Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival

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Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival
Freedom Atlanta Pop Festival album cover.jpg
Live album by
ReleasedAugust 28, 2015 (2015-08-28)
RecordedJuly 4, 1970
Venue Atlanta International Pop, Byron, Georgia
Genre Rock
Length82:06
Label Legacy
Producer
Jimi Hendrix chronology
Miami Pop Festival
(2013)
Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival
(2015)
Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show
(2016)

Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival is a posthumous live album by Jimi Hendrix, released in 2015. It documents his July 4, 1970, performance at the Atlanta International Pop Festival. The festival's audience, subject to a wide range of estimates from 200,000-400,000, was the largest U.S. crowd to which Hendrix played during his career. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Recorded around the middle of his The Cry of Love Tour, Hendrix is backed by Billy Cox on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums. [3] The sixteen songs were recorded during their evening performance and include a mix of popular Jimi Hendrix Experience-era tunes, and his newer compositions, "Message to Love", "Freedom", and "Straight Ahead". [2] [4] However, the album does not include his closing number, "Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)"; biographer Keith Shadwick notes tuning problems with the song. [4]

Electric Church video and other releases

The album was released on August 28, 2015, and a video documentary, Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church, including Hendrix's performance premiered on the American cable television network Showtime on September 4, 2015, with a commercial DVD/Blu-Ray release on October 30. [2]

Prior to 2015, songs and video clips of Hendrix's performance had been released several times, [3] such as on Johnny B. Goode (1988) and disc four of Stages (1991).

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [3]

In a review for AllMusic, critic Sean Westergaard gave the album four out of five stars. He notes that Hendrix falters a bit on the rarely played "All Along the Watchtower", but praises his performance of "Hear My Train A Comin'", which he calls "an absolutely incredible version ... a guitar performance nearly equal to "Machine Gun" on Band of Gypsys , [and] one of the greatest solos of his career." [3]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Jimi Hendrix, except where noted

Disc one
No.TitleLength
1."Fire"4:40
2."Lover Man"2:59
3."Spanish Castle Magic"5:21
4."Red House"8:27
5."Room Full of Mirrors"3:19
6."Hear My Train A Comin'"9:32
7."Message to Love"4:54
Total length:39:13
Disc two
No.TitleLength
1."All Along the Watchtower" (Bob Dylan)4:19
2."Freedom"4:08
3."Foxy Lady"4:30
4."Purple Haze"4:19
5."Hey Joe" (Billy Roberts)4:37
6."Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"7:58
7."Stone Free"5:25
8."Star Spangled Banner" (Traditional)2:47
9."Straight Ahead"4:52
Total length:42:53

Personnel

Charts

Chart (2015)Peak
position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [5] 86
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [6] 33
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [7] 22
French Albums (SNEP) [8] 89
UK Albums (OCC) [9] 87
US Billboard 200 [10] 63

Related Research Articles

"Red House" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and one of the first songs recorded in 1966 by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. It has the musical form of a conventional twelve-bar blues and features Hendrix's guitar playing. He developed the song prior to forming the Experience and was inspired by earlier blues songs.

<i>Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight</i> 2002 live album by Jimi Hendrix

Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight is a posthumous live album by Jimi Hendrix released on November 12, 2002. The album documents Hendrix's last U.K. live performance at the Isle of Wight Festival on August 31, 1970, three weeks before his death. The set list for the concert contained songs from the original Experience albums, as well as new songs. Some were previously available on Isle of Wight (1971) and Live Isle of Wight '70 (1991). "Power to Love ", "Midnight Lightning", and "Foxy Lady" released in the US on the three record set The First Great Rock Festivals of the 70s: Isle of Wight/Atlanta Pop Festival" released on Columbia Records in 1971.

<i>Hendrix in the West</i> 1972 live album by Jimi Hendrix

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"Third Stone from the Sun" is a mostly instrumental composition by American musician Jimi Hendrix. It incorporates several musical approaches, including jazz and psychedelic rock, with brief spoken passages. The title reflects Hendrix's interest in science fiction and is a reference to Earth in its position as the third planet away from the sun in the solar system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom (Jimi Hendrix song)</span> 1971 single by Jimi Hendrix

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<i>Rainbow Bridge</i> (album) 1971 compilation album by Jimi Hendrix

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hear My Train A Comin'</span> Song written by Jimi Hendrix

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References

  1. Santelli, Robert (1980). Aquarius Rising: The Rock Festival Years. Dell Publishing. p. 270.
  2. 1 2 3 Kreps, Daniel (August 3, 2015). "New Jimi Hendrix Documentary Focuses on Historic Atlanta Pop Concert". rollingstone.com . Retrieved August 3, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Westergaard, Sean. "Jimi Hendrix: Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival 1970". AllMusic . Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Shadwick, Keith (2003). Jimi Hendrix: Musician (1st ed.). San Francisco: Backbeat Books. p. 228. ISBN   0-87930-764-1.
  5. "Ultratop.be – Jimi Hendrix Experience – Freedom – Atlanta Pop Festival" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  6. "Ultratop.be – Jimi Hendrix Experience – Freedom – Atlanta Pop Festival" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  7. "Dutchcharts.nl – Jimi Hendrix Experience – Freedom – Atlanta Pop Festival" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  8. "Lescharts.com – Jimi Hendrix Experience – Freedom – Atlanta Pop Festival". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
  9. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  10. "Jimi Hendrix Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved September 9, 2015.