Music Monday #006: Jimi Hendrix - Angel (home recording)

groundcontrol (54)in #music • 7 years ago (edited)

"...She stayed with me just long enough for afternoon tea..."

Episode #006: JIMI HENDRIX
Song: Angel (home recording)

(Photo: HENDRIX RECORD COLLECTION/MUSEUM)

Angel was a beautifully sweet song that Jimi wrote after a dream he had of his mother, Lucille. His mother died when he was young and it greatly affected him, yet like his father he eternalised his sorrow until later in life when he started dreaming about her. Another song, 'Gypsy Eyes' was also based on a visit by his mother in his dreams.

A few days after recording it he had the lyrics with him and read it out to his friend Freddie Mae as a piece of poetry: "It was very deep, it was what was in him". - Excerpt from the book 'Electric Gypsy' by Harry Shapiro & Ceaser Glebbeek

This recording comes from circa March 1968 from the 'Black Gold' bootleg which featured a few home recordings Jimi had been working on with a four-track cassette player in private at his hotel apartment. The lyrics are different to the final version which was featured on 'The Cry of Love' album which was released posthumously after he died. The finished version of the song was completed by his drummer Mitch Mitchell who added fresh drum tracks and helped complete the album for release after Jimi's death on September 18th, 1970.

Angel - Home Recording, March 1968

(source: Vimeo, Experience Hendrix L.L.C)

Lyrics

Angel come down from heaven yesterday
She stayed with me just long enough for afternoon tea
And she tell me a story yesterday,
about the love between the moon and the deep blue sea
And when it was time for her to go,
she spread her wings high over me
And she said "I shall return tomorrow"

And I said "fly on my sweet angel,
fly on through the sky,
fly on my sweet angel,
tomorrow I look for you by my side"

And sure enough this morning comes to me
With silver wings silhouetted against the glow of the child's sunrise
And as the bluebirds and the sparrows envy me,
she says "I love you little boy
and today you shall fly"
She kissed me once
and the feelings so good she made me cry
And now, we can fly together

Angel: Behind The Scenes, the evolution of Angel
Official video by Experience Hendrix with Jimi's studio engineer Eddie Kramer talking about the studio recording of Angel

(source: Youtube / JimiHendrixVEVO)

Music Monday Playlist:
Episode #001: DAVID BOWIE - Evolution of 'SPACE ODDITY'
Episode #002: JASCHA HEIFETZ - Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major
Episode #003: KYU SAKAMOTO - Sukiyaki (Ue o Muite Arukou)
Episode #004: DEATH - Politicians In My Eyes
Episode #005: RANDY RHODES - Crazy Train

#monday #angel

7 years ago in #music by groundcontrol (54)

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nzfxtrader (52) 7 years ago (edited)

Legendary artist!

Some fun Factoids:

He played his guitar upside-down because he was left-handed.
Jimi died in 1970 after he choked on his own vomit. He had taken 9 pills of the barbiturate vesperax.
He was entirely self-taught on guitar.
He could not read music, instead he communicated his musical visions through colors: "Some feelings make you think of different colors, jealousy is purple; I'm purple with rage or purple with anger, and green with envy..."
His father Al controlled Jimi's estate and even ran a museum dedicated to Jimi out of his home in Seattle.
The cover of Electric Ladyland featured 19 naked women pulled from English pubs. Hendrix did not like the cover because he felt it detracted from the music.
At the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, he came on after The Who. Pete Townshend smashed his guitar and threw it into the audience. Hendrix set his on fire.
He played what was known as the "Chitlin Circuit" from 1963-1966, which was a tour with black artists playing to mostly black audiences.
Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, is a huge Hendrix fan.
He toured with The Monkees in 1967 because he needed the exposure in America. It was a disaster, as the young girls who came to see The Monkees shouted him down.
In 2002, his body was moved to Greenwood Memorial Cemetery in Renton, Washington, where he is buried under a 30-foot granite dome.
He was born John Allen Hendrix. When his father, Al Hendrix, returned from the Army, he renamed him James Marshall Hendrix.