Band of Gypsys (1970)

The fourth and last album from Jimi Hendrix while he was alive is also the first and only without the Experience. Hendrix had been criticized for using the white Brits as his backing band on the studio albums—bass player Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell—and more generally for a lack of political relevance, a charge that could be common at the time. So he turned to bass player Billy Cox and drummer Buddy Miles. Miles is on parts of Electric Ladyland and Cox, an Army buddy, played with Hendrix at Woodstock. The Band of Gypsys tracks were recorded live at the Fillmore East on January 1, 1970. The album got a lot of mixed reviews, both in the press and by way of word of mouth in my high school circles. I never knew anyone who owned it and loved it enough to play it for me with regularity, so it took me some time. But I have to say I wonder what was the holdup. It sounded great when I finally really got to it recently. It features two long, ambling jams, “Who Knows” and “Machine Gun,” which did take some time to cohere but now are more unfolding every time I play them. Both are powered most by Hendrix’s guitar, but “Who Knows” has an insane earworm riff that the band rolls into like thunder, at the same time leaving large open spaces suitable for utterly expressive guitar and passages of scat singing from Miles. The Vietnam-focused “Machine Gun” is the obvious play for political relevance here, although really Hendrix had answered those questions by then at Woodstock with his inspired “Star-Spangled Banner” performance. I see many consider “Machine Gun” a rival to it, at least in terms of instrumental sound effects for helicopters, bombs, firefights, etc. Hey, sure, I can get with that—the Woodstock “Star-Spangled Banner” is the most original and trenchant, but my problem there is that I just don’t like the song, which means I don’t listen to Hendrix’s brilliant version often. The “bombs bursting in air” and such tend to work more like novelty stuff for me—clever before it is expressive. “Machine Gun” has some of that, but it’s a better song, and then some of this guitar play is nothing less than sublime. The more I listen to Band of Gypsys the more I wonder how any criticisms could outweigh the high points here, which are frequent and frequently very high. Sometimes it’s a matter of a single sustained note. The guy could do it. I can see part of the problem might have been it’s a bit of a one-sided album. The long songs on side 1 of the LP—9:39 and 12:41, respectively—somehow make the four 5-minute songs on side 2 less appealing. I assure you they have their merits, but in LP style I likely would stick to the first side myself too. The live aspect of the recording is nicely underplayed, with minimal crowd noise and vamping. It’s just a gifted band jamming it out on stage, feeling their way through, knowing it was being recorded, of course, but still loose and capable of surprises everywhere. Within the year, as Sonic Youth would later say of other things in a different context, confusion is next. Over the decades that followed (and still, I believe) the recorded archives are being mined diligently. I like Band of Gypsys, like I like the three before it, because I like that Jimi Hendrix was the one basically overseeing them.