Which are the Best Hendrix Remasters?
Posted by: Markus on 31 January 2002
So, fellow Hendrix fans, which Hendrix remasters are the best? Please comment on both cd and vinyl...
Thanks for your counsel.
Mark
Also - my vinyl versions are the stereo remasters from a coupla years ago - I believe that mono remasters were released not long ago.
Cheers
Keith.
(So what would be the point of mono remasters?)
Paul
quote:
Originally posted by Paul Ranson:
Surely all the Hendrix albums were recorded and mixed for stereo?(So what would be the point of mono remasters?)
My question also. Hendrix liked to play with stereo effects (which were little more than turning the pan knob) so I can't imagine why.
Cheers
Keith.
quote:
Hendrix liked to play with stereo effects (which were little more than turning the pan knob)
I think there's some phasing or flanging type stuff on Axis?
Paul
I wouldn't technically call "flanging" a stereo effect, though I would be hard to dismiss phasing. I didn't know that they were fooling around with that back then!
Guess Jimi and I need to re-acquaint ourselves in the next few days 
Cheers
Keith.
I'm mostly into classical, but your comments brought back old memories, so I bought The Axis: Bold as Love. When I was a kid I was so much impressed with this album. The title track - last one on the B side - is such a gorgeous blues tune.
I have to say listening to the remastered CD thirty years later is a weird experience. The sheer sound is so overwhelming if you're used to classical. And yes, there's a lot of ill-judged left-right switching. On 'Is this true,' the second track (great song), the guitar solo moves from left to right almost every frase. It's a little distracting.
In "If 6 was 9" (JH's shot at Sergeant Pepper's) JH's voice is in the right speaker, which leaves an awkward void when he isn't singing.
I don't know about you, but I like the R & B - like songs the best (the ones I mentioned, for instance). Hendrix's genius was playing the saxophone on a Fender strat. He doesn't follow six-string / fret logic. He's blowing that horn. That's where his unusually lyric lines come from. I'd say, get the current remasters: the sound is super (and yes the effects are a little silly at times).
Did I tell you I saw a JHExp set back in 1967?
Herm
[This message was edited by herm on FRIDAY 01 February 2002 at 20:34.]
FWIW the intro to 'Little Wing' caused a penny to drop regarding the 'tune' and ended up with a defection from Naim.
Paul
quote:
Axis: Bold as Love. When I was a kid I was so much impressed with this album. The title track - last one on the B side - is such a gorgeous blues tune
A lot of people don't recognize that Hendrix started out learning blues, and it shows very well in a lot of his work. I agree - his best work speaks to those roots. Best example for me is Voodoo Chile - those solos are pure blues and little else.
btw - there is (was?) a CD released not all that long ago simply called "Hendrix Blues" - I picked up my copy about 7 years ago. It's a mix of Hendrix at his bluesiest best, and several of his songs performed by other bluesmen. A great example is Albert Lee doing "Red House' yum yum.
quote:
Classic Records re-released the mono version of Axis on vinyl. The mix is wonderfully judged, less fussy and more weighty than the stereo version. The general production values are superb. I prefer the mono. There again I prefer mono Dylan and Beatles too, so maybe I'm biased.
I just picked up two of Sundazed Records' Dylan releases in mono and I love them - though I can't speak to much recollection as to how the stereo releases. But I agree - the panpotting Left-Right-Left... of Hendrix's guitar gets pretty old.
Reminds me of a buddy that I've gotten into hard jazz (thanks to a couple of Sonny Rollins CDs) - he can listen to most of it only with the "mono" setting on his hifi switched on. He can't stand the "all of this instrument will come from this speaker" sound. Unfortunately, neither my Exposure XV nor my NAC 102 have a mono setting...
Cheers
Keith.
quote:
Did I tell you I saw a JHExp set back in 1967?
You're a god, Herm 
Cheers
Keith.
No, just old. Perhaps Hendrix was a god (his lyrics are so touching at times) - though he was outa there fast. The drummer was pretty amazing, too.
Only thing was, you could really tell the bass player wanted six strings of his own.
And listening to the Axis today it struck me how (relatively) uninventive the bass playing is.
Herm
[This message was edited by herm on FRIDAY 01 February 2002 at 22:54.]
Of course Hendrix was a blues man first and last, but I think you can tell he spent a lot of time touring with R & B line-ups featuring one or two saxophone players. (He backed Wilson Pickett didn't he?)
Most guitar players in the mid-sixties play solos from simple positions. You put your left hand, say on the fifth fret, and you wanna get a lot of mileage from that position before you move up.
Hendrix was totally different: his frasing is all over the neck, and that's because (methinks) he's basically playing horn solos. That's why he was such distortion maven and was always bending the notes. That's how you get that horn sound.
Even the theatrical guitar-hero poses may partially be reminiscenses of what you do when you're really blowing that horn - pointing it up to the skies above.
Or am I just imagining things?
Herm
[This message was edited by herm on FRIDAY 01 February 2002 at 23:19.]
Not at all Herm. Jimi worshipped Coltrane and that sound he and his sax made. He always wanted to copy the fury and relentlessness of Trane's monsoons... I think he did it.
regards,
dave
well, too bad about Hendrix, however the Who were a really bad live band, as I recall. Typically they played so blastingly loud you really didn't hear a single thing. This was something a lot of sixties bands did to cover up their lack of technical prowess. I blame 'em for my patches of bad hearing. (Admittedly, I heard the Who in the early seventies, when they were doing Tommy stuff all the time.)
