It’s just amazing how many Jimi Hendrix recordings — studio and live — there are given his career as a solo artist lasted only five years — 1966 until his death on September 18th, 1970.
The latest one, Jimi Hendrix Experience: Hollywood Bowl August 18th, 1967, was captured at the legendary Los Angeles venue as he opened for The Mamas & The Papas, five days before the release of his first album, Are You Experienced. Not one note of this performance has ever been released in any capacity, and it will be out on November 10th on CD, vinyl and digitally.
Hendrix had come to America with his band, The Experience, at the suggestion of Paul McCartney, to perform at the Monterey International Pop Festival that June, which was followed by a tour opening for The Monkees. But that lasted only nine dates as he wasn’t a fit for the teen audience. That’s when The Mamas & The Papas, whom he shared the bill with at Monterey, invited him to open for them.
So, with the announcement of the new album comes its first release, “Killing Floor,” and a 10-minute YouTube documentary, Monterey Pop to the Hollywood Bowl, which provides more context on how Hendrix came to open the show and how he went over with the audience, given The Mamas & The Papas, like The Monkees, were a pop staple on AM radio.
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