Jimi Hendrix – Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

This archival mother lode gathers the four complete sets of music Jimi Hendrix and his then-new Band of Gypsys played at the Fillmore East in New York on December 31, 1969 and January 1, 1970. So…there’s some guitar. Lots and lots of guitar, some of it initially released on the Band of Gypsys album but presented here in clearer fidelity. There are mind expanding, status-quo-smashing guitar ad-libs, machine-gun precise rhythm guitar riffs, and passages that start out in a mood of hazy reflection, only to swell into fits of heavy, snarling agitation.

Where there’s guitar there are stoptime guitar breaks, the fireworks-erupting moments rockers have used since the Chuck Berry days to kickstart the soloing. Hendrix was a master of these. To encounter him at peak, cue up the four (!) versions of “Them Changes,” (the Buddy Miles tune that’s curiously identified here as simply “Changes”). Zoom right to the end of verses, usually around the 2:00 mark. The set 1 break finds him dancing, with balletic precision, in the upper register. For set 2, he hangs expressively on a single note. Set 3 finds Hendrix in high-drama mode, pitchbending like a manic bluesman. Just before the break in set 4, he deviates from the riff in a way that sounds, at first, like a mistake; when the band stops, what follows is two measures of stone-cold diabolical genius.

Studying the breaks is, of course, only one way to geek out on Hendrix. You can make like the School of Rock kids do and analyze the beginnings, endings and tempos of multiple versions of “Power Of Soul,” “Machine Gun” and others. Of course, you can also just listen in chronological order, and marvel at this incendiary trio’s ability to vary the tones and shades and energies of the music during what was clearly an intense, endurance-test run of shows. – Tom Moon

Tracklist:
1. Jimi Hendrix – Power of Soul (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 1st Set) (05:30)
2. Jimi Hendrix – Lover Man (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 1st Set) (03:13)
3. Jimi Hendrix – Hear My Train a Comin’ (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 1st Set) (09:06)
4. Jimi Hendrix – Changes (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 1st Set) (05:57)
5. Jimi Hendrix – Izabella (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 1st Set) (03:28)
6. Jimi Hendrix – Machine Gun (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 1st Set) (08:53)
7. Jimi Hendrix – Stop (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 1st Set) (05:29)
8. Jimi Hendrix – Ezy Ryder (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 1st Set) (05:55)
9. Jimi Hendrix – Bleeding Heart (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 1st Set) (06:37)
10. Jimi Hendrix – Earth Blues (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 1st Set) (06:23)
11. Jimi Hendrix – Burning Desire (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 1st Set) (09:39)
12. Jimi Hendrix – Auld Lang Syne (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 2nd Set) (03:54)
13. Jimi Hendrix – Who Knows (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 2nd Set) (08:39)
14. Jimi Hendrix – Fire (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 2nd Set) (05:14)
15. Jimi Hendrix – Ezy Ryder (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 2nd Set) (04:23)
16. Jimi Hendrix – Machine Gun (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 2nd Set) (13:50)
17. Jimi Hendrix – Stone Free (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 2nd Set) (17:21)
18. Jimi Hendrix – Changes (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 2nd Set) (08:06)
19. Jimi Hendrix – Message to Love (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 2nd Set) (03:36)
20. Jimi Hendrix – Stop (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 2nd Set) (07:02)
21. Jimi Hendrix – Foxey Lady (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 12/31/69 – 2nd Set) (06:45)
22. Jimi Hendrix – Who Knows (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 1st Set) (10:52)
23. Jimi Hendrix – Machine Gun (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 1st Set) (12:38)
24. Jimi Hendrix – Changes (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 1st Set) (07:25)
25. Jimi Hendrix – Power of Soul (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 1st Set) (06:15)
26. Jimi Hendrix – Stepping Stone (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 1st Set) (05:30)
27. Jimi Hendrix – Foxey Lady (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 1st Set) (07:21)
28. Jimi Hendrix – Stop (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 1st Set) (06:07)
29. Jimi Hendrix – Earth Blues (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 1st Set) (08:50)
30. Jimi Hendrix – Burning Desire (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 1st Set) (08:56)
31. Jimi Hendrix – Stone Free (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 2nd Set) (13:11)
32. Jimi Hendrix – Power of Soul (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 2nd Set) (09:10)
33. Jimi Hendrix – Changes (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 2nd Set) (09:33)
34. Jimi Hendrix – Message To Love (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 2nd Set) (05:25)
35. Jimi Hendrix – Machine Gun (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 2nd Set) (11:52)
36. Jimi Hendrix – Lover Man (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 2nd Set) (02:35)
37. Jimi Hendrix – Steal Away (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 2nd Set) (05:53)
38. Jimi Hendrix – Earth Blues (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 2nd Set) (05:51)
39. Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child (Slight Return) (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 2nd Set) (06:00)
40. Jimi Hendrix – We Gotta Live Together (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 2nd Set) (09:48)
41. Jimi Hendrix – Wild Thing (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 2nd Set) (03:13)
42. Jimi Hendrix – Hey Joe (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 2nd Set) (03:56)
43. Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze (Live at the Fillmore East, NY – 1/1/70 – 2nd Set) (04:52)