|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Buy a CD or a vinyl record, get a $1 Amazon MP3 Credit. Limit one promotional credit per customer. Here's how (restrictions apply)
- Includes FREE MP3 version of this album Here's how (restrictions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Editorial Reviews
Deluxe digitally remastered CD/DVD edition of this classic 1997 album from the Rock guitar legend. This edition is housed in a lavish six-panel digipak with 36 page booklet including detailed session info, liner notes, photos and memorabilia. The DVDs contain an exclusive "making of" mini documentary.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
72 of 77 people found the following review helpful
By </><
Format:Audio CD
*First the Album is awesome, a true 10! This review is on the cheap advertising attempt to get the general public to buy a new CD. This album first came out in 1997, it was REMASTERED using EDDIE KRAMER and working with the Original mix down tracks (one step deeper than just using the Orignal Master tracks, but going one step beyond those and getting the original mix down tracks. I don't think technology has advaced to such a degree that warrants a brand new rematering. You wont notice any difference. You will get a small mini-documentary DVD, but is it worth the price of buying this all over again? NO. If you dont own this CD, then certainly buy this edition.
THE ALBUM REVIEW............This was supposed to be the next studio album after Electric Ladyland. Jimi worked on this project for 2 years, recording, remixing, over dubbing, recording again, you name it! He at a few times wanted his next album to be a 3 album set. He died before this album was finished, infact Drummer Mitch Mitchell came back in the studio and layed down some final over-dubs for a few songs ("Angel" for one) and also co-produced the final product. Buzzy Linhart was brought in the record vibes and "Drifting" after Jimi's death. The album was originally released in Jan 1971 in a shortened 1 album set called "The Cry of Love" where it reached #7 on the Billboard top 200 album charts and "Freedom" was released as a single but failed to chart. It became out of print in 1995 when then owner of Hendrix estate (Alan Douglas) released the re-packaged CD as "Voodoo Soup" in which he HEAVILY RE-MIXED the songs (which angered many of Jimi's fans). The songs selections were different. In 1996 when Al Hendrix (Jimi's father) won a lawsuit and once again re-claimed all of his sons estate, "Voodoo Soup" was immedialty deleted from the catalog and released a later as "First Rays of the New Rising Sun" This album captures more of the true aspect of what was to be Jimi's next studio album, tho a few songs made it on this CD that wouild Not have been included (My Friend fro one) and a few songs were left off that surely would have made it (Poly Gap, Saving My Love for Linda, Valleys of Neptune). But what you have here is a amazing collection of songs that shows much deeper arrangement texture and pain stakingly percise overdubs that make up the most personal and complex album ever by Jimi Hendrix. Whats gone are the flashy show-man style songs like "Foxey Lady" but songs written on social commentary ("Straight Ahead") songs also of peace and understanding (Hey Baby, new rising sun). Had this album been released in Jimi's lifetime, it would have garnered the attention of many and would have put him in the realms of John Lennon, songs of SUBSTANCE. It is therefore sadly Jimi's least popular album because it's not a acid rock and roll album complied of songs about partying, women and having fun. Listen with your mind and see the vision Jimi was heading. I can fully understand why he took 2 years on this album and it still wasnt finished, it would had changed the entire perception of this man and headed Jimi into a completely new direction of music.
Quick Note on the REMASTERS:
Jimi has been "remastered" now so many times its a joke! The catalog first came out on CD in 1990 on reprise records and they sounded like shiet! Then they were very quickly re-mastered in 1991 using some system called "sonic solutions" not a true remaster but just a way to remove static and such. Then in 1995 when Alan Douglas moved to the MCA label, they were agian re-mastered and given new CD covers (dumb idea) they all looked liked the "Voodoo Soup" ill fated CD cover. Those were true remasters and said to use the original mater tapes. Then in 1997 Al and Janie Hendrix wins there lawsuit over Alan Douglass and all the CD's were once again remastered, just 2 stupid years later! The gimmick this time was they went back to the original mixes and remastered from those as well as brought back the original artwork. Then now they move to sony/legacy and what do they do.....??? REMASTER the songs......get real!
