Rock Town Hall apologizes in advance for the Prince-directed video that is used to represent Jimi’s last great single.
It’s a truism that the live bill briefly pairing The Monkees with opening act Jimi Hendrix was the most mismatched live bill in rock. Of course, at the heart of this mismatch was the fact that the headliners were a concocted, confected bubblegum band put together to serve a tv version of a fictional American Beatles while the opener was soon to make his mark as the Greatest Guitar Hero of the genre, a true artist and visionary. However, Jimi Hendrix and The Monkees had more in common than initially met the ear.
They were both great singles artists. In fact, I’d argue that, the unparalelled guitar playing and Look of Hendrix aside, each artist’s main contributions to rock were through their hit singles.
Except for the most dire pop nerds among us – you know the type, the ones who shelled out for the 8-CD, limited Rhino Handmade edition of Headquarters – we’re content in our knowledge that The Monkees were a great singles band, definitely worthy of two standard-issue, vinyl-era volumes of Greatest Hits. Some might even argue that The Monkees were a better singles band than The Byrds, and that’s cool if you feel that way.
Where we might get into difficulty is the notion that I hold that Jimi’s Smash Hits collection is in dire need of a volume 2…and that Smash Hits, Vol. 2 is all else that rock fans need to own by Jimi Hendrix. If you’re studying to be the next Steve Ray Vaughn or Frank Marino, go ahead and buy the full Hendrix albums, including a handful of those pseudo-lost ones with the posthumous overdubbed studio parts. For the rest of you, think about what I’m saying.
I know what you’re thinking: “Interesting idea you’ve put forth, Mr. Mod– I wouldn’t expect less from you–but what would this Smash Hits, Vol. 2, look like?”
I’m not all the way there in developing the track listing–and this is one area in which I’ll need your help–and I won’t even begin to try sequencing this collection, but let’s start with the tracks that didn’t make it to Smash Hits from Hendrix’s one great album, the debut, Are You Experienced?:
- “Love or Confusion”
- “I Don’t Live Today”
- “May This Be Love”
- “Third Stone From the Sun”
- “Are You Experienced?”
Not a bad start for side 1, is it? Whoops, did I just hear someone ask, “If you’re going to spread all of the tracks on Are You Experienced? over the two volumes of Greatest Hits, how can you say none of Hendrix’s studio releases are worth owning?”
Fair question, and truth be told, we could keep the first album in print, but I think my plan of the two volumes of Greatest Hits better serves rock consumers in the iPod age. Each of those cool tracks from the debut are now available for download and Shuffle Play, and you, the 21st Century Consumer, are not faced with essentially buying the same album twice.
Let’s move onto some other selections I envision worthy of inclusion on Smash Hits, Vol. 2. From the fat-laden and horribly titled Axis: Bold as Love I’m culling the following:
- “Spanish Castle Magic”
- “Little Wing”
- “If 6 Was 9″*
- “Castles Made of Sand”
By the way, I never noticed this before, but Smash Hits (Vol. 1) failed to include even one cut from this album! And you call me a Hendrix miser…
From the double-album and greatly titled Electric Ladyland I’ll add the following tracks not already covered on Smash Hits, Vol. 1:
- “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”
A “slight return” to pop structure, I suppose.
There are some Hendrix leftovers to throw onto this collection–and to be released separately should be a double-album collection of Jimi’s finest live performances. Here’s what else I’m hearing to make Smash Hits, Vol. 2 a worthwhile purchase:
- “Dolly Dagger”
- “Angel”
*Yeah, I know I don’t really like that song, but it has some funny parts.
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You know what I mean. Hendrix was a great singles artist YET a great LP artist as well. AXIS is no less vague in concept than than the SPLHCB LP is. I would argue AXIS holds together at least as well as SGT PEPPER’S as an LP. One could (and probably should) argue that SGT. PEPPER’S is a collection of singles with tossed-off musical bridges to give it the illusion of cohesion”.
I can’t buy the pretense of your essay enough to get to whatever this SMASH HITS 2 idea you’re peddling. SMASH HITS 2. Geez. Andy’s “Greatest Hits” mentality is creeping like cholera.
I’m not even sure I’m buying your “Monkees not an LP idea.” Now The Band, there’s a singles band…
-db
OK, so the vibe I’m getting from dbuskirk is that he’s not down with Smash Hits, Vol. 2. Unless anything has changed drastically in my friend’s life, he’s not on the SRV/Mahagony Rush track, so perhaps I’m not quite reading the market’s tastes quite right. Would no other Townsperson be served by Smash Hits, Vol. 2 over the option of buying and weeding through the studio albums that followed Are You Experienced?
Oh, and please don’t bring The Beatles into this discussion. There’s nothing I’d like to see less than HVB go off on one of his Beatles Fan Fiction tangents.
