Showing posts with label Band of Gypsys. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

3/8/1968: The Fillmore East opened

Posted 3/8/2017.

image from boweryboogie.com

The Fillmore East opened its doors on March 8, 1968. The space on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the Manhattan borough of New York City, was built in 1925 as the Commodore Theatre, a showcase for vaudeville and film, which seated 2830. ^BB It later became the Loews Commodore movie theater and then the Village Theatre before legendary concert promoter Bill Graham took over in 1968 and launched it as a companion to his Fillmore Auditorium and its successor, the Fillmore West in San Francisco. ^WK

The venue, which became known as “The Church of Rock and Roll,” hosted two-show, triple-bill concerts several nights a week. ^WK Graham was all about the fan experience, printing “ornate, hand-rendered posters…to announce gigs;” commissioning the Joshua Light Show to provide “lavish psychedelic visuals;” and equipping the venue with a “35,000-watt, 26 speaker sound system custom designed by Bill Hanley.” ^RS

The Allman Brothers Band “Whipping Post” – live at the Fillmore East

Janis Joplin, performed the first show with her band Big Brother and the Holding Company. Led Zeppelin played in early 1969 as an opening act for Iron Butterfly. The Allman Brothers Band, whose legendary At Fillmore East was recorded at the venue, performed there so often some christened them Bill Graham’s house band. Jimi Hendrix’s New Year’s Day 1970 performance was released as Band of Gypsys and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s 4 Way Street album was also a Fillmore concert event. Other acts to perform there included the Band, Chuck Berry, Joe Cocker, Derek and the Dominos, Fats Domino, the Doors, the Grateful Dead (43 shows), Jefferson Airplane, Elton John, Janis Joplin, B.B. King, the Kinks, Taj Mahal, Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, Santana, Sly & the Family Stone, Ike & Tina Turner, the Who, and Frank Zappa with the Mothers of Invention.

“After arguably the most influential three years in the history of rock n roll,” ^BB hosted its last show – an event headlined by none other than the Allman Brothers Band – on June 27, 1971. Graham had tired of competing with bigger venues like Madison Square Garden and the “borderline cost-prohibitive” asking prices for acts he did book. ^RS While its time was short lived, the Fillmore East “left proverbial footprints large enough to rival those of Radio City and the Beacon.” ^BB As Rolling Stone said, “few venues in rock history can match the hallowed legacy of the Fillmore East.” ^RS

Resources:

^BB BoweryBoogie.com (3/15/2012). “Live at the Fillmore East: A History of 105 2nd Avenue” by Allison B. Siegel.
^RS RollingStone.com (6/27/2016). “Fillmore East: 15 Great Shows” by Corbin Reiff
^WK Wikipedia.org: “Fillmore East”

Thursday, January 1, 1970

Jimi Hendrix recorded live Band of Gypsys album

Band of Gypsys

Jimi Hendrix

Recorded: January 1, 1970 – live at Fillmore East in New York City

Released: March 25, 1970

Peak: 5 US, 6 UK, 5 CN, 4 AU Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 7.81 EAS

Genre: classic rock

Tracks:

Click on a song title for more details.

Who Knows [9:34]
Machine Gun [12:38]
Changes [5:11]
Power of Soul (aka “Power to Love” and “With the Power”) [6:55]
Message to Love (aka “Message of Love”) [5:24]
We Gotta Live Together [5:51]
Hear My Train A Comin’ * [9:02]
Foxey Lady * [6:33]
Stop * [4:47]

* bonus tracks on 1991 Polydor Europe and Japan CD rerelease

Total Running Time: 45:16

Other Songs Recorded in This Era (12/18/69 to 1/1/70):

The Players:

Jimi Hendrix (guitar, vocals)
Billy Cox (bass, vocals)
Buddy Miles (drums, vocals)

Rating:

3.854 out of 5.00 (average of 27 ratings)

Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

Forming a New Lineup

Following the breakup of the Experience, Hendrix took a sabbatical in Woodstock, New York, hooked up with bassist Billy Cox, his old Air Force running mate, and began jamming with a wide variety of musicians, including R&B drummer Buddy Miles. Hendrix had become self-conscious about his image as a showman and rocker, and about the limitations of thrashing through the same repertoire night after night. His new trio, known as Band of Gypsys, was an attempt by Hendrix to redefine himself, and in a way heralded his return to the ethos of the blues and R&B.

Live Shows

During their brief tenure as a band, Band of Gypsys played four shows at the Fillmore East to close out the 1960s. Hendrix and Co. mixed newer songs alongside material he’d done with the Experience. “The reading of Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) starts out in a straightforward enough manner before Hendrix begins destroying worlds with a high-flying style that dances around the edges of self-indulgence into a place of pure genius.” ^CD-F

“Newer songs such as Earth Blues and Who Knows ooze with synergy, particularly between Cox and Hendrix.” ^CD-F “Message of Love and Power of Soul demonstrate [Hendrix’s] remarkable ability to provide a simultaneous rhythm accompaniment and melodic counterpoint to his vocals, in the blues tradition of Robert Johnson.” ^CD-F

“Machine Gun is a gut-wrenching masterpiece that Hendrix never had a chance to perfect in the studio.” ^WA “It features a “long, intensely emotional improvisation” ^CD complete with “the screeches of bombs and gunfire.” ^CD “Unlike his tenure with the Experience, Hendrix shares the spotlight with his new trio, with Buddy Miles performing a mini-set of We Gotta Live Together, Changes, and a cover of Howard Tate’s Stop.” ^CD

Buddy Miles: Pro or Con?

Miles “lasted only a few months thanks to” ^WA “second-rate R&B entertainer's vapid showmanship” ^WA and “having none of Mitch Mitchell’s startling technical proficiency.” ^WA Mixed opinions of Miles lead to one stance that this recording “is mired in a derivative, monotonous soul/R & B style that is totally uncharacteristic of Hendrix’'s other work” ^WA and another opinion that this “was markedly different from Hendrix’s work with Experience, but rivals it in terms of scope, vision, and beauty.” ^CD
An Album
The original Band of Gypsys was “released to meet contractual obligations.” ^WA “In 1999, the Hendrix family released two discs worth of selections from the same concerts (apparently leaving off some of the original takes) and retitled the collection Live at Fillmore East.” ^WA
The Songs
Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.