The history of the Jimi Hendrix album "The Cry of Love" (creation and interesting facts) ...

The Cry of Love is a posthumous album by Jimi Hendrix, the greatest guitarist and musical icon of the 60s and 70s… The record is a collection of songs recorded by Hendrix shortly before his death. She saw the light in early 1971 and quickly reached the top positions of the charts in both America and the UK. At the end of the 90s, he received platinum status. Today, critics regard "The Cry of Love" as an impressive tribute to... How was the masterpiece created? This is what we're going to talk about today...

Prerequisites…

Before his death, Jimi Hendrix was working on a fourth studio album, the content or even the title of which could only be guessed ... For some time, Jimi foreshadowed a kind of mystical revival, hidden in interviews, lyrics and banter on stage ...

Since the unsurpassed "Electric Ladyland" released in November 1968, Jimi has not released any new studio material. The Experience disbanded in June 1969, ending two and a half years of virtually flawless touring! No wonder Jimi took six months off the road (nothing in the current environment) to build the next phase of his work. The experiment with "Band Of Gypsys" was not a resounding success, but it contained a lot of material recorded in the studio with Billy Cox, Buddy Miles and the faithful Mitch Mitchell ... After a relative lull, Hendrix was putting together what could become a new double album. Jimi toured reluctantly in 1970 (to finance his Electric Lady Studios under construction in New York), during which he introduced many new songs to audiences in America and Europe. He mentioned to the press that his next single would be "Dolly Dagger" and that a new album would be out soon! But in September 1970, he died... With the death of Hendrix, the creation and release of a new album became a headache for Eddie Kramer and Mitch Mitchell: they had to work hard in the studio, with the invitation of session musicians... However, it was worth it.

Studio setting

When Jimi Hendrix tragically died on September 18, 1970 in a suite at the Samarkand Hotel (London), Eddie Kramer and Mitch Mitchell embarked on the painful task of putting together the most complete records of their late comrade, which were missing only a few finishing touches. To work on the posthumous "The Cry of Love", session musicians were invited to the studio, including: Billy Armstrong (percussion), The Ghetto Fighters (backing vocals), Stephen Stills (piano) and others. Mitch himself finished one or two drum tracks, and Buzzy Linhart (an old acquaintance of Jimi's from an early age) was brought in to add a vibraphone to the track "Drifting". Thus, 12 tracks were completed, but only 10 were released on this album ("Dolly Dagger" and "Room Full Of Mirrors" were released on the next release).

The Cry of Love turned out to be an exceptionally well-balanced album with a more direct R&B feel. It showed a significant departure from the sound of Jimi's three precedent works released at the height of his career... The inclusion of "My Friend" was criticized by many Hendrix fans because the track had already appeared in a much earlier session. However, the Seattle West Coast Boy liner notes:

"...After Jimi's death, in September 1970, Kramer and Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell were assigned to prepare "The Cry of Love"...While working in the studio, Kramer recalled Hendrix's enthusiasm for the song, and included it as part of a posthumous album..."

Overview

As many critics point out, "The Cry of Love" is not a masterpiece... While Jimi did spend time perfecting things in and out of the studio, he didn't spend time writing songs like other artists do. There just wasn't time for anything! Some perfectionist bands spend thousands of hours of rehearsal creating songs, tying each song's storytelling together, and thinking about the mastering and packaging of the final product. This comparison is not so much unfair as meaningless. The listener must be aware of this.

Jimi was a young, fantastic guitarist, born in the world of 12-bar blues, and for less than four years he tried to create a new type of music by playing thousands of gigs. He left an insane amount of material and influenced millions of musicians with his legacy right between the two FIFA World Cup tournaments... One inherent problem with Cry for Love is that it suffers a little from "overworked" material. Some songs just aren't that strong inherently, structurally, and need a lot of crazy guitar playing and layering to keep from falling off the plateau of energy. However, Jimi had his own special talent... He was an intelligent musician, with an innovative drive to tell his stories in a way that listeners could discover new details in them. Here, in "The Cry of Love", as in all his music, there are real gems! Absolutely fantastic moments of unparalleled guitar playing, sound creation and world building…

A lot of people liked The Cry of Love. This is an album that you enjoy listening to more than once. It's a nice introduction to a more modern form of Jimi's music...

List of tracks

Half of the tracks were mixed by Hendrix himself. Eddie Kramer and Mitch Mitchell only worked on the final structure. Commercially, "The Cry of Love" was a huge success! The album reached the top three in America and the UK and spawned favorites such as "Angel", "Freedom" and "Ezy Ryder". In total, the album includes 10 tracks, which you can listen to below ...

"Freedom."

Drifting

«Ezy Ryder»

Night Bird Flying

Astro Man

https://youtu.be/wz1Kz9dFjy0

"Angel"

https://youtu.be/EaRFxrDAR-A

"In From The Storm"

No audio:

"Belly Button Window"

"My Friend"

"Straight Ahead"

"The Cry of Love" is a posthumous album by Jimi Hendrix, which became a good addition to his discography. It starts with one of his best songs, the funky groovy "Freedom" followed by "Drifting", a track that captivates with a guitar solo with a sleepy desert vibe... "Ezy Ryder" makes for a fantastically fast motorbike ride! But 'Night Bird Flying' is a more bluesy track… 'Straight Ahead' is a great guitar work from Jimi! And "In From The Storm" is the track that competes with the first three songs and lets you just forget the last one...

Conclusion…

In this final phase of his musical evolution, Jimi really turned the page on "psychedelic" rock. Fans who discovered some of these songs during the 1970 tours finally heard what Jimi was talking about. The rough live versions didn't really hint at the rich layered arrangements revealed in The Cry of Love. Lots of guitar tracks, backing vocals and percussion all come together to create a dense structure that could only be fully reproduced on stage with more musicians… The production of the album is truly rich and you can feel the care that has been put into these tracks. . The Cry of Love remains a historic album and a window into what was to come.