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People, Hell and Angels is a posthumous studio album by the American rock musician Jimi Hendrix. The fourth release under the Experience Hendrix deal with Legacy Recordings, it contains twelve previously unreleased recordings of tracks he was working on for the planned follow-up to Electric Ladyland. The tracks featured on People, Hell and Angels are previously unreleased recordings of songs that Jimi Hendrix and fellow band members (mainly the Band of Gypsys lineup featuring Billy Cox and Buddy Miles) were working on as the follow-up to Electric Ladyland, tentatively titled First Rays of the New Rising Sun. The majority of the recordings are drawn from sessions in 1968 and 1969 at the Record Plant Studios in New York, with a few inclusions from Hendrix’s brief residencies at Sound Centre, the Hit Factory, and his own Electric Lady Studios. According to Eddie Kramer, the engineer who recorded most of Hendrix’s music during his lifetime, this will be the last Hendrix album to feature unreleased studio material. Kramer said that several as-yet-unreleased live recordings would be available in the coming years. Review by Sean Westergaard of allmusic: People, Hell and Angels is a collection of quality studio tracks recorded (mostly) in 1968-1969 as the Experience was coming to an end and Jimi was renewing his friendships with Billy Cox and Buddy Miles, who appear here as sidemen on most of these tracks. The surprising thing about this set is not the sound quality (which is exceptional) or that these all sound like finished tracks, but the fact that even avid Hendrix bootleg collectors are unlikely to have heard most of this material. A great version of “Earth Blues” kicks things off with just Jimi, Billy, and Buddy (whose drums were replaced by Mitch Mitchell on the Rainbow Bridge/First Rays version). It’s a more forceful take than the other version and also has some different lyrics. “Somewhere” is also a different take than the one used for Crash Landing and, of course, contains the original rhythm section and not the egregious overdubs of Crash Landing. “Hear My Train A Comin’” and “Bleeding Heart” are both taken from Jimi’s first session with Billy and Buddy from May of 1969. In the film Jimi Hendrix, “Hear My Train” is played slow on a 12-string acoustic and sung so sadly that you can actually see a tear on Jimi’s face as he sings. This version is not only electric and taken at a faster pace than normal, but it’s an angry song, this time with a killer solo. “Bleeding Heart” is nice and raw and has a VERY different arrangement than he ever performed live. “Let Me Move You” was recorded with saxman Lonnie Youngblood, who released a couple singles with a pre-Experience Jimi Hendrix on guitar. It’s nothing more than an old-school soul jam except the guitar is way more out front. It’s a decent track, but doesn’t really fit in with the sound of the rest of the album. “Izabella” and “Easy Blues” are rare studio recordings by the Woodstock band (Jimi, Billy, and Mitch Mitchell with Larry Lee on second guitar and Jerry Velez and Juma Sultan on percussion). This version of “Izabella” is now the earliest known recording of the song, while “Easy Blues” is actually a nice jazzy instrumental (previously released in edited form on Nine to the Universe). This version of “Crash Landing” has Jimi and Billy with what is essentially a pickup band. It sounds more like a work in progress than anything else on the set and contains many elements of what would become “Dolly Dagger.” “Inside Out” may have been heard by hardcore collectors, but not in this quality. It was originally cut with just Jimi on guitar and Mitch Mitchell on drums, then Jimi added bass and a guitar overdub through a Leslie. It’s a great tune and it’s always exciting to hear Jimi’s bass playing as well. “Hey Gypsy Boy” is very closely related to “Hey Baby,” and may have been an early version. On this cut, Jimi’s whammy bar work is quite interesting and not his standard dive-bomb approach. “Mojo Man” was actually a Ghetto Fighters tune, recorded at Muscle Shoals. Jimi laid down a couple guitar tracks on top of the existing mix for this track. Kudos to Eddie Kramer for grafting guitar parts on to a fully mixed tune and making it sound great (he really did a spectacular job on this entire set). It’s a hot tune with nice syncopated