The Cry of Love Tour


The Cry of Love Tour was a 1970 concert tour by American rock guitarist and singer Jimi Hendrix. It began on April 25, 1970, at the Forum in Inglewood, California, and ended on September 6, 1970, at the Love & Peace Festival in Fehmarn, Germany. The majority of the 37 shows were in the United States, with two each in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, and one in England, where Hendrix was the final act at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970.
After experimenting with different lineups following the breakup of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Hendrix brought back Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell with bassist Billy Cox replacing Noel Redding to record and tour. Hendrix continued to perform Experience numbers along with newer material from the live Band of Gypsys album and songs that he was developing for a fourth album. Soon after their performance at the Isle of Wight, the tour was cut short due to Cox's illness and Hendrix was left considering his options. However, he died twelve days after the Fehmarn concert.
Several concerts were recorded and filmed that were later released on albums and film. Since their debut in 1971, the Berkeley, Atlanta, and Isle of Wight performances have been reissued several times, most recently as ', Live at Berkeley, and '/Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church. Concert selections continue to be included on Hendrix retrospectives and documentaries, such as , which contains five songs recorded during the tour.

Background

Following Noel Redding's departure from the Experience on June 29, 1969, Hendrix called on Billy Cox, an Army buddy and early bandmate, to play bass. In July, Hendrix, Cox, and Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell moved to a rural retreat in upstate New York and began rehearsing with an expanded lineup, which included rhythm guitarist Larry Lee and percussionists Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez. One month later, the group debuted at the Woodstock festival. After a couple of gigs and recording sessions, it became apparent that the group, sometimes referred to as "Gypsy Sun and Rainbows" after a comment Hendrix made at Woodstock, was not making sufficient progress. Hendrix still wanted to experiment with a different backup but return to the trio configuration, so drummer Buddy Miles replaced Mitchell with Cox remaining on bass. However, the new trio, often called the Band of Gypsys, was similarly short-lived. Hendrix's tour manager, Gerry Stickells, believed "Jimi's own lack of commitment to the Band of Gypsys concept its fatal flaw". Hendrix expressed his dissatisfaction with the subsequent Band of Gypsys live album and Cox saw it as a stopgap measure to meet a contractual obligation. With the return of Mitchell alongside Cox, Hendrix's latest group had only one member change from either the Experience or the Band of Gypsys. A new name for the group was never officially adopted, but concert promoters often billed them as the "Jimi Hendrix Experience". Later, the group was informally referred to as "Cry of Love" and the name was used as the title for the first posthumous collection of Hendrix's new songs, The Cry of Love.
With the March–June 1970 releases in the US and UK of the Woodstock film and and Band of Gypsys, Hendrix remained one of the biggest rock concert attractions. In an interview shortly after the tour began, Hendrix explained "I called the tour 'the Cry of Love' because that is what it's all about... I'd like to play some festivals but I wish they would break up the events a bit for the audiences. There's no reason why these huge crowds should not be entertained by side attactions as well". During this period, demonstrations, riots, and clashes with the police occurred at several concerts. Some of Hendrix's performances were met with demands that they be free events, such at the Berkeley Community Theatre and the New York Pop Festival, where they led to violent confrontations.
At this time, Hendrix was also writing and recording songs for a planned fourth studio album. In early June after many delays, his new recording facility, Electric Lady Studios, was operational. Hendrix was able to get his manager, Michael Jeffery, to agree to limit his concert appearances to three-day weekends, so the group could return to New York City to record during the rest of the week. There were some stretches when the group took time off: they only performed twice between May 10 and June 5 ; and twice between June 27 and July 17. The group spent most of August recording at Electric Lady, before the official opening party on August 26.
Afterwards, Hendrix departed for England and the European segment of the tour. For his first appearance in England in eighteen months, Hendrix was one of the top-billed events at Isle of Wight Festival 1970. A few dates later, Cox became ill and had to return to the US to recover. So, after performing at only seven European concerts, the tour was cancelled. Hendrix stayed in London, where he attended parties and jammed with other musicians. He was considering whether to find a new bass player and met with Chas Chandler, the producer of Are You Experienced and . However, Hendrix died on September 18, 1970.

Repertoire

Throughout the tour, Hendrix continued to perform Experience material and introduced several newer songs. "Purple Haze" and "Voodoo Child " were frequent concert closers; "Foxey Lady", "Red House", "Fire", and "Hey Joe" were concert staples as they had been in Experience performances. Hendrix also continued to perform popular songs that dated back to the Experience, but not yet recorded to his satisfaction, such as "Lover Man", "Hear My Train A Comin'", and "Roomful of Mirrors". From his time with Cox and Miles, he added "Machine Gun", "Message to Love", and "Ezy Ryder".
Hendrix also had a number of new songs that were still in development that he chose to include in his concerts: "Freedom" and "Hey Baby " were among the most played new numbers; others, such as "Straight Ahead", "In from the Storm", "Dolly Dagger", and "Midnight Lightning" were performed occasionally. The songs signaled a new direction in Hendrix's music, which biographer John McDermott describes as "music of a more mature and refined Experience... reflecting a more subtle and intricate approach".
Biographer David Moskowitz identifies the songs performed on July 26 at the Sick's Stadium in Seattle, Washington, as representative of the Cry of Love repertoire:
Despite being one of his best-selling singles, Hendrix usually ignored requests for "All Along the Watchtower" during his tours with the Experience. However, after the song's debut at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, California, on June 20, he performed it more often. Cox wished to delve deeper into Hendrix's catalogue: "I wanted to play those songs... I wanted him to play 'Crosstown Traffic,' but we never got around to rehearsing it." However, Hendrix occasionally surprised him – at a May 16 gig at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Cox recalled:
Hendrix also performed "Johnny B. Goode" at the first show on May 30 at the Berkeley Community Theatre. During the afternoon rehearsals, the group tried out another rock and roll classic, Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes". In Europe, Hendrix reached back to his early career for a couple of performances of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" and the Muddy Waters tribute "Catfish Blues".

Films and albums

Over the years, several films and albums have been released of Hendrix's concert performances during the Cry of Love tour :
Additionally, songs recorded during the tour have been released along with other live and/or studio material:

Footnotes