Jimi Hendrix, Valleys Of Neptune

[Read Ben Fong-Torres' interview with producer Eddie Kramer here.]

Jimi Hendrix's most devoted fans — the ones who know everything he did and played, from his nights on the R&B chitlin' circuit to his last licks alongside Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox — may yawn at this set of a dozen previously unreleased cuts, Valleys of Neptune. They've all been available, in one form or another, albeit underground, by bootlegging and other unauthorized means.

But for the average rock fan and appreciator of Hendrix's genius, this collection is cause for celebration. This is new stuff, good as the old stuff — and the old stuff was some of the best rock music ever committed to tape, to vinyl, to whatever. Most of Valleys was recorded in the first half of 1969, when Jimi's original trio (him, Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding) were still together and enjoying creative peaks. Those peaks carried Hendrix to heights from which he will never need to descend. He is widely considered the greatest rock guitarist of all time, and his first two albums, Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love, from 1967 and '68, are ranked among the best albums in rock history. The Rolling Stone Album Guide gave each five stars, and high-fived the third album, Electric Ladyland, too. Hendrix's best was so great that even his collection, Smash Hits, got five stars.

This is what Valleys of Neptune is up against. No sweat. No five stars, either, but, if you go into it understanding that most of these recordings, started after Electric Ladyland, were touched up after Hendrix's death, and that they can't be considered wholly Jimi's handicraft, Valleys will take you right back to those days and nights when you discovered that rock wasn't what you thought it was. When Jimi Hendrix rewrote the book.

These are not all new songs. "Stone Free" and "Red House," from his first album, are here, the first recut with Cox in the house, and "Red House," with the original trio, extended with a bluesy intro. Standouts include "Hear My Train A-Comin," in which Hendrix seems to sample himself, circa "Foxey Lady," with his guitar, shades of Chuck berry, ringing like a bell, and "Mr. Bad Luck," also known as "Look Over Yonder." Amazingly enough, Hendrix had only one Top 40 hit, with "All Along the Watchtower," but this stomper of a tune coulda been a contender. But the record company would've had to cut a couple of instances of Jimi being Jimi: his exclamation, "Crappo, crappo!" and his query: "Where's my shotgun? Gonna blow this fool away!"

In 2010, that stuff is nothing. But in 1967, it was revolutionary. But, then, so was Jimi.