Jimi Hendrix Fans Go for the Best Possible Sound

CD buyers are generally older and more affluent than vinyl or cassette album customers, retailers tell us.

Still, Billboard magazine’s weekly CD chart and its regular Top 200 album chart (which reports vinyl, cassette and CD sales) tend to be largely interchangeable.

The notable exception in recent weeks: the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Radio One” album. Released by Ryko, the album has been in the CD Top 20 for more than two months, but has yet to crack the Top 100 on the regular LP chart.

“I think Hendrix fans want to get the best sound possible so they go for the CD,” said Tanya Triglia, who works at the Tower Records store in West Hollywood, where the CD far outsells the vinyl and cassette copies. “If I had the money to buy everything on CD I would, but I usually buy things that I want on tape and things I love --the basic classics like Hendrix, Beatles, Led Zeppelin--on CD. I think that’s true of a lot of people.”

Alan Douglas, who oversees Hendrix recordings for the late guitarist’s estate, said “Radio One” is the follow-up to Hendrix’s highly successful “Live at Winterland” album that was released by Ryko only in CD form. “Live” sales to date: more than 200,000 copies.

“We figured CD was our primary audience, but we got so many complaints (last time) from people who didn’t have (CD players) yet that we wanted to make this one available in the other formats,” he said.

The new album is a 60-minute collection drawn from five live sessions the Experience did in 1967 for BBC Radio in England. Titles range from such familiar Hendrix numbers as “Purple Haze” to such covers as Lennon-McCartney’s “Day Tripper” and Leiber-Stoller’s “Hound Dog.”

With the continued interest in the man who is widely regarded as one of the most electrifying figures ever in rock, it’s not surprising that Douglas and Ryko have plans for more live Hendrix albums.

First in line is an album taken from Hendrix’s appearance at Woodstock, the landmark concert held 20 years ago this summer in Upstate New York.

“Only six cuts from Hendrix’s (two-hour) show have ever been released, and Woodstock came at a particularly interesting point in Jimi’s career,” Douglas said. “Because his (new) band wasn’t super-rehearsed, Jimi did an incredible amount of improvising during the show.”

Reviews

Ian Hunter’s “Shades of Hunter” (Chrysalis)--Both in Mott the Hoople and on his own in this 65-minute, CD-only collection taken from his 1979-81 solo albums, Hunter was a singer and songwriter who frequently approached greatness in his flavorful mixture of Ray Davies sentiment and Bob Dylan bite. Even if Hunter still hasn’t developed enough arresting personal vision to step from the shadow of those (and other) influences, this sampler remains an inviting showcase for his imaginative mainstream rock. ***

Willie Nelson’s “All-Time Greatest Hits, Vol. 1” (RCA)--There are more than two dozen Nelson albums on CD, but they are almost all from his Columbia days. That leaves two of his best albums--”Phases and Stages” on Atlantic and “Yesterday’s Wine” on RCA--both unavailable on CD. Instead of putting out “Wine,” RCA brings together in this 55-minute package some of the singer’s less-distinguished work. The writing and singing weren’t a problem, but the arrangements leaned too far to the polished Nashville Sound style of the ‘60s. It wasn’t until Nelson broke from that style--a move that led to the “outlaw” tag in Nashville--that he lived up to his potential on record. **