| Band Of Gypsys | 
 enlarge | Artist: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Capitol
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $6.20
You Save: $10.78 (63%)
New (44) Used (26) Collectible (6) from $3.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  209 reviews
Sales Rank: 1389
Format: Live, Original Recording Reissued, Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 93446
UPC: 724349344624
EAN: 0724349344624
ASIN: B000002UVX
Release Date: January 13, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Who Knows | | • | Machine Gun | | • | Changes | | • | Power To Love | | • | Message of Love | | • | We Gotta Live Together |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
Tired of the showboating image that his early live performances had saddled him with--and that his black audience viewed as demeaning and degrading to his musical talent--Hendrix dissolved his Experience in 1969 in search of a more terra-firma-grounded, blues-oriented persona. On New Year's Eve, Hendrix, his old Army buddy bassist Billy Cox, and ex-Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles performed a loose, jam-filled set at New York's Fillmore East (completists will want the panoramic though uneven Live at the Fillmore East). Released a few months after his New Year's Eve 1970 concert, Band of Gypsys underscored Hendrix's desired return to basics--even if his basic was at a level most guitarists could never attain in a lifetime of playing. --Billy Altman
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| Customer Reviews: Read 204 more reviews...
 With the power of soul, anything is possible November 16, 2001
64 out of 77 found this review helpful
It was almost symbolic that Band of Gypsys was recorded on New Years Eve 1969/70. Jimi Hendrix had recently discarded his power trio, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and formed the Band of Gypsys with bass-player, Billy Cox and drummer, Buddy Miles. Whereas the Experience exemplified the grinding, baroque, psychedelic rock that largely defined the sixties, the Band of Gypsys exemplified the melodic, groove-heavy, socially and spiritually conscious funk that would largely define the seventies. This live album was the first Hendrix fans heard of the guitarist's new project. Most would not be disappointed. Hendrix's new style nicely sustains the absolutely wicked, inventive guitar-playing from which his reputation was born. His fluid, wavy, hypnotizing jamming scampers through the six tracks, becoming slightly overdone on the nine-minute "Who Knows" and the thirteen-minute "Machine Gun." Still, small sections of unstructured noodling can not stop "Who Knows" from excellently setting the album's funky tone or "Machine Gun" from being one of the most intense, dramatic and stunning songs inspired by Vietnam (Only Hendrix had the ingenuity and skill to make his instrument screech like a battlefield). The two other Hendrix-penned tracks, the groove-rocker, "Power to Love" and the fervent "Message to Love" are two of his most spirit-inspiring works and nicely showcase the Gyspsys' rapid-fire arrangements. Buddy Miles does more than keep the band steady with his fast-paced trouncing, he also contributes two excellent foot-stompers, "Changes" and "We Gotta Live Together." Miles himself would go on to become a star of the upcoming funk/soul movement. Hendrix, tragically, would not live to see it. The artist would die of asphyxiation shortly after Band of Gypsys was released. Sadly, for Hendrix, this funkrock showstopper was not a sign of things to come, but a passing of the torch.
Rock guitar at its finest April 17, 2006
17 out of 22 found this review helpful
This album and the grouping of Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles, and Billy Cox have been analyzed a million times. And for good reason. I will do my best to add one more voice to the chorus.
I have been listening to this on album, scratches, skips and all, for seemingly a lifetime. However, once I purchased the remastered CD.... Wow. You can't probably afford to replace every album with the CD reissue. However this is one that is worth it. And if you have never heard the recording, then I highly recommend it.
I have listened to countless hours of rock guitar playing. Especially acid rock. I love listening to Jerry Garcia, early Jorma Kaukonen, what little I could find of James Hurley. And of course there were the standard rock guitar greats such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and the names would go on and on.
Somehow, it just seems that while each would bring their own style and technique to the listening world, Jimi Hendrix stands in a class of his own. I used to think he got his skill at the crossroads. However, a more likely explanation is that he just practiced more than everyone else. It is said that he carried his guitar around and practiced constantly day and night. But there is even more to it than that.
