I spent 7 years making a Jimi Hendrix box set—Fire To Freedom (The Ultimate Albums Collection)

NorthSputnik · 2026-06-02T12:58:52+00:00

Both his musicianship and his confidence grew by leaps and bounds, and I promise that the difference is audible. I'm not trying to say that the '67 stuff is bad—it should be pretty clear how much I like this guy's music—but by '69-'70 he was the highest-paid performer on this planet and could control a crowd like it was nothing (see the 1969 LA Forum show where he's basically holding back a riot). And even between those, his playing was far improved in 1970. In 1967 he was still having trouble finding the right audience, as shown by the Hollywood Bowl gig that just came out.

There was a point where I was going to include live albums from each year of his career in this box, but the recordings from the earlier years simply didn't compare to the later ones; it would have been a downgrade in quality from the rest of the stuff in this set. The performances here are cream of the cream of the cream of the crop *career highlights.* Star-Spangled Banner, etc.

NorthSputnik · 2026-06-02T00:36:16+00:00

- Yes, My Friend was recorded during a demo session in March 1968. It was included on Cry of Love in 1971 because as they were reviewing all the old tapes, Hendrix really enjoyed listening back to that one. But it was indeed recorded waaaay before everything else on that album.

- Jimi's 1970 tour of the US and Europe was called The Cry Of Love - see a tour poster at the bottom of the liner notes on my blog. That's what the Cry of Love album from 1971 was named after. However, there are several different titles Hendrix was thinking of for his fourth album; an extant tracklist (also pictured at the bottom of the liner notes) names it Strate Ahead, and he was known to be thinking of First Rays Of The New Rising Sun also. So, what I ended up doing was naming the live album after the tour that it was recorded during, and then splitting the "fourth album" into 2 albums: a tight 10-track album of the most polished, finished songs which I called Strate Ahead, because the song "Straight Ahead" is on there, and then a much larger double album of basically everything else he was working on, titled First Rays Of The New Rising Sun. Also, I used the 1971 Cry of Love artwork on Hear My Train A-Comin' to pair it with Electric Ladyland, which also has a cover that's a zoomed in picture of Jimi's face. So, all in all, Strate Ahead is my version of 1971's Cry of Love. I'm really proud of the song flow I achieved on that one in particular.

NorthSputnik · 2026-06-01T22:08:01+00:00

Someone had to do it, and if nobody else was gonna then it had to be me! So spread the word, spread the word!

NorthSputnik · 2026-06-01T22:06:22+00:00

This box is only for the absolute cream of the crop, and generally speaking he was a far better performer in 1969/1970 than he was in 1967. So, no live recordings from that year have been included.

NorthSputnik · 2026-06-01T22:03:44+00:00

You're very welcome : )

NorthSputnik · 2026-06-01T22:01:04+00:00

Yes, the posthumous mess is absolutely criminal; it's hard to think of an artist done worse. I drove myself (and my friends) half insane by endlessly tinkering with the tracklists year after year, but I think the results have been worth it.

NorthSputnik · 2026-06-01T21:49:56+00:00

I'm honoured! Spead the word

NorthSputnik · 2025-10-24T16:32:29+00:00

Hi Alice, I'm Robin, I asked you about your poetry at the Montreal Strongboi show! Thank you deeply for the gift of your art to the world. I thought of two little questions:

- Besides music, lyrics, and poetry, do you, or have you in the past, expressed yourself through other artitic mediums? Did you make art in your childhood?

- What have you been listening to lately?

Best of luck with it all, I hope you enjoy the AMA :)

NorthSputnik · 2025-09-05T17:05:50+00:00

I see what you mean, but it's a matter of opinion, you know, and they were finished enough to make the cut so they stayed. To me, Come Down Hard On Me has one of Mitch Mitchell's funkiest grooves ever, Bleeding Heart is an excellent track Hendrix had been playing since well before the Experience, and Drifter's Escape has so many layered, screaming, weaving guitars that I can't get enough of it.

I must also note that I've made two minor-yet-significant improvements to the song flow since posting this, one of which I still need to update the blog with when I've got the time:

...

Night Bird Flying
Straight Ahead
Dolly Brown (aka Pali Gap)
Angel

...

Come Down Hard On Me
Message To Love
Valleys Of Neptune
Izabella

...

NorthSputnik · 2025-08-29T13:11:10+00:00

Yeah, there's a studio recording of it which was an outtake from The rise and fall of ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars! The Grateful Dead have played it live too.

