1970-July-4/5		Saturday/Sunday

Jimi Hendrix

2nd Atlanta International Pop Festival
Middle Georgia Raceway		Byron, GA  


Disc 1  -  54.42
1	Fire					 4.35
2	Lover Man				 2.59
3	Spanish Castle Magic			 5.07
4	Foxy Lady				 4.30
5	Purple Haze				 3.53
6	Hear My Train A Comin'			10.29
7	Stone Free				 5.25
8	Star Spangled Banner			 2.46
9	Straight Ahead				 4.35
10	Room Full Of Mirrors			 3.12
11	Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)		 7.11

	times given are track times

	incomplete show

	Billy Cox		Bass
	Jimi Hendrix		Guitar, Vocals
	Mitch Mitchell		Drums

	Billy Cox is introduced as the new member.  Jimi introduces himself 
	as playing public saxophone

 
The below review comes from the great Just Ask The Axis web site:

Technically, the date should be July 5 as it was after midnight on the 
Saturday night when Jimi took to the stage.  


From Chris Dixon's 30th Anniversary Series © C S Dixon

July 4, 2000 marks 30 years since since Jimi's 1970 performance at the 
Second Atlanta International Pop Festival, at the Middle Georgia Raceway in 
Byron, Ga (about 90 miles from Atlanta). In truth, the date of Jimi's 
performance was July 5 since he went on after midnight on Sat. night, but this 
show has become so linked in Jimi lore to Independence Day '70 that most think 
of it that way. Crowd estimates are in the 400,000 range and with Jimi's 
performance in the middle of the weekend it's pretty safe to say this was his 
largest one time American concert audience. Woodstock may have had as many, 
or more, people at its peak, but the crowd was much smaller when Jimi played 
Woodstock on Monday morning (in a coincidence, it's said that the Monday morning 
duties at Atlanta Pop fell to Jimi pal Richie Havens, who'd opened Woodstock). 
There have been claims that Atlanta was Jimi's largest crowd ever, though most 
estimates that I've seen put Isle of Wight's attendance a little higher. 

Jimi & Co. turn in a lengthy but uneven set. The conditions at Atlanta Pop were 
notoriously brutal, with daytime temperatures well over 100 degrees and humidity 
to match (the liner notes of the 'First Great Rock Festivals of the 70s' album 
containing selected Atlanta Pop performances (but not Jimi's) said that to 
duplicate actual conditions, the record should be "played in a sauna"!). The day 
of traveling to the site and waiting around must have been wearying to the band 
(no luxury air conditioned tour buses or MTV 'hospitality suites' back then!), 
and the heat and/or temperature changes in the wee hours could have contributed 
to the tuning problems that dog Jimi throughout the show (the gear may well have 
sat in an oven-like closed truck all day). At times in the video Jimi looks very 
disgusted with the performance because of the tuning problems, though other times 
he seems in good humor talking to the crowd and appears/sounds able to get lost 
in the music during many sections. Jimi's tone seems quite trebly at times, and 
the tonal attack during much of this set leads me to wonder if some JBL speakers 
began to mix in with the stock Celestion speakers in his Marshall cabinets around 
this time (then again, could've also been the mic placement on whichever one of 
Jimi's 24 speakers ((6) 4x12 cabs) that got miced!). Also, at this gig we see some 
large Altec Lansing monitors, the same type that appear in Jimi's later shows. 
Either the sound company (said to be Hanley sound, of Woodstock fame) happened to 
be using the monitors Jimi would soon tour with, or the band had just bought the gear. 

Atlanta Pop, being one of the last from the rock festival heyday, was a high profile 
gig and Jimi's generous 90 minute set was professionally filmed and recorded. 
A video with about an hours worth of Atlanta Pop material was released in Japan 
(complete with subtitles for Jimi's stage comments) and circulates widely, but 
the whole concert film has yet to be seen. The audio exists in excellent quality 
soundboard, as it was recorded to multitrack. As is so typical with Jimi's body of 
work, this show has been released in a piecemeal fashion over the years, with the 
largest chunk appearing on disc 4 of the out of print 'Stages' box set (11 of 17 
songs, albeit out of order). That set had a mix that was a bit lopsided (Jimi center, 
bass and drums to each side) and with extra echo on Jimi's voice (and the audience 
level manipulated and/or added for dramatic effect). A better mix exists of the last 
half of the show and, not coincidentally, the 1 inch 8 track master reel of this same 
material (from 'Watchtower' on) was seen for sale on the open market some time back. 
There are a few mix variations of the show or portions thereof floating around (one 
has a strange delayed reverb in one channel only!) but it's nice to have this from 
soundboard in any case (there's also an audience tape in circulation). 

