1969 Concert Series - Toronto 05/03/69


May 3, 1969 is a day I'm sure Jimi wished he had slept in. Coming in for the concert later that night in Toronto, Jimi was busted at the airport for posession of heroin. The band had been warned beforehand of possible troubles at customs, so they made sure to go through all their carry-on luggage before getting on the plane, to make sure there was no, shall we say, recreational chemicals there that shouldn't be there :) Which made the bust at the airport very strange. It's suspected that someone planted the drugs in Jimi's luggage, for what purpose remains unknown. A funny story, when Jimi was being booked at the police station, he was told by the officer that he would make sure that Jimi would be out in time to do the concert later that night, as his kid had tickets to it! :) Considering the day Jimi had, you wouldn't expect the concert to be very good. However, Jimi manages to put the morning's events out of the way, at least temporarily, and put on a very good concert all things considered.

Jimi opens with the normal set opener Fire, then follows it up with some serious extended jamming on Hear My Train A Comin, Spanish Castle Magic, and Red House, each close to or more than 10 minutes long! I guess Jimi figured the best cure for the blues, was to play the blues. And there were few players at the time or even still who could play the blues like Jimi. Even the tracks following these feature extended jamming, with the exception of Purple Haze. The encore, Voodoo Child (Slight Return) is also played much longer than it's studio version. A great song, and perfect closer to a pretty amazing concert.

Quality is pretty good, a little hollow, but typical for an audience recording. All vocals and instruments are clear sounding though. There are apparently at least two different sources for this concert, not sure how this one compares against those other sources though. An historic day in Jimi's life, and shows just what Jimi could rise up to when the occasion called for it.

Catalog #: TPF3-002