VALLEYS OF NEPTUNE

As a life long fan of the great guitarist, this highly anticipated release was very much looked forward to by these "experienced" ears. Jimi's step-sister, Janie, who now heads Experience Hendrix has marketed and exploited Jimi's legacy in a less than honorable way with this release, in my opinion. Touted as over 60 minutes of complete and unreleased studio recordings is far from the truth. Yes, these are all studio recordings, but only a few are actually complete, such as the unreleased track from Axis: Bold As Love, Mr. Bad Luck, which isn't a new song at all, just an earlier version of Look Over Yonder. Most of the tracks are raw studio re-workings of early songs, and/or studio versions of jams or tunes that were played in concert, such as Sunshine Of Your Love. It's obvious that these studio sessions are mostly live in the studio jams, and many are edited and fade out at the end, which usually indicates that the whole jam fell apart before the end. Don't get me wrong though, as these tracks will still give you an exciting listen, especially when Jimi kicks in with his always powerful, stellar, and otherworldly lead guitar. It seems that Experience Hendrix is now deperate to find and make more money from Jimi's legacy, and are now digging at the bottom of the barrel to find more Jimi gems. Really there's nothing new here. All of the tracks are songs and tunes that you've heard in one form or another on either official releases or bootleg recordings. If Jimi was around, this release would have never happened. Jimi was, besides being the God gifted guitarist that he was, a master arranger too, and ALL of the tracks would have been perfected with overdubs, and the end result would have certainly been a much more sophisticted product. than we have here. Plus, I doubt if Jimi would have released these particular tracks together on one album. But of course, getting any unreleased Jimi is better than nothing. The only real problem I have is in the way Experience Hendrix is marketing this release. My expectaions were a bit bruised, but I should have know better. But for any fan of the master guitarist, this release is certainly worth getting. My rating: 4 stars.