Message-ID: <393481A3.43127E17@javanet.com> Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 23:06:11 -0400 From: csdixon Reply-To: csdixon@javanet.com Subject: JH+30 (Pt. 1) Today marks the 30th anniversary of Jimi's landmark May 30, 1970 appearance at the Berkeley Community Center in Berkeley, Calif. Because of Jimi's long standing relationship with promoter Bill Graham, he played two shows this night in the small (3400 seats) theatre instead of the huge arenas he could have easily filled (and had been for quite some time, for ex. playing the nearby Oakland Coliseum in his visit to the SF area a year earlier). Berkeley was always a hot bed of political activity and Memorial Day 1970 was no exception. The Viet Nam war had things stirred up, though the main conflicts this particular night, at least as depicted in the movie, was of people trying to get into Jimi's sold out shows and protesting the admission fee to the 'Woodstock' movie! Jimi & Co. came to Berkeley relatively refreshed after a two week break from the road - the 3 dates in the midwest the previous weekend had been canceled because Jimi was sick with "glandular problems". Jimi's Berkeley sets were, thankfully, professionally filmed and recorded. Unfortunately the resulting posthumous theatrical release was largely a disappointment, with only a small portion of the shows represented and many songs severely edited, out of order, and not synched to the proper footage. A great many of the songs from the show have been officially released in a piecemeal fashion over the years but there has never been a dedicated Berkeley audio release, and this show desperately begs for a proper *complete* compilation. It's been said that the original concert film footage has been lost, though other accounts say it exists. If true, that's a pathetic shame and a prime example of how Jimi's legacy has been mishandled over the years- we'll just have to hope that it surfaces some day. Thankfully the audio survives virtually intact, though the circulating unreleased soundboard material has a few tape defects. Slightly more complete audience recordings also exist of the shows. Suffice to say that after the audience tapes of the early 'Cry of Love' tour dates, it's a breath of fresh air to be listening to an actual soundboard recording, our first from the '70 shows. Assuming the original multi (probably 8) track tapes survive, a cleaned up remix would be a real treat! The relatively tiny venue makes for an intimate show (right down to the oriental carpet on the stage!), with Jimi pulling out more than a few surprises for the lucky souls to get in (tickets, with a top price of $5.50(!), sold out quick). An added bonus of this evening's documentation is the survival of a full 40 minutes from the afternoon soundcheck/ rehearsal, a valuable glimpse of the band at work. As with the shows themselves, tape cuts and incomplete footage in the movie suggest there is more from the soundchecks somewhere. This is one of only two full Jimi soundchecks we have a record of, the other being Royal Albert Hall 1/24/69 (though one alleged soundcheck song ('Can You Please Crawl...') does survive from Winterland 10/68). The RAH gig was also being professionally recorded and filmed and this may be the reason Jimi did soundchecks on these nights since, by all accounts, he rarely did them (other high profile filmed/recorded gigs like Woodstock, Atlanta, IoW were multi day festivals and had no chance for a soundcheck). Between the rehearsals and the two shows, Jimi delivered a good three hours of music from the Berkeley stage, probably the lengthiest one-day document from Jimi we have! (Soundcheck setlist): Message To Love; Blue Suede Shoes; Hey Baby; Earth Blues; Room Full Of Mirrors; Villanova Junction/Keep On Groovin; Freedom; Power of Soul; Machine Gun - -The tape cuts in on the first verse of 'Message To Love' (so it's anyone's guess as to what came before...). Solo starts at 1:00, uses the wah at 1:30 and at 1:45 we hear some apparent pickup switch manipulation. More wah in the second solo before the climb to the resolving chords to end it. Afterward we hear Jimi joking "Thank you very much, for our next song...." to the empty room (reminds me of Lennon at the Beatles rooftop concert "...thanks and I hope we passed the audition...")