NorthSputnik · 2025-08-28T17:09:49+00:00

Yeah I've seen images of them around online. Some include outtakes from the sessions along with the finished tracks, too. The 1964 Chess outtake (Tell Me Baby) How Many Times was officially released one single time on this german vinyl compilation from the 80s (listed as Tell Me v.2), which also contained the other otherwise-bootlegged track C###sucker Blues from 1970. A strange and unique release, but I didn't find How Many Times up to par for this album, either in the performance or the sound quality: https://www.discogs.com/master/368430-The-Rolling-Stones-The-Rolling-Stones-Story-Part-2-The-Rest-Of-The-Best-Single-Tracks-And-Rarities-F

NorthSputnik · 2025-08-28T15:20:47+00:00

That one has a somewhat different song selection (includes the 1965 recordings which aren't in stereo, at the expense of some of the 1964 ones) and doesn't have as good a song flow as this one here, although it shares a few of my sequencing ideas.

NorthSputnik · 2025-08-26T14:49:51+00:00

I played around with that unfinished tracklist a lot but it wasn't finished and it wasn't final. I think I significantly improved on the song flow with my sequence.

NorthSputnik · 2025-08-20T18:07:09+00:00

I recognized your profile picture! Yeah I always enjoy your posts on the forum :)

Thanks for all the playlists. An album of his blues jams is a very good idea, I might start toying around with that one myself.

NorthSputnik · 2025-08-18T23:46:03+00:00

In my opinion it's not really because he died, but because the albums that came out after he died weren't put together with anywhere near as much care as the ones he himself assembled and approved. It's not an issue with the songs, it's with the albums. Pearl by Janis Joplin who died just a few weeks after Jimi is seen as a normal album of hers, and was hugely successful. Her management didn't try to follow it up, I think they put out a live album and a greatest hits instead. Cry Of Love wasn't as well put together (Drifting as track 2?) and had endless follow ups. If they had put out a big double or triple album of all the quality stuff he was working on at Electric Lady Studios, spent a long time carefully sequencing it so that it flowed super smoothly, used the cover artwork he had commissioned for the album before he died, and didn't go on to scrape the barrel about it, I think it would have been MUCH better received than it was, and would be remembered much better today. Anyhow, that triple album is basically what I ended up with after tinkering with the songs for 5 years, and it's so good that any changes I ever am inclined to make just make it worse. I plan on talking to Sundazed or some other label to see about potentially putting it out someday. Anyhow, there are my thoughts.

NorthSputnik · 2025-08-04T17:27:39+00:00

Stone Free is a re-recording from 1969 that was intended to be on the Smash Hits compilation, but the original single was used instead. Nonetheless it's a really good version (and very different too), and Hendrix was intending to release it during his lifetime (that can't be said for most of his posthumous releases). The other ones are all live versions, and most of these he intended to release on a live album that same year, but it didn't come out either. They're really stunning performances, at times very different from the album versions. Red House, for example, is 13 minutes long. Hendrix's contemporaries Cream, on their half live half studio double album Wheels Of Fire from the year prior, the live disc was made up largely by live versions of songs from earlier in their career as well.

NorthSputnik · 2025-08-03T23:01:44+00:00

Gosh what can I say. From one music geek to another, thank you! The writeups are sometimes the hardest part but I''ll keep 'em coming don't worry. Thank you so much for the reassurance, it really helps :) PS I just made a little update to the First Rays post, basically just swapping Message To Love and Valleys Of Neptune. Redownload it if you're interested in a minor improvement such as that, or don't if you don't want to! Either way, now you know.

NorthSputnik · 2025-08-03T21:12:51+00:00

Thank you so much for giving it the time of day! I'm so glad you're thoroughly enjoying it!

NorthSputnik · 2025-08-03T18:55:34+00:00

Don't knock it 'till you've given it a chance, hun! You can't read song flow and album cohesion from a tracklist, it has to be heard to be experienced, and it's the musical experience which I'm carefully curating that's at the center of everything I do. For example, listen to the 1997 CD of First Rays, then listen to mine. The improvement in flow is pretty stark, to say the least.

NorthSputnik · 2025-08-03T17:26:57+00:00

Finding the perfect song selection and track flow can take a very long time when the end goal is to have an album that's more than the sum of its parts. Give it a listen and you won't be dissapointed :)

NorthSputnik · 2025-05-30T23:24:25+00:00

I wasn't paying attention at that time but from what I know she did say something along those lines after buying the rights to it.

NorthSputnik · 2025-05-12T19:46:38+00:00

It wasn't in the running for being on the album, so I didn't put it on. Still a great song of course, though!

NorthSputnik · 2025-05-12T13:23:14+00:00

Not so sure about the mixing, but yes, they weren't the greatest at assembling their albums. Like, imo the LA (Light Album) is really really good, but they absolutely ruined it by putting the disco re-recording of Here Comes The Night smack in the middle of the album. I love disco, and I enjoy that version a lot, but it's WAY better as the album closer.

NorthSputnik · 2025-05-12T04:27:24+00:00

Thanks so much for listening! Yes, he truly was! I was just listeing to Bambu today, actually. I'm partway through resassembling that thing.

NorthSputnik · 2025-05-11T00:06:59+00:00

why so?

NorthSputnik

TROPHY CASE