Another in my 1970 series of concerts this month, and another in the top 10 all time performances (imho). Some of this has come out before, on the Stages release. But (uh oh, here he goes again on an AD rant), only about half or so of the concert was issued on that CD.
For some reason Alan Douglas, in his infinite wisdom, decided we didn't need to hear the whole concert. While yes, the complete concert wouldn't fit on a single CD, this concert deserved a double CD release. The idea of Stages was pretty good. Concert selection and editing wasn't.
But enough bitching, let's talk about this CD. Great sound throughout, these supposedly came from the soundboard tapes, and the quality would suggest this is true.
So many great tracks on this, Red House, Hear My Train A Comin', All Along The Watchtower, etc etc. Apparently Jimi and the band went on at 2 in the morning or something like that. But it doesn't seem to bother their performances at all.
Only one problems with this CD however...due to the lengths of CDs, the last two tracks of the concert (Straight Ahead, and Hey Baby) had to be left off. Straight Ahead can be found on the Stages release, though it's no surprise to find Alan Douglas changed the playing order of the concert.
Hey Baby can be found as one of the bonus tracks on the Berkeley Concerts II CD. So if you want to make a complete set, those are the places to go. But this CD ends on a nice note at least; Jimi's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.
Where Woodstock's version was beautiful and flowing, Atlanta's is angry and mean :) And it works nearly as well as Woodstock's.
Excellent quality, supposedly taken from the soundboard tapes. There are some fadeouts between certain tracks, making me think that more than one source was used to make up this CD.
Near commercial quality, the only flaws really are a slightly muffled Message To Love, and the two missing tracks. I've heard some negative comments about this concert before, but I find it to be quite good.
Even the song Fire, which I was getting tired of as a set opener(though I *do* like the song) sounds new and refreshed here. Great sound, great performances...what more could you ask for?
