Lyn Callback:

crumbsroom wrote:

What the fuck is this album? Are other tracks on this as good as this one? I'm all over this.

She has an earlier album titled Think (about it) with some good tracks like "Fly Me To the Moon," but her best recordings in my opinion were only released, as far as I know, on the James Brown–produced compilations James Brown's Funky People Parts 1-3 and James Brown's Original Funky Divas. On Funky People Part 1 she is credited as "Lyn Collins (The Female Preacher)."
In addition to smokin' live versions of the aforementioned tracks "Think (about it)" and "Rock Me Again & Again & Again & Again & Again & Again," Part 1 also features live versions of "Take Me Just as I Am" and "Mama Feelgood." She then appears twice on Part 2, with "Put it On The Line" and "Do Your Thing"...



She reappears once more on Part 3, singing James Brown's "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose," and she's featured on nearly half of the 46 tracks on James Brown's Original Funky Divas. 

Three of those four releases, James Brown's Funky People Parts 1 and 2 and James Brown's Original Funky Divas, are absolute gems from start to finish and are not to be missed. As for Funky People Part 3, it's fine, containing a lot more straight JB's instrumental grooves than 1 and 2, but the tired feeling of a James Brown largely coasting on his own coattails begins to emerge, which could explain why parts 1 and 2 can be found bundled as James Brown's Funky People Parts 1 & 2, further highlighting the inferiority of Part 3.

Another album–length collection of live recordings from her 2005 European tour was released following her death later that same year, titled Mama Feelgood: the Best of Lyn Collins:


I was convinced that had to be Bootsy on bass, but although Bootsy did tour with Lyn (no relation), the album credits a bassist named Lars Lehman. Lehman is doing the Bootsy sound so convincingly it's practically an impersonation but not an uninspired one by any means; you can hear him absolutely fuckin it up around the 8:15 mark, so good I'm tempted to suspect Lehman is just a pseudonym for a contract–bound Bootsy playing under the radar, because that's a Boots-gasm right there.

...trying to remember what mixtape that was, JJ, with the stuff from James Brown's Funky People on it. It wasn't that corporate cassette you taped over, was it? With the "According to a study by AT&T..."

There's a new documentary out dedicated to Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision, the still-standing NYC recording studio that remains one of Hendrix's lasting legacies.  Unfortunately, Hendrix himself only had a couple of months, in the summer of '70, to take advantage of his facilities, and obviously did not live to see the completion of the fruits of his labor.  In addition to the documentary, the Hendrix Estate has released a 3-CD/5-LP box set of unreleased mixes and recordings from these summer sessions, as well as a new 5.1 mix of the First Rays of the New Rising Sun compilation which collected the immediate posthumous releases.  The outtakes feature a generous amount of in-studio discussion and banter with engineer Eddie Kramer, and the overview is to show Hendrix's creative process.  Certainly, many of these recordings have been available on bootlegs, but it's remarkable what a difference it makes to have Kramer's touch on these remixes, rather than the more dry and flat copies used for the boots.  Among them is the only studio version of "Earth Blues" that I'm aware of with Mitch Mitchell, instead of Buddy Miles, on drums, and what I consider to be the optimal version of "Room Full of Mirrors".







 

Rampop II wrote:

I think I need to sit with these mixes for a while. They're something we've always wanted, if I can presume to speak for most or all Hendrix fans: Eddie Kramer's engineering, Mitch's drums, and a genuine effort to give the Cry of Love/Rainbow Bridge recordings all the TLC they rightly deserve. Earth Blues has always been one of my favorites from that collection. And now, after hearing the old mixes all my life, hearing these new ones for the first time feels disorienting.
 
I popped over to YouTube for some more; I'm really not sure about the Easy Rider mix. It seems to be missing the power of the old one. Maybe I'm naturally biased. But I owe all these recordings a higher–quality listen than any that YouTube is able to offer. 

Keep in mind to distinguish between the outtake recordings (like the ones I posted above) and the finished product (the 5.1 mixes also supervised by Eddie Kramer, which I'm not sure are available on Youtube).  The purpose of the outtake set is to show the work-in-progress, so they will sound incomplete.  It's to demonstrate Hendrix's use of the 16-track to layer elements, adding and subtracting, and many of the elements shown here were not used on the final mixes.  I call "Mirrors" an "optimal" version because I prefer its elements which were not used on its final mix.  (I'm sure you're aware that the "official" mix of "Mirrors" from Rainbow Bridge has never been my favorite version of that tune.)  And the set is also in chronological order, I believe, so the "Ezy Ryder", which is the first track on the set, should sound preliminary, as if he's still getting his bearings on the facility.  (Also note that all three of these recordings - Ryder, Mirrors and Earth Blues - were built on top of initial BoG recordings from prior non-Electric Lady sessions.)

But if you're looking to compare these to those vintage Cry of Love/Rainbow Bridge releases, you should do so with the 5.1 mixes rather than these outtakes.
 

Ok you stingy bitches.  Here's this year's Solid Ghost Soul mix.  Come and get it!  It'll make you wish you were alive!