Very rarely a musician will come along who will merge different genres of music into a unique blend. Like Miles Davis did with fusion jazz. Two others to me are Jerry Garcia and Bill Monroe.
Here on the Band of Gypsys recording, can be heard elements of acid rock, but mixed with blues, soul, jazz, and something that I can only describe as coming from outside our known cosmos. It is ironic that Jimi was forced to do this group and recording by some contractual obligations. It shows the class of the man, despite his shortcomings of judgment in the realm of choosing recreational drugs, that he chose to make the best of the situation. And did he ever. It would seem that he decided to just stand there on stage and put all his energy into some really intospective music of great style and pure musicality.
I know reviews are full of hyperbole, including my own, but I really think this recording is just about the pinnacle of rock guitar playing. And it is truly a phenomenon. You could play the same guitar solos and rhythm note for note, yet fail to capture the same magic. Jimi is simply in a class of his own. I just simply love the great combination of wah-wah pedal, whammy bar, feedback galore, power rhythms, screaming rapid-fire guitar playing. What a tragedy that he had to go from us within a year of this recording. And did he foresee it or what, with his comment that he might see those in the audience again, if he would make it through the summer.
But on to the music itself. Machine Gun. Need I say more? This song blows my mind every time I listen to it. Who Knows and Them Changes are also absolutely superb. While all I have talked about is guitar playing, I also like the singing, the songwriting, the bass guitar. Heck, I even like Buddy Miles' drumming! Maybe the guy was accused of having an overrated opinion of himself. But I like listening to him here. Comparisons of Billy Cox to Noel Redding? I'll leave that to someone else. All the songs are written by Jimi or Buddy, and I think every one is excellent.
Back to Machine Gun. When the guitar really rocks the most, it makes me feel like I am in battle in Vietnam, shooting a machine gun at someone else who was ordered to shoot a machine gun at me. Then later the song gets very quiet, and Jimi goes off into a dreamy solo that makes me feel like I have died and my soul is floating off to a place that souls go after death. If you are not driving, try closing your eyes and listening to this song. Preferably turned up loud on a great stereo. You will find yourself being transported somewhere. That is where the true genius of Jimi Hendrix shines. He can use music to transport you to somewhere else. Like his soul is reaching out to your soul. Does it sound like a religious experience? Pretty darn close, for just listening to some music.
If you like great rock and blues guitar playing on electric guitar, you must buy this CD. It just doesn't get any better.
 Definitely Not His Best Release January 13, 2005
16 out of 20 found this review helpful
Typically people recommend this album for "Machine Gun". From a guitarist's point of view, I think "Message of Love" has two of the most consistent and best live guitar solos ever played by Jimi Hendrix. His guitar tone morphs into different sounds without any studio gimmics and his playing is clearly inspired without his usual tuning problems. Buddy Miles is merely a competent drummer, but he ain't no Mitch Mitchell. Billy Cox however, is a different story. His bass playing fits Hendrix's music like a glove.
Happy New Year, first of all. January 1, 2006
15 out of 23 found this review helpful
This album was recorded live at the Fillmore East on New Year's Eve, 1969. Jimi Hendrix had disbanded the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and formed a new band with Buddy Miles and Billy Cox. The sound of Band of Gypsys is a lot less accesible to the general public then the Jimi Hendrix Experience. I personally don't enjoy this album as much as any of the Jimi Hendrix Experience albums, although it's still quite good. It has a rambling, shambling bluesy feel to it. Buddy Miles wrote and sang two of the songs here, including his most famous composition, "Them Changes" (which is mistitled "Changes" here, despite the fact that Jimi introduces it as "Them Changes"). This is Jimi's least popular album, although it's some people's favorite. If you like Hendrix, give it a listen.
