex-manager started putting out below-par albums featuring session players Hendrix had never even met. This issue was rectified in the 90s and the re-issues now have a certain amount of dignity attached.
Which brings us to this collection - and CD 4 in particular. I am most interested in Hendrix's "late" period (hard to use that word when he only recorded music for four years), namely 1969 - 1970, which is the era from which most of his unreleased recordings date. A lot of stuff from this time is patchy, a lot of it is funky as shit, and some give an idea of where Hendrix could've gone in the 70s (as I've mentioned above). Tracks like "South Saturn Delta" and "Tax Free" show a jazz influence, using horns and free-form jams, as well as blistering blues solos.
CD 4 of this collection is remarkable on first listen due to its sound quality - you really feel you are in the room with Hendrix and can hear every note; the drums and bass pound and kick. A couple of alternate takes are genuinely interesting, as is the 14 minute live opener, "Stone Free". Where it gets really interesting is with tracks like "All God's Children" and "Everlasting Love", proper unreleased tracks, some just instrumental jams, some fully fleshed out with vocals and overdubs. One of the highlights has to be the closing track, "Suddenly November Morning", a lo-fi demo of Hendrix alone with an acoustic guitar, the pleasure being that so few recordings of just Hendrix-with-acoustic exist.
If you're a casual listener, you're better off with the official albums. Axis: Bold As Love is the best, or a "best of" (where you get all the famous singles). But here we have a chance to go deep beneath the surface, to explore the developing style of one of the last century's (and this century's) greatest musicians.
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