Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection [Original recording remastered]

Jimi Hendrix | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 8, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2001
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Experience Hendrix
• ASIN: B00005BJLP
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,714 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Unlike so many of his 1960s guitar-god peers, Jimi Hendrix actually paid his road dues playing in the bands of some of the myriad artists who influenced him (Little Richard, the Isley Brothers, Ike and Tina). Remarkably, those experiences--and a willful absorption of the gamut of American blues masters and jazzmen--led not to slavish roots-consciousness, but to some of the freest, most indefinable rock music ever created. By the time of his untimely death in 1970, Hendrix had moved far beyond the psychedelic clichés embodied by "Purple Haze" and had begun to embrace propulsive funk and jazz influences. And like many deceased stars, his posthumous record releases have focused more on the bottom line than his true artistic vision. But the Hendrix family now controls that legacy, and this double-disc set is another gratifying result and a great introduction to one of rock's most legendary, if oft-misunderstood, figures. Disc one compiles the guitarist's best-known tracks, often substituting revealing alternate versions or outtakes ("Highway Chile," "All Along the Watchtower," "Spanish Castle Magic," "Stone Free," "Izabella," "Stepping Stone") to give listeners fresh insight into his restless creativity. The second CD offers up a rich slate of live Hendrix, the context where he truly made his legend, with recordings that stretch from his legendary performance at Monterey in '67 to an Isle of Wight show recorded shortly before his death. Typically, the performances range from concisely manic ("Fire," "Freedom") through bluesy workouts that ranged from improbably greasy ("Red House," "Hey Joe") to languorous and boldly improvisational ("I Don't Live Today," "Hear My Train a Comin'," "Machine Gun"), all of them infused with unfettered fretwork and amplified sonic voodoo that continues to influence new generations of musicians and fans alike. --Jerry McCulley

Product Description

2 CD's in a trifold digipak featuring his greatest studio recordings and 12 live tracks. Full color 20 page booklet. Includes the bonus track 'Third Stone From the Sun' along with previously unreleased live versions of 'Fire', 'Hey Joe', 'Red House', 'Freedom' & 'Wild Thing'. 2002. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Studio/Live Collection, May 19, 2001

By 

Steve Vrana (Aurora, NE) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection (Audio CD)

Has any artist been more shoddily treated than Jimi Hendrix when it when it comes to posthumously released CDs? Fortunately with the formation of the production company Experience Hendrix by surviving relatives, Hendrix's releases have vastly improved from the days of LPs like Crash Landing and Midnight Lightning. This latest 2-CD release is another welcome addition to the Hendrix catalog, including both familiar studio versions of classic songs like "Purple Haze," "The Wind Cries Mary," and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)," along with alternate takes like "All Along the Watchtower," "Highway Chile" and "Stone Free." The last two taken for last year's excellent Jimi Hendrix box set.

Which raises the issue, how much of this material will be new to the die-hard fan. The quick answer is, probably not much. Only one song is listed as "previously unreleased," the live version of "Foxey Lady" taken from a 1970 concert in Maui less than two months before Hendrix's untimely death at 27. Five tracks from the live disc are listed as "previously unavailable," including "Fire," "Hey Joe" (both from a 1968 Winterland concert), "Red House," "Freedom" (from an Isle of Wight concert) and a nearly eight-minute version of "Wild Thing" from 1967's Monterey Pop Festival. Except for the three tracks just mentioned, all of the live material comes from 1969 and 1970. While liner notes author Kurt Loder sees this period as an era of decline--"the group seemed alarmingly played out," he writes--these live tracks leave the listener with the question "What if...?" Unfortunately, that question will stay unanswered. The best we can hope for is the continued release of quality Hendrix material like this for the next generation to discover and enjoy. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

52 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Hendrix Collection ~ something to sink your teeth into", May 8, 2001

By 

J. Lovins "Mr. Jim" (Missouri-USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection (Audio CD)

Previously unreleased material ~ alternate takes ~ never before available ~ are some of the coming attractions to this 2-CD-Set collection ~ "VOODOO CHILD/THE JIMI HENDRIX COLLECTION" ~ packaging is first class quality.

