Customer Reviews

Jimi Hendrix: Experience

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I read the short description of this video, I had hoped it was the video of the unreleased film 'Experience' from Hendrix' Royal Albert Hall performance. It definitely is not. First, the production quality of this video is horrendous. It appears to be a bootleg of previously released clips. Most of it is so overexposed as to be a blur on the screen. There are three 'live' performances documented. One can be found on the 'Soundtrack from the Film Jimi Hendrix' (Hear My Train a Comin' [acoustic]). The other two are 'Purple Haze' and 'Wild Thing'. Both appear to be from the same performance, but unfortunately the poor video and audio of this tape get in the way of making this tape a nice find. There is also a 1960s 'video' (in 8mm format) of the studio version of the song 'Foxy Lady', comprising mostly of a woman in a fur coat running around what appears to be a parking lot. Nice retro piece, but no big deal. There are also interviews with Hendrix, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. These appear to have been lifted and slapped together to stretch out this tape. In short, look elsewhere. There are better performances recorded on film. Look for Pennebacker. The poor quality and scant content make this a letdown even for a hardcore Hendrix enthusiast.

EX-ARMY AIRBORNE, ELECTRONIC BLUES PLAYER THAT I'VE EVER MET." (NR?)

Frankly, I was disappointed with the sound quality the most and also the picture quality of this DVD, however; I told myself to be THANKFUL for ANY Jimi I can get! He is GONE and I should CHERISH this--and I do! I wish he was still here with us today! Think how amazing that would be!

Included on this DVD is:

EXPERIENCE: [Color] Includes live performances and rare footage. It has "Purple Haze", "Wild Thing", a photo session with Jimi, Noel and Mitch, a short video of Indians with comments by Jimi, Jimi answering short questions of Mitch and Noel (particularly humorous is Jimi's pet peeve about gimmicks), "Foxey Lady" video, Jimi skydiving and Jimi describing his feelings of it, and it ends with "Hear My Train A Comin'."

POPSIDE: [Black & White] Stockholm, Sweden May 24, 1967. Jimi performs in studio for a Swedish Television Program. This section of the DVD has more closeups of his fingering, much better picture and somewhat better sound quality than EXPERIENCE (above.) He plays "The Wind Cries Mary" and "Purple Haze." POPSIDE is an awesome clip!

NUMBER NINE: [Black & White] Stockholm, Sweden January 9, 1969. "Time for some electric church music..." says the announcer. This is definitely my favorite section of the DVD. Jimi plays "Red House"--it is an amazing performance of the song with much improved and diverse camera angles. The angles include closeups of each player, of all three, plus priceless closeups of Jimi's fingering and full body angles! Jimi goes straight into "Sunshine Of Your Love" and it is awesome too! This and the other Swedish performance, POPSIDE, are worth the purchase price of this DVD in my opinion! DIG!

OLYMPIA: [Color] Paris October 9, 1967. An incredible performance of "Wild Thing." What can I say? GROOVY!

"HEY JOE": ORIGINAL PROMOTIONAL FILM [Color] January 1967. Not a lot of lighting on but this has a much better picture quality than some clips on this DVD. I have always loved this song.

"DOLLY DAGGER" [Color] 1997 Music video with Fawn Reed and James Hong. I liked this but especially the ending! WOW! You have to see this!

All in all, I think you should enjoy this if you are a big fan as long as you are forewarned of the sound and picture quality which are no better than average (I am being generous here.)

I myself am a collector; I own over 85 videos from Beatles to The Who to... well, just about every band in the history of rock and roll.

As a fan of Hendrix, this video, a mere 69 minutes in length, was sloppy, disorganized, random bits of footage that seemed to come out of nowhere.

As a collector, I enjoyed very much of it. The Dolly Dagger video alone was worth the price, plus to finally see the 1969 Sweeden concert was really cool.

I would suggest that they make a film documenting Hendrix' entire life, like "The Definitive Elvis" or "Beatles Anthology." That way, we not only see the film clips, but we get a better understanding of how everything fits together.

All in all, I'd say it has a lot of material that a collector would enjoy, but as a fan, I enjoyed "Jimi Plays Monterey" more.

I had to have this DVD.

I'd never seen any of the extra footage on this disc before. It's a shame the Popside guitar mix is a little quiet but it's a great performance.

