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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Mca
Salesrank: 554919
Released: June 2, 1998 |
| Our Price: $4.98 |
| Used Price: $46.99 |
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| Media: Audio Cassette |
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Editorial Review:
Some of Jimi Hendrix's live radio broadcasts for the BBC were released by Rykodisc in 1988 on Radio One, but The BBC Sessions, remastered and fleshed out into a two-disc completist's dream, is perhaps the best document of how the Experience sounded live in 1967. From blues stomps such as Muddy Waters's "Catfish Blues" to surly R&B vamps such as the three takes of Curtis Knight's "Driving South," Hendrix explores his roots with hardscrabble passion. Meanwhile, he pushes the psychedelic-pop spectrum with surprisingly rich versions of studio-tweaked numbers like "The Burning of the Midnight Lamp." There's plenty of slop--a stumbling jam with Stevie Wonder on "I Was Made to Love Her"--and lots of horsing around and awkward interview fragments. But in its balance of pop form, interstellar improv, R&B pedigree, and sheer charm, The BBC Sessions is about as accurate and honest a snapshot of the charismatic, still-pimply 24-year-old phenom as you're likely to hear. --James Rotondi
BBC Sessions Reviews:
Jimi's amazing beginnings in the UK 
2009-12-09 - This CD catalogs Jimi Hendrix' complete BBC sessions material. Sometimes slick, sometimes sloppy, sometimes playful, this CD contains all of Jimi's BBC sessions, including the audio of a TV Appearance on the Lulu Show.
And it is amazing.
Due to arcane performance and programming laws, the BBC was mandated to have a certain portion of live artist performance during its air-time, and subsequently a number of now classic bands, such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Yardbirds, Cream, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix (to name but a few) made pre-recorded live performance tapes for the BBC at the first crest of their incipient careers, capturing these artists youthful energy and spontenaity for all time. For many years, this material was the substance of dozens of bootleg LPs and CDs, it wasn't until the late 1980's that some this material began to see legitimate release. In Jimi Hendrix' case, it was on the Ryko release "Radio One" a single-CD that cherry-picked many of the best cuts found on this 2 CD set. These tapes, like all BBC tapes of this era are monophonic, i.e. NOT in stereo, and subsequently not exactly up to the sound standards of the 21st Century. However, they still sound fine, and capture Jimi at a period in his career when his ideas were still fresh, and his creative performing on the ascendant. This is one of the better, if not the best, compilations of live Jimi Hendrix around. HIGHLY reccommended.
OFF THE CHARTS
2009-05-08 - Quite simply, if you are a Hendrix fan this 2 CD set is off the charts.
MORE OF JIMI'S MUSICAL LEGACY
2008-11-13 - THESE RECORDINGS WERE MADE LIVE IN THE BBC STUDIOS AND BROADCASTED ON THE AIR IN 1967. THEY INCLUDE SONGS FROM THE JHE FIRST FOUR ALBUMS, "THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE", "ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?", "ELECTRIC LADYLAND" AND AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE", AS WELL AS COVER VERSIONS OF SONGS BY MUDDY WATERS, BOB DYLAN, STEVIE WONDER, THE BEATLES, ELVIS PRESELY, A COUPLE OF SHORT JAMS, INTERVIEWS, INTRODUCTIONS AND JINGLES. GREAT RECORDING QUALITY SOUND, AND SOME BLISTERING GUITAR WORK BY JIMI. THE SECOND CD HAS MORE EXPTENDED GUTIAR SOLOS THAN THE FIRST CD. A NICE ADDITION TO ANYBODY'S COLLECTION OF JIMI HENDRIX MUSIC. I HAVE THE BBC SESSIONS ALBUMS BY THE WHO AND THE BEATLES, AND THOSE ARE GREAT AS WELL.
(4.5 stars) A remarkable archive release
2008-03-17 - This is my favorite Hendrix live album for the same reason that Electric Ladyland is my favorite Hendrix studio album: it shows off his range better than any others. I'll grant that's not exactly a fair thing to say, because it's a compilation spanning his entire career, but as it turns out that career was quite a diverse one, so that's okay. This runs the gamut - Hendrix blues ("Catfish Blues", which served for the basis of the "Voodoo Chile" jam; "Hear My Train a Comin'", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Hey Joe", "Hound Dog", featuring a bunch of real dogs, a manic "Killin' Floor"), funk-rock ("Little Miss Lover"; the instrumental "Driving South"), ear busting acid-rock ("Foxey Lady"; a stripped-down "Burning of the Midnight Lamp"; "Purple Haze"; "Fire"; "Love or Confusion"; "Spanish Castle Magic"), and even a few covers of contemporary covers - the famous snippet from "Sunshine of Your Love"; a fine cover of "Day Tripper"; and, best of them all, Dylan's obscure b-side "Can I Please Crawl Out Your Window?". There's even a brief set with Stevie Wonder, who guests on his own hit "I Was Made to Love Her", and jams with Hendrix on the aptly-titled instrumental "Jammin'" I prefer the blues tracks greatly - "Catfish Blues", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Hear My Train a-Comin'" and "Killin' Floor" are probably the album's best four songs, more or less in that order. But just about everything is great - I really like the underproduced "Burning of the Midnight Lamp"; while "Foxey Lady", "Fire" and "Stone Free" are as invigorating as ever. Plus I'll always love Mitch's drumming on "Little Miss Lover". And the Stevie Wonder set is fantastic, merging two of the most fantastic musical talents of the 20th century. So I have little to no complaints about the music itself. Okay, so "Purple Haze" is disappointing. I don't think Jimi ever recorded a truly excellent live version of that song, because part of its greatness is in its trippy production, production he couldn't really recreate live. Instead, my main problem here is with the layout, so to speak. A couple songs are presented in multiple takes, and while I really enjoy "Hey Joe", "Driving South", "Foxey Lady" and "Hear My Train a-Comin'", multiple versions of the same songs that differ only superficially are both redundant and exhausting. Even with that little gripe, this is still an essential addition to the Hendrix catalog.
The Jimi Genius
2007-11-25 - Well I've had the Ryko collection for years but I didn't hesitate too long before deciding to buy this. This is the complete version and well worth the price of admission. All great stuff recorded before the Monterey concert, which broke him in America. All the genius is there in spades. A must have!!