! - -Jimi starts a riff which turns into the version of 'Blue Suede Shoes' first released on 'Hendrix In The West' in '72. This never did join Jimi's concert set, and our only other recorded example of him doing 'BSS' is from a BoG rehearsal, as heard (severely edited) on the 'Loose Ends' album. Interesting that our only other recorded full Jimi soundcheck also featured an oldie ('Hound Dog') that did not end up being performed at a regular concert. After the opening verses/chorus Jimi does a solo with a fairly aggressive attack, returning to the core riff and last verse at 3:00. At 3:30 he does a secondary variation on the main riff and this is where the 'In The West' version faded. At just after 4:00 they stop, and Jimi and Billy continue toying with combining the two riffs. They settle into the riff and Jimi does a little soloing over it at 5:40, Mitch joining in lightly here and there. After some tuning they do the riff again briefly, then Jimi takes off on a nice solo flight, hinting at 'Hey Baby', then 'Bolero', and winding up at around 7:00 with some flamenco flavored lines... - -..which lead to the opening of Hey Baby as heard on the 'Cry of Love' and, later, 'First Rays' releases. This is the first onstage tryout for the full intro. They seem to have worked a little on it but it hasn't taken full shape at this point. They play it to about :28 then get hung up on the transition between themes, stopping to go over the section a few times. Some of this sequence made it to the movie for a rare, and frustratingly brief, glimpse of Jimi at work. At 1:45 Jimi jumps to the main 'Hey Baby' progression and they play it for another couple of minutes before moving on. - -The tape cuts to the intro of 'Earth Blues'. This is our only example of Jimi playing it with Mitch and Billy. They play up until the solo, but stop when the transition doesn't appear to be to Jimi's liking. They go over the chorus and change then start again from the chorus. Mitch still seems a little tentative and doesn't trumpet the transitions the way Buddy did (and of course it's missing the backing vocals on the chorus). Jimi does a short solo then the last verse and stops singing at the chorus. The song breaks down again and there's some more messing around. For whatever reason, it never joins the concert setlist and this is in fact our last recording of Jimi playing 'Earth Blues' onstage. - -We hear Jimi asking to get the mic turned on (we've been hearing him right along on the tape but maybe he lost the voice onstage?), then they start playing 'Room Full of Mirrors'. They only go for about a minute, stopping after the "yeah yeah yeah yeah" break. Jimi asks "Is Eric around anywhere?", referring to Eric Barrett the roadie (immortalized in the Loose Ends 'Blue Suede Shoes' sequence with "Hey Eric, where's that goddamn grass....") . - -After a few offhand riffs in the Wes Montgomery 'octave' style, Jimi starts playing 'Villanova Junction Blues', last heard at the tour-opening LA Forum show. He takes it at a brisk pace, doing a verse then some more 'octave' soloing at :55. At 1:25 he switches to some single-note lines. At 2:00 he modulates up in key and starts singing a variation on the Midnight Lightning/ Capt. Coconut/ Keep On Groovin' words. He switches back to 'Villanova' and does a little of his 'flamenco' style soloing, then revisits 'Keep On Groovin' for a few more lines before stopping. Combining the two songs proves to be a one-time experiment- ML would continue to crop up in other songs (incl. later this evening) and as its own song at IoW, and VJB would be heard only once more (at Maui a month later). - -'Freedom' has a false start but then we get a full 4:35 version. The voice sounds a little lower in the mix here and the person mixing seems to be experimenting with adding reverb at times. Jimi's soloing in the middle section is fairly aggressive. - -Next we hear a tryout of 'Power Of Soul' from the BoG album. This is the first documented performance w/ Mitch and of course it has a different feel than with Buddy. During the intro progression, Mitch does some ride cymbal work reminiscent of his own 'Beginnings'. This version lasts only about 1:20. It would not be performed at Berkeley but does eventually join the concert setlist- only once, during the final European tour in Sept. - -The soundcheck tape ends with 'Machine Gun'. Similar to the concert versions of the period, with a couple of verses and a main solo at 3:15. We hear Jimi manipulating the Univibe's speed control pedal as if a wah. He gets a very unique tone during the solo, with the upper harmonics jumping out, sounding a bit like an octave divider but not quite as 'electronic'. At 4:10 there's a particularly cool run that is effectively harmonized with the overtones that jump out! He does the secondary riff and a final verse before a little more high register soloing, pulling back to some whammy-bent trills and a cleaner sound. He revisits the main riff and the tape suddenly cuts at a little over 6:00, leaving