Jimi Hendrix - Straight Ahead

Self made compilation

Disc 1: Hendrix Approved Mixes

01 Ezy Ryder

02 Freedom

03 Message To Love

04 Drifter's Escape

05 Come Down Hard On Me

06 Earth Blues

07 Dolly Dagger

08 Night Bird Flying

09 Straight Ahead

10 Astro Man

11 Room Full of Mirrors

12 In From The Storm

13 Belly Button Window

Disc 2: Posthumous Masters

01 Bleeding Heart

02 Izabella

03 Valleys Of Neptune

04 Stepping Stone

05 Drifting

06 Pali Gap

07 Beginning

08 Angel

09 Power of Soul

10 Cherokee Mist

11 Hey Baby

Jimi Hendrix may not seem entirely suitable for this blog, but there is a reason behind this post.

I fell in love with the music of Hendrix in my early teens. While at school, I collected the three Jimi Hendrix Experience albums as well as the live Band of Gypsys LP. 

I read a couple of biographies and was fascinated to learn Hendrix had an astonishing amount of unreleased material. Shortly after, during a stop at a service station on a school trip in 1993, I bought my first Hendrix bootleg. It was also the first bootleg of any artist I owned. I suppose that purchase would lead to me constructing this blog and my love of rare, secret, unreleased and hard to find music also began there.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience broke up in April 1969. From then until Hendrix's death in September 1970 he recorded material for what would of been his fourth studio album.

Hours and hours of songs in various stages have been on posthumous albums over the years, most notably on 'The Cry Of Love', 'Rainbow Bridge' and 'War Heroes'. Those three albums were compiled and mixed by engineer Eddie Kramer and long time drummer Mitch Mitchell and released shortly after Hendrix's death.

Since then, more tracks have came to light, including several mixes by Hendrix himself, making some of the versions finished masters. These songs were spread across many releases, some easier to find than others and details could be sketchy.

Hendrix was tantalisingly close to completing his vision. Although no definitive tracklisting or album title exists, the finished album would certainly have been a double, if not a triple (as some handwritten notes suggest). Prospective album titles included 'The First Rays Of The New Rising Sun', 'People, Hell & Angels' and 'Strate Ahead'.

This compilation is an attempt to collect together both the songs that Hendrix had signed off as final mixes, as well as the other songs that were under consideration. These songs are complete for the most part, with only the final mix being done without Hendrix's supervision. Some did require further overdubs, but I have not included songs for which only a backing track or demo version exist.

This music is truly psychedelic; blues, soul, pop, funk, psychedelia, heavy, beautiful, experimental and completely unique.