Hendrix's Final Recordings Set to Arrive on "Valleys of Neptune"

Nearly 40 years after it was recorded at Jimi Hendrix's final recording sessions, an unearthed song called "Valleys of Neptune" will feature on a compilation of the same name on March 9th. Valleys of Neptune will include 12 tracks recorded at various studios during Jimi's final recording sessions while working on his posthumously completed First Rays of the Rising Sun. "Valleys of Neptune," which was never released commercially but did appear on 1990's Lifelines: The Jimi Hendrix Story four-disc set, will also be released as a single on February 2nd.

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Valleys of Neptune will also feature studio versions of Hendrix's covers of "Bleeding Heart" and Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love," plus rerecorded versions of previous Are You Experienced? hits "Fire," "Red House" and "Stone Free." Other tracks making their first official appearance are "Lullaby for the Summer," "Crying Blue Rain" and "Ships Passing Through the Night," plus an Axis: Bold as Love-era track called "Mr. Bad Luck." Some of the Valleys' songs, like a studio rendition of "Hear My Train A Comin'" and "Stone Free" — then "Stone Free Again" — appeared on the handful of posthumous Hendrix releases that followed the guitarist's death in 1970.

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The Experience Hendrix group, run by Hendrix's sister Janie, have much more planned for March 9th: All three of the Jimi Hendrix Experience's studio albums, plus the 1997 release of First Rays of the Rising Sun, will be reissued as CD/DVD, with each boasting a documentary by Beatles Anthology director Bob Smeaton featuring interviews with the Experience's Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding and producers Chas Chandler and Eddie Kramer. The 1969 best-of comp Smash Hits will also be resurrected, and Live at Woodstock will be re-released as a standard and Blu-ray DVD.

"My brother Jimi was at home in the studio. Valleys of Neptune offers deep insight into his mastery of the recording process and demonstrates the fact that he was as unparalleled a recording innovator as he was a guitarist," Janie Hendrix said of the disc and her brother, who was named by Rolling Stone as the Greatest Guitarist of All Time. "His brilliance shines through on every one of these precious tracks."

Related Stories:
• Greatest Guitarists: Jimi Hendrix by Pete Townshend
• Jimi Hendrix: Remembering the Guitar God on the Anniversary of His Death
• Cover Story: The Legend of Jimi Hendrix

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Song Stories

“The A Team”

Ed Sheeran | 2011

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