horns, improved by Jimi’s addition. The album closes with a brief studio take on “Villanova Junction Blues.” People, Hell and Angels certainly isn’t the place to start your Hendrix collection, but collectors will surely want to hear this and it provides an interesting perspective on where Jimi’s music was headed post-Experience. Review by Patrick Humphries at BBC Music: The battle for the soul and spirit of Jimi Hendrix continues undiminished. The problem with Jimi is that he never stopped making music – he left behind an estimated 1,500 hours of material when he died in September 1970. The irony is, of course, that Hendrix died so young – he didn’t even make it to 30 – that his legacy was built upon just four albums that he released in his lifetime. This is the 12th official studio set released since Hendrix’s death. The last, 2010’s Valleys of Neptune, proved his appeal hadn’t waned: it charted top 30 in the UK, and reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 stateside. The very nature of Hendrix’s approach to recording was due in large part to the fact that, having his own studio, he was not at the mercy of a record label. This freedom produced his amazing archive. Inevitably, much of the material that has subsequently surfaced is made up of studio jams – but when you are dealing with a guitarist of such stature, even jams can be a revelation. Hendrix’s music was rooted in the blues, as demonstrated here by Hear My Train a Comin’ and Bleeding Heart. On Somewhere, a previously unreleased cut from 1968 with long-time Jimi fan Stephen Stills on bass, the sheer fluency of Hendrix’s playing is breathtaking. A jam with saxophonist Lonnie Youngblood is also enjoyable, and equally welcome is the inclusion of original versions of songs that are more familiar in posthumous versions with overdubs and editing. While the debate still rages about where his muse might have taken him next, few would question Hendrix’s place in the pantheon of rock greats – after all, Miles Davis didn’t offer to play with just anyone. No one knows for certain, but this latest collection offers a tantalising glimpse of how Hendrix’s genius might have progressed. Review by Jon Hadusek on Consequence of Sound: When Jimi Hendrix died, he became a god. This is an undisputed fact. It’s all been said before, regurgitated by rock writers for decades: Hendrix revolutionized the art of guitar playing. He viewed the instrument as a sonic anomaly, his playing an ongoing experiment conducted during every jam session and live show. Scales, chords, progressions — all that stuff had already been discovered. Hendrix was fascinated by what hadn’t been done with a guitar– like playing it through wah-wah pedals and massive gain, or picking its strings with his teeth, or dousing it with lighter fluid and igniting it. His godliness is directly correlated to his larger-than-life fretwork. So when he died, he ascended to the rock ‘n’ roll heavens, where his divine amplifier feedback can be heard for all of eternity. Us mortals were left with loose ends: demos, outtakes, unfinished recordings, archived live audio, and stray handwritten lyrics. They were scraps to some, $$$ to all the music industry execs who knew how to exploit the death of an icon. The first three posthumous LPs – The Cry of Love, Rainbow Bridge, and War Heroes – were produced and compiled by Mitch Mitchell, Eddie Kramer, and John Jansen with the earnest intent of finishing what Hendrix couldn’t (most of these songs would be collected on 1997’s First Rays of the New Rising Sun in an attempt to recreate the album Hendrix was working on before he died). Admirable enough. But with the vaults open and labels placing bids on Hendrix’s unreleased material, the money grubbing ensued. The villain: record producer Alan Douglas. Starting with 1975’s Crash Landing, Douglas produced numerous albums by taking Hendrix’s leftovers and replacing the original rhythm tracks with overdubs by session musicians. After mastering, the recordings sounded more polished and professional, but less authentic. This pissed off a lot of Hendrix fans. Douglas compiled every posthumous studio album until the Hendrix estate (which operates under the name ‘Experience Hendrix L.L.C.’) gained ownership of the recordings in 1995. Not that that’s seen a decrease in releases. Legacy Recordings and Experience Hendrix have already