The story of Jimi Hendrix's posthumous album Crash Landing ....

Crash Landing is the posthumous compilation of Jimi Hendrix, the greatest guitarist in history: the album was released in 1975. By the way: it was the first work produced by Alan Douglas... It is Hendrix's eighth album, and the fifth to be released after his death... How did the idea for Crash Landing come about? And what is its value today? Let's talk about it in order...

Where did it all start?

At the end of his life, Jimi Hendrix was hard at work on what would eventually become a double studio album entitled First Rays of the New Rising Sun. However, a substantial portion of the tracks that were to be included on this LP were scattered on posthumous releases... Thus, in late 1973, Loose Ends was announced as an 8 track LP, 6 of which were considered incomplete or of poor quality... Because of this, Loose Ends was not released in the United States! It should be noted that the guitarist worked very hard in the studio in the last years of his life, and as a result - a lot of tracks were recorded that were close to perfect... When Hendrix passed away, Alan Douglas had to evaluate the audio material, which was never included in any of the previously released albums of the musician... And as for Crash Landing - the album includes recordings made by Jimi together with Billy Cox, Mitch Mitchell and Buddy Miles....

Issue and... disputes

As mentioned above, Crash Landing was the first Hendrix album to be produced by Douglas... Of course, this had its consequences, and after its release in the mid-70s, the compilation could not but cause controversy... Thus, many resented the fact that Douglas hired session musicians (to re-record certain parts, overdub instruments, etc...) who had not only never met Hendrix in person, but also had never met him in person: their playing simply overrode the original sound of the instruments and thus gave the songs a completely different character... The only good thing is that Hendrix's vocals and guitar contributions were retained.

From a neutral standpoint, one might assume that Douglas took such a bold step in order to give the tracks a finalised feel and sound... After all, it should not be forgotten that the tracks from Crash Landing might not just be in development: they might be raw demos... But that's not all that pissed off the Hendrix fans. For example, Douglas adorned the title track with female backing vocals, and proclaimed himself co-writer of more than half of the material on Crash Landing! Even so, the album reached number five in the States (in Britain it reached only number 35...).

Track list...

The album includes 8 tracks in total! Some of them were already familiar to fans from Band of Gypsys (only there the track "Message to Love" was called "Power of Soul"). After Crash Landing, Douglas would re-release this track in the mid 90's for Voodoo Soup, along with the instrumental "Peace In Mississippi"... The same song, only more expanded and reworked, would be included on the 1997 compilation South Saturn Delta.... The track "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was recorded in the spring of 1968, shortly before the Electric Ladyland sessions, while "Stone Free Again" was recorded a year later, by the original Jimi Hendrix Experience line-up (Noel Redding would leave the band a few months later...).

And now, having familiarised ourselves with the idea, history and success of Crash Landing - we can go directly to the songs from the album! As it was said above, there are 8 of them in total:

"Message to Love"

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

"Crash Landing."

https://youtu.be/LnG6qXE7xWk

"With the Power."

"Stone Free Again"

No audio:

• "Captain Coconut."
• "Come Down Hard on Me"
• "Peace in Mississippi."

Special attention should be paid to the scandalously famous title track (because Douglas added female backing vocals to it): this composition serves as a slightly veiled warning to a girl, a fan of Devon Wilson, who was also involved with Mick Jagger. Hendrix also dedicated the famous song "Dolly Dagger" to her... But their relationship is another story!

Conclusion...

There was no shortage of posthumous Jimi Hendrix releases in the '70s. Reprise and other labels knew that fans of the iconic guitarist were incredibly loyal and dedicated, and they also knew that serious collectors were willing to go for every Hendrix record they could get their hands on... One such posthumous release was Crash Landing, which Reprise released in 1975. And despite the well-known tracks "Message to Love" and "With the Power" - this record is intended more for collectors: because they will want to hear rarities like "Captain Coconut" (a psychedelic instrumental) and "Peace in Mississippi" (another instrumental and the heaviest track on the album)... Listening to "Peace in Mississippi", it's easy to see why Hendrix is called the first heavy metal artist: he certainly had a big influence on early headbangers like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Budgie and Deep Purple! Newcomers would do well to skip this LP and start with records like Are You Experienced?, Electric Ladyland and Axis: Bold as Love. But those who are fascinated by Hendrix's work will find that Crash Landing is a great record for the collection!