(Setlist): 
Fire; Lover Man; 
Spanish Castle Magic; 
Red House; 
Room Full Of Mirrors; 
Hear My Train; 
Message To Love; 
All Along The Watchtower; 
Freedom; 
Foxy Lady; 
Purple Haze; 
Hey Joe; 
Voodoo Child (SR); 
Stone Free; 
Star Spangled Banner; 
Straight Ahead; 
Hey Baby 

Jimi says "Thank you for waiting...", makes some off-mic comments ending with 
"I can't hear nothing..." as he returns to the mic, and introduces the band 
(with himself, as always, on "public saxophone"). Launches into 'Fire', 
the band a little stiff but getting it together as things progress. We hear 
Billy singing on the chorus very faintly (we see him fairly infrequently in 
the video, sporting an appropriate 'stars n' stripes' motif shirt). Jimi 
loosens up a bit on the solo, and continues to use the whammy behind the 
main riff after the solo and at the end, giving the impression of two guitars, 
as only Jimi can, by applying whammy to the feeding back lower strings between 
phrases, bringing them back to pitch just before playing the riff, then 
dropping down again! Wild... 

Jimi says "I hope it isn't too loud for you ...(waits a beat, with sly grin)...
'cause if it is, we can always turn up...". Introduces 'Lover Man' by saying 
"There's a whole lot of girls running around loose 'cause their old man is in 
the army...(and watch out because here he comes, etc)". Jimi uses the Univibe 
on the solo. Ad libs a few extra words at the end and finishes with solo coda, 
very trebly with wah. 

'Spanish Castle Magic' gets underway with Jimi missing a chord during the 
first line of verse, prompting a "damn..." from him during one of the silences. 
He sneaks in a tune up and some messing about above the nut just before the 
solo, resulting in a 'ping' so maybe the low E string had come off of it's 
string tree? He settles in for the solo and moves through some flowing legato 
lines and some faster riffing. At 2:55 he quotes the showtune 'The Breeze and I' 
for a few bars, ending in a countryish bend. After a blast of wah-inflected 
soloing he does the "Hang on my darling..." verse at 3:35. Though the guitar's 
top strings are out of tune (not good during SCM, where a great many riffs are 
'answered' with the open E and B strings), Jimi forges on with a little more 
soloing before ending around 4:15. BTW, the answering open E and B strings at 
the end are seen in the vid to be plucked with the fretting hand as it falls 
from the neck, his picking hand gesturing in the air. Too cool. 

'Red House' played again this night with the Strat, and we see in the video that 
he's been using the white Strat to this point. He takes it a bit slower, and 
though the guitar's a little out of tune he has the time to linger on each bend 
and instinctively compensate. Uses the whammy behind the start of the "wait a 
minute something's wrong" verse. Solo starts fairly cleanly but he gives it the 
gas over the course of two verses, with Mitch pushing the beat toward a double 
time feel. On the third round of 12 bars the band drops back and Jimi does some 
'talking guitar' with the wah (yeah, yeah, Jimi's guitar always talked, but it's 
especially vowel-like here). The earlier aggressive soloing has put the guitar 
more out of tune and Jimi struggles a little more during the last verse, shaking 
his head a couple of times. After the song, he is seen to take off the guitar 
and walk behind the amps for a word with a crew member ("But I'm sorry Jimi, no 
such thing as guitar techs and strobe tuners in 1970...") before emerging with 
the black/maple board Strat, which he would use for the remainder of the show 
(though, as we'll see, the tuning gremlins aren't done with our man....). 

Jimi introduces 'Room Full of Mirrors' as a "..thing we're gonna have on the LP..". 
The start is a little ragged but they settle into the groove with a subtle shift to 
a half-time feel going into the verse. Jimi solos with the wah at 1:30, the sweeps 
of the wah and Univibe washing up against each other. He does some vocal/guitar 
scatting, then signals the band to a stop at 2:50 and does a wild solo coda, then 
switches gears after the last crashing chord to wind up with a few mellow chord 
variations. This is the last recorded US performance of RFoM, though he'll play 
it 3 more times in Europe come Sept. In the interim he would tinker with the 
11/69 BoG track at Electric Lady, adding overdubs and completing a rough mix. 

