Power of Soul: Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys Revisited On “Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show”
On December 31, 1969 and January 1, 1970, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Cox and Buddy Miles took New York’s Fillmore East by storm with four exhilarating, adventurous performances fusing R&B, soul and hard rock with an improvisatory sensibility. On September 30, Legacy Recordings and Experience Hendrix will release the first of the Band of Gypsys’ four sets for the very first time as Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69. Newly mixed from the original one-inch 8-track master tapes by Eddie Kramer, this landmark release, produced by Janie Hendrix, John McDermott and Kramer, will arrive on CD, 180-gram vinyl, SACD and DD.
The funk-fuelled stylings of Hendrix, Cox and Miles were first released by Capitol Records on March 25, 1970 as Band Of Gypsys, which featured six songs from the two January 1, 1970 concerts including the powerful “Machine Gun.” Tragically, it would be the final album Jimi Hendrix personally authorized for release before his untimely death that September. The 1999 2-CD compilation release Live at the Fillmore East drew on all four gigs including three tracks from the first show (“Hear My Train A Comin’,” Izabella,” “Changes”). Machine Gun offers a new look at these seminal concerts by presenting one in full for the first time.
The seventy-five minute opening performance chronicled here introduced a “new” Jimi Hendrix experience. After all, none of the eleven songs in the setlist had appeared on an Experience album. Staples like “Purple Haze” and “All Along the Watchtower” were notably left off in favor of songs such as “Power of Soul” and “Hear My Train A Comin.'” Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69 features blazing takes of “Earth Blues,” “Ezy Ryder,” “Stepping Stone,” “Burning Desire,” and “Machine Gun”–none of which have ever before been issued on compact disc. Machine Gun also features Miles’ standout performances of “Changes” and the Jerry Ragovoy/Garry Sherman-penned “Stop,” a hit R&B single for vocalist Howard Tate. Elmore James’ classic “Bleeding Heart” is the set’s only other cover.
Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69 presents the complete, legendary rock and soul revue in its original sequence, and includes new liner notes by David Fricke. This piece of Hendrix history is due in multiple formats on September 30 from Legacy Recordings and Experience Hendrix! You can pre-order the CD and LP iterations below, with SACD information to follow!
Jimi Hendrix, Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69 (Legacy/Experience Hendrix, 2016)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. TBD
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. TBD
- Power Of Soul
- Lover Man
- Hear My Train A Comin’
- Changes
- Izabella
- Machine Gun
- Stop
- Ezy Ryder
- Bleeding Heart
- Earth Blues
- Burning Desire
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16 thoughts on “Power of Soul: Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys Revisited On “Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show””
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I was at this show, My friends & I got home fast & listened to the late show broadcast on the radio.
OK, cool. The question is, will the other three sets be issued in a similar format?
Exactly. If high quality tapes for all four shows exist then, in this day and age when groups like the Dead and Allmans release complete recordings of an entire run of shows (or even an entire tour, in the case of the complete Europe ’72) then this complete Hendrix at Fillmore run needs to happen too. Looking forward to this!
That explains why Live At The Fillmore East was never reissued by Sony/Legacy.
The availability of SACD is quite a shock! I imagine someone like Analogue Productions will be handling that.
Analogue Productions has confirmed that they are releasing the SACD.
Anybody know if it’s a Hybrid SACD or not? Thanks. Again why such small thinkers in the recording business? Why not all four shows in a nice box set?
If it’s a U.S. domestic release it will almost certainly be a hybrid disc. I think only Japan issues non-hybrid SACD’s anymore.
And recently, Sony’s Japanese pressing plant re-activated their ability to press hybrid SACD discs. They(Sony Music Japan) recently issued a hybrid SACD of “Beck Bogert & Appice” (CD stereo/SACD Stereo & SACD 5.1 surround) . In recent years, all labels releasing hybrid SACD discs had to rely on one pressing plant: Sony’s Austrian plant.
I Look forward to this new release. The “Live at Fillmore East” 2-CD set (on MCA) was obviously coming from something other than the original multitrack tapes. In fact,during some songs the sound changes back and forth between stereo & mono; stereo during the instrumental passages, then mono during Jimi’s vocals.
In recent years, Experience Hendrix obtained the original multitrack tapes. So far, they’ve released 4 songs from those tapes(all are from the 2nd of the 4 shows). Three appear on the “West Coast Seattle Boy” 4-CD box, and one appears on a CD single.
Philip are you related to Susan Cohen?
No. I’m not related to Sacha Baron Cohen either!
And Leonard Cohen?
This is frustrating. While it’s great to have the first show (hopefully complete and unedited), it would have been far better if Sony and the Hendrix Estate took the next step and released a box set containing the entire run of Band of Gypsies shows at the Fillmore East, along with a bonus disc or two of rehearsals.
These recording companies are afraid to take risks. If they don’t think something will sell enough, they don’t want to chance it. If this sells well they may go to round two but I doubt it. To this day there’s still no Berkeley 1st show or live from Hawaii during the filming of Rainbow Bridge. There’s a lot more they could release but they don’t or they take forever.
They should take a page from The King Crimson book. Look at all the stuff they release.The Hendrix camp take so long to release stuff then it’s in small dosages. They keep this up, I’ll be too old to enjoy future releases.
The issue with the first Berkeley set is a severely out of tune version of “Voodoo Chile(Slight Return)” which closes the show.
If i remember correctly it would have been quite awhile ago, i read a review that there will be over a period of time it will last over 10 years or more 1 live album every year until the vaults run out. Hence we only get one a year. Surprisingly i will never forget reading those comments and my initial reaction hmmm interesting.