It's easy to take Jimi Hendrix for granted.

Over the years, we've all become way too familiar with his music. We've heard Purple Haze and Stone Free a million times on radio. We've watched repeatedly as he sets fire to that Strat, plays with his teeth, reinvents the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock. We've seen interviews, rockumentaries, tributes. How much more is there to know about Jimi?

Well, quite a bit, actually. As fans know, Hendrix was one of the most-recorded performers in history. Every gig, studio date and jam session seems to have been captured on tape. And since his untimely, rock-cliche death 30 years ago, that material has dribbled out in a steady stream of quickie, cash-in releases. Some are authorized. Most are bootlegs. Few put the material in context or shed light on the reality behind the myth.

The lavish new box set The Jimi Hendrix Experience -- the latest high-quality release from the Hendrix clan -- finally gets it right. A four-CD collection of obscure and hard-to-find tracks, this isn't just another greatest-hits career chronology. If anything, these 56 tracks provide an alternate history of Jimi, taking us behind the scenes in the studio and on stage at shows most casual fans haven't heard. In doing so, it achieves what no other compilation has -- it gives us a new appreciation for Hendrix.

Case in point: Purple Haze. At first blush, the version heard here -- an alternate take from his first major recording session -- sounds like the one we've all memorized. Then little differences crop up: A choppier guitar line, a looser vocal delivery, a new solo, a spacy, "freak-out" ending with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding chanting the title like Gregorian monks. Suddenly, you're hearing the song and Hendrix with fresh ears. And realizing that Jimi's sound didn't just spring fully formed -- it evolved with the help of his bandmates, manager-producer Chas Chandler and engineer Eddie Kramer.

Many of Hendrix's best-loved tunes are presented in similar embryonic states. Some, like Hey Joe and Foxey Lady, differ only slightly from their more famous cousins. Others, like Burning of the Midnight Lamp -- heard in its original incarnation as a harpsichord instrumental -- are less recognizable, with different arrangements, partial vocals and studio chatter that offer insight into that collaborative recording process. Also included are studio versions of tracks more familiar in their live form, like The Star Spangled Banner (a multi-tracked blanket of glorious synth-like guitars) and Message to Love (a funky, proto-disco groove with female backup vocalists). They work just as well, if not better, as studio tracks than they did in a concert setting.

However, those who prefer Hendrix in concert won't be disappointed. The set has 18 live cuts, stretching from early European gigs (incendiary versions of Killing Floor and Hey Joe taped in Paris in 1966) to his final Isle of Wight Concert (All Along the Watchtower, In From the Storm), just weeks before his death. Disc 3, with five numbers from 1969 dates in California and London, is especially satisfying, with Hendrix at the height of his powers, inserting jaw-dropping guitar alchemy and free-flowing jams into Red House, Purple Haze and Voodoo Child. Equally cool are the cover tracks, like Johnny B. Goode, Blue Suede Shoes and a version of Sgt. Pepper recorded live just days after its release -- and with some of The Beatles watching. Less satisfying is a slightly remixed version of the widely available single Gloria, if only because its familiarity breaks the box set's spell.

Of course, it's hardly the only track that's been heard before. Hendrix buffs probably already have many of these tunes in slightly different form -- especially if they own In The West and Rainbow Bridge. And most of the live cuts have been bootlegged for decades. But even Hendrix completists probably don't have all of this. They sure don't have it presented as beautifully as it is here -- remixed by Kramer, remastered, accompanied by an 80-age book with rare photos, lyric-sheet reproductions and extensive notes, all packed in a purple-velvet box that would make Prince swoon and justifies its $137 price tag.

For Jimi fans and casual listeners alike, it's a new Experience.

Wednesday, October 18, 2000

Hendrix box set the real deal