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Last album released under the name Hendrix while he was still alive. The rest of the stuff you find on sale in stores, at Upim, at rest stops, at the discount store, and maybe even at the deli on your street corner, are all bootlegs, greatest hits, posthumous tributes, and yadda yadda... Of the official albums released at the time, this is the last one, if we exclude (when our hero was already dead) "The Cry Of Love" released in 1971 by Eddie Kramer and Mitch Mitchell who decided to continue where Jimi had left half of the material for the next album after this "Band Of Gypsys."
The lineup is no longer the classic "Experience" (with Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding), but alongside Jimi, we find Buddy Miles on drums and Billy Cox on bass. The preamble to the release of this record wasn't ideal, as it was almost a coercion for the artist, fueled by the idea of wanting to see Jimi in an all-black trio at all costs and putting some order due to some legal troubles. So, the premise for a stylistic sell-out was all there, but it fell gloriously apart as soon as this excellent vinyl was released, born in the other half of the psychedelic dream: Fillmore East, New York. Blues embedded in soul atmospheres built on guitar parts with typical and ingenious Hendrixian madness, all perfectly blended with the prevailing climate of the time, made of student protests and hippie culture, the specter of the Vietnam War, and the difficult U.S. political situation. And it's in this scenario that by setting the needle (today we'd say "pressing play") on that circular thing, out come the notes of the unforgettable "Who Knows," "Power To Love," and "Message Of Love," leading to the mythological wah-wah of "Changes."
But the true essence of this album is "Machine Gun," a structurally extraordinary piece, and imbued with all the stylistic influences of the time, forged, however, with the distorted handwriting of a Hendrix making you fully experience the psychedelic blues permeated by the Vietnam nightmare ("Machine gun, tearin' my body all apart...") with the piercing and heartbreaking guitar, and the sustained rhythm of the drums mimicking a machine gun for almost the entire track. I fondly recall a live version of this song that I listened to obsessively when I was a kid and still couldn't do shit on the guitar. I was shocked right from the initial riff, not to mention the solo and the incredible effect Jimi created in the finale where with his instrument he reproduces sounds of bombs being dropped, sirens, death, and destruction. Something unique and probably unrepeatable. Here Jimi draws on all his abilities, to (perhaps unconsciously) mark an era of which he was certainly both a protagonist and a cameo. Everything is written, and everything will happen, like a voodoo ritual, like the bonfire of the Stratocaster on stage, a marked fate and a groove left for posterity. "Only death makes you immortal," as he himself said. To each their own free interpretation.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Who Knows (09:34)
They don't know
They don't know
Like I know
Like I know
Do you know
They don't know
I don't know
I don't know
What my baby
What my baby
Put on down
Put on down
What my baby
What my baby
Put on down baby
Put on down now
I just came back from
I don't know
I can't count it
I can't count it
I just came back in town
They don't know
I'm lookin' for my seller
I don't know my baby
Have you seen her
Have you freed her yeah
Have you seen her
Oooh hhhooo
Talkin' about my baby
Goin' down
Talkin' about my baby
I just came in
I just came in baby
I just came in
I just came in
Spread the magic honey
All in my bed
She got chains, attached to my head
Talkin' about
Talkin' about
Talkin' about my baby
I don't know about it
They don't know, what I know
They don't know, like I know
All the time been hangin' around
All the time I hang around
She didn't know
Ahh she didn't care
She didn't know
She didn't care
And she go walkin' down the street singin'
Everybody da
Da da dada da doo doo
Etc. (scat singing)
They don't know
Nobody knows
They don't know
Just don't know
Da da da
Etc. (scat singing)
02 Machine Gun (12:36)
"Happy new year first of all. I hope we'll have million or two million more of them... if we can get over this summer, he he he. Right I'd like to dedicate this one to the draggin' scene that's goin' on all the soldiers that are fightin' in Chicago, Milwaukee and New York... Oh yeas, and all the soldiers fightin' in Vietnam. Like to do a thing called 'Machine Gun'"
Machine gun
Tearing my body all apart
Machine gun
Tearing my body all apart
Evil man make me kill ya
Evil man make you kill me
Evil man make me kill you
Even though we're only families apart
Well I pick up my axe and fight like a farmer
(You know what I mean)
Hey and your bullets keep knocking me down
Hey I pick up my axe and fight like a farmer now
Yeah but you still blast me down to the ground
The same way you shoot me down baby
You'll be going just the same
Three times the pain
And your own self to blame
Hey machine gun
Oooooooooo
I ain't afraid of your mess no more, babe
I ain't afraid no more
After a while your your cheap talk don't even cause me pain
So let your bullets fly like rain
'Cause I know all the time you're wrong baby
And you'll be goin' just the same
Yeah machine gun
Tearing my family apart
Yeah yeah alright
Tearing my family apart
Don't you shoot him down
He's about to leave here
Don't you shoot him down
He's got to stay here
He ain't going nowhere
He's been shot down to the ground
Oh where he can't survive no no
Yeah that's what we don't wanna hear any more, alright
No bullets
At least here, huh huh
No guns, no bombs
Huh huh
No nothin', just let's all live and live
You know instead of killin'
03 Them Changes (05:11)
Buddy miles is goin to do something he wrote called them changes.
