The world was turned on to the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1967 with the release of
Are You Experienced? With a unique electric spin on R&B, rock, and soul, the Jimi Hendrix Experience would take the world by storm almost overnight and become the definitive voice of psychedelic music. By the end of that summer, Hendrix had become an international superstar.
The Experience DVD can be broken down into two sections. The first part is the half-hour documentary film Experience filmed in London 1967. The second half includes over 40 minutes of bonus material; live footage and music videos. Experience is more a collage of footage, including interviews and "videos," than a documentary. There are a lot better documentaries out there if historical accuracy is what you are looking for. However, if you want a glimpse of London in the late '60s and to see a young, optimistic, and happy Jimi Hendrix, Experience will deliver. The bonus material is what makes this DVD. The live footage is strong and the sound and visual reproduction is outstanding, particularly on the May 24, 1967, Stockholm performances of "Wind Cries Mary" and "Purple Haze." The highlight is the performance of "Red House" for SAT Swedish television on January 9, 1969; in spite of the obvious tension between the band members, the performance is perfect. The one low point: with these great extras and all the yet-to-be-released live footage that is still out there, one wonders why the DVD included an absurd "Dolly Dagger" video shot in 1997 and featuring Fawn Reed and James Hong. It's just awful. Fortunately it's at the end and doesn't take away from the overall strength of this title. -- Rob Bracco
Step inside the world of Jimi Hendrix via
Experience, the acclaimed 1968 program which features a high speed mix of commentary, interviews with Jimi, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, and indelible live performances. Highlights include Jimi's unforgettable twelve-string acoustic rendition of "Hear My Train a-Comin'" as well as incendiary live performances of "Purple Haze" and "Wild Thing" filmed in Blackpool, England, and a soundtrack filled with Hendrix classics like "Voodoo Chile," "If Six Was Nine," "Castles Made of Sand," "May This Be Love," and "Foxey Lady."
Live performances of "The Wind Cries Mary" and "Purple Haze" from Swedish Television's Popside, May 24, 1967; Live performances of "Red House" and Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" from Swedish Television's Number Nine, January 9, 1969, featuring Jimi playing a Gibson SG rather than his trademark Fender Stratocaster; "Wild Thing" live in Paris, October 9, 1967; Original promotional film for "Hey Joe" filmed at London's Saville Theatre in January 1967; 1997 music video for "Dolly Dagger" featuring Fawn Reed and James Hong.
1 Step Inside...............................
Step Inside to a journey of well organized live performences, as well as rare interview footage. This DVD would be more appreciated by a hendrix collector since this is all rare footage, and interviews. This only runs forty minutes long of rare and previously unreleased bonus material. I was disapointed that the hendrix family coperation released this film in such poor manor expesically the Hey Joe(promotional film), and the music video featuring Fawn Reed, and James Hong's Dolly Dagger. Those two sections of the DVD are really bad just to mention. The good footage includes never before seen live performences including Popside, Stockholm's Wind Cries Mary, and Purple Haze.
Also the Stockholm, Sweden 1969 performence including a very long Red House, and Sunshine Of Your Love. Their is also a performence at Olympia, Paris titled Wild Thing. I think this is an average take your money DVD expesically from the company Experience Hendrix im sure many hendrix fans have this one but all the first time hendrix listner's probaley would never think about buying such a short DVD of unreleased material. I really had to push myself to buy this one since I thought it really was not worth buying. But since I love hendrix's music I had no problem with this Experience Hendrix DVD. If you really want a good Hendrix DVD look elsewhere!!!!
2 Buy this only if you are a serious Hendrix fan!
This is only worth while to the real hard core Jimi fan. If you want to see who the "Experiance" really was, then you might like this. You can also see some mistakes Jimi made during "Sunshine of your love". He seems to have gotten lost somewhere in the song's solo. But this is a good example of the bands nature. There is also a live perfomance of Purple Haze which is pretty good considering it was from a filming. There is not a lot of high tech used here.
3 EXPERIENCE HENDRIX
EXPERIENCE HENDRIX,
THIS IS AN OK DVD I DONT LIKE THE FACT THEY ADDED AN VIDEO OF HEY JOE AND DOLLY DAGGER THAT MADE THE DVD WORSEN. THE BEST HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS DVD HAVE TO BE ALL THE CONCERT MATERIAL SOME OF IT IS RAW LIKE IN THE BEGGINING WHEN THEY PLAY PURPLE HAZE BUT IT GETS BETTER WHEN HENDRIX AND THE EXPERIENCE PLAY RED HOUSE IN SWEDEN AND SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE. THEY SHOULD HAVE ADDED THE FULL CONCERT INSTEAD OF CLIPS FROM THE CONCERTS. I RATED THIS 4 STARS ITS OK FOR ME IT WAS NOT A MUST HAVE HENDRIX RELEASE BUY IT AND YOU SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT.
4 Peter Neal
Peter Neal in his late teens was quiet and prescient. As a guitarist with Dave Butcher: banjo and Charlie........:fiddle playing Old Time Country music in the pre rock years attracted more humour than appreciation at a time when there was no Lynard Skynard or Jackson Brown. Early films such as "In the wake of the Parsley Tree" pre-dated "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
by some twenty years. The eclectic and patchy nature of this video set a marker for current TV realism. This piece is real history and should be examined as such.
