Message-ID: <3946CE0E.2852FA8B@javanet.com> Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 20:13:02 -0400 From: csdixon Reply-To: csdixon@javanet.com Subject: JH+30 Today marks 30 years since Jimi's June 13, 1970 concert at the Baltimore Civic Center in Maryland. The 'Cry of Love' tour pace slackens a little from here on out, with the band traveling to selected dates from a home base of NYC. Recording occupies their time in the city, and this is the week that Jimi finally is able to start working in earnest at his pride n' joy, Electric Lady Studios, with the first formal session at EL taking place two days after the Baltimore show. Maybe because Jimi's creative batteries are recharged by the new studio (and with travel time to the show minimal), this is an extremely strong and consistent show IMO and has always been one of my personal favorites. Jimi's playing and tone are great throughout and, undistracted by gear or tuning troubles, he strides confidently through the set with a minimum of between-song talk, seemingly eager to get it on. He divides the show almost evenly between old and new, drawing 6 of 14 songs from the post-Experience repertoire, the highest # in one show since the tour-opening LA show. There are two audience recordings of this night, one mono and one stereo, though I only have the latter. Though one channel seems a bit weaker than the other, it has a nice stereo hall ambiance with a good mix except the drums are a bit on the low side. Quite a bit of nearby crowd chatter, but it's not too distracting (and can even be amusing). Overall mix seems to vary a bit during the tape. (Setlist): Straight Ahead; Lover Man; Machine Gun; Ezy Rider; Red House; Message To Love; Hey Joe; Freedom; Hear My Train; Room Full of Mirrors; Foxy Lady; Purple Haze; Star Spangled Banner; Voodoo Child (SR) - -'Straight Ahead' gets its second outing (we have 6 live versions in all). The arrangement here is tighter than at Berkeley, and in fact they would record the basic track for the eventual Cry of Love/ First Rays version later in the week. The intro is taking shape and Jimi plays the opening riff with the wah, though of course without the overdubbed climbing guitar part from the studio version. A nearby audience member says "There he is, there he is!", suggesting Jimi started right in without emcee intro, comments, tuning etc. (one press report says a curtain was drawn during intermission, so maybe Jimi began the intro as the curtain opened...then again, the same review said they started "with a blues"!). The lyrics are still taking shape and center around the 'Pass It On' tag line. He strips the guitar to a one chord riff and he sings only a couple of lines, phrased a little like a 'Foxy Lady' verse, before taking off on a brief solo at 1:30, followed by the bridge. After the bridge he turns *off* the wah for the solo (it's been in use for the whole song till this point), then back on afterward. Never does get back to the vocals, and it ends around 3:00. - -'Lover Man' gets a few extra improvised words near the end, incl. repeating "here comes your lover over yonder..". - -'Machine Gun', not often heard this early in the set, gets a nice :35 free-form solo excursion to start, reminiscent of the Okla. intro or a 'Hey Baby' improv. After the band enters, Jimi solos a little before starting the verse at 1:30. Jimi never used the exact same words or vocal phrasings twice in MG but this version's arrangement of the opening verses does happen to parallel the original BoG album version pretty closely. Main solo starts around 3:40. Billy experiments with a simplified variation on the riff at 3:50 (also at 4:15 and 5:15), played in octaves for a very deep, full sound. Jimi does a great solo, building to some higher register licks and at 5:50 they do the secondary riff and vocal verse. At 7:00 Jimi does some laid back chordal improv ala the intro, followed by some muted 'rat-a-tats' and the vibrato'ed riffs ala the album version. At 8:30 we get a little more subdued soloing with some jazzy sliding intervals then some light feedback, tailed out with the whammy bar to end it on a subdued note. - -Mitch dives right into the drum intro for 'Ezy Rider'. Jimi does some slurred climbing notes leading to the bridge. A short solo, with Billy throwing in some energetic swooping fills- too bad they didn't do 'Ezy' at Evansville when all you could hear was Billy! 