First Rays of the New Rising Sun

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First Rays of the New Rising Sun

Studio album by Jimi Hendrix
Released	22 April 1997
Recorded	13 March 1968, 17 November 1969-26 August 1970, 19 October 1970 and 20 November 1970
Genre	Rock
Length	69:37
Label	MCA Records
Producer(s)	Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Kramer, Mitch Mitchell and John Jansen
All Music Guide link
Jimi Hendrix chronology
Band of Gypsys (1970)	First Rays of the New Rising Sun (rec. 1968-1970, pub. 1997)	Blues (1994)

First Rays of the New Rising Sun is an approximation of Jimi Hendrix's projected last album, recorded in the last months of his life, mostly in 1970. In 1997, after Hendrix's family had regained control of Jimi's recorded works - and in the process mercifully wiped out the dozens of bogus "posthumous" albums that had littered his catalog - his intended "next" album was carefully reconstructed.

Recording engineer Eddie Kramer, who had recorded most of Hendrix's material, including his last songs, helped to compile First Rays of the New Rising Sun, according to Hendrix's specifications at the time. Much of the material had been recorded over the summer of 1970 at Jimi's just-completed Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Intended as a double-album, as his preceding studio album Electric Ladyland was, the album was mostly missing finishing touches before Hendrix went off to England to play the Isle of Wight festival, followed by a brief European tour. Hendrix never returned to finish the work required, suffering a sleeping pill overdose in London on September 18 at the age of 27.

No one can ever fully ascertain what the finished product would have sounded like had Jimi lived (with a presumed late 1970/early 1971 release date). This reconstruction of First Rays of the New Rising Sun, however, is not the best representation of what Jimi would have intended. Some essential songs that were recorded and mixed during the summer of 1970 have been left out of this compilation. During mid-summer 1970, Jimi even came up with the idea to release a triple-LP, titled "People, Hell And Angels" because he had so many new songs available for his next album. In the beginning of summer 1970, the time when most songs for the new album were recorded, "Straight Ahead" was the working title for Hendrix's next album. "First Rays Of The New Rising Sun" came as a concept-title when it became clear that all the new songs would not fit on a single LP. Jimi's manager, Michael Jeffery, however, wanted the next album to be a single LP, but Jimi thought a double, or maybe even a triple-LP, would be a better idea.

During the recording of his next album Jimi had written a few conceptual tracklistings. Jimi's last written tracklist was as follows:

Side A: 1. Dolly Dagger 2. Night Bird Flying 3. Room Full Of Mirrors 4. Belly Button Window

5. Freedom

Side B: 1. Ezy Rider 2. Astro Man 3. Drifting 4. Straight Ahead

Side C: 1. Night Bird Flying 2. Drifter's Escape 3. Come Down Hard On Me 4. Beginnings

5. Cherokee Mist 6. Angel

Side D: Jimi had not written anything yet next to side D.

On this tracklisting, "Night Bird Flying" is both on side A and C. Also, on Jimi's handwritten tracklisting, some songs on side C have lines through them, which obviously means that this was not a definite and final tracklisting. It is remarkable that Jimi did not include many other songs which he had been working on during the summer of 1970, including "Izabella", "Lover Man", "Stepping Stone", "Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)", "Earth Blues", "In From The Storm", "Bleeding Heart", "Burning Desire", "Heaven Has No Sorrow", "Hear My Train A'Comin'", "Midnight Lightning" and "Send My Love To Linda". The Hendrix Estate decided to leave out "Drifter's Escape" (which was later to be found on 1997's compilation "South Saturn Delta"), "Come Down Hard On Me" and "Cherokee Mist" (both later released on the 2000's 4CD box-set "The Jimi Hendrix Experience"). Moreover, they decided to add "Izabella", "Stepping Stone", "My Friend", "Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)", "Earth Blues" and "In From The Storm" to fill the album.

Many critics of the album have pointed out that Hendrix was trying to redefine who he was as an artist and clearly was using First Rays of the Rising Sun as the dawn of a new era, hence the title he gave the project. Whatever changes Jimi had in mind, his songwriting skills were still intact in his final months. There are many Hendrix favorites to be found here, not least of all "Angel", "Freedom", "Ezy Rider", "Drifting" and "In From The Storm".

The two most comprehensive previous attempts to release the music of the unfinished Hendrix album were The Cry of Love (1971) and Voodoo Soup (1995). The problem with The Cry of Love album was that many of the important tracks were not yet available to use at the time of its release (according to Kramer). Thus Cry of Love has only ten tracks, omitting "Izabella", "Room Full of Mirrors", "Dolly Dagger", "Beginnings", "Stepping Stone", "Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)" and "Earth Blues". The same problem occurred in Voodoo Soup, as it also missed some important tracks and, in addition, its tracks were post-edited. For example, some instrument tracks had been removed and some new drum overdubs had been inserted. This post-editing caused negative reactions among Hendrix fans.

Most of songs appearing on the album were almost finished when Hendrix passed away. Many songs only needed a final mix that was made posthumously. However, "Belly Button Window" is merely a demo tape featuring Hendrix alone. Also "Beginnings" and "Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)" are both in the very early stage of production featuring just simple basic track which might have been recorded again. Some tracks, like "Straight Ahead", feature a preliminary vocal track that Hendrix had intended to record again. A vibraphone track was added to "Drifting" like Hendrix had planned - though he also had an idea of using another guitar track instead of vibraphones and it cannot be known what he had chosen if he had directed the completion of the track himself. Mitchell and Kramer have claimed that only those changes, that they had talked with Hendrix, have been made for unfinished tracks. The song "My Friend" is recorded much earlier than the rest of the material, during Electric Ladyland sessions in 1968. Some people have raised doubts if Hendrix had ever intended to use that song on his unfinished album.

The name of the album may be related to Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction novel The Sands of Mars (1951) in which Mars's moon, Phobos, is turned into a new sun in order to heat planet Mars. Lyrics in a song "Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)" are written about a person coming from the "land of the new rising sun". The song also mentions words "Jupiter sun". Also a song "Izabella" refers to "new rising sun". Hendrix has actually maintained science fiction inspired material on all his studio albums.

While released in 1997, First Rays of the New Rising Sun reached #49 in the US and #37 in the UK.