collaborated for some box sets and LPs, People, Hell and Angels being the latest. However, the presentation of the music differs. This partnership has taken an archivist approach to preserving and releasing posthumous material — the opposite of what Douglas did. No overdubs. You’re hearing Billy Cox on bass and Buddy Miles on drums (the Band of Gypsys!). Stephen Stills shows up. The recordings sound raw– and real. Opener “Earth Blues” is a tight rock-and-soul fusion and easily the catchiest tune on People, Hell and Angels. Hendrix sings his conversational jive-talk as Miles and Cox follow with a harmonized chorus reminiscent of vintage Motown. Originally featured on 1971’s Rainbow Bridge, the song is presented here in a looser form. The same goes for “Somewhere”, which sees Stills on bass. The takes are obviously candid, as if somebody just hit the record button while Hendrix and his band jammed in the studio (which is probably what happened). And the guitar solos… they’re on every song, multiple minutes in length. It’s to be expected, but it gets tiresome with repeated plays. Better are the solos that sound written rather than improvised. “Sometimes” touts one of the former, a silky romance of a solo that segues into Hendrix all down n’ out: “Back at the saloon, tears mix with mildew in my dreams.” No surprise that the two aforementioned tracks were selected as the singles for People, Hell and Angels (and they’re bound to chart, courtesy of classic rock stations everywhere). The rest of the album is a mixed bag of brilliance and indifference. Some songs we simply don’t need another version of in our music libraries. “Hear My Train A Comin’” and “Bleeding Heart” were presented in superior form on 1994’s Blues; “Izabella” sounds good here, but better on First Rays and Woodstock. Other songs are so rough that they were probably better off unreleased (the cloying solo in the middle of “Easy Blues” is arguably Hendrix’s worst; “Mojo Man” is a Ghetto Fighters track with guitar awkwardly overdubbed into it). Then there’s “Crash Landing”, which is so good that it’s hard to believe it went unreleased for so long (Douglas’ version doesn’t count). Hendrix sings to then-girlfriend Devon Wilson, pleading that she kick her drug addiction: “And look at you, all lovey-dovey when you mess around with that needle / Well, I wonder, how would your loving be otherwise?” His lyrics are rarely this personal and transparent. This is the kind of stuff that makes a posthumous release worthwhile. People, Hell and Angel isn’t perfect — or godly — but it does contain some canon tracks that every Hendrix fan should hear. And for a posthumous anthology, it’s surprisingly cohesive as a singular unit. These tracks share a consistent groove that’s never urgent or lazy, but just right. Perhaps it’s the organic, jam-session sound quality. Or the Miles-Cox rhythm section. Whatever the dynamic, the Douglas-produced albums didn’t have it. People, Hell and Angels does, and no matter how flawed it might be, you can’t dispute its authenticity. Review by Dave Simpson on The Guardian: With almost four times as many posthumous collections as studio albums released during his lifetime, James Marshall Hendrix really may be worth more dead than alive. Most of the dozen songs here have been released before in other forms, and 1997′s First Ray of the New Rising Sun remains the definitive set of “building blocks” for what would have been Hendrix’s fifth album. However, these 1968-9 recordings (mostly with Billy Cox and Buddy Miles) are free of overdubs, and the playing is incendiary. Easy Blues and Elmore James’ Bleeding Heart are rawer than other versions, but most intriguing are the songs where you can hear him feeling out new directions: Earth Blues and Izabella are lithe and funky, and the outstanding, sax-blasting Let You Move You, with Lonnie Youngblood’s vocals, suggests Hendrix could have made a blistering metamorphosis into turbocharged electric soul. Review by Jim Farber of the New York Daily News: The folks who cobbled together People, Hell & Angels, for the estate of the late Jimi Hendrix, have been making a lot of broad claims about their product. It’s supposed to give us 12 “previously unreleased” studio recordings “completed” by Hendrix. It’s also meant to provide a “compelling window into his growth as a songwriter, musician and producer,” offering “tantalizing