'Hear My Train' taken a little slower this night and gives Jimi another chance 
to get lost in the blues. He adds the Univibe just after the start and does a 
little exploration but moves quickly to the verse at :55. The main solo comes 
at 2:55 and takes on a very smooth midrange-y tone, the more trebly attack 
seemingly tempered by the fuzz and/or tone controls and/or pickup selection 
at the guitar. At 3:00 he alternates fretted notes with open strings and at 
4:30 we hear him experiment a bit with the Univibe speed pedal. He uses the 
wah briefly then does some sustained whammy work, moving to the 'wobbly' 
plucked notes as oft heard on 'Machine Gun' (BTW, this is the second of three 
consecutive recorded '70 gigs where MG does not appear). He does an unusual 
modal run at 5:50 then runs through some variations on the main riff, mixing 
in some chords and open strings, and settling on a 2 chord variation which he 
continues using behind the final verse. He switches the wah in and out for 
accents in the last chorus and uses it for the 'Gloria'-style chords after 
the verse. A little more soloing, without wah and featuring some sustaining 
lower register soloing leads to a final vocal refrain and end at about 9:30. 

The bands flags a little in energy with a slightly slow 'Message To Love' 
(hey, it was a hot lazy southern night...). The solo is kept quite short. 
Mitch stops playing for the first 8 bars of the bridge whereas he more 
typically played through (I always liked it better with the stop, ala the 
BoG album...all the more drama when the drums re-enter!). 

'All Along The Watchtower' is next, our first soundboard recording of Jimi 
playing the song since the original Electric Ladyland track was recorded in 
early '68. Jimi accidentally starts it too low on the fretboard and plays 
until he starts to sing the first line, then corrects the key and starts the 
verse over with a preface of "As I was saying...". Nice solid version, even 
though he does forget a few words here and there. This is our first chance to 
actually *see* him play this song, and the video confirms that he imitates the 
recorded slide break with just bare hands and whammy! Reprises a variation on 
the opening line at the 'fade', singing "gotta get away, gotta get away from here...". 

Fresh from studio work, 'Freedom' shows tight ensemble playing throughout, 
though Jimi does not stray as far from the rhythm work in the middle section 
as in some earlier renditions. The soundboard shows off some especially nice 
ride cymbal work from Mitch during the first chorus. 

Jimi thanks the crowd "...for the last four years..." and dedicates 'Foxy Lady' 
to "..the girl with the purple underwear...". Again we could be hearing Billy 
singing very faintly on the verse, answering "...foxy...". Some climbing unison 
bends (ala 'Manic Depression') behind part of the final verse. Jimi ends with 
a mic stand slide, then does a good 20 seconds of solo coda, entirely one handed, 
before the last chord. 

Jimi tells everyone to stand up for a "..happy birthday song for America..." 
and he plays the opening line of 'Star Spangled Banner', but for whatever 
reason he switches immediately to the opening riff of 'Purple Haze'. We hear 
climbing unison bends going into the verse, and he mimes kissing the sky after 
the appropriate verse line. The solo here is played almost entirely one handed 
(it probably happened fairly often, but we rarely have film evidence!). Another 
long solo coda, then he restates the opening guitar line. Just before the end 
he's seen fretting a note with his fingers coming down from *above* the neck, 
shaking it for all the vibrato it's worth! 

'Hey Joe' gets a short mellow solo intro that's reminiscent of 'Hey Baby'. 
Hints at 'I Feel Fine' early in the verse, quotes it outright after the first 
"..messin around.." line, then flirts with it again during the last verse where 
it morphs into a country-style bend! The solo features a very smooth 
midrange-heavy tone. Jimi's tuning seems to drift a little here, and he shoots 
the guitar a couple of dirty looks as he sneaks in a few on-the-fly tuneups. 

Jimi says "I hope America has a million more birthdays...and there are concerts 
for each one...thank you and goodnight...", plays a snatch of the opening guitar 
figure, then launches into the 'scratchy' muted wah intro to VC(SR). The band 
is locked in nicely here, Jimi taking a long and adventuresome solo starting 
about 1:55. At 2:50 he punches the wah in and out for a staccato effect. 
At 3:25 he pulls back for some clean low register riffing, sort of a psychedelic 
John Lee Hooker vibe! At the end of the last verse he repeats "If I don't see 
you no more in this world..." twice. There's a wild snare roll by Mitch going 
into the last solo, with the guitar trebly as if the wah is in a fixed position. 
After some high speed riffing Jimi plays a nice little moving chord variation 
at 5:45, and the band stops at 6:00 for some muted wah as in the intro, with a 
few more variations. Finishes off with a little dental work. We hear instruments 
being unplugged and some chanted calls for "more!" before the cheers increase, 
suggesting that the music hereafter is an extended encore (something Jimi 
rarely did, but this was a unique situation). 

