"Somewhere", the first track from the upcoming posthumous Jimi Hendrix album "People, Hell And Angels", has been made available for streaming.
The song features Hendrix performing alongside longtime collaborator Mitch Mitchell with bass from Stephen Stills. It had been recorded for the planned follow-up to "Electric Ladyland", Hendrix’s final studio album, which was released in 1968.
The track itself instantly invites comparisons to classic Hendrix material, with the guitarist’s iconic wah drenched Strat sound kicking it at the 20 second mark. The song juxtaposes the rhythmic stops of a "Crosstown Traffic" with the more melodic, chilled vibes of "Little Wing", and at times, Hendrix’s vocal delivery recalls moments from "The Wind Cries Mary".
The track listing for "People, Hell And Angels", which will be released in March of this year, is as follows:
01. Earth Blues 02. Somewhere 03. Hear My Train A Comin' 04. Bleeding Heart 05. Let Me Love You 06. Izabella 07. Easy Blues 08. Crash Landing 09. Inside Out 10. Hey Gypsy Boy 11. Mojo Man 12. Villanova Junction Blues
The record is the fourth album of posthumous Hendrix material to be released under Experience Hendrix's deal with Legacy Recordings.
"Somewhere" had previously been released on the posthumous Hendrix compilation "Crash Landing" in 1975. However, that version, produced by Alan Douglas, had featured overdubbed guitar, bass, drums and percussion from several session musicians, none of whom had ever met Hendrix. The track was also incorrectly titled as "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" on that release.
I'm sure the industry really cares for Hendrix I also don't see why its such a bad thing to have holograms, it's not like their only using him to make money or anything right?
It's only disrespectuful if they added other people playing, but not even like DISRESPECTFUL, more like uncool to hear, as were the Ozzy first albums re-recorded with Trujillo and Bordin.
That's not necesarily true, I'm sure he probably didn't want to randomly OD in his sleep either. If he didn't, in fact, ever plan on releasing this though, I think it'd be because it sounds like a mash-up of 3 or 4 of his other songs. That being said, its got some killer playing on it and I like it. Too bad this is probably the only new song on the whole damn album.
I like it quite a lot, probably because it sounds in ways like an alternate version of "Little Wing". Even the themes in the lyrics seem based off the same story. Regardless, I wouldn't be surprised if this was recorded during the Axis sessions based off the feel of the music, although it probably wasn't.
This is very sad. Such shame that the estate is bleeding their main money earner dry. Please leave him rest in peace now and let his legacy live on with dignity. He would have hated this, I'm sure.
To be remember for many years after his death for being a fantastic guitarist and singer? Yeah i'm sure he'd of hated knowing the fact he inspired and continues to inspire hundreds of thousands of guitarists. He was a modest man, but he wasn't an idiot.
i believe what he is saying is they need to stop putting out these "new" albums with "new" material. When in reality it's 1 maybe 2 unheard recordings and 8 or 9 songs that have been on numerous other releases with a couple of studio tweaks done to them.
To me, the point you just made is really the only issue I have with this. Jimi died over 40 years ago, and his estate has been releasing "new albums" every few years this whole time. They do this because the only way to maximize profits on a dead person, is to cut the maybe 3 albums worth of new tracks they actually have in with alternate takes found in his waste basket. Now they have 30 albums and the ability to slowly release it to sustain interest and a fan base. If there's one good thing about digital music, its that we can now single out the legitimate new tracks and only download those.
"Let him rest in peace! Sad, disrespectful, etc. etc." has become the trendy automatic response to situations like this.
Music is a business and this is, well, music. Fans are getting to hear music that they hadn't heard before and I don't see Hendrix's "estate" complaining about the additional cash flow anytime soon.
As soon as Hendrix rises from the grave and screams "How DARE you repackage my 45 year old music to make more money! It's disrespectful!" I'll consider agreeing with you. Until then... stop faking empathy to try and sound cool. Listen or don't listen but don't pretend to be outraged to get attention.
as much as i would be inclined to agree with you, i hate it when people speak for other (dead) people's opinions. Jimi said himself that he never really much cared about the money and that all he did was "feel emotions and make emotions" so I don't think anyone would really know how he would react to this. dont get me wrong of course i think the money hungry c**ksuckers whose releasing this album should be burned with fire, they should have at least released it for free, but at the same time its nice to hear Jimi again
He probably shouldn't have taken all those drugs which led to his death if he would have hated this stuff. He made his choices and lost his say. I love Jimi Hendrix, but the releasing of songs like this he did to himself, if he would have stayed alive he'd still have control. He didn't seem to write a will either saying not to release this stuff. And the way he was living he probably should have if he didn't want this released.
he took nothing illegal on the night he died. Of course he didnt write a will, he was 27! who writes a will that young. He probably wouldnt want this stuff released, he was a perfectionist and because these new songs they release are unfinished he wouldnt approve
It may have been cooler just to release his music for free, like just hand it out to radio stations or something. I think the song is great anyway, can't wait to hear the rest
Since you "know" Jimi would have hated this, perhaps you also "know" the next PowerBall winning numbers. Why waste your immense psychic powers on what a man who has been dead for decades would have liked....
