1969-05-25 Northern California Folk-Rock Festival, Santa Clara County Fairgrounds

[Gypsy Eyes]

Sunday, May 25th, 1969

1. Hear My Train A Comin'
2. Fire
3. Drum Solo-Spanish Castle Magic
4. Red House
5. I Don't Live Today
6. Foxy Lady
7. Purple Haze
8. Voodoo Child (Slight Return)/Message To Love/Room Full Of Mirrors/Sunshine Of Your Love

Audience Recording

8mm Resynced

Attachment 6180

[billo528]

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Program above
foil handbill on left and poster on right

[susep73]

ATM 146


Intro/tuning - "lets make our own little world right here", verbatim from the previous night(Sky Church), Mitch hitting his snare, feedback into

Hear My Train A' Comin' - voodoo child tease/quote in intro, nice fast tempo, low vocals, nice attack by Jimi between verses, digging in, nice runs, cool VC tremelo blast, laid back blues, Jimi plays like he's practicing in his room, anti-climatic finale, unique version

Fire - crowd loves it, "right on!", playful version, Jimi ripping it up more then usual, ferocious soloing, un-fucking real!, atypical mini jam continues, similar to the 26April1969 Spanish Castle Magic jam, unreal, back into Fire proper, holy fuck, into Mitch Mitchell drum solo, nice response from the crowd, taper?, "watch this.", into

Spanish Castle Magic - Hendrix vocals are low in this mix but the guitar is very much up front, Mitch a distant middle, Noel?, Jimi drops in near 1:46, fluid runs, ascending octave builds, nice feedback/sustain, psychedelic motifs, short but powerful jam,

Red House - "1784...", on the heels of the previous night's masterwork, this one starts out beautifully, Jimi playing just ahead of the beat, inspired Jimi, lift off at 5:33, interesting pre Woodstock Jam Back at The House riffage, Jimi switching up his effects, brings it home near 7:42, love the quiet rhythm section, Jimi jazz, Jimi playful coming out, really swinging, nice tone on the Strat, solid version, crowd loves it,

I Don't Live Today - again another masterpiece recorded the previous night in the same position after Red House, different approach by Jimi in the intro, quickly locks in, Jimi sculpting sound, cool mini octave runs w/ heavy feedback, sweet, killer jam, Jimi lighting up the fairgrounds, brief Star Spangled Banner quote, another solid performance,

Foxey Lady - "...the yellow underwear", strong opening solo by Jimi, transitional jam into(cut?)

Purple Haze - comes in near the end of the song?, "hey man I know exactly what I'm going to do, when I say toilet paper that's when you come running out", a self assurance song into

Voodoo Child (slight return) - Jimi strong out of the gate, slight tuning issue, Jimi punishes his guitar, Jimi playing in such a way it sometimes seems non-musical, Jimi spinning out ideas and lines fervently, crowd losing it, atypical jamming, nice howling bends, Noel faintly behind, jam quiets down near 7:43, static groove between Jimi and Noel, Jimi ascends into an improvisation of his own, slight Woodstock post Purple Haze vibe, mellow octave spaces, back into Voodoo Child, call and response Jimi, building again, sick psychedelic progression, hanging note effect, un fucking real, long note into, Message to Love(its easy to sing the lyrics hearing this btw), Jimi showing new ideas, "we're just jamming, you can do whatever you want to do..." into Room Full of Mirrors, song? into Sunshine of Your Love, nice medley, Jimi playing his own tribute, Jimi in the zone, SCM like crescendo back into VC, howling outro, sick version!



Overall this show is incredible, I heard bits and pieces before, mostly Red House and VC, a tremendous listen from start to finish, highlights for me: Fire, holy smokes this version cooked, Jimi just took it way out, un real, every song was preety much fantastic and contained solid, inspired improv esp IDLT. VC is indeed a special version, a 21+ minute monster w/ a huge variety of jams and emotions, I'd like to hear a version that can match this behemoth. A+

[Chas J.]

San Ho, reprezent! My old stomping grounds. Totally agree. Fantastic show. Carlos Santana was there and he was blown away by Jimi. The RH is unreal. When I listen to it I have to remind myself it was 1969, it's that.......... I dunno, futuristic, or something. The little jazzy chord thing he does at the very end is so hip. Jimi was cookin and the crowd was really into it. In IDLT the radio interfernce doesn't even faze Jimi he just uses it, creates against it with his whammy bar, like something that EVH would "invent" years later. Fire, mic goes out? no prob we'll just jam like mofo's for a few minutes! In the opener, Hear My Train... it sounds like Jimi is stretching his strings out a bit and tuning on the fly. Either that or it's tape speed variation, or a combo of both. Maybe Upsy restrung his axe right before the gig? If I could time travel this is the place I'd be on May 25th 1969. With a digital video recorder.