Voodoo Soup

Voodoo Soup is a posthumous compilation album[1] by American rock musician Jimi Hendrix, released in the United States on April 11, 1995, by MCA Records. It was one of the last Hendrix albums produced by Alan Douglas, who was also responsible for the posthumous Hendrix releases Midnight Lightning and Crash Landing in 1975.

Voodoo Soup
Compilation album by
Jimi Hendrix
ReleasedApril 11, 1995 (1995-04-11)
Recorded1968–1970; 1995 (overdubs)
Studio
GenreRock
Length56:57
LabelMCA
ProducerAlan Douglas
Jimi Hendrix U.S. chronology
Woodstock
(1994)		 Voodoo Soup
(1995)		 First Rays of the New Rising Sun
(1997)

Background

Voodoo Soup was Douglas' attempt at presenting Hendrix's planned fourth studio album. The first attempt in 1971, The Cry of Love, produced by drummer Mitch Mitchell and Eddie Kramer (with a credit to Hendrix), was then out of print (last released on CD in 1992; re-released in 2014).[2] After Experience Hendrix, a family company, gained control of his recordings, First Rays of the New Rising Sun was released in 1997 as another attempt to realize the album Hendrix had planned. Since then, Voodoo Soup has remained out of print.

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
Chicago Tribune[4]
Entertainment WeeklyA[5]
The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide[6]

Reviewing for Entertainment Weekly in 1995, music critic David Browne said that, unlike other assorted compilations of Hendrix's music, Voodoo Soup coheres and sounds "as fluid and cohesive as a preconceived record, without a bad song in the bunch".[5] Vibe magazine called it a valuable release in Hendrix's discography, in spite of Douglas's questionable decision to overdub newly recorded drums to some songs,[7] while a reviewer from Melody Maker said the overly detailed liner notes cannot change the fact "it's opened my ears to the near God-like genius of Jimi Hendrix".[8] Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune said in his review that the compilation's mostly exceptional songs suggest Hendrix was considering a variety of paths in his music before dying in 1970.[4] Stereo Review magazine's Parke Puterbaugh applauded the recording quality and concluded, "What's most impressive about Voodoo Soup is how contemporary – or, rather, timeless – Hendrix's music sounds a quarter-century later. His creative intensity and musical vitality tower above anything else ever attempted, before or since, in popular music."[9]

Voodoo Soup was later praised by Hendrix biographer Charles Shaar Murray, who claimed it "more than earns its place in the pantheon of great Hendrix albums" as it "brought the Hendrix studio quartet -finally!- to a satisfactory conclusion".[10] AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine was more critical in a retrospective review: "For most fans, the re-recorded drum tracks by the drummer of the Knack was the most unforgivable sin, yet the album is also poorly sequenced and lacks several important tracks."[3]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Jimi Hendrix

No.TitleOriginal versionLength
1."The New Rising Sun"West Coast Seattle Boy (7:24)[lower-alpha 1]3:21
2."Belly Button Window"The Cry of Love3:34
3."Stepping Stone"War Heroes4:07
4."Freedom"The Cry of Love3:25
5."Angel"The Cry of Love4:18
6."Room Full of Mirrors"Rainbow Bridge3:09
7."Midnight"War Heroes6:01
8."Night Bird Flying"The Cry of Love3:46
9."Drifting"The Cry of Love3:52
10."Ezy Ryder"The Cry of Love4:08
11."Pali Gap"Rainbow Bridge4:42
12."Message to Love"The Jimi Hendrix Experience[lower-alpha 1]3:33
13."Peace in Mississippi"The Jimi Hendrix Experience (reissue)[lower-alpha 1]5:22
14."In from the Storm"The Cry of Love3:39

Personnel

Footnotes
  1. Douglas included versions of "The New Rising Sun" (as "Gypsy Boy"), "Message to Love", and "Peace in Mississippi" on his controversial overdubbed albums produced in 1975.

References
  1. McDermott, John; Kramer, Eddie; Cox, Billy (2009). Ultimate Hendrix: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Live Concerts and Sessions. Hal Leonard. p. 225. ISBN 978-0879309381. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
  2. "The Cry of Love' & 'Rainbow Bridge' to Be Reissued on CD & LP September 16". JimiHendrix (official website). 2014-08-20. Retrieved September 19, 2016.
  3. AllMusic review
  4. Kot, Greg (1995). "Voodoo Soup (MCA)". Chicago Tribune. No. May 11. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  5. Browne, David (April 21, 1995). "Review". Entertainment Weekly. No. 271. New York. p. 54. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  6. Evans, Paul (1999). "Jimi Hendrix". In Swenson, John (ed.). The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide. New York City: Random House. p. 305. ISBN 0679768734.
  7. "Review". Vibe. No. August. New York City: Eldridge Industries. 1995. p. 130. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  8. "Review". Melody Maker. No. May 27. 1995. p. 37.
  9. Puterbaugh, Parke (September 1995). "Voodoo Soup". Stereo Review. Vol. 60. p. 93.
  10. Murray, Charles Shaar (2001). Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix and Postwar Pop. Faber and Faber. p. 272.

Further reading
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