THE ALBUM REVIEW............This was supposed to be the next studio album after Electric Ladyland. Jimi worked on this project for 2 years, recording, remixing, over dubbing, recording again, you name it! He at a few times wanted his next album to be a 3 album set. He died before this album was finished, infact Drummer Mitch Mitchell came back in the studio and layed down some final over-dubs for a few songs ("Angel" for one) and also co-produced the final product. Buzzy Linhart was brought in the record vibes and "Drifting" after Jimi's death. The album was originally released in Jan 1971 in a shortened 1 album set called "The Cry of Love" where it reached #7 on the Billboard top 200 album charts and "Freedom" was released as a single but failed to chart. It became out of print in 1995 when then owner of Hendrix estate (Alan Douglas) released the re-packaged CD as "Voodoo Soup" in which he HEAVILY RE-MIXED the songs (which angered many of Jimi's fans). The songs selections were different. In 1996 when Al Hendrix (Jimi's father) won a lawsuit and once again re-claimed all of his sons estate, "Voodoo Soup" was immedialty deleted from the catalog and released a later as "First Rays of the New Rising Sun" This album captures more of the true aspect of what was to be Jimi's next studio album, tho a few songs made it on this CD that wouild Not have been included (My Friend fro one) and a few songs were left off that surely would have made it (Poly Gap, Saving My Love for Linda, Valleys of Neptune). But what you have here is a amazing collection of songs that shows much deeper arrangement texture and pain stakingly percise overdubs that make up the most personal and complex album ever by Jimi Hendrix. Whats gone are the flashy show-man style songs like "Foxey Lady" but songs written on social commentary ("Straight Ahead") songs also of peace and understanding (Hey Baby, new rising sun). Had this album been released in Jimi's lifetime, it would have garnered the attention of many and would have put him in the realms of John Lennon, songs of SUBSTANCE. It is therefore sadly Jimi's least popular album because it's not a acid rock and roll album complied of songs about partying, women and having fun. Listen with your mind and see the vision Jimi was heading. I can fully understand why he took 2 years on this album and it still wasnt finished, it would had changed the entire perception of this man and headed Jimi into a completely new direction of music.
Quick Note on the REMASTERS:
Jimi has been "remastered" now so many times its a joke! The catalog first came out on CD in 1990 on reprise records and they sounded like shiet! Then they were very quickly re-mastered in 1991 using some system called "sonic solutions" not a true remaster but just a way to remove static and such. Then in 1995 when Alan Douglas moved to the MCA label, they were agian re-mastered and given new CD covers (dumb idea) they all looked liked the "Voodoo Soup" ill fated CD cover. Those were true remasters and said to use the original mater tapes. Then in 1997 Al and Janie Hendrix wins there lawsuit over Alan Douglass and all the CD's were once again remastered, just 2 stupid years later! The gimmick this time was they went back to the original mixes and remastered from those as well as brought back the original artwork. Then now they move to sony/legacy and what do they do.....??? REMASTER the songs......get real!
72 of 77 people found the following review helpful
By Mos
Format:Audio CD
"In 1994, Hendrix's own handwritten track selection for First Ray surfaced and was reprinted in the french magazine Folk & Rock (November 1994). Surprisingly it was never used when attempts were made to complete the unfinished project in the years that followed. Hendrix only completed a song list for three sides of the double LP, and wasn't sure where to place the track "Night Bird Flying". With a darker-colored pen, he seemed to indicate that it should be the second song on side A. Hendrix's track selection for First Ray of the New Rising Sun was:
Side A: Dolly Dagger, Night Bird Flying, Room Full of Mirrors, Belly Button Window, Freedom.
Side B: Easy Rider, Astro Man, Drifting, Straight Ahead.
Side C: Drifter's Escape, Comin' Down Hard On Me, Beginnings, Cherokee Mist, Angel."
The above and any other quotes in this post are taken from the book, "Black Gold the Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix" by Steven Roby.
The album is refered to above as First Ray instead of First Rays because Jimi at first was going to call it First Ray of the New Rising Sun. Another quote from Black Gold:
"Billy Cox worked on the unfinished album, and recalled the time when Hendrix asked him about the correct wording: "He asked me, 'Is it the first ray, or the rays?' I said, 'I don't know. He said, 'What do you see when you get up in the morning? When you look over the horizon do you see one ray or rays?' I said, 'I'd have to check that out.'
Hendrix would seem to have had a cover for the album in mind too...another quote:
"There is also evidence that Hendrix may have had a cover in mind for the release. On September 17th, 1970, he sketched out various faces to form the shape of a cross, with his own face in the middle. The right arm of the cross had faces of white people, including J.F.K. and Hitler and two women and a baby. On the left arm of the cross was Martin Luther King, Jr., a black woman with a crown, an African woman, and a baby. On the bottom shaft, Crazy Horse, Geronimo, Cochise, two women and a baby represented Native Americans. Above Hendrix's head, the top shaft of the cross showed Buddha, Genghis Khan, a Japanese woman, and a Chinese baby, representing the Asian Peoples."
