Crash Landing (Jimi Hendrix album) explained

Crash Landing
Type:compilation
Artist:Jimi Hendrix
Cover:JHCrashLanding.jpg
Recorded:1968–1970; 1974 (overdubs)
Genre:Rock
Label:Polydor (UK)
Reprise (US)
RTB (Yugoslavia)
Producer:Alan Douglas, Tony Bongiovi
Prev Title:Loose Ends
Prev Year:1974
Next Title:Midnight Lightning
Next Year:1975

Crash Landing is a posthumous compilation album by American guitarist Jimi Hendrix.[1] It was released in March and August 1975 in the US and the UK 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, his 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Jimi Hendrix Experience line up, while the rest of the material used on Crash Landing consisted of recordings Hendrix originally made with Billy Cox on bass and either Mitch Mitchell or Buddy Miles on drums and on one occasion by Rocky Isaacs.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 numbers five in the US and 35 in the UK, the highest chart positions since The Cry of Love. The album reached number 5 in Canada,[2] and was number 38 in the year-end chart.[3]

Personnel

Added in 1975:

Notes and References

  1. Book: Moskowitz, David. The Words and Music of Jimi Hendrix. ABC-CLIO. 2010. July 1, 2014. 99. 978-0313375927.
  2. Web site: RPM Top 100 Albums - May 24, 1975.
  3. Web site: RPM Top 100 Albums of 1975 - December 27, 1975.