You don't need me to tell you how good Jimi was. He was the personification of innovation. He feels like one of those guys who would have invented the electric guitar if it didn't already exist. His hands and his brain would simply know what to do.
It is a tragedy that he succumbed to fame's perils. The Band of Gypsys records show what direction he was going, where his muse was taking him. This record is very improvisational. He is also less a bandleader and more of another piece, fitting in with his bandmates. Buddy Miles and Billy Cox, which is a pretty damn good band.
It's interesting to hear on the first track Jimi making mistakes, trying to keep up. But when he hits it you can almost hear him say "There it is." Even Jimi didn't get everything right on the first try. And for much of this he is winging it with the other two guys. They hadn't rehearsed much. At the end of the set he mentions they will come back and do it right. Which makes it especially incredible.
The liner notes say these shows were not especially received. Over the course of several nights the band added more of the hits.
He would be 75 if he had stayed alive. I don't claim to know where he would have gone with his talent. I don't think he'd have stopped. Music seemed ingrained in him. To remove it would be removing a limb. I don't think he would have been an oldies machine, that he would have become irrelevant in terms of creativity like The Rolling Stones. I can't see him playing "Foxey Lady" and "Purple Haze" 200 times year for 10 years. Maybe he would have. Man's got to eat. The mythos would be different with life. There'd be just Jimi Hendrix, not JIMI HENDRIX. The allure of what could have been never need rise from the tomb. The world would have been better with that music, with that life.
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