''People, Hell and Angels'' is a posthumous compilation album by the American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

musician

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...

. The fourth release under the Experience Hendrix deal with

Legacy Recordings Legacy Recordings is an American record label that is a division of Sony Music. Formed in 1990 after Sony's acquisition of CBS Records, Legacy originally handled the archives of Sony Music-owned labels Columbia Records and Epic Records. In 2 ...

, it contains twelve previously unreleased recordings of tracks he was working on for the planned follow-up to ''

Electric Ladyland ''Electric Ladyland'' is the third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in October 1968. A double album, it was the only record from the Experience with production solely credited to Hendrix. The band's most commercial ...

''. It was released on March 5, 2013.

Background

The tracks featured on ''People, Hell and Angels'' are previously unreleased recordings of songs that Jimi Hendrix and fellow band members (mainly the Band of Gypsys lineup featuring Billy Cox and Buddy Miles) were working on as the follow-up to ''Electric Ladyland'', tentatively titled ''

First Rays of the New Rising Sun ''First Rays of the New Rising Sun'' is a compilation album credited to American rock musician Jimi Hendrix, issued in April 1997 on MCA Records. Featuring songs mostly intended for his planned fourth studio album, it was one of the first rele ...

''. The majority of the recordings are drawn from sessions in 1968 and 1969 at the

Record Plant Studios The Record Plant was a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and last operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it produced highly influential albums, including the New York ...

in New York, with a few inclusions from Hendrix's brief residencies at Sound Centre, the Hit Factory, and his own

Electric Lady Studios Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was commissioned by rock musician Jimi Hendrix in 1968 and designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer. It was completed by 1970. Hendrix ...

Critical reception

''People, Hell and Angels'' received generally positive reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, it received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 74, based on 18 reviews. In ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'',

David Fricke David Fricke (born ) is an American music journalist who serves as the senior editor at ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, where he writes predominantly about rock music. One of the best known names in rock journalism, his career has spanned over 40 ye ...

said Hendrix "plays at an elevated level in every setting" on the album, while ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...

'' called the recordings "among the best of Hendrix's late work". Patrick Humphries from

BBC Music BBC Music is the arm of the BBC responsible for the music played across its services. The current director of music is Lorna Clarke. Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio operational division; however, its remit also includes music used i ...

wrote that it "offers a tantalising glimpse of how Hendrix's genius might have progressed".

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's Sean Westergaard was less enthusiastic and said the album "certainly isn't the place to start your Hendrix collection, but collectors will surely want to hear this". Writing for

MSN Music ''MSN Music'' was a part of MSN's web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. The website also served as a digital music store from 2004 to 2008. History ...

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

called it a quality collection of leftovers highlighted by the songs "Somewhere" and "Let Me Move You", in which Hendrix comps behind saxophonist Lonnie Youngblood.

Track listing

Personnel

;Primary musicians *

– guitars, vocals, (bass guitar on track 9) * Billy Cox – bass guitar (tracks 1, 3, 4, 6–8, 13) * Buddy Miles – drums (tracks 1–4, 10, 12, 13) *

Mitch Mitchell John Graham "Mitch" Mitchell (9 July 194612 November 2008)In his book about the Experience, Mitchell states he celebrated his 21st birthday while on tour on 9 July 1967, which makes his birth year 1946.Mitchell's obituaries in ''Billboard (mag ...

– drums (tracks 6, 7, 9) * Juma Sultan –

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest ...

s (tracks 3, 4, 6, 7, 12) ;Additional musicians * Larry Lee – rhythm guitar (tracks 6, 7) * Jerry Velez – congas (tracks 6, 7) *

Stephen Stills Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Crosby, Stills & Nash; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; and Manassas (band ...

– bass guitar (track 2) * Lonnie Youngblood – vocal & saxophone (track 5) *Rocky Isaac – drums (track 8) *Al Marks –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

(track 8) *Albert Allen – vocal (track 11) *

James Booker James Carroll Booker III (December 17, 1939 – November 8, 1983) was an American New Orleans rhythm and blues keyboardist and singer. Flamboyant in personality and style, and a pianist of extraordinary technical skill, he was dubbed "the Blac ...

– piano (track 11) *Gerry Sacktriangle & mime vocal (track 6)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:People, Hell and Angels 2013 compilation albums Jimi Hendrix compilation albums Albums produced by Eddie Kramer Albums produced by Jimi Hendrix Legacy Recordings compilation albums Compilation albums published posthumously