Valleys Of Neptune

This brand-new, completely unreleased studio album features 12 previously unreleased studio recordings totalling over 60 minutes of unheard Jimi Hendrix. Ten of these recordings were made between February and May, 1969, as the Jimi Hendrix Experience set out to create the sequel to their groundbreaking 1968 double-album <em>Electric Ladyland</em>. The album features “Valleys Of Neptune,” one of the most sought after of all of Hendrix’s commercially unavailable recordings, and includes exciting 1969 arrangements of the classic signature songs “Red House,” “Fire,” and “Stone Free.” Also includes unheard studio versions of Hendrix’s inspired interpretations of “Bleeding Heart” (Elmore James) and Cream’s “Sunshine Of Your Love.” Mixed by Eddie Kramer, the engineer for all of Hendrix’s albums throughout the guitarist’s lifetime. Produced by Janie Hendrix, Eddie Kramer, and John McDermott, the team behind all of the acclaimed Jimi Hendrix CD and DVD releases since 1996.<br /><br /><strong><em>VALLEYS OF NEPTUNE</em>: Track by Track</strong><br />All of the 12 recordings featured on the album have never before been released on a CD/LP. The songs document the pivotal time period after <em>Electric Ladyland </em>and before Electric Lady Studios and the recordings made there that would later take form as <em>Cry of Love </em>and <em>First Rays</em>. <br /><br /><em>Valleys of Neptune </em>documents both the final studio recordings Jimi made in 1969 with the original Jimi Hendrix Experience and the first efforts with new bassist Billy Cox. As a number of the song titles will be familiar to fans and buyers alike, the following details the key characteristics of each of the tracks on <em>Valleys of Neptune</em>.<br /><br /><strong>"Stone Free"</strong>: The original 1966 recording by the original Jimi Hendrix Experience is best known as one of Jimi’s signature songs. The <em>Jimi Hendrix Experience</em> box set (2000) featured a new remake by the original group. Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell, and Billy Cox recorded this version in May 1969. It is a different recording entirely.<br /><br /><strong>"Valleys of Neptune"</strong>: This track was recorded in September, 1969, and May, 1970. This full-band version has never been released. An extract of a demo Hendrix made of this song -- featuring just Mitchell on drums and percussionist Juma Sultan -- was part of the short-lived Reprise/Polydor album <em>Lifelines</em>,<em> </em>which was in the marketplace between 1990 to 1992.<br /><br /><strong>"Bleeding Heart"</strong>: This cover of the classic blues song by Elmore James is different entirely from the versions featured on <em>South Saturn Delta</em> and (originally) on <em>War Heroes</em>. This recording has never been issued and features Jimi, Billy Cox, and drummer Rocky Isaac. It was recorded in April, 1969.<br /><br /><strong>"Hear My Train A Comin’"</strong>: This electric, full-band version is different from the famous 12-string acoustic version that was featured in the 1973 documentary <em>Jimi Hendrix</em> and subsequently on the album <em>Jimi Hendrix: Blues</em>.<br /><br /><strong>"Mr. Bad Luck"</strong>: Like “Valleys of Neptune”, a different version of this song was part of <em>Lifelines </em>in (1990). Jimi would later develop this song as “Look Over Yonder,” issued as part of <em>South Saturn Delta</em>.<br /><br /><strong>"Sunshine of Your Love"</strong>: A stage favorite for the group during the 1969 period which has never been released.<br /><br /><strong>"Lover Man"</strong>: Jimi recorded many different arrangements of this song, including the versions on both the <em>Jimi Hendrix Experience</em> box set (2000) and <em>South Saturn Delta</em>. This is an entirely different recording made in February, 1969.<br /><br /><strong>"Ships Passing Through the Night"</strong>: A never-before-released track taken from the last recording session by the original Jimi Hendrix Experience on 4/14/69.<br /><br /><strong>"Fire/Red House"</strong>: Both of these songs by the original Jimi Hendrix Experience were recorded at the same February, 1969, session. They feature the expanded stage arrangements Jimi had developed and are not alternate takes of the original 1967 recordings.<br /><br /><strong>"Lullaby for the Summer/Crying Blue Rain"</strong>: These April, 1969, recordings by the original Jimi Hendrix Experience have never been released.
Hendrix's 'Valleys of Neptune' is due out 8th March and isn't a lost album or a greatest hits, but more a documentation of the missing period between 1968's 'Electric Ladyland' and his appearance at Woodstock in '69. The album will include a number of previously unreleased songs, as well as reworkings of classic Hendrix songs.
Nearly 40 years after it was recorded at Jimi Hendrix’s final recording sessions, an unearthed song called “Valleys of Neptune” will feature on a compilation of the same name on March 9th. Valleys of Neptune will include 12 tracks recorded at various studios during Jimi’s final recording sessions while working on his posthumously completed First Rays of the Rising Sun. “Valleys of Neptune,” which was never released commercially but did appear on 1990’s Lifelines: The Jimi Hendrix Story four-disc set, will also be released as a single on February 2nd.
Valleys of Neptune will also feature studio versions of Hendrix’s covers of “Bleeding Heart” and Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love,” plus rerecorded versions of previous Are You Experienced? hits “Fire,” “Red House” and “Stone Free.” Other tracks making their first official appearance are “Lullaby for the Summer,” “Crying Blue Rain” and “Ships Passing Through the Night,” plus an Axis: Bold as Love-era track called “Mr. Bad Luck.” Some of the Valleys‘ songs, like a studio rendition of “Hear My Train A Comin’” and “Stone Free” — then “Stone Free Again” — appeared on the handful of posthumous Hendrix releases that followed the guitarist’s death in 1970.