us wondering how much more there is from this rehearsal (a few snippets of music in the movie suggests that there may have been, among other things, versions of 'Straight Ahead' and 'Ezy Rider' played at the soundcheck). ------------------------------ Message-ID: <393481B9.A4FBC9EB@javanet.com> Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 23:06:33 -0400 From: csdixon Reply-To: csdixon@javanet.com Subject: JH+30 (Pt. 2) Jimi starts his first Berkeley show with his oft heard request for the crowd to "forget about tomorrow and yesterday" and make their own world, a "booster shot" as he terms it. He then dedicates the show to "..all the cats that have died for a cause that is gonna happen anyway...". Bit of an odd turn of phrase on this Memorial Day - maybe he was slipping in a 'reality check' on the senselessness of war, though I doubt he meant any disrespect to fallen soldiers, either military or 'street'. (First show setlist): Fire; Johnny B. Goode; Hear My Train; Foxy Lady; Machine Gun; Freedom; Red House; Message To Love; Ezy Rider; Star Spangled Banner; Purple Haze; Voodoo Child (SR) - -'Fire', as usual, really shows off Mitch with such a clean soundboard recording (as does the whole tape for that matter- a little more punchy and crisp than the afternoon rehearsal tape's mix). We hear Billy adding some backing vocals on the chorus- like Noel before him, he rarely added backing vocals and even more rarely had his mic turned up! Jimi adds the by-now obligatory 'Outside Woman Blues' quote after the solo. Winds up at 3:30 with the band losing each other just a little at the very end. This was officially released on Carlos Santana's 'Live Forever' compilation in '93 (the concept was that it featured examples from various musical giants last tours- also included Marley, SRV, Coltrane, Marvin Gaye). - -Jimi asks "Is it too loud out there?" and given a resounding "NO!", says in an exaggerated 'hipster' voice "You asked for it, bro..". He then says "..we got this thing...Johnny B. Goode, what the hell" and they launch into the rendition made famous on the '72 'In The West' album, Mitch stripping down the beat to its '4 on the floor' basics while still mixing in some precise accents and fills. It's fitting that our last known example of Jimi playing this song is his definitive take. As we get into the solos, Jimi seems to take on the wild spirit of Monterey and I've often thought that this could pass for an outtake from that show from almost 3 years earlier. Particularly cool are some double stops on the 'IV' chord of the solo verses where the bent notes intermodulate with each other and the amp's electronics, creating wild over- (and under-) tones! A last solo with the teeth leads to a 'go for broke' solo coda and crashing ending, the crowd going predictably wild. - -We continue with yet another definitive take, this time of 'Hear My Train A Coming'. This was the very first Berkeley track to be officially released, appearing on the 1971 'Rainbow Bridge' album (Jimi's second posthumous release). It later appeared (and is currently available) on the ':Blues' release. Jimi can't wait to get into it, interspersing his spoken intro with some nice offhand soloing. He hits the low E string, which starts to vibrate into feedback ala the opening note of the Beatles 'I Feel Fine' as he sings the tag line, answering himself on guitar, trading voice and guitar again quickly then starting the guitar intro. Mitch and Billy enter at a slightly slower tempo than Jimi seems to have stated, but they settle into a groove immediately nonetheless. After slipping in a few tune-ups 'on the fly', Jimi does almost 3 min. of soloing before the vocals enter. Swaps "Hear my train a coming" for "Hear my freedom coming" at end of the first chorus then solos at 4:10. Builds the solo nicely for about 2 min. then pulls back for some cleaner wah-inflected work. Does the "gonna leave this town" verse at about 7:20, slyly answering the "...gonna be a voodoo child" lyric with an imitation of the 'sustain w/ pickup selector switching' line from VC(SR)! At 9:00 he throws in a few dental lines and at 9:50 he follows a low dip with the whammy with a high feedback note- sounds like he's taking a giant breath then screaming and has always been a favorite 'Jimi moment'. Pulls back for a little more quiet wah riffing then restates the main vocal chorus to end at about 11:30. Has oft been cited as the quintessential take of this song and it's certainly right up there IMO. - -'Foxy Lady' has its start cut on the available soundboard tape. It gets dedicated to old Jimi friends in attendance this day, "Colette and Devon, the two Gypsy girls