The Swedish show is outstanding even if you only watch Jimi. I'm not sure why, maybe he forgot his guitar but Hendrix plays a white Gibson SG for two numbers, Red House and Sunshine of your Love. It's really interesting to watch Hendrix's face as he struggles with the new guitar. Constantly fiddling with volume and tone controls it's almost like he'd never played an SG before! Red House is a great version but it's blemished by Jimi's unfamiliarity with the instrument and his resulting frustration. But what an oppurtunity for fans! The look on his face! It's similar to Woodstock in many ways. A brilliant player who's having a bad day but occasionally shines.

Occasionally shines? Okay, occasionally doesn't shine.

The Dolly Dagger video is pretty cheesy. Some woman painted up like a hooker for some no-talent film makers. Watching Jimi step out of the ice is cool though.

When oh when will they do the Hendrix catalog justice?

This DVD blew me away. The footage from Sweden is incredible. If you like Hendrix like I do you'll love this DVD. The perfect addition to any collection of Hendrix music and videos. Buy it, you'll love it. Get experienced

Don't get me wrong -- I loved the original "Experience" movie, back when it was available on VHS. But I expected great things with its move to DVD -- the quality of the sound of this release is clean, but the video quality of the first 25 minutes is somewhat grainy and disappointing.

My favorite section of this DVD is the "Number 9" Swedish performance. It's in stellar quality -- I really wish that more of this show (all of it?) could have made this disc...given that there was plenty of room to add more 'filler'.

The worst track (for me) was Jimi miming 'Hey Joe'. Sure it's cool to see, but once was enough for me. The "Dolly Dagger" video is tolerable, but I'd have preferred another concert clipping instead.

The one positive note I should make, is that the version I purchased (through Bogus Buy) included two additional tracks from Jimi's forthcoming "Blue Wild Angel" DVD -- "All Along the Watchtower" and "Spanish Castle Magic".

All I can really say is I enjoy this DVD a ton. I've watched it a few times already and I'm not bored of it. You know how it is with some music/concert DVDs, you watch it once (maybe twice) and just put on the shelf to be forgotten (at least until you sell it back or trade it). It's got really great footage (some stuff I've never seen before and looks amazing) and it has a nice menu that makes it easy to enjoy. I would put this title as a must own for a Hendrix fan (or just a fan of great music) and not just archive freaks.

I remember seeing the original Experince movie when it first came out in 1968 and I'm sure it was much longer then. It seems to have been edited down by the Hendrix Estate which is a big pity. I'm not sure if any of the music has been cut but certainly some of the interviews are missing, particularly the unique Cynthia Caster Plaster interview. I wish I could find out the length of the original movie but unusually imdb.com does not have a lot of detail on this. Anyway, a unique record of how people saw Hendrix at the time in the Sixties.Better than Rainbow Bridge.But not as good as the Warner Bros Jimi Hendrix movie.

Step Inside to a journey of well organized live performences, as well as rare interview footage. This DVD would be more appreciated by a hendrix collector since this is all rare footage, and interviews. This only runs forty minutes long of rare and previously unreleased bonus material. I was disapointed that the hendrix family coperation released this film in such poor manor expesically the Hey Joe(promotional film), and the music video featuring Fawn Reed, and James Hong's Dolly Dagger. Those two sections of the DVD are really bad just to mention. The good footage includes never before seen live performences including Popside, Stockholm's Wind Cries Mary, and Purple Haze.

Also the Stockholm, Sweden 1969 performence including a very long Red House, and Sunshine Of Your Love. Their is also a performence at Olympia, Paris titled Wild Thing. I think this is an average take your money DVD expesically from the company Experience Hendrix im sure many hendrix fans have this one but all the first time hendrix listner's probaley would never think about buying such a short DVD of unreleased material. I really had to push myself to buy this one since I thought it really was not worth buying. But since I love hendrix's music I had no problem with this Experience Hendrix DVD. If you really want a good Hendrix DVD look elsewhere!!!!

The Experience film is none too impressive, but certainly worth viewing for its live performances and amusing commentary. The sound is just weak and the image unclear. The extras featuring Jimi are marvelous--Stockholm, "Hey Joe" promo, "Wild Thing", and Popside are all worth your money and time. But the film that the DVD is really selling isn't nearly as good as the longer and better looking bonus features. Hendrix was probably the best guitar player in the world at this time, but it may take WOODSTOCK or JIMI HENDRIX to prove that to you.