Its time to let Jimi rest as well as his music. As Eirien stated, if Jimi didn't record it properly it would never had been released. Jimi was super particular when crafting his music. I could only imagine the places he would've taken and conventional recording. RIP Jimi.
that's the problem I have with these albums. There obviously is a collection of new unheard Hendrix songs in the vault, albeit quite small. Obviously that's why they're only sticking one true 'new' song on each album, but I do wish they would just release one album with all of the new songs instead of trying to make additional money off of it.
I don't think Jimi is mad about people creating songs out of his material. It continues his legacy. The only sad part about it is that someone is making money off those songs.
The production on this is magnificent. I'll be honest here and say that I think I'd enjoy Hendrix' stuff more if all of his stuff had this sort of production. It sounds more grounded and a lot more focused for it being a Hendrix song, not that there is anything wrong with his older, famous stuff. But I still cannot get over the fact of how well this is produced! Its just bliss to listen to.
As stated, this song was released over 10 years ago on the purple Jimi Hendrix Experience box set, and even almost 40 years ago on Crash Landing (titled Somewhere Over the Rainbow). I hate that the first song they give us has already been released in multiple formats...but I do like the sound that this recording has.
It reminds me of the Michael Jackson posthumous releases in a way. This is a good song, but something tells me either this track or a good amount of the songs on this "new" album contain newly recorded bits to make these complete songs. It's quite rare (at the very least, practically unheard of) for an artist, dead or alive, to have a library of tracks lying around that are fully mixed. Sure, some cleaning up is expected are likely necessary in most cases, but odds are, even if a fully mixed track exists in his "vault" of unreleased material, there's a good chance they weren't meant to see the light of day--scrapped tracks that didn't make it to the final album, for instance. The man only lived for 27 years, a mere seven of which consisted of his career, so I call bullshit that there's just a vast cavern of unreleased songs.
Just remember, said scrapped tracks might sound good to us, like this one, but for all we know, Jimi hated this song and wouldn't want it to be released.
Janie Hendrix is a money grabbing bitch! The fact that she claims to be his sister is disgracefull, shes white for goodness sake! Release live performances if your gonna realease anything
I'm sure Hendrix noodling in the kitchen would be impressive, but this is nothing more than a cash grab. Jimi either didn't want to release these tracks or was unhappy with their current state, either way I find this a little disrespectful to his memory.....I'll probably still be a massive hypocrit and buy it at some stage though.
....or died unexpectedly at a young age? The argument that he didn't release it because he "didn't want to" makes absolutely no sense considering the fact that he died prematurely. Sure it's possible that he wasn't happy with their current state at the time of his death, but a track executed and produced this well isn't something that was tossed aside because Hendrix just plain didn't like it. A track in this state is clearly one he planned on releasing. I guess nobody will ever really know if he considered it finished and ready for release, but I don't think that really even matters. Sounds damn good to me.
Hendrix recorded this and other songs while in the middle of recording a new album, but he died before it could be finished and released. What's wrong with releasing these songs that he intended to release anyways?
If there wasn't a market for people wanting to hear this man, especially since the majority of musicians never got to hear him play while he was alive, then it's going to happen. It isn't always about money hungry estates. Sometimes people want to hear this stuff.
Pretty great take, but I think I still prefer this one, I guess it just has more of a psychedelic vibe to me. Although I do have to say, wonderful productionwork.
sounds promising. I didn't really dig Valley of Neptune as much as I wanted to. Hopefully this one delivers. I know a lot of these songs have already been previously released and what not but I'm only a casual fan, so I'm listening to a lot of this stuff for the first time so it doesn't bother me quite as much that it's mostly rehashed material
I'm glad they're releasing this stuff... not everyone can dig 10ft into a boxset and its great to simply know "Hendrix" is releasing stuff 13 years into the 21st Century
I dunno, posthumous stuff like this just seems creepy and kind of disrespectful.