with the red underwear..." (they are shown in the movie arriving with Jimi in the limo). Jimi's tone sounds a little cleaner here than on many other versions (and he's a little out of tune, but works around it). At the end we hear a riff which is similar to 'In From The Storm', a song which would soon be taking shape in the studio. - -After saying they are making some onstage adjustments "to distinguish us from the cowboys" (as in the ones that want to stay in tune?). Jimi dedicates 'Machine Gun' to the soldiers in "Chicago and that are in jail (meaning the Chicago 7 defendants?), New York, Florida, Berkeley (cheers), especially Berkeley, and oh, yes, Viet Nam". Gets into some soloing before the verses (and a little tuning), then a main solo at 4:00. Flirts with the 'Woody Woodpecker Theme' at 4:50! The aggressive solo necessitates a few more tune ups during the follow up passages. Substitutes the "over yonder stands a mother" with "..stands a woman". At 6:45 he mixes some high notes with low whammy 'scoops'. Around some rat-tats, he improvises some more words at 7:45 including a line about "so many good people going down...". Follows up with a feedback interlude w/ heavy whammy, then some high 'rat-a-tats' with feedback overtones and the 'wobbly' vibrato effect as on the album. He finishes with a bit of sustained single string (and very possibly single handed, given the lack of pick attack) lines before ending around 10:00. - -After telling the crowd to take "2 or 3 minutes to get your popcorn", he intros 'Freedom' ("a "working title") by saying that it's a cry "we've been hearing about 200 years too much". Slightly more staccato sounding chords behind the verses. A tape cut on the soundboard tape puts us into the opening riff. Respectable rendition, though not as tight or the soloing as adventuresome as some others from the period. Partway through, Jimi's low E goes quite flat so he avoids using it as much a possible. At about 3:25 he tunes it on the fly, but over corrects so it's a bit sharp...but he deals with it. - -Intros 'Red House' as a song they've "been doing for about 99,000 years" and dedicates it, too, to Colette and Devon. Mitch comes in *much* slower than Jimi's intro. Jimi really digs into the pick attack on the opening solo but maintains a clean tone so the notes seem to just 'pop out' of the Flying V. At 3:00 one of his fills sounds like the pre-solo chordal climb in Come On (Pt 1)! Longer but fairly subdued middle solo, starting cleanly for two verses, adding the wah and getting more aggressive while staying fairly clean-toned, then adding yet another verse without the wah before the final vocal verse. - -'Message To Love' introduced as "something everyone needs a whole lot of about this time". Jimi plays a cool little offhand 'surf' type riff before starting the song. Slightly more subdued rendition than some, but some good soloing and the bridge transition is tight. This track, too, was officially released on Santana's '93 'Live Forever' compilation (he was given permission to do so under the more liberal Douglas regime, the sort of thing which is, sadly, far less likely these days). - -Jimi intros 'Ezy Rider' by mentioning the movie and how the "cat gets blown to bits at the end", making a gun sound with his voice and giving away the ending! Makes a joke on the title, calling it "Greasy Slider". Jimi plays along to Mitch's intro with muted strums before hitting the opening riff. Great fill from Billy at 1:55, he often shines on this one and the little stuff, again, benefits from the soundboard tapes. Bridge is a little jerky, then Jimi goes a little out of tune before the solo and keeps it short- he may have broken a string as he soon switches to some muted strums before dropping out completely around 4:00. Billy drops out shortly after and we get a short drum solo from Mitch, which sounds great with a punchy and nicely detailed stereo mix. Mitch switches to the intro groove, Jimi re-enters at 7:00 and they restate the intro before one last verse and the climb to the ending. The sidetrack means a fairly long version at about 8:00. - -'Star Spangled Banner' sees many improvised embellishments to the melody, and the movie shows that many are played with only the fretting hand! After the "flag was still there" line on guitar, Jimi yells "big deal!". Adds a particularly wide 'wobbly' whammy vibrato to final phrases.... - -...segueing, as usual, to 'Purple Haze'. Film shows him literally 'kissing the sky' after the lyric, just like he did at Woodstock and may very well have at any number of unfilmed shows. He's also seen pulling out lots of 'Foxy' style visual tricks. During final