Jimi Hendrix — Straight Ahead (1970)

 Jimi Hendrix's unfinished 4th album: one of the great unfinished albums of classic rock, up there with Lifehouse, Smile, Jethro Tull's Chateau album, among others. There's been so many attempts at putting together this album, from the original Cry of Love lp, the much hated Voodoo Soup, the "definitive" First Rays of the New Rising Sun, and other unofficial reconstructions, like that of Soniclovenoize's reconstruction, or The Reconstructor's take, which is similar to my idea, but turned Triple lp. What I've done is made it a double lp, using not the tape box tracklist, as Soniclovenoize and others have done, but rather the "Songs for lp Strate Ahead" memo from Hendrix himself.

So the tracklist written by Hendrix is filled out by 25 songs. The only problem is that three songs don't exist, and one is unreleased. A lot of the songs are in various stages of mixing, with some being just demos, some being basic run-throughs (one without vocals, even!), So this album is by no means "what would have come out", but rather a sketch of what it probably was gonna be. Ultimately, I tried using the versions of songs that were worked on last where available, so, as much as I love it, the Band of Gypsys version of "Lover Man" will be left off, in favour of the final take with Mitch Mitchell on drums. 

I'll be using The Reconstructor's cover, since it's fantastic and I love it a lot

Sources Used:

• The First Rays of the Rising Sun (Ezy Ryder, Room Full Of Mirrors, Earth Blues, Straight Ahead, Freedom, Stepping Stone, Izabella, Astro Man, Angel, Night Bird Flying, Dolly Dagger, Hey Baby)
• Valleys of Neptune (Valleys of Neptune)
• Jimi Hendrix Experience [Purple Box] (Cherokee Mist, Lover Man)
• South Saturn Delta (Drifter's Escape, Bleeding Heart Midnight Lightning)
• West Coast Seattle Boy (Burning Desire)
• People, Hell, & Angels (Hear My Train A-Comin')
• Both Sides of the Sky (Send My Love To Linda)
• The Reconstructor (Heaven Has No Sorrow)
  

Side One (20:23)

1. Ezy Ryder - 4:09
   
2. Room Full of Mirrors - 3:21
   
3. Earth Blues - 4:08
   
4. Valleys of Neptune - 4:03
   
5. Straight Ahead (Have You Heard?) - 4:42
   

Side Two (23:00)

1. Cherokee Mist - 6:02
   
2. Freedom - 3:26
   
3. Stepping Stone - 4:09
   
4. Izabella - 2:51
   
5. Astro Man - 3:35
   
6. Drifter's Escape - 3:02
   

Side Three (25:56)

1. Angel - 4:21
   
2. Bleeding Heart - 3:13
   
3. Burning Desire - 8:49
   
4. Night Bird Flying - 3:52
5. Hear My Train A-Comin' - 5:41
   

Side Four (26:29)

1. Lover Man - 2:57
   
2. Midnight Lighting - 3:07
   
3. Heaven Has No Sorrow - 4:41
   
4. Send My Love (to Linda) - 4:36
   
5. Dolly Dagger - 4:44
   
6. Hey Baby (Land of the New Rising Sun) - 6:04

(AFTERNOTE: I know some of these sides seem very long, and it's true. Most of these side lengths are long for the time, but they're not unprecedented. In 1966, in the UK, for instance, the Rolling Stones' Aftermath has over 26 minutes of music per side. Genesis were infamous for this, somehow managing to cram 55 minutes of music onto their album Duke, with almost all of their albums before that also having 50+ minutes of music per album, so Hendrix having 26 minutes of song per side isn't entirely unreasonable.)