Jimi Hendrix & The Cry of Love –
First Rays of the New Rising Sun
(soniclovenoize reconstruction)
April 2025 UPGRADE
Side A:
1. Dolly Dagger
2. Night Bird Flying
3. Room Full of Mirrors
4. Belly Button Window
5. Freedom
Side B:
6. Ezy Ryder
7. Astro Man
8. Drifting
9. Straight Ahead
Side C:
10. Earth Blues
11. Izabella
12. Drifter’s Escape
13. Beginnings
14. Angel
Side D:
15. Stepping Stone
16. Bleeding Heart
17. New Rising Sun (Hey Baby)
18. In From The Storm
This is a very long-overdue upgrade to one of my classic “First Generation” reconstructions: Jimi Hendrix’s final album before he passed away, First Rays of the New Rising Sun. Hendrix had spent the final year of his life—and especially the final months—working on what would-have-been a double-album follow-up to Electric Ladyland. Instead of assembling the album as Hendrix had envisioned, the material was dashed together by producer Alan Douglas and released on a number of posthumous albums, including The Cry of Love, Rainbow Bridge, War Heroes, Loose Ends and Voodoo Soup. After securing the legal rights to his catalog, a separate attempt was made by The Hendrix Estate in 1997 to re-issue a compilation meant to replicate Hendrix’s wishes for First Rays, but many fans noted that poor song selection and mastering missed the mark as well. My reconstruction attempts to gather all of Jimi Hendrix’s own final mixes of the most completed tracks when possible (15 out of 18 songs), ignoring posthumous mixes. Also the sources featuring the best mastering and highest dynamics are used to correct what both Douglas and The Hendrix Estate could not, and present a more accurate representation of what Hendrix desired for his swansong and come-back album.
The upgrades to this April 2025 edition are:
New cover art of Monika Dannemann’s actual original painting, based on Hendrix’s own sketch before he died, replacing my own mock-up.
New re-mastering of “Izabella” and “Stepping Stone” to make it less brittle and aggressive sounding, to fit with the rest of the album, this time sourced from Voodoo Child rather than a rip of the original 7” single.
“Drifter’s Escape” is an updated source taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than South Saturn Delta.
“Beginnings” is the complete, unedited track, an updated source taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than a vinyl rip of Loose Ends.
“Bleeding Heart” is an updated source taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than a vinyl rip of War Heroes.
“Hey Baby” is Hendrix’s own mix from 8/22/70, taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than the posthumous Douglas mix from Rainbow Bridge.
“In From The Storm” is Hendrix’s own more refined mix from 8/24/70 taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than his earlier 8/22/70 mix from West Coast Seattle Boy.
1969 was the year of metaphorical death and rebirth for Jimi Hendrix. After dissolving his chart-topping power trio The Jimi Hendrix Experience and its following brief incarnation Gypsy Sun and Rainbows (who backed him at Woodstock), Hendrix was under pressure by Civil Rights activists to form an all-black band. His answer was Band of Gypsies, featuring bassist Billy Cox (who had played in Gypsy Sun and Rainbows) and drummer Buddy Miles. The trio set out to rehearse all-new Hendrix originals to fulfill a contractual loophole in which Hendrix owed producer Ed Chalpin an album’s worth of new material; the result was the live album Band of Gypsies, released March 1970, which showcased more structured songs with a funk and R&B-influenced sound, of course infused with Hendrix’s own penchant for psychedelia and guitar wizardry. A studio single “Stepping Stone” b/w “Izabella” was also released in April 1970, before being quickly withdrawn due to Hendrix’s dissatisfaction with the mix. Although the band dissolved in January 1970, Hendrix had written a vast amount of new material with the trio and had secretly set aside what he deemed the best material from the live Band of Gypsies album for his fourth proper studio album, what he was now announcing to the press as First Rays of The New Rising Sun.
Hendrix quickly reformed a new backing band, this time featuring the winning combination of Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and Band of Gypsies bassist Billy Cox (who were the core rhythm section of Gypsy Sun and Rainbows), called The Cry of Love (although billed as The Jimi Hendrix Experience for commercial reasons). Recording sessions commenced at The Record Plant from January to May; while touring that spring, Hendrix compiled a list of 24 songs to be considered for the album (at that point called Straight Ahead), all in various forms of studio completion (as shown by checks or Xs) from the Record Plant sessions. After the first leg of their American tour, the trio returned off and on to Hendrix’s own Electric Lady Studios in June and July, recording more basic tracks as well as new work on the withdrawn Band of Gypsies single, “Stepping Stone” and “Izabella”, with Mitchell literally re-recording Miles’s original drum parts. By this point, Straight Ahead had reverted to its original title First Rays of the New Rising Sun, and had been described as an intended double-album by Hendrix’s inner circle.
