Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Troubling Release, February 26, 2001
With control over the release of Hendrix material finally, I thought that the Hendrix family and the record label finally put out a definitive, complete release of the Woodstock performance. But no. What is this? Larry Lee has been edited out of the set--his guitar and vocals are gone, altering and even shortening songs. When will this insanity stop? When will record companies release complete performances and stop editing and fudging with live material like this? How much longer before ANOTHER Woodstock release comes along that includes something omitted here but excludes something included here? Granted, this is much better than earlier incarnations of the release, and what with 2 discs, great pictures and nice liner notes it looks the best, but why oh why are games like this continously played? The sound mix, which many die-hard fans had problems with, seemed fine to me. It's just the practices of the record labels, the producers, and the families and artists themselves (re: the Doors) when it comes to re-releasing material and deifying themselves with sonic trickery that annoys me to no end.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Slight production flaws, but indispensable, January 15, 2000
This 2 CD set adds previously unreleased versions of 'Message To Love', 'Spanish Castle Magic', 'Lover Man' and 'Foxy Lady' to the preceding single CD release (simply titled 'Woodstock'), but it's still not complete: Larry Lee's vocal performances ('Mastermind' and 'Gypsy Woman') were not included (a quote from the liner notes: 'Some things are meant to be preserved only on bootlegs...'). More annoying is that Larry Lee`s GUITAR is still edited out in some places; this not only shortens 'Red House' by several minutes, it also considerably decreases its impact. Well, what the heck - you'll probably never find a MORE complete official version of this concert, and the music itself is incredible. The undisputed highlight of the set is the medley Voodoo Child (13 minutes + !) / Star Spangled Banner / Purple Haze / Woodstock Improvisation / Villanova Junction, which took 25 years to be released in its entirety for the first time (...on the aforementioned single CD). That manic final solo of Purple Haze, followed by a stunning 5 minute guitar improvisation (which can almost be seen as a seperate composition - at the 1969 concerts he played it quite often in almost the same manner, for example in the lengthy version of 'Spanish Castle Magic' on the long-deleted 3 CD set 'Anthology'), then suddenly slowing down to a heartbreaking blues performance... It's something that's got to be heard to be believed - an emotionally exhausting tour-de-force. - The four previously unreleased tracks are good enough to make the set interesting to newcomers and long time afficionados alike - and, yes, 'Lover Man' is almost in its original state, at least without the usual cut-outs of non-Hendrix soloing. 'Live at Woodstock' would be an excellent first-pick for future fans; in the continuing absence of the Berkeley and Winterland concerts, this is as close as you can get to a definitive live performance of Jimi Hendrix.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, but incomplete., February 28, 2003
When Jimi took the stage at Woodstock to play this set, most of the crowd had left (down from 400,000 to 25,000). The farm on which the concert was staged was now a barren wasteland that consisted of any soggy piece of anything the hippies in attendance didn't want to haul back to their current home.Jimi took this mess and turned it into a living legend. When he took the stage he didn't even get a proper introduction, but undaunted, launched into a powerful reading of "Message to Love" which, for the most part was a preview of the rest of the show. There were some problems though, neither Jimi nor his closest bandmates, Mitch Mitchell or Billy Cox really liked the expanded format (which not only included Cox on bass and Mitchell on drums, but two percussionists and a rythym guitarist). This, is only minor problem though, as neither precussionist is audible due to inadequate miking and the sound of Jimi's guitar.
The worst part, though, is definatly the editing of the rythym guitarist Lary Lee's two solo peices, "Gypsy Woman" and another that the name of which escapes me. I mean, neither disc was even 70 minutes, that means that even if the two songs were ten minutes both could have (and should have) been included. I mean they dismised it as filler and admitted to it in the linear notes but what is so hard about putting on two more tracks? I'm not saying that Lee is some guitar god, but he was part of the band, and part of the Woodstock legend too. All hope of the complete preformance isn't lost, however, as you can obtain the full set with no editing (and all of the songs) on the internet. Over all, great playing, great step up from the previous Woodstock disc, little or no fake cheering, and almost complete. Great buy, no matter what I said.
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