| J-Card Comment | Jimi Hendrix
June 27, 1970
Boston Garden
Boston, Ma
Source: Unknown Aud -> ? -> CD -> EAC -> SHN
Note: There is only one other known source for this show. And this is the best out
of the two!
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01. Stone Free
02. Lover Man
03. Red House
04. Freedom
05. Foxy Lady
06. Purple Haze
07. Star Spangled Banner
08. All Along The Watchtower
09. Message To Love
10. Fire
11. Spanish Castle Magic
12. Voodoo Chile (slight return)
From Chris Dixon's 30th Anniversary Series ? C S Dixon
June 27, 2000 marks 30 years since Jimi's 1970 appearance at Boston Garden in Massachusetts. This was Jimi's last ever visit to the 6 state New England region of the NE US. After playing in the region at least 9 times in '68 (including a previous Boston Garden gig), he returned only once in '69 and this last time in '70 (he had been booked for a fall '69 show at Boston Commons but cancelled when he decided not to hit the road with Gypsys, Suns and Rainbows). This was a one-off gig within easy striking distance of NYC, and the band turns in a tight, energetic show.
There are two tapes from this night in circulation The better one is a bit distant, with a fair amount of hall sound (and the old Boston Garden had notoriously bad acoustics). The band can be heard fairly evenly though much of the detail of the drums is lost. The other tape, the only source for 'Freedom' (which is the only song I have from that source at present), is even more distant and indistinct with generational tape noise (at least on mine) and more prominent nearby crowd chatter.
(Setlist): Stone Free; Lover Man; Red House; Freedom; Foxy Lady; Purple Haze; Star Spangled Banner; All Along The Watchtower; Message To Love; Fire; Spanish Castle Magic; Voodoo Child (SR)
'Stone Free' gets its second documented outing for the Cry of Love tour. He repeats the familiar opening 2 harmonics three times and adds harmonics on the top strings (like he did at the BoG shows) before the band joins in for the main riff. They take it at a brisk pace, the audience clapping along. A short solo at 2:25 features about a half minute w/o wah and another half minute with, leading to the final verse and ending chorus. We can possibly detect Billy throwing in a few vocal "..stone free.." refrains on the choruses.
'Lover Man' gets introduced with the warning that with "..cats (a.k.a. lover men) coming back from the war one of these days, some of you old ladies better watch out ('cuz here he comes)...". Typically short and to the point, this too is played briskly and is over in less than 2:30.
After a pause, Jimi's heard to say to the band "..lets do a blues..." so we get 'Red House' a little earlier in the set than we usually see. This is another tape where the transition to RH sounds continuous with no chance to change guitars, and it does sound like the Strat is used here (as it happens, he's pictured backstage at this show with the Flying V so it was on site, at least). Anyway, Jimi conjures some nice feedback overtones during the opening, and does a great climbing fill before the second vocal line. Instead of singing the "I've got a bad bad feeling..." line, he starts to sing the earlier "I ain't been back to see my baby..." line so he ad libs, appending it with "...lord I think she left me this time for sure...". Starts the solo at 3:55, fairly aggressively with the wah. Does two 12 bar verses, building the tension, then the band drops back a bit for a quieter 3rd verse of soloing, cleaner toned and still with wah, returning to the vocals at 6:30 (another particularly cool fill after the first line of the last verse, reminiscent to me of a particular 'Like A Rolling Stone' fill from Monterey!).
'Freedom' the first of only two post-Experience numbers performed this night, the other being 'Message To Love' (though at this point we could almost call 'Watchtower' a "new" song!). Conspicuous by it's absence here is 'Machine Gun', performed at almost all '70 shows. Jimi solos nicely over the 'Freedom' changes, though band seems to lose each other a bit just before the final climb out of the bridge. 'Freedom' had been the subject of some Electric Lady sessions earlier in the week, and the basic track for the familiar studio version had been recorded just two days earlier.
At the start of 'Foxy Lady' we hear a brief snatch of 'ghost in the machine' radio interference through Jimi's amp, though it's drowned out by the opening note and does not seem to reappear. Quite a few lines of the solo sound like they're played with his teeth, and near the end of the solo we do hear the audience reacting as if to that sort of visual trick. Ends with some mic stand slides and rapid-fire pull offs.
'Purple Haze' is again heard before 'SSB', and a little earlier in the set than was typical. Jimi delays the start of vocals for a few extra bars, sneaking in a few slight tune-ups (also, the gear seems to be acting up a bit, with some squeals between phrases). The solo features some dental playing, again to the crowds obvious delight. Jimi does a brief coda but skips the last crashing chord...
...and goes straight into 'Star Spangled Banner'. He does the usual sound effects after the "rockets red glare" line but skips them after the "bombs bursting in air" line. Ends on the chords that usually signal a change to PH...
...but segues to 'All Along the Watchtower'. This is the song's second recording of the tour, having been added to the setlist at the San Bernardino show for the first time since a single Exp. performance 1/69. The audience again claps along. Unlike the previous rendition, Jimi does add the final 'movement' to the solo section. Answers "..the wind begins to howl..." with a nice howl from the wah pedal!
'Message To Love' gets underway after a brief false start. This is a nice energetic rendition, the tempo fast but Mitch getting into the pocket nicely. Jimi keeps the solo, starting at 1:15, short but well constructed. He scats along Buddy-style with a couple of the riffs just before the final climb. His free form climbing resolving chords at the end feature a bit of descending bass line ala 'Bolero'!
Sounds like Mitch really tears it up on 'Fire', just a damn shame he can't be heard better.
'Spanish Castle Magic' also has a brief false start and we hear Jimi check his tuning before getting going for real. A bit unusual to hear SCM this late in the set. Guitar sounds very clean and quiet during the first verse, so much so that he may have bumped down the volume control by accident. This song was often stretched out in concert but is kept very short this time. The first solo has a very trebly 'bridge pickup' tone, and a staccato attack to most lines. A hammered-on riff leads to the last verse and short tag solo, ending at about 3:20 with Jimi saying "good night", but not yet....
Jimi starts to play the opening riff to VC(SR) then stops and backs up to do the muted string wah intro, the audience clapping along once again. He's into the verse by 1:00 and the first solo comes at 1:45. Starts aggressively, adding the Univibe at 2:20 which adds a sort of 'snarl' to the sound for a brief movement that ends with him speeding up the sweep of the pedal before clicking it off. At 4:00 there's some quieter soloing w/wah, then some muted strumming before doing the "sweet time" verse at 5:20. At 5:45 he does a little 'rock n roll' riff (similar to 'At The Hop') that we've heard on a couple of other occasions. The last solo is with 'full shred wah' and features some ever higher string bends. At 8:45 he signals the band to a stop and does the intro and a dental coda before the last chord. It sounds like he finishes the set by putting down the guitar to feed back by itself and walking away. (My tape ends with the sound of him checking his tuning, at first making me think that he could have played another undocumented song, until I realized it was the exact same tune-up heard *before* VC(SR), so chalk it up to the tape chain!).
Chris
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