Well my mind is goin through them changes
I feel just like Im in the time
Every time you see me goin some where
I feel like Im going out of my mind, yeah
Oh, my baby she left me the other day
And we were have so much fun yeah, yeah
Oh, my baby she stepped out on me
And thats the reason why she had to part
Its alright yeah yeah
Its alright
What I say
Its alright
Ooo hooo
Well my mind is goin through them changes
I think Im goin out of my mind
Every time you see me goin some where
I think I could commit a crime know
She had me runnin
She had me cryin
She had me runnin
She had me had me had me cryin
She had me runnin
She had me cryin
She had me runnin
Had me cryin
Its alright yeah yeah
Its alright
Clap your hands
Go clap your hands
Can you clap a little louder
Its alright
Its alright
Everything goin to be alright
Its alright x5
Yeah, yeah, everybody yeah
Yeah x12
Oh no
I want my love x3
Its alright
Whaa
Its alright he he
Its alright
04 Power of Soul (06:55)
Shoot down some of those airplanes your flyin'
Especially the ones that are flyin' too low
Shoot down some of those airplanes
Especially the ones that your flyin' too low
Come on back to earth my friend
Come on back up with me
We've all been up through the night time baby
Now let's read the rays of the
With the power of soul
Anything is possible
With the power of soul
Anything is possible
Flyin' too much today
It's so groovy to float around sometimes
Even a jelly fish will tell you that
I said flotation is groovy
And he said
And a jelly fish will agree to that
Yeah, but that old jelly fish
Been floatin' around so long
Lord he ain't got a bone in his jelly back
Floatin' every day and every night
Ridin' high is a risk
Sometimes the wind ain't right
With the power of soul
Anything is possible
With the power of soul
Anything is possible
With the power of soul
Anything is possible
With the power of soul
Anything is possible
With the power of you
Anything you wanna do
09 Stop (04:46)
You better stop it babe
You better stop it babe
Stop your jivin' 'round
Stop it baby
Stop your doggin' 'round
Stop
Baby can't you see that I can't take it no more
Stop
Now baby can't you see I'm 'bout to go through the floor
Never knew how good love could be
Love done gone and made a damn fool of me
Everything is hazy
One more kiss and you drive me crazy baby
Baby stop
Hold it just a minute while I go catch my breath
Stop
Baby can't you see I'm bout to scare me half to death
Thought I was the captain of my ship
Oh yeah love has gone and made me lose my grip
Everything is hazy
One more kiss and you drive me crazy baby
Stop, stop, stop, stop
Stop
Baby can't you see that I can't take it no more
You know how I'm feelin' baby
Stop
Baby can't you see I'm bout to go through the floor
Never knew how good love could be
Love done gone and made a damn fool of me
Everything is hazy
One more kiss and you drive me crazy baby
Stop, stop, stop,
LYRICS FOR "Stop"
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stop
Your jivin' baby
Your messin' around
Until mornin' time
Stop it baby
Everyday, yeah
Stop your jivin' around
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop
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