Forty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix's final album is released By Sheri Levine, Canwest News Service March 8, 2010 Jimi Hendrix's sister Janie Hendrix says that the 21st Century is the right time to release her brother's final album, Valleys of Neptune. "The technology and music has come in such a way that it's given us the opportunity to be able to bring people Jimi's music in a closer way than it was intended to be," she says.
In the four decades since Jimi Hendrix's death, his iconic status has refused to wane.
Want proof? A previously unreleased single from the Hendrix archives, "Valleys of Neptune," hit No. 1 on the Billboard Singles chart in mid-February - ahead of such contemporary hitmakers as Lady Gaga - and became his first chart-topping song in the U.S. (Until now, Hendrix's best performance on the charts was "All Along The Watchtower," which climbed to No. 20 back in 1968.)
Whether it's the three beats that open "Purple Haze," or the lone electric chords at the beginning of "Voodoo Child," Hendrix's sound remains unique - often emulated, never duplicated. The Hendrix signatures - from the music to his distinct deep, bluesy vocals - are all evident on the forthcoming posthumous album Valleys of Neptune, to be released March 9.
Hendrix was only 27 when he died 40 years ago at the height of his career. He had become a superstar, achieved worldwide fame, and owned the title of rock 'n' roll's premier guitarist. He remains one of the seminal guitar gods to come out of the counter-culture era. He electrified both his contemporaries and audiences. He created sounds unlike anything people had heard before - that now-famous Hendrix riff, those searing, buzzing chords.
He was a showman, setting his guitar on fire and kneeling in front of the flames in a ceremonial-like trance, as if he were making the flames rise. No one had seen anything like it. When Hendrix pulled this stunt at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, The Who's Pete Townshend was so awestruck, he thought there was no way his band could possibly follow such a performance.
Valleys of Neptune is not a collection of B-sides or studio outtakes; it is the intended followup to Hendrix's last studio album, Electric Ladyland. This is the music Hendrix was working on before his untimely death. Hendrix was excited about the new direction he was heading in with this album, remembers his sister, Janie Hendrix, who was nine when her big brother died. Janie Hendrix is CEO of Experience Hendrix (owned by the Hendrix family to protect and preserve the artist's legacy) and is one of the producers of Valleys of Neptune, along with John McDermott (director of catalogue development and Experience Hendrix) and Eddie Kramer (who first worked with the musician on the album, Are You Experienced).
"Every one of the songs (on Valleys of Neptune) really shows Jimi's evolution in music and where he was going in that time period," Janie Hendrix says. "And, kind of on a personal note, I remember him coming home, and he was just really excited about this kind of new-found music direction he was going into, and he told my dad, 'I'm going to make you doubly proud,' and my dad was like, 'Well, you couldn't make me any prouder than I already am.'" Hendrix remembers how excited her brother was during that visit, and how he described his forthcoming album as music that is "going to blow people's minds and it's going to take them to a different level of hearing music."
Hendrix says the 21st century is the perfect time to release what are essentially her brother's final recordings. "The technology and music has come in such a way that it's given us the opportunity to be able to bring people Jimi's music in a closer way than it was intended to be," she says.
The release of Jimi Hendrix's third, and final, studio recording, Electric Ladyland, afforded him the luxury to build his own studio, dubbed Electric Lady. Hendrix was eager to evolve and experiment with new sounds and play with different musicians beyond the Experience - the band he fronted with Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums. Studio technology was also evolving, and Hendrix wanted to start taking advantage of its new-found capabilities, which appealed to him more than the monotony of performing his hits for the masses. Valleys of Neptune was supposed to be the beginning of the guitar master's artistic journey into a brave new music world.
"Valleys of Neptune is, to me, one of the most incredible songs on the album," Janie Hendrix says. "It just really shows, not only his creativity and his blues style, but also shows kind of his quirky, funny personality, as well.
"Every time (Jimi) played a song, it was different, depending on what mood he was in; his spirit is very much alive in the music."
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