Is It Tomorrow Or Just The End Of Time?

The first record I ever bought by The Jimi Hendrix Experience wasn't Are You Experienced or Electric Ladyland, it wasn't even Smash Hits. Instead, in a branch of WH Smith in suburban Bristol, I bought a copy of the 1989 compilation, Radio One.

I no longer have it, the victim of either a financially-driven cull in the late 90s/early 00s, or one of a number of records either lent, never to be returned. It was a beautiful package, 17-track double gatefold vinyl, with a striking cover shot of Jimi by Mike Polillo and liner notes by Leland Stein. All for the princely sum of £5.99.

The songs are drawn from various BBC Radio One sessions in 1967 and they really are very, very good. With the constraints of the BBC studio, most songs are compact but bursting with energy, really demonstrating how tight the trio of Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell were. I still prefer many of these sessions to the album versions that I subsequently heard.

 

There are a handful of covers, including rollicking takes on Day Tripper and Hound Dog, as well as an ad-hoc Radio One Theme, and it's all great fun. The selection comes full circle, closing with Hear My Train A Comin', broadcast Christmas Eve, 1967, with additional friends in the studio creating a warm, bluesy vibe.

 

I originally recorded this circa summer 1990, I'm not sure of the exact date but it looks like it was another of the bunch of tapes that I compiled to go travelling. Hendrix occupied one side, with select cuts from The Rolling Stones (mostly the Rolled Gold compilation and one or two from Exile On Main Street) on the other. 

 

On the original Hendrix, I included a couple of studio tracks: Cross Town Traffic, which had been re-released in April 1990 on the back of a Wrangler jeans ad, though it failed to achieve the same UK success of similarly Levi's-backed retro hits. The 12" single also included Hey Joe, which I remember having to fade out at the end, in order to squeeze 15 songs on a 45-minute cassette side.

 

For this recreated selection, I've kept the track listing purely to BBC Radio One sessions. Fortunately, the expanded BBC Sessions compilation from 1998 provides three versions of Hey Joe to choose from. Unfortunately, there wasn't a session version of Cross Town Traffic included, so I've swapped it for Little Miss Lover, which originally appeared on second album, Axis: Bold As Love. 

1) Spanish Castle Magic (Top Gear, 24 December 1967)

2) Purple Haze (Top Of The Pops, recorded 28 March 1967)

3) Day Tripper (Cover of The Beatles) (Top Gear, 24 December 1967)

4) Radio One Theme (Top Gear, 24 December 1967)

5) Fire (Saturday Club, 01 April 1967) 

6) Foxey Lady (Saturday Club, recorded 13 February 1967)

7) Killing Floor (Cover of Howlin' Wolf) (Saturday Club, 01 April 1967)

8) Wait Until Tomorrow (Top Gear, 24 December 1967)

9) Little Miss Lover (Top Gear, 13 October 1967)

10) Love Or Confusion (Saturday Club, 18 February 1967)

11) Stone Free (Saturday Club, 18 February 1967)

12) Hound Dog (Cover of Big Mama Thornton) (Top Gear, 13 October 1967)

13) The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp (Top Gear, 13 October 1967)

14) Hey Joe (Cover of The Leaves) (Saturday Club, 18 February 1967)

15) Hear My Train A Comin' (Top Gear, 24 December 1967)

Except where specified, I've referred to the date the songs were first broadcast.

 

Is It Tomorrow Or Just The End Of Time? (46:46) (KF) (Mega)