new clues” to the direction Hendrix was testing for a fourth studio album. This was to be a proposed double-set sequel to 1968’s Electric Ladyland. Of course, Hendrix never recorded — let alone released — that album, so it’s hard to say just how “complete” the man himself may have considered these songs. While it’s true none of these recordings have come out before, nearly all have been issued in different versions in the 43 years since the guitar god left this earthly plane. In that time, it seems like more “lost” Hendrix recordings have been found than we now have reality shows — some of them every bit as dubious. As a consequence, only the most extreme Hendrix-ologist could divine the precise rarity of these recordings. But even a cursory listen makes this clear: The newfangled, and boldly explorative, Hendrix alleged here, captured between 1968 and ’69, doesn’t sound all that different from the one we’ve long loved. At root, it’s still killer psychedelic rock-soul, very much of its time. The disc does find the icon working with some different musicians, including Steven Stills (on bass!), along with a second guitarist on some tracks (he is old friend Larry Lee). Hendrix also brings in horns and other singers for some cameos. Even if these “clues” somehow “tantalize” you, they hardly provide solid evidence of any revolutionary direction fans might have imagined for the icon. Of course, the mold Hendrix already set had more than enough juice and innovation to thrill, and if you’re a nerd about this stuff, the incremental changes teased here will excite. It’s fun to hear the guitar immortal working with horns. In “Let Me Move You,” he features saxist Lonnie Youngblood for a blisteringly fast rock-soul workout, much in the manic mode of Ike and Tina Turner. “Mojo Man” sees Hendrix helping out old Harlem friends, the Ghetto Fighters, who sing lead, while horns pump and a rolling piano brings in a touch of New Orleans. The funky take on “Crash Landing” rescues it from a 1975 version that caused a scandal by employing posthumously tacked-on studio musicians. But the most worthy cut is “Easy Blues,” an instrumental that’s twice as long as a take that appeared on a now-out-of-print album from 1981. As guitarist Lee plays foil, Hendrix peels out leads that fly so high, they’ll leave every guitarist who came in his wake reeling in wonder. LP Track Listing Side One 1. “Earth Blues” – 3:33 2. “Somewhere” – 4:05 3. “Hear My Train A Comin’” – 5:41 Side Two 4. “Bleeding Heart” (Elmore James) – 3:58 5. “Let Me Move You” – 6:50 6. “Izabella” – 3:42 Side Three 7. “Easy Blues” – 5:57 8. “Crash Landing” – 4:14 9. “Inside Out” – 5:03 Side Four 10. “Hey Gypsy Boy” – 3:39 11. “Mojo Man” (Taharqa Aleem, Tunde-Ra Aleem) – 4:07 12. “Villanova Junction Blues” – 1:44 Recording Details: * Track 1 recorded on December 19, 1969 at Record Plant Studios * Track 2 recorded on March 13, 1968 at the Sound Centre * Tracks 3, 4 and 12 recorded on May 21, 1969 at Record Plant Studios * Tracks 5 and 10 recorded on March 18, 1969 at Record Plant Studios * Tracks 6 and 7 recorded on August 28, 1969 at the Hit Factory * Track 8 recorded on April 24, 1969 at Record Plant Studios * Track 9 recorded on June 11, 1968 at Record Plant Studios * Track 11 recorded in June 1969 at Fame Studios, Muscle Shoals, Alabama; overdubs in August 1970 at Electric Lady Studios * Track 13 recorded on January 23, 1970 at Record Plant Studios Personnel: * Jimi Hendrix – guitars, vocals, bass guitar (track 9) * Billy Cox – bass guitar (tracks 1, 3, 4, 6–8, 13) * Buddy Miles – drums (tracks 1–5, 10, 13) * Mitch Mitchell – drums (tracks 6, 7, 9, 12) * Juma Sultan – congas (tracks 3, 4, 6, 7, 12) * Larry Lee – rhythm guitar (tracks 6, 7) * Jerry Velez – congas (tracks 6, 7) * Stephen Stills – bass guitar (track 2) * Lonnie Youngblood – vocal & saxophone (track 5) * Rocky Isaac – drums (track 8) * Al Marks – percussion (track 8) * Albert Allen – vocal (track 11) * James Booker – piano (track 11) * Gerry Sack – triangle & mime vocal (track 6) Released: March 5, 2013 Recorded: March 1968 – August 1970 Genre: Rock Length: 51:53 Label: Legacy Producers: Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Kramer, Janie Hendrix, John McDermott Read more on Last.fm. 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People, Hell and Angels

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