Experience Hendrix L.L.C. in partnership with Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, is releasing the Jimi Hendrix Experience Los Angeles Forum: April 26, 1969 this November 18 on 2LP vinyl, CD and all digital platforms.
Recorded in the spring of 1969 before a raucous, sold-out audience, the captivating performance of the original lineup (singer/guitarist Jimi Hendrix, drummer Mitch Mitchell, bassist Noel Redding) has never before been released in its entirety. This album comes out in time for the 80th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s birth (Nov 27).
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Los Angeles Forum: April 26, 1969 tracklist:
- Intro
- Tax Free
- Foxey Lady
- Red House
- Spanish Castle Magic
- Star Spangled Banner
- Purple Haze
- I Don’t Live Today
- Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
- Sunshine of Your Love
- Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
The liner notes are by former Los Angeles Times staff writer/critic Randy Lewis with a preface by ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons who attended the Hendrix Forum show, having toured with the Experience, as part of the Moving Sidewalks, his pre-ZZ band.
Following the massive success of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 1967-68 studio album trifecta (Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, Electric Ladyland), the trio had developed into the most popular international touring attraction in rock music.
This widescale public interest coincided with the construction of new arenas for sporting events, among them the Forum in Inglewood, CA. Designed by famed architect Charles Luckman (who also designed New York’s rebuilt Madison Square Garden), this multi-purpose venue opened in 1967 as the home of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, but also began to serve as a music venue.
Among the earliest concerts held there was Aretha Franklin in January 1968 and the Cream farewell tour with opening act Deep Purple in October of that year. The Jimi Hendrix Experience were booked to perform on April 26, 1969 with opening acts Chicago Transit Authority (soon-to-be renamed Chicago) and Cat Mother & The All Night Newsboys, the latter of whom shared management with the headliners. Floor seats cost $6.50.
A news announcement from Legacy Recordings and About Experience Hendrix, L.L. C. describes the upcoming 2022 Hendrix retail product.
“By the time the Jimi Hendrix Experience took the stage to blaze through a spirited set, live concert sound had drastically improved from the time of the Beatles baseball stadium tours, but crowd control was still a major concern. Between songs, Jimi pled with audience members to stop rushing the stage. A heavy police presence is felt; lyrics for their hit “Purple Haze” are altered (“‘Scuse me while I kiss that policeman!”) and Jimi dedicates “Spanish Castle Magic” to “the plain clothes police out there and other goofballs.”
“Hendrix treated each performance as a unique event. He never relied on a standard set list comprised only of his biggest commercial hits. This approach was on full display at the Forum performance, blending more familiar tunes such as “Foxey Lady” with “I Don’t Live Today” from Are You Experienced and his signature blues original “Red House” (“Everybody want to know what America’s soul is; everybody think it’s Motown . . . America’s soul is something more like this here”) which had still not yet been released in the US at this time.
“Furthermore, the group opened their set with a cover of “Tax Free” – an obscure 1967 instrumental by Swedish duo Hansson & Karlsson (consisting of Bo Hansson and Janne Karlsson), with whom the Experience had previously shared bills in Stockholm. Another unique highlight featured within the Forum performance was an early reimagining of “The Star Spangled Banner,” which Jimi would canonize four months later at Woodstock. “Here’s a song we was all brainwashed with,” Jimi trenchantly declares, at a time when the nation was in a state of great political unrest. The group closed their performance with a unique, extraordinary medley of “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” and Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love”. The song was an Experience favorite and a perfect live vehicle for the trio’s unparalleled improvisational skill.”
Also being released during the month of Jimi Hendrix’s 80th birthday is the book JIMI, published by Chronicle Chroma.
JIMI is a visually stunning and specially curated deluxe 320-page hardcover book authored by Janie Hendrix and John McDermott. Childhood stories, rarely seen photos and candid images, dedications and inspirational anecdotes will give fans an inside look at the music legend’s groundbreaking artistry.
A press release from Chronicle Chroma details the volume.
“It’s hard to imagine that Jimi would be 80… Perhaps it’s because he will be forever young in our minds and alive in our hearts,” says co-author, sister to Jimi Hendrix, and Experience Hendrix president and CEO Janie Hendrix. “We celebrate his inspiring life with this beautifully designed tribute to Jimi that features a collection of images, art, and memories that tell his story as not only a legendary guitarist and musician, but as an incomparable human being who so briefly graced planet earth with his presence.
“Chronicle Chroma is an imprint of Chronicle Books LLC chroniclechroma.com. JIMI is an official collaboration with Janie Hendrix and John McDermott of Experience Hendrix L.L.C., and significantly expands on the authors' previously published titles, including An Illustrated Experience.
“The collective work also features a new introduction by Janie, extensive biographical texts, and a trove of photographs, personal memorabilia, handwritten lyrics, and more, giving full inside access in ways fans have never seen before. Additionally, JIMI includes quotations by musicians, such as Paul McCartney, Ron Wood, Jeff Beck, Lenny Kravitz, Drake, Dave Grohl, and others expressing their sentiments on Jimi’s lasting influence.”
Harvey Kubernik is the author of 20 books, including 2009’s Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon and 2014’s Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972. Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. In 2021 they wrote Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child for Sterling/Barnes and Noble. Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s Docs That Rock, Music That Matters.
Kubernik’s writings are in several book anthologies, including, The Rolling Stone Book Of The Beats and Drinking With Bukowski. Harvey wrote the liner notes to the CD re-releases of Carole King’s Tapestry, The Essential Carole King, Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish, Elvis Presley The ’68 Comeback Special, The Ramones’ End of the Century and Big Brother & the Holding Company Captured Live at The Monterey International Pop Festival.
In November 2006, Harvey was invited to address audiotape preservation and archiving at special hearings called by The Library of Congress held in Hollywood, California. During July, 2017, Kubernik was a guest speaker at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Library & Archives Author Series in Cleveland, Ohio discussing his 2017 book 1967 A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love.
