Customer Reviews

Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This 16 minute CD, mastered by Eddie Kramer and George Marino, is a re-release (with "new" artwork from the original release) of the 1999 CD. The '99 release booklet had a color photo of Hendrix with white beard and a Christmas hat, on the cover. The back showed Hendrix in the same costume holding the album cover for "Axis: Bold As Love". The photos were done in conjunction with the UK music paper "Record Mirror", to advertise that album. For those who don't own the 1972 "War Heroes" release, the song "Three Little Bears" will be of special interest. This track features the original band in 1968. The "Little Drummer...Syne" tracks are from 1969, and feature the rhythm section of Billy Cox-bass, and Buddy Miles-drums. These relatively unpolished tracks show Hendrix having fun in the studio, and give a bit of insight into what he did in the studio at different times while recording his own music. While this "new" artwork is okay, the Christmas/Santa Claus beard and hat cover was a really nice touch, and in keeping with the spirit of Christmas.

The cover in question is a painting by Abdul Mati Klarwein whose work was used for Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew," "Live/Evil" etc., Santana's "Abraxas," Earth, Wind & Fire's "Last Days...," Jerry Garcia/Howard Wales and others quite extensively in the late '60s - early '70s, so the use of his work for this is very appropriate. If you google "klarwein hendrix" in images, you can see a photo of Hendrix visiting Klarwein's New York loft.

The music is a rehearsal and should be appreciated as such.

Merry Christmas, folks.

Geez you guys! Quit your whining! The cover this go around is from the original 12" vinyl promotional copy that circulated in 1979 courtesy Alan Douglas & Reprise Records. The Jimi as Santa cover was cute, but now you get the rare promo cover.

As for the music on this CD, it's as much fun as it was the first time I heard it in '79. It's just not Christmas without this tune on my Rockin' Christmas compilation.

Good loose jam with lots of feedback and fooling around. 3 Little bears originally off 1972 "war heroes" now long out of print. There are 2 mixes of this song, one ends with Jimi cussing, the other ends with no cussing.
I'd say just buy the download of the extended version and it's a good buy.

importcds always delivers excellent product in good time! I will always do business with import cds! Importcds has never let down with any purchase I havemasde with them! keep up the good work and two thumbs up!

Even though this only has a few songs on it, it's a great CD. I've never heard these songs before and they are really good.

Apparently Hendrix recording everything in the studio but at this price it is worth owning. Excellent tone and phrasing.

I can't understand the whining about the cover and the quality of material. Take it for what this disc is--a Christmas gift from the estate. A jewel they knew was not perfect but gave it to us anyway. Original artwork too. Maybe not something that turns heads, but it beats a photoshopped picture of Jimi and the boys in Santa and Elf costumes...(just a little sarcasm here). Personally I like it. It is clearly from a very special time in music history.

So get over it. We have 16 minutes of Jimi playing music for fun, warts and all. What I would have given to have had the chance to sit in Jimi's living room and listen to him goof around playing for fun. This disc is a gift.

Thank you for releasing this music!

Why on earth would Experience Hendrix bring back the old artwork for this release when it is such an awful design? This has to be the single worst album art to appear on any Hendrix release. What does an image of men on horseback charging with their swords drawn have to do with this classic Christmas favorite? And what is that obscuring Hendrix's face, fire? Smoke? They had it right the first time when they replaced this artwork years ago with the picture of Jimi in a white beard. These songs are the same versions as appear on the original release.

Hendrix played in a very loose, free-form fashion yet he rarely made mistakes or played poorly. The fact that his estate would put out some of the rare examples of him playing poorly, hitting bad notes, etc. means that someone with no 'ear' is making decisions. I enjoy much of the posthumous stuff that has been put out but a 2-track rehearsal tape of Hendrix trying to figure out the melody to 'little drummer boy' just before his Xmas/New Year's shows is the ultimate in bottom-scraping. It's kind of cool to have, but that's because i'm a collector-nerd. Anyone else hearing this crap would wonder why Hendrix was held in high regard at all. To the estate decision-makers: please, please keep putting out more good stuff but keep the phrase 'novelty appeal' out of yr vocab...just saying...