5 good to have on DVD, but could be better
Don't get me wrong -- I loved the original "Experience" movie, back when it was available on VHS. But I expected great things with its move to DVD -- the quality of the sound of this release is clean, but the video quality of the first 25 minutes is somewhat grainy and disappointing.
My favorite section of this DVD is the "Number 9" Swedish performance. It's in stellar quality -- I really wish that more of this show (all of it?) could have made this disc...given that there was plenty of room to add more 'filler'.
The worst track (for me) was Jimi miming 'Hey Joe'. Sure it's cool to see, but once was enough for me. The "Dolly Dagger" video is tolerable, but I'd have preferred another concert clipping instead.
The one positive note I should make, is that the version I purchased (through Bogus Buy) included two additional tracks from Jimi's forthcoming "Blue Wild Angel" DVD -- "All Along the Watchtower" and "Spanish Castle Magic".
6 For Collectors Only
I myself am a collector; I own over 85 videos from Beatles to The Who to... well, just about every band in the history of rock and roll.
As a fan of Hendrix, this video, a mere 69 minutes in length, was sloppy, disorganized, random bits of footage that seemed to come out of nowhere.
As a collector, I enjoyed very much of it. The Dolly Dagger video alone was worth the price, plus to finally see the 1969 Sweeden concert was really cool.
I would suggest that they make a film documenting Hendrix' entire life, like "The Definitive Elvis" or "Beatles Anthology." That way, we not only see the film clips, but we get a better understanding of how everything fits together.
All in all, I'd say it has a lot of material that a collector would enjoy, but as a fan, I enjoyed "Jimi Plays Monterey" more.
7 A TEETH PICKING EXTRAVAGANZA
I 've told you before that I LOVE IT when hendrix picks with his teeth. Some great examples are shown on this Dvd. I wish that it were longer though. with all the unrealesed footage that Experience Hendrix has laying around, who knows what they're gonna come out with next? I wish that they would release the entire Berkeley concert on Dvd now that would be awesome! Berkeley to me was one of Jimi's best shows. But of course on Johhny B. Goode, They just had to edit it when Jimi was playing with his teeth and that to me is a NO NO!
8 Get a Different Hendrix DVD
This DVD is carelessly shot, often focussing on Jimi's face rather than his entire being. Show us his hands for crying out loud! That's where the action is. There is a really awkward version of Red House that the band performed at the height of the Jimi-Noel fights; the performance is capped by Jimi and the band walking off the stage in disgust.
There are definately more interesting and entertaining Hendrix performances available, so check those out.
9 NOEL ...
This is a great video, and has excellent performances all around except for Noel. Time and time again, Noel just doesn't work. He isn't involved in the song the same way Jimi or Mitch are. I mean, that is one ...bass solo during the seemingly 40 minute version of "Sunshine Of Your Love." While doing his "solo," Noel pauses and SCRATCHES HIS NOSE. COME ON, WHAT THE HELL?!?!?! Jimi should have thrown him off the stage, or gotten a bass player that puts his playing before a scratch he had on his nose. Noel's backing vocals are also whinny and raspy. Let Mitch take some of the vocals (if he's not scratching his nose). So in short, Jimi and Mitch are spectacular, but Noel is enough to give this excellent collection four stars.
10 An edited version of the original cinema release ?
I remember seeing the original Experince movie when it first came out in 1968 and I'm sure it was much longer then. It seems to have been edited down by the Hendrix Estate which is a big pity. I'm not sure if any of the music has been cut but certainly some of the interviews are missing, particularly the unique Cynthia Caster Plaster interview. I wish I could find out the length of the original movie but unusually imdb.com does not have a lot of detail on this. Anyway, a unique record of how people saw Hendrix at the time in the Sixties.Better than Rainbow Bridge.But not as good as the Warner Bros Jimi Hendrix movie.
11 Great extras great film
I had to have this DVD.
I'd never seen any of the extra footage on this disc before. It's a shame the Popside guitar mix is a little quiet but it's a great performance.
The Swedish show is outstanding even if you only watch Jimi. I'm not sure why, maybe he forgot his guitar but Hendrix plays a white Gibson SG for two numbers, Red House and Sunshine of your Love. It's really interesting to watch Hendrix's face as he struggles with the new guitar. Constantly fiddling with volume and tone controls it's almost like he'd never played an SG before! Red House is a great version but it's blemished by Jimi's unfamiliarity with the instrument and his resulting frustration. But what an oppurtunity for fans! The look on his face! It's similar to Woodstock in many ways. A brilliant player who's having a bad day but occasionally shines.
Occasionally shines? Okay, occasionally doesn't shine.
The Dolly Dagger video is pretty cheesy. Some woman painted up like a hooker for some no-talent film makers. Watching Jimi step out of the ice is cool though.
When oh when will they do the Hendrix catalog justice?
