Jimi Hendrix Video:

		List Price: $14.98		Label: Mca Salesrank: 26173 Released: September 16, 2003
		Our Price: $7.97
		Used Price: $5.77
		MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
There is no denying it: Jimi Plays Berkeley ain't The Last Waltz. Visually, Peter Pilafian's direction and camerawork look like a student film compared to Scorsese's rock masterpiece. Instead of thanking fans and formally saying farewell to the road, Hendrix's manager Michael Jeffery created an exploitation film to simply squeeze as much cash he could out of the overworked guitarist. Despite the cheesy documentary footage, clips of silly protesters, butchered songs ("Hear My Train A Comin'" is literally chopped in half!), and the continuously shaky head shots, Jimi Plays Berkeley is great. Why? Because of Hendrix's flawless performance with Mitch Mitchell on drums and Billy Cox on bass. The band never sounded better live, and Eddie Kramer's 5.1 surround remix on the DVD really lifts the sound to a new level. In addition, the DVD includes the entire audio recording of Jimi Plays Berkeley: 2nd Set, arguably Hendrix's best live performance ever recorded. It's just perfect. --Rob Bracco

Jimi Plays Berkeley Reviews:
somebody help meeeee
2008-04-02 - People will complain about anything but I dont care what they say about the editing...the camera people were most likely high anyway which was the thing then. everybody was havin a good time, the audience, jimi, etc. just enjoy the damned dvd. anything with jimi hendrix in it is beautiful & sexy to me. he wasnt chewing gum in this one; some people complain about that but i dont care if he was chewing on a shoe string, as long as I can watch him in action!! the way he played voodoo chile and johnny b goode made me want to be a guitar in my next life if i can be handled like that and there is such a thing as reincarnation. anyhow, buy the dvd.you won't regret it.

Highly Recommended
2008-02-18 - You can't go wrong with this dvd. You get to SEE Hendrix play "Johnny B. Goode", "Hear My Train A Comin'", "I Don't Live Today", "Machine Gun", "Purple Haze", "Star Spangled Banner", and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)". Plus you get the rowdier second set (in audio only), which is almost twice as long as the video (and has some great stuff on it as well - the star-spangled banner is particularly inspired here).

As for the video, it's mind-blowing. So why quibble about the photography which lacks polish, but includes lots of things that work quite well. Hendrix is well covered. So is the audience. You really get a feel for the times. I didn't mind gratis shots of a Berkeley riot! I thought they were exciting and worked very well with Hendrix's playing in the background - they'd lost some footage of the concert and this was filler I guess, but really it's not that long, and it does bring you into what was going on at that time and in that place. Other small flaws on my video included movie titles in the begining that are slightly clipped, and grainy, unrestored color which looked similar to Woodstock quality footage.

I guess after reading all the moaning and groaning about video quality, I was expecting much worse, when it wasn't really that bad (we're talking the year after Woodstock) - BUT what's more important - Hendrix's playing at this show is incindiary - on fire. He writhes like a man possessed, plays the guitar every which way and we get to watch it, nay own it, for less than ten bucks! You can't go wrong here, and you'll have fun showing this little ditty to your friends for years to come.

Good Hendrix DVD
2007-11-09 - I personally liked this DVD. Let's face it, the guy is gone, and you have to grab what exists.

5 stars but only because of the Berkeley second set as audio bonus
2007-04-09 - Together with the bonus live concert the price isn't bad then, although I'd hesitate paying full-price for this disc. That's because like others have mentioned the songs are really chopped up, so if you know these songs it can be a frustrating experience. Some great moments are here, like the complete 'Johnny B. Goode', most of a brilliant 'Voodoo Child', possibly the best song here, and some brilliant moments from a heavily abbreviated 'Machine Gun'. Possibly what disappoints most people is to hear and watch one of Hendrix's all-time brilliant performances, the great version of 'Hear My Train A Comin', jerking clumsily in a few minutes of horrible editing through it's complete 12 minutes or so. 'Lover Man' goes directly from intro to outro, possibly to include a short, blistering guitar solo at the end, and the editing of other songs is also quite shocking, enough that one could be forgiven for thinking one was viewing one of the failed entries in a student film competition where each entrant was given footage of two Hendrix concerts and asked to produce a 49 min film. However, I vote this 5 stars on the basis of it being one of Hendrix's best concerts with many great moments, as well as it being an interesting historical document nonetheless. Note that you need a DVD player for the audio, it won't play on a CD player. I tried to rip the audio to get it on a CD for more convenient listening and to convert it to MP3 but failed. Any ideas on how this can be done can be entered as a comment to me in the box below and will be greatly appreciated.

A reminder of the irreplaceable.
2007-03-09 - The best way to bring back the sixties and early seventies,the best time of my life, is to watch and listen to Hendrix and a few others. The sound on the new DVDs is incredible. Altogether an uplifting experience for the '68 generaton.