Live At The Forum 1970


1970. The new decade. I was 4 :) 1970 held great promise for Jimi. Closing the 60's and opening the 70's with the historic Band Of Gypsys series of 4 concerts at the Filmore East, Jimi seemed to be achieving higher personal creativity with his music. Although the Band Of Gypsys was a short lived project, just 4 Filmore concerts, plus an aborted concert at Madison Square Garden(included as bonus tracks on CD 2 of this set), they seemed to provide Jimi with the catalyst to take his music a step above. Jamming in the studio, almost to the point of excess, had brought out new writing and playing skills in Jimi. Band Of Gypsys seemed to bring everything into focus, and now he was ready to unleash upon us :)

Jimi had a `new' band; Mitch Mitchell, longtime drummer with Jimi was now back following Buddy's departure..Billy Cox, an old Army buddy of Jimi's and brought in during BoG, was now playing bass. The Cry Of Love tour started at the L.A. Forum on April 26th, 1970 and this is where this CD was recorded. The Band Of Gypsys' album had only come out the day before, so most of the crowd was unfamiliar with the new material that Jimi would feature this night. Jimi opens with a couple of familiar tracks (Spanish Castle Magic, Foxy Lady) and a couple of concert favorites (Lover Man, plus the always great Hear My Train A Comin'), then launches into 7 new songs. Message To Love (BoG track), and Ezy Rider start things out. Machine Gun is played fairly differently from it's BoG arrangement. It's played almost to the rhythm of Hear My Train A Comin'. Interesting, though I prefer the BoG arrangement. A medley of songs follows, featuring Roomful Of Mirrors, Hey Baby (Land Of The New Rising Sun), and Freedom. Closing out disc 1 is the Star Spangled Banner/Purple Haze medley. The CD liner states SSB is on disc 2, this is incorrect however. CD 2 opens with the classic Voodoo Child (Slight Return) with a verse of Midnight Lightning thrown in for good measure. Considering they've only been together for about 3 months at the most, and haven't played together live yet, the band pulls off a pretty solid performance.

The bonus tracks follow, starting with the aborted January 28/70 Band Of Gypsys' concert at Madison Square Garden. The band only manages to get force out ("We're trying to get it together") two songs before they finally give up. The September 2/70 concert manages to get 3 tracks before Jimi calls it quits due to exhaustion. He fades out during the intro to Hey Baby, forcing Mitch to improvise a drum solo to fill time. The final two tracks come from Baltimore June 13/70, and from what I've read, this is supposed to be one of the best concerts on the 1970 tour. A nice, though very short Red House shows good possibilities of this(Jimi flubs one of the opening lines however), and brings to a close one more great release from the Whoopy Kat folks.

Quality, as with most Whoopy Kat releases is very good to excellent. An audience recording, but a very good one. I'm guessing the recording was made somewhere close to the stage. The bonus tracks found on CD 2 are, for the most part, not as good qualitywise, and some would also say performancewise, but they are a nice addition. A lot of bootleg releases will just cut tracks to make it fit onto one CD, rather than present the whole concert and give you bonus selections. Whoopy Kat tends to go that extra step for the fans. And that's why they are probably the best. The Jan 28/70 and Sept.2/70 tracks are a little on the rough side, but are quite listenable. The Baltimore tracks are very good quality, it's from an audience source, but sounds like there's been some enhancements done to improve it. A nice sneak peek at a concert that should be heading my way soon :)
Notes :
* recorded January 28/70 Madison Square Garden
* recorded September 2/70 Vejlby Risskov Hallen
* recorded June 13/70 Baltimore Civic Center

Catalog #: Whoopy Kat WKP-0021/22