Welcome to the 3rd week of the RPM Seven Day Soundtrack, fifty years to the day that Jimi Hendrix kissed the sky............

Alan -

"...........September 18th 1970......... Fifty....that's 50 years ago yesterday, Jimi Hendrix died and the musical world and his fans were robbed of......... who knows what? His third (and final) studio album had been released in 1968 but, over the next two years, Hendrix had regularly (and frustratingly) changed the band line-up whilst concentrating much of his recording energies at his newly opened studio in New York. Following his death, the fruits of these sessions were released in a very haphazard and unsympathetic way by his producer Alan Douglas, and it was this which initially saw Jimi's father Al, and later the extended Hendrix family, step in and use draconian legislation to control further musical releases by removing Douglas, clear up pre-fame contractual difficulties and enforce the family's right over Jimi's image rights. One of the 'downsides' has been the removal of material from YouTube. So, unless they've stepped in during the last few days, here are three stunning live performances by Jimi to remind us of his fine bluesy vocal style and just how magnificently exploratory his guitar work was.

So, time to 'move over Rover and let Jimi take over'.............."

"Many thanks to everyone for taking the time and trouble to post music they love every week...... the weekly selections show just how wide our musical tastes are and how important music is to everyone's well being, particularly in times like these. Keep 'em coming.

Be well, take care if you have to return to work......and, as usual, don't believe the hype.......... it's dangerous out there!"

Jayne -

"Hi fellow RPM faithful and best wishes to you all. Here are my three selections, courtesy of late night choices of listening by me this week..........."

Philip -

"Greetings to all as always. Haven't listened to a great deal of music this week, but did have a tune repeating in my head a couple of days ago. Just had to remember the artists so I could play it to "exorcise" it, so here it is......."

Nina -

"Hiya.......Wow, loving the 7 days choices & being part of a magical musical collective. (Kite)surfing watery waves for me, Piers - big tides in Brancaster. Thanks to Phil, I'm now a Fantastic Negrito fan. Have you lost your mind yet? There's a question. Possibly, as a Radio 2 show featuring Ant & Dec's mixtape provided some inspiration this week...Take care, folks."

Tony -

"Have been delving through the nether regions of my collection for some of this week and have come up with these to share. Best wishes as ever to you all and keep the great tunes coming."

Dave -

"Hi RPMers, hope you are all keeping well . Here’s my 3 of the week........"

Aiden -

"Here's my 3........"

Morra -

Jean -

"This Saturday I’m booked to get the Live Concert from Nashville –‘Royal Tea’.

Joe Bonamassa has organised this to help touring musicians that are having a hard time during this pandemic. Therefore, I have to pick 3 of his own songs and they are all on the Album ‘Black Rock’ issued 2010............"

John -

"Just as I was about to finalise my selections for this week, the UEA Gig List popped into my inbox. Sadly, it also contained the news that Toots Hibbert had passed away. I nudged one of my original choices into the long grass to make way for this from Toots And The Maytals...."

Piers -

Hi folks........This week I have been reminded of these wondrous tracks. In memory of a much loved friend. Some music to sooth the soul."

Tim -

“This week, like Alan, I’ve also played a lot of Hendrix music…..in fact I’ve played a good proportion of my Hendrix collection with the intention of giving a brief personal view of my favourite guitar player via three favourite songs upon the 50^th anniversary of his death………..songs which for me show the diversity of his musicianship. Had Alan not chosen Purple Haze, I would have done. This is what I call “iconic Hendrix”.....it has all the perceived Jimi trademarks; iconic Hedrix title, iconic Hendrix riff, iconic Hendrix lyrics "....'scuse me while I kiss the sky..." and "...is it tomorrow or just the end of time?.......but as Alan has slotted this into his selection already, it means I now get to choose something else….Yay! So here are my three songs showing three sides of the man."

Freedom – “The funk soul Hendrix…….firstly, I wanted to play Earth Blues which is a bit more soul than Freedom with some brilliant backing vocals by the Ronettes….however, as Alan explained above, a lot of Hendrix music is missing from YouTube and this is one of them….aw, shucks! (to quote Jimi). So, Freedom it is, exhibiting the funkier side of Jimi’s guitar playing which I think he started to explore more fully within the Band of Gypsys line up. Here’s some super live footage from (I think) the Atlanta Pop Festival, July 1970, with billy Cox on bass and Mitch Mitchell taking his place back on the drum stool.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDvlErh5zcc

Third Stone From The Sun * - "The experimental Hendrix.......had anyone done anything quite like this before? Being an 80s NWOBHM kid, I wasn't there at the time (not like our RPM elders like Alan!!), but I think possibly not! The first Hendrix album I bought (Andy's Records, Bury St Edmunds) was The Jimi Hendrix Concerts released in 1982. I bought it because I viewed it as having all the good stuff on it....for good, in my metal/rock world at the time, read: loud, fast and lots of guitar wig-outs.....and because I loved the painted cover (see this below). The older I have got, the more appreciative I've become of the experimental and reflective side of Hendrix, tracks like Third Stone... or 1983... or Angel…….”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Rg5FGs-9w&list=PLKhJP4KEQZm6dgQIs9f7jlZSLtlgTB4Sn&index=8

*This YouTube video seems to have escaped deletion as it appears to have been used in a film soundtrack.........!!!???

Hear My Train A Comin’ - "Hendrix the Blues Man......when I listen to Hendrix, I hear a deep connection and understanding of the blues. To a lot of people, the mention of Hendrix and blues would conjure up Red House (see Alan’s choices above), a song Jimi continually came back to in the live arena...........however, for me there are two great Hendrix Blues contenders. The first is Voodoo Chile, that moody masterpiece from the first side of Electric Ladyland and the other, Hear My Train A Comin’ (aka Getting My Heart Back Together Again)........which I present in two variants; electric version and acoustic version. The electric version I would have first heard on that first LP I bought, as it was on side four of that double LP......and it's the Hendrix blues song I keep coming back to the most, even now, 38 years later. The song was played as early as 1967 for the BBC, explored in the live setting (as on the Jimi Hendrix Concerts LP) and recorded a number of times as demos, but was never included on an official studio album until many years after Jimi's death (different versions on Valleys of Neptune, 2010; People, Hell and Angels 2013; Both Sides of the Sky, 2018)……unless you consider the version on the posthumous 1975 Midnight Lightning album a bonna fide contender, which I don’t, as producer Alan Douglas used backing musicians to replace what Hendrix had already recorded with The Experience. Not cool.

Play the acoustic version to round of this week's 7 Day Soundtrack.........from the 1973 Warner Brothers movie, A Film About Jimi Hendrix, this is a poignant and rare film of Jimi playing acoustic guitar and a lovely way to remember the man, showing that he wasn’t all about volume and showmanship.....it's also one of the few pieces of music that always makes my spine tingle and eyes a tad watery...........”