After moving into Hendrix’s personal recording studio Electric Lady in late August, Hendrix and producer Eddie Kramer added overdubs and prepared mixes of several songs for the album, although we can never be sure if they were truly the final mixes, as Hendrix tended to add subtle touches to every song right up until their final release. August 20th produced mixes for: “In From The Storm”, “Drifting”, “Room Full of Mirrors”, “Straight Ahead”, “Dolly Dagger” and “Freedom”. August 22nd produced mixes for: “Bolero”/”Hey Baby”, “Message To Love”, “Power of Soul”, “Come Down Hard On Me”, “Beginnings”, “Bleeding Heart”, “Drifter’s Escape”, “Earth Blues”, “Astro Man”, “Ezy Rider” and several others. August 24th produced mixes for: “Belly Button Window”, “Dolly Dagger”, “Night Bird Flying”, “Freedom”, “In From The Storm”. August 25th produced mixes for: “Astro Man” and “Straight Ahead”. Of these, both “Dolly Dagger” and “Night Bird Flying” were approved as final, finished mixes and were dashed off to be mastered for a single release; the latest mixes of “Freedom”, “astro man” and “Straight Ahead” were also presumed to be their final mixes. At this session it is believed that Hendrix began creating a tracklist for First Rays of the New Rising Sun, scrawled on the back of a 3M tapebox. While Sides A and B seemed fairly definite, Side C had several titles scratched out or in parenthesis; Side D was left blank.
Hendrix and The Cry of Love jaunted off for their ill-fated European Tour, beginning with the Isle of Wight Festival on August 30th. As September rolled on, the shows were met with jeering and Hendrix’s spirits were visibly diminished. Taking a week off in London, a paranoid Billy Cox apparently quit the group and headed home. Spending his final days with figure skater Monika Dannemann, Hendrix created an illustration featuring his face as well as famous White, Black, Asian and Native American faces in the shape of a cross which some believe to be a cover concept for First Rays of the New Rising Sun. Hendrix was found dead the next day.
With new Jimi Hendrix material as a contractual obligation, Kramer and Mitchell regrouped at Electric Lady to sift through the massive amount of material recorded during this period and to add finishing touches to specific songs, in order to assemble the album Hendrix had envisioned. After recording new drum tracks, fresh mixes of “Room Full of Mirrors” and “Angel” were made on October 14th but unused; a more refined mix of “Angel” from November 12th was deemed release-worthy. After vibraphone overdubs onto “Drifting”, a rough mix was made on November 20th with the final mix completed December 2nd. A more finalized mix of “In From The Storm” was completed on November 29th. Finally, Kramer made new mixes of “Earth Blues”, “Pali Gap” and “Hey Baby” in February 1971. The first posthumous release was The Cry Of Love in march 1971, followed by the soundtrack Rainbow Bridge in October 1971.
With the floodgates opened, more posthumous releases were planned as the barrel’s bottom was scraped, including War Heroes in 1973 and Loose Ends in 1974. Producer Alan Douglas attempted to recreate a First Rays-like reconstruction in 1995 as Voodoo Soup, which blasphemously featured contemporary overdubs! After gaining control of his catalog, The Hendrix Estate issued their own reconstruction of First Rays in 1997, perhaps the closest yet, but still missing a few key components. Here we will try to set the record straight (ahead).
Luckily, our work is cut out for us as Hendrix himself had already decided on a track order for disc 1, as per his list scrawled on the back of a 3M tape box (included with this reconstruction); our work is half done! Although it is contested amongst the Hendrix fandom if this tapebox was authentic, I personally believe it is–or at least was written by an authoritative source and dictated by the man himself. I also believe it creates a very strong Disc 1, consisting of all the specific tracks that Hendrix himself mixed in August 1970, sequenced in a fashion that seems fairly representative of the sound Henrdix was creating during this period. This reconstruction attempts to present that first disc, coupled with a second disc constructed from the remaining finished key recordings from this era, in a way that compliments that first disc.
Opening Side A is Hendrix's 8/24/70 mix of “Dolly Dagger” from the amazing 2014 remaster of Rainbow Bridge. Following is the 8/24 mix of “Night Bird Flying” from the equally amazing 2014 remaster of Cry of Love. While this title also was scrawled in as opening side C, it is written in boldface as the second track on side B, suggesting it was a later and more definite revision, and is thus used here. The 8/20 mix of “Room Full of Mirrors”, again from Rainbow Bridge is next, followed by the 8/24 mix of Hendrix’s solo demo of “Belly Button Window” from Cry of Love. While many don’t believe this drastic dynamic shift would have been on the album, I think it’s a rather welcomed change in the side’s flow, and we’ll stick to Jimi’s wishes. The side closes with the presumably final 8/24 mix of “Freedom” from Cry of Love.
