Jimi Hendrix - Machine Gun - Non-Album Tracks (1969)

The last Jimi Hendrix album I posted covered the first part of his time between the demise of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in early 1969 and the start of the Band of Gypsys in late 1969. There was so much quality material from this time that I couldn't fit it all on one reasonably long album. So this is the second album from that time.

I've ordered all the songs on both albums by exact recording date, so this covers the second half of that time period, from May to November 1969. I might have ordered the songs differently if some great song order leapt out at me, but none did so I figure going strictly chronologically works as well as any other approach.

Note that this version of "Message from Nine to the Universe" is edited. The original version was 18 minutes long, which I thought was way too long. Someone else already made a six minute edit, so I used that.

Note also that many Hendrix fans are under the impression that there is no studio version of "Machine Gun," but there actually is. He recorded it in the studio twice on the same day. Different parts of each take were good, so bootleggers have created a version using the best bits. Again, I simply used that. It's not as great as the stellar officially released live version, but it's still interesting to hear it done this way.

It's a similar situation with "Lord I Sing the Blues for You and Me." The original recording of that was over 10 minutes long. I edited it way down. I'm not against long songs if the length is justified. For instance, the version of "Machine Gun" I chose here is 11 minutes long, which is a few minutes longer than one of the two studio takes. But Hendrix was sometimes just experimenting in the studio with the tape rolling, and not every last minute of every recording he did is great.

The rest of the songs are thankfully unedited. This makes a 43 minute long album. I could have included some more music and still kept it within the normal album length limits of the time. However, in this case, I felt less was more. Frankly, it was not one of his better eras. I avoided a lot of his short-lived Electric Church band stuff, because most of that didn't turn out as well as what came before or after. But still, there's lots of good music here. 

UPDATE: On January 28, 2023, I updated the mp3 download file with one song I'd missed, "Monday Morning Blues."

01 Villanova Junction [Instrumental] (Jimi Hendrix)
02 Bleeding Heart [Blues Version] (Jimi Hendrix)
03 Message from Nine to the Universe [Edit] (Jimi Hendrix)
04 Easy Blues [Instrumental] (Jimi Hendrix)
05 Machine Gun [Edit] (Jimi Hendrix)
06 Lord I Sing the Blues for You and Me [Edit] (Jimi Hendrix)
07 Monday Morning Blues (Jimi Hendrix with Mike Ephron)
08 Valleys of Neptune (Jimi Hendrix)
09 Lonely Avenue (Jimi Hendrix)

https://www27.zippyshare.com/v/jF2AJTgi/file.html

Thanks again to Peter at the Albums I Wish Existed blog for the cover art.