Search - Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock on DVD

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 4/6/2023...

Very high Amazon ratings but not our cup of tea. You need to be a Jimi fan to appreciate this!

One disk has some concert footage with documentary and the other disk is the concert at Woodstock.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Finally! All Jimi Hendrix Woodstock Footage Released!

Kent D. Bentkowski | Buffalo, New York USA | 09/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In 1999, when Experience Hendrix (the family company that now controls Jimi's legacy) released the DVD entitled 'Jimi Hendrix Live at Woodstock,' they claimed that the contents of that DVD was all that remained of one of the most important musical historical documents of all time. Woodstock was a cultural moment, and Jimi Hendrix played the most important role of that moment. EH claimed that the unused footage was thrown out. I said at the time that it was untrue, as that wasn't the type of thing that anyone would have thrown out.



Happily, about that I was correct, because in the 2-DVD set entitled 'JImi Hendrix Live at Woodstock,' all of the remaining unused footage has now been released, and incorporated into the pre-existing footage.



This 2-DVD set contains the MOST of the performance that Jimi played as the headliner of the Woodstock festival, as compared to the double CD released, the only song missing on this DVD is Hear My Train A Comin'. This is because the complete song was never filmed, but it can be found on DVD 2, where the song has been augmented with backstage and audience footage taken of portions of the performance.



The reason why the entire performance was not filmed is further explained in the booklet included in the DVD package, which was once again designed by the wonderful and talented Smay Vision graphic design firm, who oversees all of the packaging design for all Experience Hendrix releases.



The BEST PART about this new 2-DVD release is the second disc. Entitled 'A Second Look,' this incorporates black-and-white video footage shot by then 22 year-old Albert Goodman, who had used one of the very first SONY CV open-reel 1/2-inch videotape units. This 'Second Look' incorporates Goodman's footage, which provides further insight into how the audience was influenced by the music of Hendrix's new group 'Gypsy Sun & Rainbows.'



The booklet features a new essay by Hendrix historian John McDermott, and also features reproductions of the three-day Woodstock ticket, Jimi's handwritten set list, as well as Jimi's 'unfinished rough-sketch of Woodstock festival,' the evocative 500,000 Halos poem, which can also be found in the hardcover book 'Jimi Hendrix: The Lyrics.'



I give this DVD my highest recommendation, as it was an incredibly important moment in all of music history, now expanded and given the respect it has always deserved."

Finally it is all there

Edward C. Barile | Massachusetts | 09/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A few years ago, I reviewed the Hendrix Woodstock DVD released, I think in 99. I thought mistakenly at the time that it was complete. I had to retract that statement.

Now the Hendrix family has released the full performance, or at least everything that exists on film on his performance at that landmark Woodstock festival.

There are 2 DVDs, one with the complete filmed version, that the promoters were able to get on such short notice. This is the completion of what we already had.

The second DVD is an actual taped real time video that someone had taken with a camera and kept for 35 years until the family got him to release it with this set. Now everything Hendrix did that was recorded is available.



The quality of the first (filmed) DVD is fine, that of the second is spotty (it was mostly in black and white) supplemented with clips from the filmed version where the video had dropouts. The video version has the only clip of "Hear my Train Coming" - the film guys were reloading at that time.



This is of great historical value, and all Hendrix fans will want to own it, simply because it has the whole thing.



Of course I never get tired of watching Hendrix play his music. Watching him play the guitar is as good as listening to him, because his visual performance is a separate entertainment in its own right.



I highly recommend this.

"

Hendrix as we've never seen him

twangmon | Nashville, TN USA | 11/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For Hendrix freaks, it doesn't get much better that this two-DVD set. Now for the first time, we can see Hendrix's entire Woodstock performance -- 14 songs delivered in their original sequence -- with the six-piece Gypsy Sun & Rainbows. Released in 1999, the original single-disc Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock offered an hour's worth of highlights from the show, but not the whole enchilada.



Yet there's more: The feature movie on disc 1 has been painstakingly re-edited with new camera angles, and expanded to 80 minutes with recent interviews. Those who worked closely with Hendrix -- bandmates Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding, and Billy Cox; Gypsy Sun & Rainbows second guitarist Larry Lee and percussionist Juma Sultan; engineer Eddie Kramer; and assorted managers and promoters -- all have their say about his legacy.



In a way, disc 2 is even more amazing. A 22-year-old college student managed to smuggle a clunky, tripod-mounted video camera onstage and shoot the whole show from the musician's perspective. In this footage, we watch Hendrix joking and giving directions to the band as if we were standing next to Cox and Lee, and we hear Hendrix's raps, most of which are missing from the film edition. Amazingly, this video also contains seven minutes of music -- a bluesy jam of "Hear My Train a Comin'" -- the official film crew missed.



By today's standards, the black-and-white video images are primitive, but the intimacy of this footage makes it priceless. Where the videotape runs into technical trouble, the editors have substituted 16mm film clips -- always perfectly in sync with the music and often providing alternative angles to those in the main film. Essentially, we get two views of Hendrix's spellbinding performance: a full-color, carefully edited, multi-camera edition, shot primarily from the front of the stage, plus a grainy, black-and-white cinéma vérité version shot from behind.



Disc 2 also includes three mini-documentaries. In a press conference in Harlem, held shortly after Woodstock, we watch a mellow Hendrix respond to questions from the uptight press regarding politics, drugs, and society. Cox and Lee recall the times they spent playing in clubs with Hendrix in the Nashville area, and we see a handful of photos from this period. Finally, Kramer describes in detail how he dealt with the technical challenges of recording Hendrix at Woodstock. A cool booklet with Hendrix's handwritten set list and poetry, stage photos, and a detailed essay on how the film crew captured the event completes the package. The expanded Live at Woodstock makes it perfectly clear why, decades after his death, Hendrix remains rock's most inventive and magical guitarist."