'Ezy' is one of the, if not the, first songs Jimi works on at his first full EL session two days later, including overdubs by Stevie Winwood and Chris Wood from Traffic, who hang around for additional jams the same night (Winwood and Jimi do some other experiments as well, hints of a collaboration that was not to be). - -After a couple of 'off the cuff' riffs (which, as usual, suggest an entire song!) Jimi launches right into 'Red House', too quickly to have changed guitars (can't detect any tape cut). We hear someone nearby say "I've never heard Jimi play the blues..." (shoulda listened harder)! Jimi takes the soloing slowly and thoughtfully, savoring each bend. His fills throughout the verses are a surprise at every turn, some very low and twangy. The main solo is just two verses long, Jimi starting with a clean tone and Mitch flirting with a double time feel, then Jimi adds the wah and the band builds the second verse in intensity before returning to the last verse (too soon!). - -'Message To Love' intro'd by Jimi as "...a thing we did on the Gypsys LP". A nice dynamic build by the whole band in the middle solo. A short but effective solo after the last verse before the final climbing riff. - -Jimi goes quickly into 'Hey Joe', the second available version from the tour. The crowd goes nuts in the classic two-part pattern, a big cheer at the start and an even bigger one after the first vocal line. Nice fills from Jimi on the verses throughout, some remind me of the sort of stuff he used to throw into 'Like a Rolling Stone'! He does not use the teeth on the main solo as he often did. The inevitable 'I Feel Fine' quote comes just before the last verse (he flirts with it again a few lines later). Uses the wah on the last short solo. - -'Freedom' taken a little slower, Jimi stretching out some of the vocal phrasing. Sticks mostly to chordal variations at first during the middle section, then switches to some straight soloing. This song is another that is 'incubating' onstage for extensive studio work during the period. - -After a tape cut, Jimi begins 'Hear My Train', trying out a slight variation on the riff as the band enters. At a couple of points it sound like he may be plucking with his fingers. He throws in a lots of 'sliding interval' fills around the vocals. Changes one chorus line to "..hear my train a flyin..". Main solo comes at 2:45, and at 3:15 we hear him do a chordal riff he usually saves till after the last verse (I think of it as the 'Gloria bit' as it reminds me of part of that classic). At 4:40 he solos with a clean tone and wah with a lighter touch, moving to some partial chords at 5:45 that bring to mind his earlier 'Machine Gun' intro, with a little flamenco flavour for good measure! He moves through a few more chord variations, toying with altering the root note underneath, then winds it down to end around 8:45. - -Jimi intros 'Roomful of Mirrors' as a song that "will be on our next LP". They take it pretty fast here, with a slightly extended ending. Some nice rhythmic hits from Billy and Mitch during the bridge answer Jimi's vocal lines. - -He moves back to familiar ground (for the crowd, anyway) for the final sequence, introducing 'Foxy Lady' by saying "This one's called 'Thank you for the last 3 years' ". Audience goes crazy and claps along. Jimi whispers the "..foxy lady.." at the first break. Uses the wah for the solo, sticking mostly to a fixed position for a some high overtones, and does some very unique explorations in the solo. For the restatement of the opening feedback note, he goes for a note that's an octave lower than usual and it doesn't quite 'catch' so he moves quickly back to the riff. Some nice one handed pull-offs at the coda and he finishes with a whammy dive down to a very low bass note. - -Amid many shouted requests he launches into 'Purple Haze', atypically (for '70) played here *before* 'Star Spangled Banner'. Jimi throws in a few variations on the main theme at the end. - -'SSB' speeds up quite a bit starting with the second verse. As we heard at Evansville (one of the few things we *could* hear!) Jimi adds some nice phat power chords under the closing lines. - -Jimi starts 'VC(SR)' with the muted wah strums as on the album, which he hasn't done live for some time (first time on a '70 tour tape anyway). The audience claps along but gets badly off rhythm at first. Jimi solos at 1:50, switching the wah in and out to accentuate phrases. Sounds like he toys with adding the Univibe shortly after. Audience members near the taper settle into clapping with a half time (on beats 2 and 4) feel, actually making for an interesting 'in the pocket' groove (set against more distant clappers on every beat), *and* they keep at it almost to the end! Jimi does the "..your sweet time.." verse at 3:30 with "..see you no more in this world.." repeated three times. More soloing at 4:20, including a wild hammer-on climb at 4:50. At 5:10, Jimi and Billy seem to spontaneously hit the same riff then Jimi solos a bit with wah before going into the 'Keep On Groovin' words at 6:15. Stops rather abruptly at 7:00 then restates the intro riff with a few variations before ending with a little dental work to many cheers. Great show. Chris ------------------------------