Jimi Hendrix’s ’69 Concert at Sports Arena on New CD

On Nov. 12, Warner Brothers Records will release a 4-CD box set of live performances by the late, legendary rock guitarist, Jimi Hendrix. The opus, titled “Stages ‘67-’70,” should be of special interest to San Diegans.

The chronologically sequenced discs in “Stages” contain one concert from each of the last four years of the guitarist’s life. Discs 1,2 and 4 capture Hendrix’s 1967 concert in Stockholm, a 1968 show at the Olympia Theatre in Paris and a 1970 performance at the Atlanta Pop Festival, respectively.

Disc 3 reprises almost his entire May 24, 1969, concert at the San Diego Sports Arena.

The latest compilation follows on the heels of last year’s hot-selling “Lifelines: The Jimi Hendrix Story,” another 4-CD package. That collection was a sort of musical biography containing alternate studio takes, home demos, rare live performances and interviews with Hendrix, his musicians, family, and friends.

“Stages,” all but three of whose tracks have never been released, is not the first commercial offering of music from Hendrix’s 1969 San Diego performances. “I Don’t Live Today” was released on 1982’s “The Jimi Hendrix Concerts,” and the posthumous 1971 live album, “Hendrix in the West,” included the slow blues “Red House” (that album’s liner notes also erroneously lists the song “Voodoo Chile” as being from the Sports Arena show; it actually was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in London).

Still, the new compilation is not only more a comprehensive live retrospective, it is more ambitious in concept, as well. Alan Douglas, the executive producer of all posthumous Hendrix products, wanted this collection to trace the trajectory of what he perceives was Hendrix’s four-stage evolution as a guitarist, captured live “on stage.” Hence, the title’s double-entendre.

Speaking by telephone from London early one recent morning, Douglas explained why, of the roughly 550 concerts Hendrix performed during his career--120 of which were recorded (including a Sept. 3, 1968, date at now-dismantled Balboa Stadium and a second arena gig on July 25, 1970)--the 1969 San Diego show was selected to exemplify “stage three.”

“That 1969 San Diego show has always been considered one of the most memorable of Jimi’s career,” Douglas said in his no- nonsense way. “It was his last tour with Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding (drummer and bassist, respectively, of the original Jimi Hendrix Experience), and I personally believe it was the most exciting show he did with them, before going on to form the Band of Gypsys.”

The only live tune omitted from the San Diego disc is “Foxy Lady,” due to a gyrating, theatrical performance that was too “visual” to translate to audio (versions of “Foxy Lady” are included on the other three concert discs). Otherwise, there is a wide variety of selections from Hendrix’s first three albums.

The Nov. 12 release of “Stages” will fall just 15 days shy of what would have been the guitarist’s 49th birthday. Later in November, he’ll be honored with a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.

Michael Fairchild, a 35-year-old expert on Hendrix, is Douglas’ research consultant. He believes that there were circumstances that might have contributed to the special quality of Hendrix’s 1969 San Diego show.

“Jimi was in his hometown of Seattle the night before the San Diego concert,” the soft-spoken Fairchild said recently from his home in Upstate New York. “Now, he hadn’t been to Seattle in about 10 months, and when he arrived, there was rioting going on at a local community college. The People’s Park riots in Berkeley had happened that week, and the unrest seemed to be moving up and down the West Coast, including San Diego.

“Jimi was so responsive to crowds,” he continued, “and the one at the Sports Arena that night was at a fever pitch, with the Vietnam War protests and everything. There were gate-crashers breaking in the glass doors, and several ushers were injured. Then the people in the first 10 or so rows decided to stand on their seats, which collapsed, causing many more injuries. It was just this real chaotic scene, and I think Jimi might have fed off that weird energy to give a really great performance.”

Fairchild, by the way, would love to hear from anyone who snapped pictures or shot home movies at any of the San Diego concerts. Unbelievably, he and Douglas haven’t been able to unearth even one photo from the local 1969 show to use in packaging “Stages.”

Because of the Experience’s incendiary performance at the Monterey Pop Festival, the band was the most in-demand group in rock when it visited San Diego in 1969. Accordingly, the trio was paid $35,000 for the arena gig, an incredible amount for those days. The local underground press, in fact, gave Hendrix a bad time for receiving such an “exorbitant” paycheck.

GRACE NOTES: (Tickets for the following concerts will be sold at all TicketMaster outlets unless otherwise specified). Morrissey returns for a Nov. 2 date at Starlight Bowl (on sale Friday at 3 p.m.). Violinist Jean Luc Ponty and his African-music aggregate visit the La Jolla Hyatt Aventine Regency Ballroom on Nov. 3 (on sale now). And Luther Vandross, Laura Fischer, Sinbad and Sounds of Blackness invade the Sports Arena on Nov. 3 (on sale now).

CRITIC’S CHOICE

DEAD TRIBUTE SHOULD PROVE INTERESTING

Tonight’s Bonnie Raitt-John Prine show at the Starlight Bowl might monopolize the local buzz, but it’s certainly not the only interesting concert on tap. On Thursday night, something called “Gratefully Yours: A Tribute to the Grateful Dead,” will unveil at the Belly Up Tavern.

Whether one likes the Dead seems irrelevant in the face of a show featuring Kingfish (Matt Kelly and Barry Flast), Papa John Creach and David Nelson (founder of New Riders of the Purple Sage and member of the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band). This one could go either way, but something tells me it will, at the very least, offer an enjoyable diversion.