New (Old) Vinyl

Otis Redding / The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Historic Performances Recorded At The Monterey International Pop Festival, 1967

   Sometimes I sit in my room and cry a tear for the deaths of Joe Strummer of The Clash and three of the four original Ramones and the overwhelming feeling of emptiness I get when I realize that I’ll never get to see these bands live. So I end up throwing on Rocket to Russia or London Calling and go back to doing whatever it was I was doing. So many sweaty punks witnessing the creation of alternative music as it’s known today without even realizing it. The difference between those shows and the one recorded on this LP are that the hippies definitely knew what they were hearing. How could they not? In It’s Kind of a Funny Story one of the mental patients had super-hearing from taking something like 100 tablets of LSD. I’m going to guess one or two were probably enough for these concert-goers to be completely floored by Otis Redding’s voice and Hendrix’s guitar.  So many sweaty punks, so many dirty hippies. About 50,000 of them actually. Ok, so a lot of them probably bathed regularly, and maybe there weren’t that many people on illicit substances. Someone was sober enough to record this show. And it’s a good thing they did.

    Hendrix was virtually unknown in the US beore this performance- only two years before he headlined at Woodstock. The album only features one Hendrix original, “Can You See Me” from the 1967 album Are You Experienced. Also included are two amazing performances of Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone,” followed by B.B. King’s “Rock Me, Baby.” Finally, in one of the coolest stunts of the time, Hendrix covered his guitar in lighter fluid, lit it on fire, and smashed it into pieces during “Wild Thing.”

If you’re not an Otis Redding fan, you’re missing out. This was one of his last big concerts before his death at age 26. Performing Sam Cook’s “Shake” and his own “Respect” the same year it was made famous by Aretha Franklin. “(I Can’t Get no) Satisfaction” puts Mick Jagger to shame. The concert ends with the 1930’s classic “Try A Little Tenderness,” turned one of the best songs of all time by Redding.

Also new to the library:

Bunny Walier- In I Father’s House. Solomonic Records. Kingston, Jamaica.1979

Original member of the Wailers (Bob Marley) and named one of the three most important musicians of all time. His fifth album released in 1979.

Windy City Blues: The Transition - 1935-1953. Nighthawk Records, St. Louis.

A compilation of obscure southern-born bluesmen who immigrated to Chicago before the Second World War. Featuring Robert Lockwood, Guitar Pete Franklin, Pinetop, State Street Boys, and Washboard Sam (among others).

-chris