I’m not the biggest fan of “Little Miss Strange” (“Is that Mitch “Mitchy-Mitch” Mitchell on vocals) but I’m not sure what you’re weeding through, unless you’re picking the stems and seeds out of the gatefold (and maybe that’s why the thoughtful Mr. Hendrix made the single disc AXIS a gatefold too).
It’s the post-Experience stuff that is a little dicey for me, I find BAND of GYPSIES, the assorted live stuff, the leftovers and the BBC sessions to be hit and miss, although there is some crucial things there as well. Still, not bad for four years work, if a bit below the Mod’s strict standards.
I’m with dbuskirk. Why would an artist with three studio albums released in his lifetime need more than one best-of?
dbuskirk wrote:
Indeed! How many artists release 3 albums worthy of 2 greatest hits collections? We’re nearly on the same page.
I can’t go along with the idea of Hendrix as a singles artist. To me everything officially released in the sixties is essential listening, and most especially every note of the Electric Ladyland album is sacred.
The title Smash Hits is problematical. There doesn’t have to be a second volume, just a two-CD collection of Hendrix’s music. But that already exists — it’s called Experience Hendrix. Even the single CD comp called The Ultimate Experience does a better job of acting as an overview than Smash Hits.
They’ve certainly made sure we have every option available to collect the records of James Marshall Hendrix. Single-disc, double-disc, box set, remixed, restored mix, new musicians, naked covers, no-nudity covers, estate-curated, Alan Douglas curated, smoked and pickled. His catalog has been shuffled all hoo-ha nearly as much as The Who’s has.
(Sorry bout that last sentence, I’ve been reading a lot of Dr. Suess lately).
-db
I’m not buying the Hendrix as a singles artist idea, either. Especially when you’re only “weeding through” two more albums, as Oats mentions. I can understand maybe wanting to skip over the Noel songs, but even both of those are under three minutes. Consider that, even with the actual Smash Hits and your proposed Smash Hits, Vol. 2 bringing you to nearly two albums worth of a three album output, you’re still leaving off some winners like “One Rainy Wish”, “Bold As Love”, “Long Hot Summer Night” and the Roy Wood/Jimi Hendrix World’s Finest style team-up of “You Got Me Floatin’”.
Maybe Electric Ladyland, with 15+ minutes of “Voodoo Chile” and the 20 minutes of the 1983/Rainy Day suite is daunting (though I love it), but perhaps what this thread is pointing to is a re-evaluation – Critical Upgrade, do they call it? – of Axis: Bold As Love.
I don’t think Axis needs a critical upgrade, as Mr Mod is the only person who doesn’t like it!
A new poll for those worried about getting caught by the Cool Patrol here in the Comments section is up for you to post your anonymous support for my thoughts on this matter.
I have mixed feelings about answering the poll at this point. Are we talking about which album is “better”? For what? Which I personally would rather listen to? When? I wouldn’t mind a Smash Hits Vol 2. But I wouldn’t want it as a replacement for Axis.
I’m slightly more on the Mod’s side than some here, in the sense that a second sets of “greatest singles” from Hendrix could have immense playability in some contexts in which I wouldn’t want to play Axis. A Smash Hits Vol 2 would be great fist-pumping car music.
my initial reaction is….
-nice dig on the byrds in there…(“some might say”? hardy har har…why don’t you just come right out and say that YOU hold this view?).
-LOTS of bands were great singles bands. why not talk about what Creedence and the Monkees had in common? Everybody released singles. But as has been pointed out, Hendrix made great albums, like so many other bands / artists who *aren’t* described as singles bands.
-your vol. 2 is mostly deep cuts, which sort of goes against the grain of your premise of him as a “singles” maker, doesn’t it? I mean, just plucking them off their albums and calling them “smash hits” doesn’t change where they came from.
whatev…i’m passionate about hendrix and all, but i don’t really think you’re desecrating a sacred cow by wanting to re-package him yet again.
the hendrix / monkees bill was still an ill-conceived mismatch any way you revise it…
Mwall: Choose one.
It’s not as complex as the points I’ve made in this detailed essay, and the Cool Patrol will not judge you harshly. If I may offer some advice, go with the underdog point of view. I’m staying out of this poll, of course, and so far only one Townsperson has supported my views. You can still download a bootleg of Axis, if it matters to you.
Saturnismine wrote:
Because that would be boring and obvious. I’m trying to clear new ground for discussion, man, not be Dick Clark.
Chalk this up to my generosity of spirit, if you must, but I don’t like taking credit for this stuff. I don’t think “Remember” was really a “smash hit,” was it? One way of looking at what I’m saying is “Jimi’s long songs typically suck.” For a guy who could play guitar like no one else on earth, he wasted a lot of time with those spoken-word hippie-space cadet passages when he could have been soloing over two chords, like Verlaine and Lloyd used to do when they didn’t have enough to make a real song.
