trumpets and violins

well, it was m.a.'s birthday week, hence the lack of postings. sorry 'bout that, but all in all it's been a very satisfying holiday indeed around here. the time off has been spent writing new tunes, listening to new stuff, playing a bunch of new star wars games and enjoying a shitload of dvd's ... one of which is 'jimi hendrix at woodstock'. now to be honest we just love jimi and have been dying to get this and waiting for the 2 disc set was oh-so worth it!

the 1st disc in the set is the concert proper, and all the available footage that was taken is restored and used to give a very stark reminder of what a powerful artist jimi was at that point in time. it begins with all the guilty parties reminising on the event and setting the stage for one of the single most important sets in rock-n-roll history ...

and just a bit'o history, at the time jimi was looking for a new direction, being tired of feeling like a circus side-show, playing to crowds only wanting the flamboyant, outrageous stunts he preformed at monterey. to jimi only the music mattered. and he was now wanting to broaden his horizons. he had fired the experience's bassist, noel redding, after noel hedeged about jimi's want to expand the band and explore new sounds and dimensions (in the film, noel professes a distaste for the way the band was headed, but he knew all along it was jimi, soon after noel split he started a band called 'fat matress' ... fat chance!) ... we're sure he was glad to lose the crybaby.

anyways, jimi got one of his old friends, a paratrooper buddy, billy cox, to play bass in his new incarnation. he kept mitch mitchell from the experience, who was a very good drummer that jimi could rely on, even if he was a silly white british kid, and went to woodstock before the festival to spend a week or two working up the new line-up. he called another ex-vietnam vet friend to come and join the band ...and larry lee was one of the few unknowns who could keep up with jimi on guitar at the time ... just listen to his solo during 'jam back at the house', he and jimi have one of the coolest guitar duels ever captured on tape!

okay, enuff, we need to spread this out as there is a few weeks worth of great jimi shit to share with the world from the old w'room's archives ...

so, here is a radio show given to the w'room by a.g. (maybe he could say where it is from, we have no idea), but it is very long, cool and entertaining, and in a very huge file, via yousendit:

the jimi hendrix story (part one of three)
1 hr 23 min