Message-ID: <390EFBAD.D9D64D1D@javanet.com> Date: Tue, 02 May 2000 12:00:46 -0400 From: csdixon Reply-To: csdixon@javanet.com Subject: JH+30 30 years ago today, on May 2, 1970, Jimi played at the Dane County Memorial Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin. The tape from this night has varying amounts of distortion and the levels change from time to time. It suffers from a lack of highs but the mix is reasonable, with vocals on the low side. Mitch can be heard better than the last couple of tapes, at least! As with many marginal quality tapes, the quieter sections sound better. One thing that's odd about this tape is that the clapping and voices of those closest to the taper are very distinct while the general crowd noise (numbering about 5,000) seems distant. There's also a room-like ambiance to the near voices, which leads me to think that perhaps this was recorded from a press box or projection booth at the edge of the arena (would also be easier to sneak a tape recorder in if one had a connection for seats like these). Just a theory... (Setlist): Fire; Room Full Of Mirrors; Hear My Train; Lover Man; Red House; Message To Love; Ezy Rider; Machine Gun; Star Spangled Banner; Foxy Lady, Voodoo Child (SR); Purple Haze - -The tape captures some 3 1/2 minutes of intro and tune up during which we hear Jimi try out the pedals (Octavio, UniVibe, etc.), then the band opens with 'Fire'. First time out for this song on the '70 tour. Pretty straightforward, of note is Jimi throwing in the riff from Cream's 'Outside Woman Blues' during the stops after his solo. - -'Roomful' is punctuated at the end by a very Buddy-like yelp from Jimi! - -'Hear My Train' starts with the vocal refrain of same (like the officially released Berkeley version), a relative rarity. Uses wah early on in the solo, leading to some longer feedback notes then some quieter playing at 7:00. After the final verse and chorus we get some clean toned bends and what sounds like a volume-swelled note at 9:45. The volume swell is something we rarely if ever hear Jimi do, probably because the volume control is on the top with the guitar upside down as Jimi used. Hooking one's pinky around the volume control on a Strat is a piece of cake with the controls on the bottom (some say it was designed that way back in the 50s for imitating pedal steel type swells) but pretty tough to do with the controls above the strings! Also unusually, Jimi adds some alternating spoken words and guitar fills and some guitar/voice unison lines before the song ends at 11:00. - -'Lover Man' features one of our nearby audience members clapping creatively, basically jamming on percussion! - -We then get the first 'Red House' of the tour, and the first RH Jimi has performed since Woodstock. Sounds like the Strat so would seem he was eager to do the song even if he did not yet have a Gibson on the road (a V appears the following week). He gets into it slowly, probably very happy to be back in his long time blues refuge. Builds the opening solo nicely, savoring the microtonal bends. After the first two verse lines he answers them with some very Jeff Beck like licks! At 4:30 he does a very unusual 'climbing' fill. He takes the middle solo with wah but a relatively clean tone. Sounds like he checks out the UniVibe again here on the second verse of solo. He builds in intensity but pulls back to a cleaner tone again for the third solo verse, though the tape seems to be adding some extra distortion to his notes. On the '70 tour he has dropped the long standing slapped/drumstick 3/4 feel verse and unaccompanied solo flight so often heard in the latter EXP shows. - -After a tune up intro'd by Jimi as a song called 'Tune Up Jam', they play 'Message To Love', featuring a particularly adventuresome (IMO) end solo by Jimi. - -Some tape speed problems show up during 'Ezy Rider'. Jimi goes to the bridge a bit early..or else there's a very smooth tape cut! - -After not being performed in Milwaukee the night before, sure enough 'Machine Gun' is dedicated to the soldiers there! Also mentions "...soldiers in Madison (maybe one of the few times the intro included the actual town he's in!), Chicago and, oh yes, Viet Nam (pause).... and Cambodia (says 'Cambodia' it in a drawn out ominous style, referring to Nixon's escalation of the war earlier in the week). As Madison is a huge college town (U. of Wisc.) chances are very good that the city was in turmoil on this week. Jimi continues with a couple of comments on Cambodia, saying what a drag it is that people are being "...wiped out because of some shit that old people want...", then toying with the melody of 'Star Spangled Banner' for a moment before starting MG. The UniVibe setting seems a little slower than he usually uses for MG, and he's a little out of tune. Accordingly, some of the fills behind the verse seem somewhat tentative but he warms up for the typically fierce solo. He speeds up the UniVibe a bit around 5:00 and at 5:30 it sounds like he does a little bit with his teeth- unusual for MG! He gets into the final verse but during the "..you've got your own self to blame.." sequence the tape suddenly cuts... - -...to the second stanza of 'Star Spangled Banner'. Some more cuts in the song, our tape quality in general deteriorating. SSB segues directly to 'Foxy Lady', an uncommon sequence. Jimi's guitar tone on 'Foxy' seems a little cleaner than usual. - -Jimi mentions Black Panther/ Chicago 7 defendant Bobby Seale in his spoken intro for VC(SR). This song features some more creative clapping from the peanut gallery. Sometime before the middle solo Jimi's low E string goes very flat so he sticks to the upper registers, covering some other slight tuning problems with many wild bends. At 3:45 he sneaks in a quick tuneup. At 4:20 he moves to some chunky low string riffing, then to the "...your sweet time..." verse. Interjects some semi spoken words after the verse, including what sounds like "...thank you God for keeping me strong...". At 9:00 he visits some very aggressive soloing with the Octavio, briefly reminiscent of the final solo in the BoG album 'We Gotta Live Together'. More tuning problems are evident, and Jimi drops out to give Mitch about a 3 minute solo... - -Comes out of the drum solo into 'Purple Haze', our taper and pals still clapping like madmen! Jimi interjects "not necessarily stoned, but beautiful" near the end before doing some playing with teeth, including some pretty cool descending bends, switching to pick then back to teeth before ending the song and show, apparently setting the guitar down to sustain by itself until someone turns it off. At around 80 minutes (maybe more, since there are a number of tape cuts) this is one of the longer '70 shows. Chris ------------------------------