Herm
on the "Hi-Fi Corner", I thought you were deaf with a serious case of engineeritis. It turns
out you just have crap hi-fi!
You said above;
quote:
FWIW the intro to 'Little Wing' caused a penny to drop regarding the 'tune' and ended up with a defection from Naim.
You made allusions to that intro being "phasing or flanging". That intro is actually just a Marshall amp played through a Leslie speaker. Nothing more, nothing less. No studio tricks, no effects. Hendrix was the master of rhythm and tone, and often played out of tune(live) at the expense of not missing a beat. [Does the phrase "only cowboys play in tune" mean anything to you?] Naim amps are also the masters of rhythm and tone. Listen to Little Wing on an LP-12/Naim hi-fi and you'll clearly hear it's Strat/Marshall/Leslie throughout the whole song. If you can't discern that on your hi-fi, your hi-fi is crap! Sorry for the rant.
Markus,
Regarding the "best sounding" Hendrix I have two views:
One is that clearly the best sounding recordings of Are You Experienced?, Axis:Bold As Love, and Electric Ladyland(his only "true" studio albums over which he had full control) are the newest "Experience Hendrix" versions. After that, you get into the whole world of bootlegs, unreleased, unavailable, etc. vs. new remixes of the same. As Keith said, collect them all!
View number two; only buy Hendrix on vinyl!
Until two years ago, I wasn't a Band Of Gypsies fan. Then after seeing the movie which is black and white and poor picture quality as well as terrible sound, I bought the "Live at The Filmore East" record. What a revelation. That record is a compilation of all four concerts the Band Of Gypsies did. It is an "Experience Hendix" product and features two versions of "Machine Gun" both of which send shivers up your spine. To quote the album liner: "[Jimi] used a fuzz face, Wah Wah pedal, Uni-Vibe, and Octavia, ......you can hear it all kicking in on Machine Gun". Unless of course your hi-fi only follows the tune,...
Ron The Mon
P.S.
Hendrix Trivia; name the best guitar solo Jimi did which can only be heard on LP.
quote:
You made allusions to that intro being "phasing or flanging".
Err, no I didn't. I was wondering why anybody would want a remastering of Axis in mono when the original was clearly intended to be stereo. To quote the man himself,
"It's made with stereo in mind and I hope everyone can dig it in stereo because that's what it's all about. The album was made over a period of sixteen days and we all helped in producing it with Chas Chandler, and I mixed it with him as well - so it really is us.
We've tried to get most of the freaky tracks right into another dimension so you get that sky effect like they're coming down out of the heavens, you know"
So maybe there's no phasing or flanging, but there is intentional stereo....
Regarding the intro to 'Little Wing' there is more going on that has a tune than Hendrix playing guitar twice. And this is clearly audible from a UKP3.49 when new 'Nice Price' sliver of vinyl....
Paul
The thing about Jimi is that after more than 30 years, he still sounds far ahead of his time.
It's a collection of miscellaneous live recordings, and it's worth owning solely for the most fantastic versions of Little Wing and Red House I've heard anywhere.
If Little Wing doesn't bring a tear to your eye, mourning the loss of such a huge talent, then your HiFi is definitely broken 
I'd love a good re-issue of this on, every home should have it.
Andy.
my girlfriend is bewildered at this turn of events. I bought the axis-remastering (Exerience Hendrix) a week ago. Listened to it for a day or two and then gave it to friend. Resumption of life as normal.
Still intrigued I got the Are you experienced remaster today.
The interesting thing is comparing these two albums. Axis is an overwhelming sound world, JH's strat pouring juicy syrup all over the music. And all the funny efects.
AYExp on the other hand is a rather straightforward soundscape. It's not totally different from what I heard thirty plus years ago on a crappy little gramophone and one speakerbox, whereas Axis was a revelation.
The Wind Cries Mary for instance has the voice in the left channel and the drums in the right channel. The guitar solo takes over the left channel. I'd rather hear it in mono. In fact I suspect Stone Free is mono.
Inside the booklet there's a facsimile of the bill JH's manager paid to record the album. 55 pounds (of course, back then UKP was worth four times today's pound). I'm sure the success of the singles (I used to have the first three singles) and the album allowed for the luscious production of Axis. I want my Axis back!
Herm
[This message was edited by herm on MONDAY 04 February 2002 at 19:56.]
quote:
Originally posted by Andrew L. Weekes:
Of all the Hendrix albums I have, 'Hendrix in the West' is by far the most played.It's a collection of miscellaneous live recordings, and it's worth owning solely for the most fantastic versions of Little Wing and Red House I've heard anywhere.
Andy.
"There's a red house over yonder ... "
Smoke-a-delic!
The only thing that comes close is the Hal Leonard Publications "educational" CD and booklet, Red House. Six previously unreleased versions of Red House, none better than on Hendrix In the West, but a couple just as good and the rest still very good. Probably long out of print.
Pardon my ignorance, but what format is this album on? Cd or vinyl? Anything special I need to look for or is this pretty readily available?
Thanks,
Markus
And concerning the above recomendation by Andy for "In The West", the entire concert of the famous(and best version of) Little Wing is available on vinyl as "The Royal Albert Hall", which is the entire concert. And Little Wing, as well as the whole concert, sounds even better than the "In The West" record!
The "Experience Hendrix" website is not up to date as many records are currently out which they don't mention. Check your local record shop. I had to special order most copies, though my fave shop seems to always have the triple album "Hendrix at Woodstock" in their bins.
Ron The Mon
It would be nice to have a complete end to end concert, does one exist?
Paul