Hendrix - Band Of Gypsys August 22, 2006
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
That - the title of this review - is what it said on the spine and green Capitol label of the very first copy (and first Henrix album) I ever bought, which was originally released in April 1970 - eighteen long months after the Jimi Hendrix Experience's third and final studio album, "Electric Ladyland." The group was already fracturing by then, though the soldiered on in the studio and on tour through a final US date June 30, 1969, after which a frustrated Noel Redding split for England and Fat Mattress (Reprise collected eight of the group's best known tracks, added four unreleased in the US, and a "giant poster" for "Smash Hits" that July). Many factors and motivations - financial, political, cultural, personal, musical - likely led to the short lived Band Of Gypsys. Jimi had already produced a Buddy Miles solo album and worked with the drummer (noteably on part of "Ladyland"). Billy Cox was an old Army buddy, fine bassist, with no ambitions to write songs - he patiently worked with Hendrix for over a year during 1969 - 70 as the guitarist developed new songs and opened his dream studio, almost until the end (Cox split after being dosed with PCP at one of Hendrix's final Euro dates). And, perhaps symbolically if not intentionally, BOG was an all black band.
1970 was a year in which live albums were in vogue, and recording technology had progressed sufficiently since the mid-60s (recall the Brit Invasion hysteria that dominates "Live Kinks" or the Stones' "Got Live") to make a good live album a desired addition to any important artist's body of work. Reprise issued another live Hendrix set (the Montery Pop album, with one side devoted to Otis Redding) four months after BOG, as Jimi was still finishing up his next - posthumous - studio album, and it had become evident that the studio project was unlikely to be issued before 1971 (even had Hendrix lived). And in 1970 classic live sets came out by the Stones, Who, Cream, Doors, Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, and others. What was different about "Band Of Gypsys" was that it contained all new material. Buddy Miles possessed none of Mitch Mitchell's inventive, jazz-influenced chops that interacted so perfectly with Hendrix, but he was a solid, funky, visually arresting timekeeper who during the period was pretty famous himself thanks to his tenure with the Electric Flag, and would record fine albums with John McLaughlin and Santana as well as several successful solo sets. BOG was thus also, almost, a supergroup, to use the jargon of the times. If not as essential as the three studio Experience albums, or "Cry Of Love"/"First Rays", Hendrix was hardly marking time here, expanding his songwriting style as well as his sonic arsenal on the classics "Machine Gun" and "Who Knows."
The original album sounded a bit drab, and if the Capitol (1995) cd was an improvement in clarity - not warmth or presence - the more recent Experience Hendrix version is the best we're likely to get on compact disc. But I'm reviewing this to recommend spending a few extra bucks on the numbered limited edition issued by Classic Records after the most recent CD. This gorgeous piece is well worth tracking down. Mastered using all analog transfer equipment from the actual masters by Eddie Kramer and George Marino (their initials etched in the black inner groove of the disc). For Hendrix fans, I promise - it blows the cd and the original vinyl out of the water. Sonically a rather grey recording is now an exciting listening experience: warm, detailed, alive, with an increase in image depth and definition, it actually lives up to the cliche "like hearing it for the first time." And the physical thing itself is a beauty - the heavy cardboard stock used on the cover is thicker and like the disc heavier than the first edition original - to which it is faithful but much superior. (By the way, Classic also issued "Axis" in its rare mono mix, which is not better than the stereo version but an interesting contrast for fanatics).
Lots more funk-influenced, and to over simplify 'social conciousness' lyrics generally supplant both the "Foxy Lady" come ons and the spiritual and cosmic preoccupations of "Ladyland," it's fascinating to hear Hendrix emphasisizing wah-wah funk and singing to women about asserting themselves indepenent of any man. Only on the finale, "We Got To Live Together" is this set anything less than terrific, and side one of course is even better than that.
By the time this album was originally issued, the Band Of Gypsys had dissolved. Hendrix brought Mitch Mitchell back, and kept Cox on, for the next round of tours and recording sessions.
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