BBC Sessions (The Jimi Hendrix Experience album)

BBC Sessions is an album of recordings by the rock group the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released on MCA Records on June 2, 1998. It contains all the surviving tracks from their various appearances on BBC radio programmes, such as Saturday Club and Top Gear, recorded in 1967.

BBC Sessions
Live album by
ReleasedJune 2, 1998 (1998-06-02)
Recorded1967, 1969
StudioBBC studios
Genre
Length107:20
LabelMCA
Producer
The Jimi Hendrix Experience chronology
Live at the Oakland Coliseum
(1998)
BBC Sessions
(1998)
Live at the Fillmore East
(1999)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Robert ChristgauB+[3]
Rolling Stone[4]
Tom Hull – on the WebB+[5]

At a BBC radio session, a practice still alive in British radio today, a band is required to record material in a studio quickly with limited overdubbing, largely limited to and relying upon their live sound. Many groups as part of this tradition choose to record some songs that are not part of their main repertoire. The album also includes the only two surviving Hendrix UK TV soundtracks (both BBC) Late Night Line Up ("Manic Depression" only survives) and the 1969 Lulu Show (complete). BBC Sessions therefore offers its own unique example of the Experience sound, and a revealing glimpse of a song from their early repertoire Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" and their only known studio recording of Bob Dylan's "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?"

Apart from the "live" in studio versions of well-known Experience songs, there are several unique studio recordings of songs, i.e. "Driving South" (three versions), which includes several guitar lines derived from Albert Collins' "Frosty" (1962) and "Thaw Out" (1965), "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man", "Catfish Blues", "Hound Dog", "Hear My Train A Comin'" (two versions) and a couple of novelty tracks: the amusing parody of a BBC Radio 1 jingle "Radio One", and a recording with a young Stevie Wonder on drums (a cover of Wonder's own "I Was Made to Love Her").[6] It also includes the sound track from the band's infamous appearance on Lulu's television show in 1969.[6]

This collection has been re-released as part of the Hendrix Family's project to remaster Jimi's discography in 2010 by Experience Hendrix and Legacy Recordings. The re-release contains two digitally remastered sound discs with "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" bonus track from August 24, 1967, and a DVD videodisc of footage from recording sessions, and 22 pages of program notes.[7] Some of this material had previously been released by Rykodisc in 1988 on an album titled Radio One.[1]

Track listing

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Details taken from the original Experience Hendrix CD notes;[6] other sources may show different information.

All tracks are written by Jimi Hendrix, except where noted

Disc one
No.TitleRecordedLength
1."Foxey Lady"2/13/67 for Saturday Club3:00
2."Alexis Korner Introduction" 0:28
3."Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" (Bob Dylan)10/17/67 for Rhythm and Blues3:32
4."Rhythm and Blues World Service" 0:12
5."(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man" (Willie Dixon)10/17/67 for Rhythm and Blues5:30
6."Traveling with the Experience" 0:22
7."Driving South" (Curtis McNear a.k.a. Curtis Knight[8])10/17/67 for Top Gear5:31
8."Fire"3/28/67 for Saturday Club2:42
9."Little Miss Lover"10/6/67 for Top Gear2:58
10."Introducing the Experience" 0:51
11."Burning of the Midnight Lamp"10/6/67 for Top Gear3:43
12."Catfish Blues" (Robert Petway)10/6/67 for Top Gear5:29
13."Stone Free"2/13/67 for Saturday Club3:26
14."Love or Confusion"2/13/67 for Saturday Club2:54
15."Hey Joe" (Billy Roberts)2/13/67 for Saturday Club4:02
16."Hound Dog" (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller)10/6/67 for Top Gear2:43
17."Driving South" (McNear)10/6/67 for Top Gear4:49
18."Hear My Train A Comin'"12/15/67 for Top Gear5:00
Disc two
No.TitleRecordedLength
1."Purple Haze"3/28/67 for Top of the Pops3:17
2."Killing Floor" (Chester Arthur Burnett a.k.a. Howlin' Wolf)3/28/67 for Saturday Club2:28
3."Radio One"12/15/67 for Top Gear1:34
4."Wait Until Tomorrow"12/15/67 for Top Gear2:55
5."Day Tripper" (Lennon–McCartney)12/15/67 for Top Gear3:25
6."Spanish Castle Magic"12/15/67 for Top Gear3:08
7."Jammin'"10/6/67 for Top Gear3:24
8."I Was Made to Love Her" (Stevie Wonder, Lula Mae Hardaway, Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy)10/6/67 for Top Gear3:05
9."Foxey Lady"2/13/67 for Saturday Club2:59
10."A Brand New Sound" 0:54
11."Hey Joe" (Roberts; alternate take)2/13/67 for Saturday Club2:58
12."Manic Depression"4/17/67 for Late Night Line-Up3:11
13."Driving South" (McNear; alternate take)10/6/67 for Top Gear3:22
14."Hear My Train A Comin'" (alternate take)12/15/67 for Top Gear5:03
15."A Happening for Lulu"1/4/69 for Happening for Lulu0:20
16."Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"1/4/69 for Happening for Lulu4:09
17."Lulu Introduction"1/4/69 for Happening for Lulu0:23
18."Hey Joe" (Roberts)1/4/69 for Happening for Lulu2:44
19."Sunshine of Your Love" (Pete Brown, Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton)1/4/69 for Happening for Lulu1:17
20."Burning of the Midnight Lamp" (2010 reissue bonus track)8/24/67 for Top of the Pops4:31

Personnel

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Peak chart positions

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Unterberger, Richie. "Jimi Hendrix Experience: Radio One". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  2. ^ a b Koda, Cub. "The Jimi Hendrix Experience: BBC Sessions". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  3. ^ Christgau, Robert (2011). "Robert Christgau: Album: Jimi Hendrix: BBC Sessions". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 28 August 2011.
  4. ^ "Jimi Hendrix Experience: BBC Sessions – Review". rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2006.
  5. ^ Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Grade List: Jimi Hendrix". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  6. ^ a b c Sinclair, David (1998). The Jimi Hendrix Experience: BBC Sessions (Album notes). The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Universal City, California: MCA Records. OCLC 50109734. MCAD2-11742.
  7. ^ Experience Hendrix. "BBC Sessions (2CD + DVD and LP Editions)". jimihendrix.com (official website). Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  8. ^ Curtis Knight filed for the songwriting credit for "Driving South", although Hendrix adapted it from instrumentals by Albert Collins.
  9. ^ "Jimi Hendrix Experience – Albums". Official Charts. Retrieved 19 October 2016.