I like this CD and gave it 4/5 stars. But knowing that there are existing track listings by Hendrix out there I tend to wish they had tried to stay closer to the song orders he had chosen (Of course Jimi might have made many changes to those song orders before the album was completed).
Since these days most people can make their own CDs I would probably arrange a version (for my own listening pleasure) to look something like this:
Dolly Dagger
Night Bird Flying
Room Full of Mirrors
Belly Button Window
Freedom
Easy Rider
Astro Man
Drifting
Straight Ahead
Drifter's Escape (Can be found on the CD South Saturn Delta)
Comin' Down Hard On Me (Can be found on the Hendrix box set)
Beginnings
Here He Comes (Lover Man) (Can be found on South Saturn Delta)
Angel
Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)
Stepping Stone
Izabella
Earth Blues
In From The Storm
Approximate CD time = 79 minutes
Since the only version of Cherokee Mist I have heard is on the Box Set and has simliar patterns to that of In From The Storm I left it off. I left off My Friend since it was a leftover track from 1968. For those who are into having an instrumental open the album there is a spacey guitar instrumental called The New Rising Sun on the now deleted Hendrix CD compilation Voodoo Soup...I just wasn't sure how to fit it in due to space limitations. Pali Gap is also a track that could have been on the album as it was recorded during the same time period. Of course everyone's version of this album would probably be different (including Jimi's).
I could go on and on about this but I guess the bottom line is I like the music on this album very much I just wish it could have somehow stayed closer to Jimi's vision...
Side A: Dolly Dagger, Night Bird Flying, Room Full of Mirrors, Belly Button Window, Freedom.
Side B: Easy Rider, Astro Man, Drifting, Straight Ahead.
Side C: Drifter's Escape, Comin' Down Hard On Me, Beginnings, Cherokee Mist, Angel."
The above and any other quotes in this post are taken from the book, "Black Gold the Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix" by Steven Roby.
The album is refered to above as First Ray instead of First Rays because Jimi at first was going to call it First Ray of the New Rising Sun. Another quote from Black Gold:
"Billy Cox worked on the unfinished album, and recalled the time when Hendrix asked him about the correct wording: "He asked me, 'Is it the first ray, or the rays?' I said, 'I don't know. He said, 'What do you see when you get up in the morning? When you look over the horizon do you see one ray or rays?' I said, 'I'd have to check that out.'
Hendrix would seem to have had a cover for the album in mind too...another quote:
"There is also evidence that Hendrix may have had a cover in mind for the release. On September 17th, 1970, he sketched out various faces to form the shape of a cross, with his own face in the middle. The right arm of the cross had faces of white people, including J.F.K. and Hitler and two women and a baby. On the left arm of the cross was Martin Luther King, Jr., a black woman with a crown, an African woman, and a baby. On the bottom shaft, Crazy Horse, Geronimo, Cochise, two women and a baby represented Native Americans. Above Hendrix's head, the top shaft of the cross showed Buddha, Genghis Khan, a Japanese woman, and a Chinese baby, representing the Asian Peoples."
I like this CD and gave it 4/5 stars. But knowing that there are existing track listings by Hendrix out there I tend to wish they had tried to stay closer to the song orders he had chosen (Of course Jimi might have made many changes to those song orders before the album was completed).
Since these days most people can make their own CDs I would probably arrange a version (for my own listening pleasure) to look something like this:
Dolly Dagger
Night Bird Flying
Room Full of Mirrors
Belly Button Window
Freedom
Easy Rider
Astro Man
Drifting
Straight Ahead
Drifter's Escape (Can be found on the CD South Saturn Delta)
Comin' Down Hard On Me (Can be found on the Hendrix box set)
Beginnings
Here He Comes (Lover Man) (Can be found on South Saturn Delta)
Angel
Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)
Stepping Stone
Izabella
Earth Blues
In From The Storm
Approximate CD time = 79 minutes
Since the only version of Cherokee Mist I have heard is on the Box Set and has simliar patterns to that of In From The Storm I left it off. I left off My Friend since it was a leftover track from 1968. For those who are into having an instrumental open the album there is a spacey guitar instrumental called The New Rising Sun on the now deleted Hendrix CD compilation Voodoo Soup...I just wasn't sure how to fit it in due to space limitations. Pali Gap is also a track that could have been on the album as it was recorded during the same time period. Of course everyone's version of this album would probably be different (including Jimi's).
