Being a bit of an expert on Jimi Hendrix, it is nice to see the New York Times appreciate my perspective quoting me after Alan Douglas passed in June of 2014.
One of my lawyers called and said
"You're quoted in the Boston Globe."
My response:
"And also the New York Times."
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Enjoy my extensive writings on Hendrix
on my home page
http://joeviglione.com/?p=2026
“If you take this work at face value, without the baggage of what ‘producer’ Alan Douglas did to the tapes,” Joe Viglione wrote in a review on the website AllMusic that also disparaged a co-producer, Tony Bongiovi, “it’s still Hendrix. Maybe God allowed the series of albums to happen so the world could see Hendrix’s work could survive doctoring and musicians jamming with his art after the fact.”
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Interesting...I co-promoted Tony's nephew, Jon Bon-Jovi, in 1985 - his first Boston show, and had dinner with Jon's uncle, Tony Bongiovi, back in 1995, great guy. While at the Power Station Tony had AC/DC recording upstairs. Though I appreciate the band I was never a big fan, but they were sitting across from me in the lobby...
I was set to interview Mr. Douglas in July of 2014 for his new book but with the news of his passing, his co-author chatted with me on the radio.
The NY Times quote wanted to give the upside and downside of the Douglas legacy. I've also been highly supportive of certain aspect of Alan's work. My qualm was with some of the re-recording of the music after Jimi had passed...the doctoring was not necessary, but I credit Alan Douglas with keeping Jimi's name alive which was instrumental in making him the superstar that he is now, long after his passing fifty years ago.
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A fellow from the Woburn Public Library went to see this movie with me.
WILD ANGEL: Jimi Hendrix Live At The Isle Of Wight
Blue Wild Angel:
Jimi Hendrix Live at The Isle Of Wight is a 102 minute documentary by Academy Award winner Murray Lerner which features a crystal clear updated sound mix by engineer/record producer Eddie Kramer and other goodies separating this version from the 56 minute 1970 release.
Videotaped documentary footage recorded three decades after the original film was shot adds insight. There are interviews with Kramer, bassist {$Billy Cox}, drummer Mitch Mitchell, Jim Marron - president of Electric Lady Studios, Hendrix tour manager Gerry Stickles, along with director Lerner himself and full length versions of the included songs from the legendary festival. As audio fragments of this concert became commercially available through the years including three tracks on Columbia Records The First Great Rock Festivals Of The Seventies and four other titles on Polydor's Jimi Hendrix / Isle Of Wight lp, different perceptions of one of Jimi's final concerts reached the public consciousness. At nearly double the 54 minute length of the Rhino Home Video} from 1970 entitled Jimi Hendrix: Live At The Isle of Wight, the result is simply breathtaking with Jimi Hendrix - the rock star performing in all his glory as his sun was about to set.
Lerner calls this "a labor of love which took a long time to finish" and he credits the Experience Hendrix company with helping obtain the backing to complete the project. Filmed between approximately 2 AM and 4 AM on August 31, 1970, it is so dark that the 600,000 or so people in the audience hardly affect what you see on the screen.
The director said the film is "deliberately claustrophobic" realizing that "Jimi was the key thing to photograph" stating that they stuck to Hendrix "very intensely". Billy Cox's brilliant bass work can be heard cleanly as both he and drummer Mitch Mitchell creat a platform on which genius unfolds. Jimi's versatility is in evidence, he clearly separated making a record from performing on stage. Purple Haze explodes in a way that would never have captured AM radio airplay, and is a stark contrast to the blues of "Red House" which, on film, has lots of interesting shots of Jimi's hand playing against the light while his facial expression is of a man lost in thought while in the throes of a wild solo. The guitarist here is a master technician, as is Murray Lerner who captures this modern day Beethoven with equal brilliance. The contrast of "Red House's" subtleties to Hendrix turning up his Marshall stacks and giving the people what they want -he psychedelic blasts of "Foxy Lady" - is more proof of how the singer/performer utilized all aspects of the stage - combining the volume and feedback with his clothing, hair, body movements, foot on the wah wah pedal, over amplification, all tools of this part of his trade.
.The build up with photography of the landscape before the main event and daytime glimpes of the crowd (along with Billy Cox's memories of how loud they were) combine to make this a respectful and precise look at a special moment in music history. Murray Lerner feels the 20 minute version of "Machine Gun" here "makes a big difference. It's much more powerful" (than the previous seven minute edit they had in release). The DVD has different camera angles for some of the songs included in the theatrical version, and will also include a bonus rare live performance of "Dolly Dagger".
This review landed me a huge writing gig in 2000
MY SON JIMI – AL HENDRIX WITH JAS OBRECHT
BOOK REVIEW BY JOE VIGLIONE
Written Jun 28 1999, 12:00 am
James A. Hendrix tells his story to Jas Obrecht, former editor of Guitar Player magazine and primary author of Blues Guitar: The Men Who Made The Music. And many of us forget that underneath the psychedelia, the fuzz guitar, the stage presence and theatrics,
James Marshall Hendrix was, indeed, a blues guitarist. Check out the great stories…P 144 “Jimi didn’t give his first album to me directly, I got one from some hippies who lived next door…I was surprised that I knew it was Jimi because I’d never heard him sing before. I had also never heard him play as the Experience. But I told the wife, “Hey, that sounds like Jimi!”
..The people came over and brought their record. They had just bought it that day, and they were so excited over living next door to Jimi’s dad. They said, “Oh, yeah! You can have the record.”
Great shots of The Experience at the airport during the visit to Vancouver, Jimi’s last visit home…reading this it is hard to believe the rock warrior was only 27 years old…a baby – really, and made such an impact on what we hear and how people make music today.
This book is essential reading. It sells for 29.95
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