Jimi Hendrix 5: The Cry Of Love

Jimi suffered from the disease known as “recording-itis”, whereby the afflicted individual simply can’t finish anything in the studio, endlessly tinkering, trying to replicate the sound in his head on tape. And to compound that pressure, he was constantly rearranging potential track sequences for his next album, which he figured might as well be another double-LP set, considering the piles of songs he’d been amassing. One of these proposed albums might have been called First Rays Of The New Rising Sun, and since his death it has become something of a legendary lost album (see Lifehouse, Get Back, Smile, etc.) that people would eternally argue over as to what it would have, or could have been.

But back then, Reprise needed to put out an album, so Mitch Mitchell and Eddie Kramer compiled The Cry Of Love, consisting of ten tracks on a single disc. For the most part their choices are sound, alternating funky jams and slower stuff.

“Freedom” is a strong opener, with vocals that may or may not have been influenced by Richie Havens’ impromptu improvisation at Woodstock, as displayed in the film of the same name. The ending has a nice up-ending in the tempo and a great jazzy flourish. “Drifting” continues the “underwater” sound from side three of Electric Ladyland to complement the seafaring lyrics. (The vibes may have been someone else’s afterthought, but they don’t get in the way.) “Ezy Ryder” references another counterculture cinematic touchstone, but outside of the phased and panned guitars, it doesn’t really excite. Maybe it’s the congas mixed at the same level as the rest of the track. “Night Bird Flying” is just a hair slower than the other uptempo tracks thus far, and uses way too much cowbell. The only real clunker on the album is “My Friend”, an in-joke of a song disguised as a club jam, already done better in the form of “Voodoo Chile”. Moreover, it was recorded in 1968, and could easily have been elbowed in favor of other candidates.

“Straight Ahead”, sounds very similar, again, to the toe-tappers on side one, leading one to think that some of them could have been combined into one or two really strong tracks. Maybe that was the plan all along. Experts say that “Astro Man” was part of another project entirely, about a comic book superhero. Whatever the truth, it’s little more than a sketch, with too many overdubbed guitars fighting for space. All is forgiven by “Angel”, one of his most beautiful songs, and one that deserves to be called a classic. “In From The Storm” is another strong one, with a familiar yet comfortable riff and several changes in tempo, though we detect a quote from Jeff Beck’s “Rice Pudding” at the end. Fittingly, the last track is supposedly the last thing Jimi recorded, the moderately charming “Belly Button Window”, a blues sung from the point of view of a fetus.

While The Cry Of Love has moments of excellence, it wasn’t about to challenge any of his previous studio albums as the ultimate masterpiece. It’s mostly of interest to those who have thoroughly digested those earlier albums, and will likely pique curiosity as to what else was left behind. That would be addressed soon enough, and that goes for this forum as well.

When the first Hendrix CDs were issued in the mid-‘80s, The Cry Of Love was one of the posthumous few to be included. When the catalog changed hands in 1993, it went out of print, but a few years later the songs became available in a different sequence on another reassessment of the legacy. That was that for another couple of decades, until, in time for the 44th anniversary of his death, the original album was rereleased by the estate, using the original 1971 mixes, further gumming up a catalog they’d done so much to streamline.

Jimi Hendrix The Cry Of Love (1971)—3