Jimi Hendrix – Band of Gypsys (LP, Sony Music)

‘Band Of Gypsys’ is the only live album personally authorized by Jimi Hendrix during his lifetime. It was recorded at Billy Graham’s Fillmore East in Manhattan on New Year’s Eve 1969 and New Year’s Day 1970 respectively. According to an agreement made with the producer Ed Chalpin in 1965, Hendrix decided to make these live recordings, which, however, excluded the band name The Jimi Hendrix Experience, so that Billy Cox on bass and drummer Buddy Miles accompanied him at the four concerts in this location. The best-known song on the album is the 12-minute “Machine Gun,” which Hendrix composed as a protest against the Vietnam War – long guitar solos and percussive riffs simulate the sounds of helicopters, bomb explosions and machine guns. Young guitarists will certainly be interested in the effects devices used: a wah-wah pedal, a fuzz box from Arbiter and an Octavia Octave Doubler pedal – the rest is pure Hendrix…