The posthumous releases of Jimi Hendrix get a real bad rap. It's partly because it's so obvious they are unfinished works in progress, rapidly mixed to cash in on the name and in most part we've been happy to blame Mr. Hendrix senior for the flagrant cash-grabs.
That being said, I'm still excited enough to go out to a shop and plonk down money for the latest remasters of 'Cry of Love' and 'Rainbow Bridge Original motion Picture Soundtrack'. Thats right, I did the 1980s thing of going to a retail outlet to buy two CDs of Jimi Hendrix. Take that you Gen-Y peer-to-peer music pirates and downloaders! That's how it's done. Plonking down some cash. Cash. Not credit card, not EFTPOS, cold hard cash, baby.
They're actually pretty good considering they've come off a two track mix master. There's a lot of definition in the sound image and the lead breaks panning from left to right - a Hendrix signature if there ever was one- have tremendous fidelity. The overall feel of both these releases is a crispness that was missing from the old LPs. It's also nice to hear this material without the thin sound that was on the LP releases way back when and the awful hiss.
Both these albums show Jimi flopping around for a new direction beyond the flash of his original band and the considered poise of the Band of Gypsies. On one level he is still Jimi Hendrix, guitar hero and noise merchant and yet he's trying to reposition his guitar playing against different sorts of rhythms and styles. Some of the less complete tracks feel like he's unsure of his artistic voice, searching for something new, while tracks like 'In From The Storm' sound like they might have come off an 'Electric Ladyland' session.
The vernacular of psychedelic guitar soloing has aged considerably and turning back the clock to the 1970 vibe feels like a time warp in of itself. You do wonder what he might have done in the late 70s had he lived. All the same, these are pretty good albums if you want a better picture of just what Jimi Hendrix was about.
'A Million Ways To Die In The West'
A mostly meaningless comedy starring Charlize Theron and Liam Neeson. Of course it features Seth McFarlane pulling an Orson Welles effort, being the leading man, writer-director-producer, but that is almost by-the-by. The humour's gross and has a couple of good laughs which make it bearable but the modern banter in the Old West gag wears thin very quickly.
Random Spoiler because I am a bastard : There's a good sheep joke and a great gag featuring Christopher Lloyd that makes it okay.
'Boardwalk Empire' Season 4
Good old Nucky Thompson and his Atlantic City gang find themselves on the outer after the bruising climax to Season 3. A lot of people complain about the moral ambiguity of the main characters in 'BE', but really, they're prohibition era gangsters; hardly the sort of men to be concerned about moralism. Season 4 throws Edgar Hoover and the nascent FBI into the mix, which is fun. We also see Al Capone step up towards the big time. The mania inherent in the setup reaches fever pitch in Season 3's climax but there is no big shoot out in season 4. It's more of a dramatic climax that leaves you haunted.
I still love this gangster stuff. 'Boardwalk Empire' effectively does to the 1920 what 'Mad Men' has done for the 60s, which is that it lets you live it by proxy. It's an amazing effect when you binge watch these things. Clive James was saying that his main sorrow in facing death is that he won't get to find out how 'Game of Thrones' ends. I have to say I have great sympathy for that sentiment.
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