solo he interjects "not necessarily stoned...". Does an especially long coda with the teeth and throws in a few slides with the mic stand for good measure! - -Jimi thanks the crowd for coming and says they've got one called Voodoo Child, which "won't take too long, after awhile". Gets a full 2 min. of soloing before the vocals enter. A fiery solo breaks down around 5:15 and Jimi again thanks the crowd before the "sweet time" verse. At 6:45 we're back to some 'full shred' soloing and at 7:30 he slips in a short standard rock n' roll riff, followed by a little dental playing. At 8:15 he pulls back for some flamenco-flavored lines and visits a riff reminiscent of 'Beginnings' before restating the VC theme and exploring a few variations on it. Leads back into the song at around 10:00 and restates the intro at 11:30, throwing in a quote from the 'Off to the Races' bugle call at the very end. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <393481CB.613FA337@javanet.com> Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 23:06:52 -0400 From: csdixon Reply-To: csdixon@javanet.com Subject: JH+30 (Pt. 3) Continuing on with the second show from Berkeley. Jimi shows up onstage having changed from his rehearsal/first show outfit (black shirt & vest) into a unique light blue stage suit, close fitting w/ long fabric 'wings' hanging from the arms, looking every bit the psychedelic (pffft...) dragonfly. This outfit does not show up in any other '70 show pics AFAIK, though it (or one like it) does appear in an early 90s Sotheby's auction catalog (er, catalogue). Speaking of 'dragonflies', note that 'Spanish Castle Magic' is one of the few songs in the '70 repertoire which is not performed in these two shows. In general he often seems to treat 2 consecutive shows as one long show, and indeed on this night we're at least halfway through the second show before a song is repeated. (Second show setlist): Straight Ahead; Hey Baby; Lover Man; Stone Free; Hey Joe; I Don't Live Today; Machine Gun; Foxy Lady; Star Spangled Banner; Purple Haze; Voodoo Child (SR) - -After introducing the band, with himself on "public saxophone", Jimi intros the next song as a jam and we get the first ever performance of the song we know as 'Straight Ahead', though it's a.k.a. 'Pass It On' at this stage as the early lyrics repeat that refrain (he doesn't name it from the stage). The song had begun to take shape in the studio over the previous couple of weeks, and most of the basic changes in the familiar Cry of Love/ First Rays version are in place, with the overall arrangement (incl. the intro) and lyrics still taking shape. Here we get a fairly long 7+ min. workout that wanders a bit but has some nice soloing. This is a great example of Jimi using the stage as an incubator for the studio work. The song would be performed live about a half dozen times in '70, and it becomes more defined in the process, Jimi's living, breathing and evolving body of work taking place in public. The ending breaks down to a solo excursion by Jimi, beginning aggressively then revisiting his flamenco style.. - -...leading to the 'Hey Baby' intro. Although it would have been brand new to virtually all the audience, it's still received with applause- ha, maybe they thought he was doing the intro to '1983...'? As we heard at the afternoon rehearsal, the intro is still being worked out and the band hesitates a little at the exact same spot where they abandoned it at the soundcheck. Jimi moves quickly to the Am-G-F progression of 'Hey Baby', it's first public showing since the tour's opening show. Jimi introduces the song as 'New Rising Sun' over the music. Jimi does some nice soloing for about a minute before the verse. Sounds like he speeds up the Univibe slightly for the middle solo. After the second verse and chorus (essentially the first verse repeated) Jimi cuts the song off... - -..and immediately hits the opening of 'Lover Man', deciding to switch gears. Standard arrangement, short and sweet with some mic stand slides to finish. - -Jimi now pulls out three songs in a row which had been absent from the '70 shows till now. Starts with 'Stone Free', last heard at the New Years BoG shows (and before that, 6 months earlier at the 2nd to last EXP show). Those versions were marathon medleys, but he keeps it short here, only about 4:00. Good, albeit short, solo and for once we can hear Mitch's rim clicks on the snare during the verses! - -Continues with 'Hey Joe', also last heard at the BoG shows and, before that, closing Woodstock. This was officially released on the 'Concerts' double album in '82. It starts very fast but the tempo slows back down a little. We