Crash Landing (Jimi Hendrix album)

Crash Landing
Compilation album by Jimi Hendrix
Released	March 1975 (1975-03)
Recorded	1968–1974
Genre	Rock
Length	29:34
Label	Reprise
Producer	Alan Douglas, Tony Bongiovi
Jimi Hendrix chronology
Loose Ends (1974) Crash Landing (1975) Midnight Lightning (1975)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Robert Christgau	B+[2]

Crash Landing is a posthumous compilation album by American guitarist Jimi Hendrix.^[3] It was released in March and August 1975 in the United States and the United Kingdom respectively. It was the first Hendrix album to be produced by Alan Douglas.

Background

Before Hendrix died in 1970, he was in the final stages of preparing what he intended to be a double studio LP, which was given various titles such as 'First Rays of the New Rising Sun', 'People, Hell & Angels', and 'Strate Ahead' [sic]. Most of the tracks intended for this album were spread out over three posthumous single LP releases: The Cry of Love (1971), Rainbow Bridge (1971), and War Heroes (1972). In the case of the last two of these LPs, a demo track, a live track, and unreleased studio tracks were used to fill out the releases. In late 1973, his international label prepared to issue an LP titled Loose Ends which contained eight tracks, six of which were generally regarded as incomplete or substandard (the only two "finished" tracks on this release were "The Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Dice", a heavily re-mixed stereo version of the B-side which had been released in the original mono mix on the 1968 European and Japanese versions of the Smash Hits, and a cover of Bob Dylan's "The Drifter's Escape", both of which would ultimately be re-released on the South Saturn Delta CD in 1997). Loose Ends was not released in the USA by Reprise because they considered the quality of the tracks to be subpar.

Hendrix had amassed a great deal of time in the studio in 1969 and 1970, resulting in a substantial number of songs, some close to completion, that were available for potential release. After the death of Hendrix' manager in 1973, Alan Douglas was hired to evaluate hundreds of hours of remaining material that was not used on earlier posthumous albums. "Peace in Mississippi," "Somewhere," and "Stone Free" were recorded with the original Jimi Hendrix Experience line up, while the rest of the material used on Crash Landing consisted of recordings Hendrix originally made with Billy Cox on bass and either Mitch Mitchell or Buddy Miles on drums and on one occasion by Rocky Isaacs.

Controversy

Crash Landing was the first release produced by Douglas, and immediately caused controversy. The liner notes of the album indicated that Douglas used several session musicians, none of whom had ever even met Hendrix, to re-record or overdub guitar, bass, drums, and percussion on the album, erasing the contributions of the original musicians and changing the feel of the songs (Hendrix' vocals and guitar contributions were retained). This was evidently done to give a finish to songs that were works in progress or may have been recorded as demos. Douglas also added female backing vocals to the title track. The album peaked at #5 in the U.S.^[4] and #35 in the UK,^[5] the highest chart positions since The Cry of Love.

Track listing

All tracks written by Jimi Hendrix. Alan Douglas claimed co-writer credits on five tracks.

Other appearances of songs

Most of the songs on Crash Landing appear on more recent Hendrix compilations without the Douglas-era overdubbing.

Musicians

• Jimi Hendrix – guitars, lead vocals, backing vocals
• Buddy Miles – drums on tracks 1, 6, backing vocals on tracks 1 and 6
• Billy Cox – bass on tracks 1, 6 and 8, backing vocals on tracks 1 and 6
• Juma Sultan – percussion on track 1

Added in 1975:

• Jimmy Maelen – percussion on tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8
• Jeff Mironov – guitars on tracks 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7
• Allan Schwartzberg – drums on tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8
• Bob Babbitt – bass on tracks 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7
• Linda November – backing vocals on track 3
• Vivian Cherry – backing vocals on track 3
• Barbara Massey – backing vocals on track 3

Original recording details and wiped backing musicians

• Track 1 recorded at the Record Plant in New York City, New York on December 19, 1969.
• Track 2 recorded at the Sound Center in New York City, New York on March 13, 1968. Wiped: Stephen Stills - bass, Mitch Mitchell - drums
• Track 3 recorded at the Record Plant in New York City, New York on April 24, 1969. Wiped: Billy Cox - bass. Rocky Isaacs* - drums, Al Marks* and Chris Grimes* - percussion & [unknown] - organ (*from the group, the Cherry People)
• Track 4 recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, New York on July 15, 1970. Wiped: Billy Cox - bass, Mitch Mitchell - drums
• Track 5 recorded at TTG Studios in Los Angeles, California on October 24, 1968. Wiped: Noel Redding - bass, Mitch Mitchell - drums
• Track 6 basic track recorded at the Record Plant in New York City, New York on January 21, 1970.
• Track 7 recorded at the Record Plant in New York City, New York on April 7–9, overdubs inc. backing vocals on April 14, 1969. Wiped: Noel Redding - bass, Mitch Mitchell - drums, Roger Chapman & Andy Fairweather Low - backing vocals.
• Track 8 (unknown to Douglas) was a composite of three different bits, of unrelated tracks put together posthumously in 1973 by John Jansen. These were variously recorded at Electric Lady, NYC, in July/August 1970 (possible recording date for the intro); at Record Plant, NYC, January 23, 1970 (the middle Ezy Ryder/MLK Jam); and at TTG Studios, Los Angeles, Ca. on October 23, 1968 (the New Rising Sun outro). Douglas added overdubs to Jansen's original

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

• Moskowitz, David (2010). The Words and Music of Jimi Hendrix. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 0313375925. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
• Shapiro, Harry; Caesar Glebbeek (August 15, 1995). "Appendix 1: Music, Sweet Music: The Discography". Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy (3rd ed.). New York: St. Martin's Griffin. pp. 545–46. ISBN 978-0-312-13062-6.

External links

• Crash Landing at Discogs (list of releases)