After complaining that he can't see anyone because of the spotlight (there appears 
to have been very little stage lighting save the follow spot(s)). He jokes a 
little in a funny voice after the light is turned off him for a moment, then 
introduces 'Stone Free' with a "...hope you remember it...". He does little 
more tuning, looking a little displeased while doing so, then starts the song 
with the 4 climbing harmonics that we've heard open the more recent renditions. 
Once he's into the solo at 2:10 he's able to work around the tuning problems and 
gets lost in the music, Billy and Mitch tight behind him. Mitch spins some jazzy 
rolls and accents around the beat, and it almost sounds like a Cream jam in places. 
At 3:35 there seems to be a short, spontaneous call n' response between the guitar and 
the tom-tom rolls. He does lots of string bending, grabbing hard with the film showing 
his thumb and fingers touching each other from opposite sides of the neck regularly! 
At 4:25 he does some sliding octaves, then some fast pull-offs as he goes into the 
last verse. Hits an out of the ordinary (Jimi, ordinary?) final chord... 

...and launches straight into 'Star Spangled Banner'. We hear what sounds like the 
pop of fireworks, and maybe Jimi saved the song after the earlier teaser, waiting 
for a fireworks cue (on the other hand, some accounts have the fireworks going off 
elsewhere in the show...). Anyway, he attacks SSB with the wah, throwing in a number 
of melodic embellishments and his usual 'war zone' effects (after reaching down to 
adjust his pedals, as seen in the vid). The final climbing chords, with some unique 
voicings, alternate with a couple of high speed fills... 

..the last of which serves to segue straight into 'Straight Ahead', it's opening 
lines a bit more arranged but the guitar just that much more out of tune from the 
SSB manipulations. At the song's previous public airing (Baltimore 6/13) Jimi had 
been between lyric 'drafts', singing only two lines at that show, but in the 
interim he has come up with the lyrics which would be used on the familiar studio 
version (this too would get considerable work at Electric Lady during the summer). 
The intro is played with fuzz and/or overdrive but he cleans it up for the verse. 
Band seems to be getting a little tired, though maybe they're distracted by the 
folks almost literally waving sparklers in their faces at the lip of the stage! 
Jimi does a decent solo, with a clever arpeggiated line standing out at 2:35. 
At 3:30 he does the main riff w/ wah and he sings the "hello my friend..." as 
the last verse instead of the first verse it would become on the studio cut. 
They end it on an E chord... 

...and Jimi continues to strum the E, tuning a little as he plays. He starts 
the worked-out 'Hey Baby' intro with Billy. He has smoothed out the arrangement 
since the songs last outing at Berkeley but sadly the guitar is a little too far 
out of tune for the clean, delicate chord voicings he's using and, even worse, 
the D and G strings are among the worst offenders and since they're in the middle 
of the neck it's tougher to work around them. Jimi ends the intro and moves to 
some flamenco-flavoured lines. It's here that the guitar goes *way* out of tune, 
either by itself or because he's bumped the wrong tuning key as he's reached for 
a quick tuneup (no footage of this part, mercifully I suppose...). We hear voices 
off mic, maybe even the band, reacting to the sour notes with pained "ooh"s. He 
attempts to go into the main Am-G-F progression of 'Hey Baby' but it's hopeless 
as the guitar's tuning is just too far gone (maybe the most 'out' I've ever heard 
on a Jimi tape, and that means *out* - only the 3 Feb 68 'Red House' comes 
immediately to mind as close....). Jimi soldiers on for a little longer, managing 
a few interesting single string lines (and some unintentional pan-tonal twists) 
but it grinds to a halt without Jimi attempting any of the vocals. Painful to hear, 
but not as painful to me as thinking how Jimi must've felt (there are number of 
points in the show where it's 'Wince Along with Jimi'...). This is the main reason 
why this show will probably never be released truly complete (though a proper 
compilation would still be welcome). A very anti climactic end to a show that, 
while flawed, does have some high points. 

Not only did Jimi play this wee hours marathon set, but they then traveled to 
Miami for a concert *later that evening*! Jeez, no wonder he was so sick 
of the road....

Chris