Side B opens with the 8/22 mix of “Ezy Rider”, followed by the presumably final 8/25 mix “Astro Man”, followed by the posthumous 12/2 mix of “Drifting” from Cry of Love; while I considered using Hendrix’s own stripped-down 8/20 mix, I felt the more refined mix featuring the vibraphones and backwards guitar fit better in this reconstruction. Next is the presumably final 8/25 mix of “Straight Ahead”, also taken from Cry of Love. Many fans question Jimi’s tracklist here, as side B is much shorter than A, running four songs at 16 minutes compared to five songs at 19 minutes. While that may be true, I will stand by Jimi’s choice here as what he intended, and furthermore I feel that despite its length, it sounds like a fairly complete side. This is apparently what Hendrix wanted for First Rays: a concise album, no sprawling instrumental experiments, just all killer/no filler.
With disc 1 complete, we are left to create the second disc Jimi never got around to. The method for my disc two reconstruction is simple: use the remaining complete (or mostly complete) tracks to make a second disc that is as comparable as possible to the first: straight-forward funk/R&B, running nine songs at 35 minutes with the fourth side shorter than the third. We will drop some songs that are too skeletal (“Cherokee Mist”), others that do not feature the funky R&B sound of disc one (“Come Down Hard On Me”) as well as instrumentals that would not have made the cut anyways (“Pali Gap”). We are certainly excluding “My Friends”, as it doesn’t even date from this time period!
Side C opens with an upbeat soul-rocker, as side A did: with “Earth Blues”, using what is believed as Jimi’s own 8/22 mix found on the Purple Box, as opposed to the posthumous mix on Rainbow Bridge. Next is “Izabella”, portraying the equivalent of “Night Bird Flying”, using Hendrix’s own original vintage mix found on the Band of Gypsies 7” (a rare mix that is exclusive only to that release), as heard on the compilation Voodoo Child; here I have done some extra EQing so this 7” mix matches the fidelity and tonal characteristics of the rest of the reconstruction. Following is the more aggressive rocker, the part played by “Drifter’s Escape”, again using what is presumed as Hendrix’s own 8/22 mix found on the Electric Lady Studios box. The idiosyncratic dynamic shift is next with “Beginnings” using the unedited mix found on the Electric Lady Studios box; although we are avoiding instrumentals, it is included because not only does it fit the sound of the album, but it was written in as a contender for side C by Hendrix. The side also closes as per his wishes, with “Angel” taken from The Cry of Love; like “Drifting” I chose to use the posthumous 12/2 mix instead of Henrix’s own rough 8/20 mix, as it sounded more refined as fit better with the tone of the reconstruction as a whole.
Side D opens much like B, with the dense, heavy guitar fury of “Stepping Stone”, again using the extremely rare vintage Hendrix mix found on the Band of Gypsies 7” (again sourced from Voodoo Child) as opposed to the posthumous mix on War Heroes. The side's bouncy rocker follows with what is presumably Hendrix’s own 8/22 mix of “Bleeding Heart”, taken from the Electric Lady Studios box, and then the mid-tempo epic “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)”, this being Hendrix’s own rough mix from 8/22 taken from the Electric Lady Studios box. Much like the previous disc, the album ends with a mid-tempo groove-rocker “In From The Storm”, here using Hendrix’s own 8/24 mix from the Electric Lady Studios box, as opposed to the posthumous mix found on The Cry of Love. In the end, we have a second nine-song, 36-minute disc that matches the first.
The final touch is the most revealing, recent (re)-discovery: Monika Dannemann’s actual painting depicting the sketch Hendrix made the day before his death (included with this reconstruction), possibly his actual cover art idea: Hendrix’s own face in the center of a cross; with Martin Luther King Jr and an African queen on the left arm (representing blacks); John F Kennedy and Adolph Hitler on the right arm (representing whites); Buddha and Genghis Khan in the top arm (representing Asians); Cochise, Crazy Horse and Geronimo on the bottom arm (representing Native Americans). If Dannemann is to be believed, this would have been the cover for First Rays of The New Rising Sun, rather than any of the posthumous slop produced after Hendrix’s death. This, coupled with the two discs of this set, seem to be the first rays of what could have been Jimi’s last rising sun.
Sources used:
Electric Lady Studios - a Jimi Hendrix Vision (2024 CD boxset)
The Cry of Love (2014 Experience Hendrix CD remaster)
Rainbow Bridge (2014 Experience Hendrix CD remaster)
Voodoo Child (2001 CD pressing)
flac --> wav --> editing in Audacity and Goldwave --> flac encoding via TLH lv8
* md5 files, track notes and artwork included