hear a little interference from a walkie-talkie through Jimi's amp near the beginning! Jimi still takes the chance to slip in the quote from 'I Feel Fine', this time after the first "...caught my baby messin around" line. - -Jimi reaches *way* back to pull out 'I Don't Live Today', last heard at San Jose Pop almost exactly a year earlier. This is the first rendition with Billy and in fact remains our only documented post-Noel performance of the song. There is some anecdotal evidence of it being performed again during the tour (specifically, a press report from Houston the following week) but as of now this is our last ever available rendition. They take it a little faster than in the past. It's a little rusty and Jimi's guitar doesn't seem to give up the feedback before the final section too easily, but it's fine. Jimi does a short solo coda at the end. This, too, was released on the 'Live Forever' CD. - -'Machine Gun' is the first song which is repeated over the two shows. It's dedicated to the "soldiers fighting in Berkeley...and people fighting wars within themselves...". There's a short solo intro with some understated slightly eastern-sounding sliding intervals and some other runs and chord with a light, clean touch before the main riff starts. The guitar work before the vocals enter moves through some unusual descending intervals, taken at a very laid back pace. At about 4:10 we hear a descending riff similar to 'In From The Storm' or the 'jellyfish' interlude on the BoG album 'Power of Soul'. At 4:40 the solo cranks up with Jimi again manipulating the speed pedal of the Univibe as if a wah, taking the Univibe's sweep very fast at the end of some phrases. Mitch's poly-poly- rhythmic-mic ride cymbal work, one of his fortes, is nice and clear here and the nice fat (phat?) production on the bass drum and tom toms anchors things nicely. Jimi does a series of ever higher bends leading to the secondary riff. At 8:00 he does the "bullets fly like rain" lyric and then the wobbly vibrato section. Some feedback/whammy work tails out to end a fine rendition. He comments "Those are sounds we really don't want to hear anymore except in cartoons and circuses...". - -'Foxy' again dedicated to Devon, Morocco (?) and Colette. After the first chorus Jimi apparently breaks a string which sends the other strings sharp as the Strat's vibrato springs take up the slack of the decreased string tension. He drops out after a few more bars and we hear the guitar being unplugged as Mitch and Billy play on. He must've switched guitars as he's back and in tune pretty quickly. Songs ends with teeth and a short solo coda. - -Jimi thanks the crowd for showing up and says there's a "cat getting ready to turn the power off". Intros 'Star Spangled Banner' saying they're gonna play it "the way it really is in the air which you breathe every day...". Some nice embellishments to the melody and he interjects a vocal "our flag was still there...big deal". - -Straight into 'Purple Haze'. As often happens, Jimi mixes up the lyrics a bit but hey, it's always a crowd pleaser! During the last crashing chord Jimi slips in a quote of the VC(SR) riff... - -..but doesn't do a direct segue. He intros VC(SR) by saying "now we're gonna play our *own* American anthem", then dedicates it to Berkeley's People's Park (site of an infamous 5/69 confrontation where the National Guard killed one person) and to the Black Panthers (based in nearby Oakland), followed by a playful little offhand riff (the best kind!). Jimi takes a nice long solo, his tone fat and full of growl. The movie shows Jimi pulling out all the showman stops on this rendition - on the knees, guitar between legs, etc, some lucky girls at his feet diggin it. They get a little off-rhythm around 3:00 but recover quickly and Jimi does some low register riffing (one lick sounds a little like Fleetwood Mac's 'Oh Well' for a sec). Revs up again, toying with substitutions for the root chord around 4:45 and, like the previous show, quoting a standard 'rock n' roll' riff (a little like 'At The Hop') at 5:30. At 5:50 he does a snippet of the 'Midnight Lightning/ Keep On Groovin' lyric, moving on to the final VC(SR) verse. Repeats "see you no more in the world" three times. He returns to the intro riff at 9:00 but can't resist trying out a few variations on it, doing a few runs that flirt with his flamenco style, then getting into some rhythmic chording with the wah. He finally returns to the riff, finishing with the teeth at 9:50. One of Jimi's finest moments. Let's hope it gets the compilation it deserves- the boots are nice, but this could be even better... Chris ------------------------------