Disc one is a studio recordings ~ featuring "Izabella" and "Stepping Stone" (original Band of Gypsys single version) ~ "Highway Chile", "All Along The Watchtower", "Spanish Castle Magic" and "Stone Free" (all alternate versions) ~ these bonus and alternate takes are priceless ~ sharing the God-given-talent of this legendary artist.

Disc two are the "live" performances ~ featuring "Foxey Lady" (never before released) ~ "Fire", "Hey Joe", "Red House", "Freedom", "Wild Thing" (all unavailable versions) ~ thanks to some knowledgeable people in the music business ~ still feel you've heard it all for the first ~ and you have.

A lot of credit goes to ~ Janie Hendrix & John McDermott (compilation producers) ~ Eddie Kramer (mixing/engineer) ~ George Marino (mastered) ~ MCA (Universal Music) and Experience Hendrix as we journey back to the "free soul" and "pure rock" of an artist/musician who made the difference ~ JIMI HENDRIX!

Total Time: Disc One 69:36 on 18 Tracks & Disc Two 76:58 on 12 Tracks...UTV Records 088 112 603 2...(2001)

36 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre Best of Release, November 25, 2006

By 

Talking Wall "Never trust a man with manicure... (Queen Creek, AZ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection (Audio CD)

Now, if you are a huge Jimi fan - and I am - please read the review before clicking the "not helpful" button.

First of all, the digipak packaging for this release is by far the worst I have seen. The manufacturer's plastic pegs wear down (they don't break) and eventually the discs won't stay on the spindles. The plastic just "feels" really really cheap - like it was vacu-formed. The booklet is glued into the packaging so even if you want to change the CD box, you can't. Experience Hendrix should have looked at the digipaks that Impulse used for their John Coltrane remasters or those used by ABKO for the Rolling Stones remastes. I cannot stress enough just how lousy this packaging is, perhaps the worst I've seen in all my years collecting CDs. Even the paper in the booklet feels flimsy. It's clear that they put this package together on the cheap like a KTEL or Ronco release.

Disc one has a good selection though if this is truly a best of collection aimed at a new generation of buyers, I don't know why the track selection includes alternate takes rather than the masters of some of Hendrix's better works like All Along the Watchtower and Spanish Castle Magic. Now, that said, I find them interesting but there is a reason they are alternate takes. Jimi was a perfectionist in the studio and these alternate takes don't represent his best work. So again, for that new generation of buyers that this package claims to be aimed at, this seems wrong headed to me.

Disc two has a great selection of Jimi live; however, I can't for the life of me understand why they are not presented in chronological sequence the way the studio stuff is. My only guess is that when you hear the stuff from late spring and summer of 1970 it is very clear that Jimi was tired of the rock star thing. His singing is really pretty terrible in these later tunes. His playing, though pretty wild is also very noisy and sloppy. Maybe it's out of sequence in order to diminish the impact of these sub-par (with respect to Jimi's other live work) performances? I used to have an Lp when I was a young man called 'In the West" that seemed a far better representation of Jimi's live work. Actually, the photo on the cover for this set looks very similar and might even be the same photo from "In the West" To be quite honest, I have not found another Hendrix live release that is anywhere close to as satisfying as "Band of Gypsys", one of the great live recordings of that era.

If you are interested in Jimi, what you really want to do is buy the remastered CDs in this order:

1. Are You Experienced
2. Axis Bold as Love
3. Electric Ladyland
4. Band of Gypsys (always bugs me that the plural of Gypsy is spelled incorrectly on this release!)
5. First Rays of the New Rising Sun
6. Live at Fillmore East with the Band of Gypsys (outtakes from BOG)
7. South Saturn Delta.
8. Live at the BBC

Then move on to some of the other stuff like Jimi Plays Berkley and Live at the Fillmore.

Personally, I believe this 2 disc set is a dis-service to this remarkably gifted artist's legacy but I've been listening to Jimi since 1969 so maybe I'm just not getting the marketing angle.