12 You don't have to be Hendrix freak to enjoy
All I can really say is I enjoy this DVD a ton. I've watched it a few times already and I'm not bored of it. You know how it is with some music/concert DVDs, you watch it once (maybe twice) and just put on the shelf to be forgotten (at least until you sell it back or trade it). It's got really great footage (some stuff I've never seen before and looks amazing) and it has a nice menu that makes it easy to enjoy. I would put this title as a must own for a Hendrix fan (or just a fan of great music) and not just archive freaks.
13 "I THINK HE'S THE ONLY PART RED INDIAN, PART NEGRO,
EX-ARMY AIRBORNE, ELECTRONIC BLUES PLAYER THAT I'VE EVER MET." (NR?)
Frankly, I was disappointed with the sound quality the most and also the picture quality of this DVD, however; I told myself to be THANKFUL for ANY Jimi I can get! He is GONE and I should CHERISH this--and I do! I wish he was still here with us today! Think how amazing that would be!
Included on this DVD is:
EXPERIENCE: [Color] Includes live performances and rare footage. It has "Purple Haze", "Wild Thing", a photo session with Jimi, Noel and Mitch, a short video of Indians with comments by Jimi, Jimi answering short questions of Mitch and Noel (particularly humorous is Jimi's pet peeve about gimmicks), "Foxey Lady" video, Jimi skydiving and Jimi describing his feelings of it, and it ends with "Hear My Train A Comin'."
POPSIDE: [Black & White] Stockholm, Sweden May 24, 1967. Jimi performs in studio for a Swedish Television Program. This section of the DVD has more closeups of his fingering, much better picture and somewhat better sound quality than EXPERIENCE (above.) He plays "The Wind Cries Mary" and "Purple Haze." POPSIDE is an awesome clip!
NUMBER NINE: [Black & White] Stockholm, Sweden January 9, 1969. "Time for some electric church music..." says the announcer. This is definitely my favorite section of the DVD. Jimi plays "Red House"--it is an amazing performance of the song with much improved and diverse camera angles. The angles include closeups of each player, of all three, plus priceless closeups of Jimi's fingering and full body angles! Jimi goes straight into "Sunshine Of Your Love" and it is awesome too! This and the other Swedish performance, POPSIDE, are worth the purchase price of this DVD in my opinion! DIG!
OLYMPIA: [Color] Paris October 9, 1967. An incredible performance of "Wild Thing." What can I say? GROOVY!
"HEY JOE": ORIGINAL PROMOTIONAL FILM [Color] January 1967. Not a lot of lighting on but this has a much better picture quality than some clips on this DVD. I have always loved this song.
"DOLLY DAGGER" [Color] 1997 Music video with Fawn Reed and James Hong. I liked this but especially the ending! WOW! You have to see this!
All in all, I think you should enjoy this if you are a big fan as long as you are forewarned of the sound and picture quality which are no better than average (I am being generous here.)
14 Jimi Hendrix:Experience
This DVD was a big disappointment. The only good track is "Hey Joe". Everything else is very bad. There are other bad Hendrix DVDs but this is the worst. If you want Hendrix on DVD, buy "Woodstock", "Monteray Pop" or "Band Of Gypsys". I'm trading in my copy soon.
15 An "Experience" to avoid
Again, I believed all the hype of never seen before footage and was disappointed. The first 15 to 20 minutes of this reissued video are awful. Not only was the footage bad, but they could have cleaned the negative before they released it. The qualilty of Wild Thing in Paris '67 was horrible, but once you got used to it, they procceded to cut it short.
Red House and Sunshine of Your Love from the 1969 Sweden show are the only highlights of the video. They should have released the whole 1st and 2nd set of this show and then it would have been a worthwhile buy. I give it 2 stars since it was better than Fillmore East and Electric Ladyland videos.
16 Never before seen....GRRRRREAT!!!!
This DVD blew me away. The footage from Sweden is incredible. If you like Hendrix like I do you'll love this DVD. The perfect addition to any collection of Hendrix music and videos. Buy it, you'll love it. Get experienced
17 Don't Be Mislead--There are better Hendrix videos
When I read the short description of this video, I had hoped it was the video of the unreleased film 'Experience' from Hendrix' Royal Albert Hall performance. It definitely is not. First, the production quality of this video is horrendous. It appears to be a bootleg of previously released clips. Most of it is so overexposed as to be a blur on the screen. There are three 'live' performances documented. One can be found on the 'Soundtrack from the Film Jimi Hendrix' (Hear My Train a Comin' [acoustic]). The other two are 'Purple Haze' and 'Wild Thing'. Both appear to be from the same performance, but unfortunately the poor video and audio of this tape get in the way of making this tape a nice find. There is also a 1960s 'video' (in 8mm format) of the studio version of the song 'Foxy Lady', comprising mostly of a woman in a fur coat running around what appears to be a parking lot. Nice retro piece, but no big deal. There are also interviews with Hendrix, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. These appear to have been lifted and slapped together to stretch out this tape. In short, look elsewhere. There are better performances recorded on film. Look for Pennebacker. The poor quality and scant content make this a letdown even for a hardcore Hendrix enthusiast.
