Eric Burdon & War w/ Jimi Hendrix 1970 Ronnie Scott's Club

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• published: 10 Sep 2014
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Thus end the last recorded sounds of Jimi Hendrix, may he rest in peace. 00:00 - Gun 3:01 03:01 - Paint It Black medley 15:36 18:37 - Spill The Wine 8:48 27:25 - Mystery Train 5:40 33:05 - Gun 7:39 40:44 - Paint It Black medley 15:35 56:19 - Blues For Memphis Slim (incl.Mother Earth) - with Jimi Hendrix 20:33 1:16:52 Tobacco Road - with Jimi Hendrix 15:37 16 September, 2012 marks the 42th anniversary of Jimi's last recorded sounds, sitting in at a performance by Eric Burdon and War at Ronnie Scott's Club in London (by the time Jimi appeared it could've technically been the early morning hours of the 17th). This of course took on much added significance after Jimi passed on a little over 24 hours later, but it's really just a brief casual jam on two songs and the parts that truly feature Jimi total only a few minutes. The tape of the evening is low-fi in terms of tonal balance and recording quality but the mix is pretty good. It was supposedly recorded by Howard Scott from War, who made a big publicity splash about a year and a half ago about releasing the tapes, but nothing has yet come of it. He also claimed that Jimi left his favorite guitar with the band because he had so much fun, but that seems unlikely. It's doubtful that he has additional songs with Jimi but he could have more complete or higher quality tapes. I think this copy is less complete than some circulating, but I'll run down what I have. (Setlist with Jimi): Mother Earth; Tobacco Road This tape fades in during a chorus of 'Mother Earth', during which we hear the odd lick that sounds like Jimi (there are 2 guitarists). They start another verse and Burdon sings a couple of lines which are answered by Jimi, then Burdon turns it over to Jimi for a solo. Jimi is at home in the medium tempo blues and we hear some tasty playing with some adventuresome single- and double-string bends. He's got a pretty clean tone, and it doesn't quite sound like the Strat to my ears but hard to say for sure. He does another 12 bars with the band taking a double time feel, including a strange pull-off to open strings at 3:00. Another 12 bars sees Jimi going to some faster riffs and at 3:45 the band stops except for drums and Jimi goes back to some more laid back bends. He turns it around to the next 12 bars with some climbing chords and some understated rhythm work, giving it over to the second guitarist for a solo that starts a few bars into the verse. Jimi continues some light rhythm work underneath, then the two guitars do a little call n' response before another stop to drums only with the second guitar still soloing. At 7:50 it sounds like an edit followed by a sax solo which fades on my tape at about 9:20. Just as it fades out I hear a choppier rhythm being established and what sounds like the riff from Jimi's 'Jam 292', so longer tapes may well feature a bit of that. 'Tobacco Road' starts with a driving riff that coincidentally sounds a bit like a speeded up 'Power of Soul' variation (picture that song crossed with 'Drivin South')! An organ drone gives way to some harmonica/sax riffing and Burdon starts the classic "I was born..." lyrics at :45 over the one chord vamp. The voice seems a little lower in the mix here than on the previous song, but maybe the band is just playing louder. They go to the '4' chord for a chorus at 1:45 and there's a stop (and possible edit) to a drums and vocals section, the whole band slowly building the riff back up to 3:15. At 3:30 we hear Jimi enter with some slightly tentative octave runs, then he gets into some faster soloing with the band hitting some showband-style 'Cool Jerk' accents behind him. He continues with some fast riffing and bends until 5:15 when he returns to a few more octave runs. At 5:35 the other guitar enters, followed by Burdon's voice as the tape (mine, anyway) fades out.