JIMI HENDRIX – Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts [2019 official release]

To be released tomorrow by the Official JIMI HENDRIX state / Experience Hendrix L.L.C, “Songs For Groovy Children” assembles all four concerts from New Year’s Eve 1969 and New Year’s Day 1970, 43 incendiary performances from the historic debut concerts by Band Of Gypsys at New York’s Fillmore East.
Presented in their original performance sequence and encompassing 43 tracks across 5 CDs or 8 LPs, the set boasts over two dozen tracks that have either never before been released.

Over the course of four extraordinary years, Jimi Hendrix placed his indelible stamp upon popular music with breathtaking velocity. Measured alongside his triumphs at Monterey Pop and Woodstock, Hendrix’s legendary Fillmore East concerts illustrated a critical turning point in a radiant career filled with indefinite possibilities.

In June of 1969, at the height of their fame, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, closed a musical chapter. Before the shockwaves could settle, Hendrix assembled a new, expanded ensemble to perform at Woodstock in August.
A new chapter was opened as Hendrix introduced Gypsy Sun and Rainbows. The large ensemble included Jimi’s longtime friend Billy Cox, on bass, whom he had befriended when both were serving with the 101st Airborne Division in Ft. Campbell, Kentucky in 1962. This Woodstock lineup was short-lived; from its ashes a new trio emerged in October that Hendrix dubbed Band of Gypsys, consisting of Hendrix, Cox and Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles, who would also contribute occasional lead vocals.

Hendrix was inspired by his collaboration with Cox and Miles and this creative renewal drove the development of promising new material such as “Power Of Soul,” “Burning Desire” and the extraordinary “Machine Gun.”
Their debut live performances were a series of four concerts at the Fillmore East in Manhattan – two on New Year’s Eve 1969 and two on New Year’s Day 1970, each of which were professionally recorded.

True to his unpredictability, Hendrix opened his four-show stint with a masterful, eleven song set that did not feature a single song he had commercially released. Exciting new songs such as “Izabella,” “Ezy Ryder” and “Burning Desire” thrilled the sold-out house.
Hendrix would pepper the remaining three shows with supercharged reworkings of favorites such as “Stone Free,” “Purple Haze,” and “Fire” but these were presented alongside such devastating, newly developed fare as “Machine Gun.”

In his review of the second New Year’s Eve concert, Down Beat critic Chris Albertson wrote, “That ability of his to utilize fully the technical possibilities of his instrument, combined with his fertile musical imagination, makes him an outstanding performer.”

By the end of January 1970, the band was history, but the blend of rock, funk and soul pioneered by the trio became history, making a profound impact on popular music in its wake.
“Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts” is a must for any classic rocker, and the sound quality is outstanding.
Highly Recommended

12/31/69 1ST SET
1. Power Of Soul
2. Lover Man
3. Hear My Train A Comin’
4. Changes
5. Izabella
6. Machine Gun
7. Stop
8. Ezy Ryder
9. Bleeding Heart
10. Earth Blues
11. Burning Desire

12/31/69 2ND SET
1. Auld Lang Syne%
2. Who Knows%
3. Fire
4. Ezy Ryder*
5. Machine Gun%
6. Stone Free
7. Changes*
8. Message To Love*
9. Stop*
10. Foxey Lady

1/1/70 1ST SET
1. Who Knows
2. Machine Gun+
3. Changes+
4. Power Of Soul%
5. Stepping Stone%
6. Foxey Lady+
7. Stop%
8. Earth Blues+
9. Burning Desire%

1/1/70 2ND SET
1. Stone Free%
2. Power Of Soul#
3. Changes#
4. Message To Love#
5. Lover Man
6. Lover Man*
7. Steal Away*
8. Earth Blues%

1/1/70 2ND SET
1. Voodoo Child (Slight Return)%
2. We Gotta Live Together#
3. Wild Thing%
4. Hey Joe*
5. Purple Haze*

* previously unreleased
+ first time on CD/LP (previously only available as part of concert film)
# longer, unedited versions of previously released material, and newly remixed
% back in print on CD/LP for the first time in a decade, and newly remixed

Jimi Hendrix: Guitar & Vocals
Buddy Miles: Drums & Vocals
Billy Cox: Bass & Backing Vocals

Produced By Janie Hendrix, Eddie Kramer & John McDermott for Experience Hendrix L.L.C

Pre Order:
www.amazon.co.uk/Songs-Groovy-Children-Fillmore-Concerts/dp/B07Y97FMKC