Wow, Mod — you’re rarely so transparent in your desire to just get people yakkin’, using some incendiary horseshit like this latest salvo of yours. I mean, come on: “all of Hendrix’s long songs suck!”? I know you don’t really believe that. So why are you sayin’ it?
It takes one to know one,
HVB
p.s.: on a COMPLETELY unrelated topic, I finally ditched my piece of shit Nextel brick phone and moved up to an iPhone, and let me tell you, it really is the muthaf*ckin’ SHIT. What an astonishing gadget. Amazing!
I was worried you were going to make me choose one, and now I have.
HVB,
Name a long Hendrix song that I like. Seriously.
Mr. Moderator glowers:
Name a long Hendrix song that I like. Seriously.
———-
Man, this is going to be a hard argument to prove, but I think I’ve seen the Mod bob his head at “Voodoo Child” at a party once. He might not even be aware that he likes it.
“If 6 was 9”: 5:32
“Voodoo Child (slight return)”: 5:14
“Dolly Dagger”: 4:44
“House Burning Down”: 4:35
“Angel”: 4:22
“Ezy Rider”: 4:09
“All Along the Watchtower”: 4:01
I’d also be a bit disappointed if you had no love or appreciation in your heart for the 13:40 “1983 (a Merman I Should Turn To Be)”. Come on, man — what kind of jazzbo are you? That song is pure free-form genius, interspersed with some awfully powerful, hook-laden, rocktackular verses and choruses. What’s not to like?!
“1983…” also features some awesome “cardboard” bass playing.
I forgot to add “Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)” at 4:10.
Thanks for the suggestions so far. I put “Voodoo Child” on Smash Hits, Vol. 2.
As for your other suggestions, HVB, beside “If 6 Was 9”, which I do consider long and which I’ve already stated I don’t really like, I don’t consider 4:00- to 5:00-minute Hendrix songs long. I don’t hold him to “pop song” standards in terms of song length. The man needs some room to stretch out. I’ve also included “Dolly Dagger” and “Angel” on Smash Hits, Vol. 2, and “All Along the Watchtower” is covered on the original SH. The other songs you list are OK to bad, so they don’t make the grade on merit, not song length.
The long songs I have in mind are of the 8-minute-plus variety. There’s some song about a “Merman” that our old friend and bandmate Saigon used to play me. Ugh. I’d rather hear a long, plodding Pink Floyd song (Roger Waters era).
I discussed this issue with three members of the Hall tonight. They had solid reasons for not logging on and supporting me online, but face to face they fully supported my position.
I’m open to suggestions of other long songs by Hendrix that I like. In the coming week I’ll try to revisit Axis: Bold as Love.
I’ll try to brave that “Merman” song again, HVB. Doesn’t it have a lot of stoned panning and visionary jazz poetry? Damn, think about all the crap Jim Morrison takes for his jazz poetry breaks! Hendrix is a much greater offender of this unnecessary rock add-on.
Oh man, HVB, “Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)” is a SERIOUS deal-breaker! Hearing stoned hippies jam on that one is worse than hearing them jam on the chorus of “Feelin’ Alright”. If you want to drive me out of any party, get some hippies to jam on “Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)”.
How about all 12 minutes and 32 glorious seconds of Machine Gun?
I would first like to know what long rock songs by anyone that Mr. Mod approves of. This would help clarify the problem.
And hey, while you’re at it, name one Jackson Browne song that I approve of.
mwall, you would approve of “Doctor My Eyes.”
I’m staying out of that Jackson Browne question, Mwall. I’ve got newfound respect for the man.
As for long rock songs that I love, theree are many, including the following:
“Marquee Moon”
The long songs on side 2 of Funhouse
“Street Hassle”
“Sister Ray”
“Travels in Nihilon”
The two long songs on Van Morrison’s St. Dominic’s Preview
And so on…
There are at least two things they have in common: they’re repetitive and they don’t have visionary, space-cadet poetry breaks and unnecessary panning.
To that list you can add a handful of long songs by Yes, King Crimson, Henry Cow, Art Bears, etc.
To that list you can add probably another 50 songs that break the 8-minute mark – long rock songs. Chances are none of them fill time with that stoned poetry stuff.
By the way, I listened to my double-album The Essential Jimi Hendrix yesterday. Whew! There are a lot of turds among his well-respected deep cuts. “Third Stone from the Sun” is a great example of how he ruins his long songs: cool Booker T riff in space for starters…looks promising…then spoken-word nonsense and a bunch of studio gizmo effects. From that opening riff he should have constructed a great guitar solo, like Beefheart’s “Alice in Blunderland”. Need to fill space? Well, Jimi, just play the guitar and stop with the nonsense.