I could go on and on about this but I guess the bottom line is I like the music on this album very much I just wish it could have somehow stayed closer to Jimi's vision...
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful
By Mad Dog
Format:Audio CD
The 5 stars I've given to this disc must be understood in context. These are not the same kind of 5 stars I gave to Are You Experienced. Then again, Jimi was alive and involved in the mixing and production of AYE and he wasn't for First Rays. As a long time Hendrix devotee, I knew he'd considered naming his next LP with this disc's title. I knew all about what was going on in his life at the time he died and how he wanted his music to evolve. The reason this disc warrants 5 stars is because the people involved in bringing this project to completion did the best they could to make Jimi's vision a reality. This is love, pure and simple.
A stripped-down, analytical view of this disc, song by song may not arrive at the conclusion above. Clearly, the studio work was not finished on many of these songs. The story of the making of these songs is a tragic tale. Jimi's last album of original studio recordings had been released in 1968 on Electric Ladyland. Since that LP, a compilation entitled Smash Hits had been released, as had Band of Gypsys, a live recording of new tunes as part of a legal settlement with one of Jimi's former business partners. Band of Gypsys, although excellent music in my opinion, was not what the majority of the record-buying public wanted to hear from Jimi. They wanted Purple Haze II, or something similarly familiar and comfortably psychedelically rocking. But Jimi had been around that block too many times and was in need of change. First Rays was to be the answer as he saw it.
Now, don't get me wrong here - I love this music. But not all of it was finished to Jimi's normal standard. He certainly planned to get it done and was considering a change of management and producers as solutions to get past the barriers he saw in his way. But lack of completeness can't hide the brilliance of his vision. Just consider two cuts as examples - Hey Baby (effectively the title track) and Ezy Ryder. Hey Baby shows both lyrically and in its arrangement where Jimi was headed. The opening section is one of the most beautiful guitar lines he ever wrote, combining so many of his roots into a statement so uniquely Jimi, it's immediately recognizable. The words tell me just how badly he needed to move beyond the constraints that had imprisoned him for all too long. Ezy Ryder shows that Jimi was still a rocker. But he was changed. Since taking over the production of his music, the orchestration had become more complex and synergistic. The lyrics show, as do the lyrics of other songs on this disc, that Jimi was struggling to make the message fit the rythym. But that's nit picking - these are great tunes. I am hugely appreciative that the Hendrix family got the right people together to make this happen. It's a must-have.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid Posthumus Production
Who knows how the final mix would have sounded and what songs would have made the cut if Hendrix would have been alive to see these songs through to their release? Read more
Published 5 days ago by escambiajohn
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great music, great sound quality!
I purchased the 1997 remastered version, as I'd read that this was one of the best remasters out there. Read more
Published 11 days ago by Jonny
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jimi is giving guitar lessons to God.
It would be disgusting if i dare to rate this product as a common one. It's nothing but excellent. Regards.
Published 27 days ago by Juan D'Auria
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Hendrix
A fine compilation of unpublished performances, some of these are a surprise by departing from previous work. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Edward F. Arnold
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tear come to my eyes - This was Jimi Hendrix by Jimi Hendrix
Once having owned both Cry of Love and Rainbow Bridge before they went out of production (on vinyl)and having lost them in the shuffle of life, finding and hearing this MP3 album... Read more
Published 6 months ago by K. Binder
5.0 out of 5 stars
ONE OF JIMI'S MOST PROGRESSIVE PROJECTS
Parts of this compilation was released just after Jimi's untimely death and was titled "Cry Of Love", but this album is probably more of what Jimi had in mind. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Kelly Perkins
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rockin
Jimmy hendrix Forever!! 3 words.Viva Jimmy Hendrix.He was and Still Is one of the greatest master's of guitar. Read more
Published 13 months ago by UNKOWN
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jimi Goes for Groove & Open Ended Song Structure - album works best in...
This really benefits from being listened to in mono, as the musicianship in this diff. more groovy, Jazzy inspired form gets lost abit in the high production of it's stereo sound... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Nic
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jimi's late period and career-best: shame about Sony's cynical...
Jimi Hendrix was by general agreement the most inventive, original and prolific musician/performer of his era, and carved out new territories for what could be done with an... Read more
Published 15 months ago by The Guardian
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally feeling like an album
Jimi Hendrix / First Rays of the New Rising Sun (CD): Through the huge number of older posthumous releases, we have heard nearly everything on this CD already, but with this CD,... Read more
Published 17 months ago by J. Bynum
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
|
|
