We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago……
We missed out on doing this one earlier in the year but surely can’t leave it off the list of gems from 1971. It was September 18 1970 when Jimi Hendrix died of a drug overdose. In March of 1971 his record label, Reprise, released an LP made up of songs he was working on in the time around his death. They called it “The Cry Of Love” and its filled with that instantly recognized guitar that made Hendrix a superstar.
There was some arguing at the time as to whether the LP should be recognized as a true Hendrix release or as a tribute posthumous release since the songs were not all finished when Jimi died. I won’t argue the semantics one way or another…all I know is that Hendrix fans at the time just wanted more music from the man and they got it.
Hendrix played much of the LP with his old drummer Mitch Mitchell and his buddy Billy Cox on bass who had played on 1970’s “Band Of Gypsys”. But the studio was filled with other stars of the day including Steve Winwood & Chris Wood from Traffic, drummer Buddy Miles who played on “Ezy Ryder, Stephen Stills (after Hendrix had played on Stills first solo record) and the original Jimi Hendrix Experience bass player Noel Redding. Long time engineer Eddie Kramer took over production after Jimi’s death and does the project justice.
The critics dug it…even curmudgeon Robert Christgau who called it “an excellent testament” and said it may have been his best record after Electric Ladyland because of it’s quality as a whole”. Writing in Rolling Stone, Lenny Kaye (who later played guitar for Patti Smith & Jim Carroll) called it “a beautiful, poignant testimonial and a fitting coda to the career of a man who was clearly the finest electric guitarist to be produced by the Sixties, bar none”.
My faves include the rocking “Freedom”, Ezy Ryder” and “Astro Man” and the bluesy “My Friend”. Also the slow psychedelia of “Drifting” works as well.
Who knows how Hendrix would have changed this if he had lived. Would it have sounded the same…probably not…but it’s what we have and for Hendrix fans…who have been inundated with releases of stuff from his vault for decades…at least we know the man wanted us to hear this…
With Janis, Jimi & Jim all gone…the music of 1972 would certainly sound different.
