The five best posthumous Jimi Hendrix albums
“I was embarrassed because I thought, ‘God, that should be me up there’.” These are the words of guitarist Jeff Beck, recounting the first time he saw Jimi Hendrix perform. Beck himself is renowned as one of the best guitarists ever to pick up a six-string, and he was already an established rock star by the time Hendrix made his way to the UK, so the fact he saw Hendrix perform and felt envy tells you everything you need to know about the shredder from Seattle.
“I just hadn’t had the guts to come out and do it so flamboyantly, really,” said Beck, “He just looked like an animal, played like an animal, and everybody went crazy.” These words embody the spirit of Hendrix well. While in interviews, he is calm and collected, when he picked up his guitar, something else took over entirely.
He was great at improvising when playing guitar, to the point that many of the songs he wrote were the result of an improvisation becoming much more in-depth and detailed. Hendrix spent a lot of his time recording himself playing guitar in the hope that it might turn into one of his next hits. As such, when he passed away, there was a lot of unreleased material, which has since been blessed upon the world.
Live versions of songs and never-before-heard snippets flood the posthumous discography of Hendrix, to the point that there is plenty of his music to discover, even though he was only a mainstream artist for four years. There will always be controversy about the release of posthumous music, but when so much of Hendrix’s spirit as a musician lay in his ability to improvise and play in the moment, it doesn’t feel like a disservice to him to release some of his more spontaneous work. These are five of his best posthumous records.
The best posthumous Jimi Hendrix albums:
First Rays Of The New Rising Sun
Many guitar lovers constantly ask what future Jimi Hendrix albums would sound like if he hadn’t passed away, and this is the closest they will ever come to an answer. While many of the other posthumous albums from Jimi Hendrix are put together through jams and live performances, he was working on an album before he passed, and it would have likely sounded like First Rays Of The New Rising Sun.
Granted, there will no doubt have been some changes, but given the album coincides with the handwritten setlist made by Hendrix and that many of the songs had already been finished, this isn’t a million miles away from a genuine Hendrix album. It’s a pretty funky listen, and it’s nice to hear the creative direction he was heading in. Overall, this is a great record.
Live At Berkeley
Jimi Hendrix’s rise to fame can be attributed to his unbelievable talent as a live musician. When he first started playing, audiences were completely blown away by his ability as a musician. Paul McCartney recalls the moment he first saw Hendrix, and the guitarist opened with a cover of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. “It’s still obviously a shining memory for me because I admired him so much anyway; he was so accomplished,” he said, “To think that that album had meant so much to him as to actually do it by the Sunday night, three days after the release.”
Though it’s hard to recreate the power of a live Hendrix gig on an album, his Live At Berkeley record comes pretty close. The crowd is evidently feeling the gig, and this is best represented in Hendrix’s outlandish solos and extended outros. It contains a version of ‘Voodoo Child’ that many fans say is the guitarist’s best rendition of the track.
BBC Sessions
By the time the BBC Sessions came around, many people had heard about Hendrix, but very few had actually listened to him. Word was spreading about the guitarist, but given The Experience hadn’t released any music yet, a lot of the hype landed on speculative ears.
The BBC Sessions was Hendrix’s first chance to show people what he could do, and he didn’t disappoint. Much of the record contains previews of The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s first album, which got more people excited when they started releasing music. A lot of his success came from the positive reception of these receptions, and it’s interesting to hear them now.
Live At The Fillmore East
While the BBC Sessions took place before The Experience had released any music, the Fillmore East recordings came when Hendrix was looking to leave the collective. As such, while it might not be one of the best Hendrix records out there, it is incredibly important to understand Jimi Hendrix’s story better.
While Hendrix relies on improvisation a lot, which was a staple of his shows, you can hear that he isn’t as immersed in the show as listeners would expect. This album is a sonic representation of Hendrix saying goodbye to his bandmates, as the album sounds distant, introspective and lost.
Valleys of Neptune
An album comprised various recordings of Hendrix in and out of the studio. While it doesn’t come together as well as First Rays Of The New Rising Sun, it still plays well and is a great example of how relentless Hendrix was on the guitar, regardless of whether he intended the recordings to be released.
One of the highlights on the album is his cover of ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’ by Cream. He plays the iconic riff sped up and laced with solos in and out of the track’s original structure. It’s a real treat to listen to and something which shows one of the best guitar players in the world paying homage to other guitarists who inspired him.
