JIMI HENDRIX: Complete WOODSTOCK Set Heads To DVD

August 5, 2005

Greg Prato of Billboard.com is reporting that Jimi Hendrix's closing performance at Woodstock on Aug. 18, 1969 will be commercially available in its entirety on Sept. 13, when Universal Music and Experience Hendrix release the DVD "Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock".

The double-disc set captures one of Hendrix's only performances with an extended backing band, dubbed GYPSY SUN AND RAINBOWS. Longtime Hendrix engineer Eddie Kramer supervised a new audio mix in both 5.1 and 2.0 stereo sound. Bonus features include "The Road to Woodstock" documentary, a contemporaneous press conference and "A Second Look", which blends black-and-white video footage with color clips from alternate angles.

While the set list contained both favorites from the JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE ("Purple Haze", "Foxy Lady", "Spanish Castle Magic") and then-unheard compositions ("Message to Love", "Jam Back at the House", "Izabella"),it was the guitarist's surprise rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" that became synonymous with the original Woodstock.

"[Jimi] was so into it — if you listen closely you will see that I stayed on him," GYPSY SUN AND RAINBOWS (and later, BAND OF GYPSYS) bassist Billy Cox told Billboard.com. "And when he started 'The Star Spangled Banner', that impromptu thing, you hear the first four, five, or six notes; I'm in there with him. Then I said, 'Wait a minute, we didn't rehearse this, and it doesn't sound too good with me playing.' I backed away, and he continued and made a classic out of that."

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