Classic Rock,Metal,Oldies 101: The Jimi Hendrix Experience : Hollywood Bowl 1967

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

The Jimi Hendrix Experience : Hollywood Bowl 1967

I SHOULD HAVE QUIT YOU
A LONG TIME AGO
I SHOULD HAVE QUIT YOU BABY,

A LONG TIME AGO

It captures

the Jimi Hendrix Experience

at a unique moment

in their illustrious career;

the band was captured

just five days before

the US release of

‘Are You Experienced’,

their album debut.

This historic live set

marks the moment before

Hendrix achieved

international fame.

Before a sold out gig

of 17,000 people,

the Experience overwhelmed

an unsuspecting audience

with a superb show

that encompassed his

renditions of songs by

The Beatles,

Bob Dylan,

Howlin’ Wolf

and

Muddy Waters

as well as

signature songs

such as

“Purple Haze”

and

“The Wind Cries Mary”.

The vast majority of the 17,000 plus

Los Angeles concert goers

were there to see headliners

The Mamas & The Papas

and were caught off guard by

Jimi Hendrix’s

electrifying musicality

and showmanship.

Amazingly,

not a single second of this unique,

two-track live recording

has ever been released

before in any capacity,

either via official channels

or elsewise.

Legend

Eddie Kramer,

Hendrix’s long standing

recording engineer,

recently restored the audio,

and three-time

Grammy Award winner

Bernie Grundman

served as

mastering engineer.

After the Seattle-born

Jimi Hendrix

moved to London in

September of 1966,

the Experience was formed

with a British

rhythm section

consisting of drummer

Mitch Mitchell

and bassist

Noel Redding.

The new band promptly

enjoyed commercial success

in the form of three

top 10 singles

and a string of performances

that overwhelmed audiences

and won praise from

the likes of

Paul McCartney,

Eric Clapton

and

Jeff Beck.

Word of these achievements

reached Reprise Records

chief Mo Ostin

and a US deal for

Hendrix was confirmed

in March 1967.

Two months later,

at the urging of McCartney,

the Jimi Hendrix Experience

made their triumphant

US debut

at the Monterey

International Pop Festival

in June.

However,

the immediate prosperity

the band enjoyed in the UK

was not replicated stateside.

Their first two US singles

were flops

“Hey Joe”

didn’t chart at all,

“Purple Haze”

only reached #65

and Are You Experienced

wouldn’t be released domestically

until late August.

In their attempt to crack America,

the Experience did a

five-show stint at

the Fillmore in

San Francisco followed by a

US tour opening for

The Monkees

that only lasted nine dates

before Hendrix dropped off

due to unappreciative

teenybopper audiences

who were strictly there

to see the headliner.

In a scramble to book dates

after this debacle,

John Phillips of

The Mamas & The Papas,

who co-produced

the Monterey Pop Festival,

invited the Experience

to open for his group at

the Hollywood Bowl

August 18,1967

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

blazed through originals such as

“Purple Haze,”

“The Wind Cries Mary,”

and yet-to-be-released classics

“Foxey Lady”

and

“Fire,”

as well as their own

re-imagining of favorites by

The Beatles

(“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”),

Howlin’ Wolf

(“Killing Floor”),

Bob Dylan

(“Like a Rolling Stone”),

The Troggs

(“Wild Thing”)

and

Muddy Waters

(“Catfish Blues”).

The majority of the crowd

had purchased tickets

months in advance to see

The Mamas & The Papas

and were wholly unfamiliar

with the jarringly

different

Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Brian Ray,

longtime guitarist for

Paul McCartney

and

Etta James,

was among the audience members

transfixed by what they witnessed.

“The audience was there

to see

The Mamas & The Papas,”

recalls Ray.

“They haven’t heard of Jimi Hendrix.

I’d never heard of Jimi Hendrix,

and he couldn’t be

more opposite of

The Mamas & The Papas as an act,

culturally, physically,

in every possible way he

was the opposite.

Here comes this guy

and there’s only

three of them on stage

and they have these afros

and these wild, ornate,

very theatrical clothes.

Jimi proceeds to shred,

and it’s loud but it’s musical,

and then it becomes so physical.

He starts playing the guitar

under his leg,

and now it’s behind his back,

and now he’s playing it

with his mouth,

and now he’s on the ground

on his knees

and he’s like humping it,

and it, to me

was mind blowing.

It was sort of every

human characteristic;

it was beauty, grace,

it was sexual, violent, gentle,

it was just everything

all at once in one band

coming out of this one guy.

I wouldn’t say that the

audience response was quite

the same as the response

I was having.

My sister and I

were going bananas,

and the audience was like

[soft clapping]

and they were trying to

figure it out.”

However bewildered the audience

may have been,

their brief tenure opening

for the Monkees

had hardened the group,

and they leaned into

their repertoire with ferocity.

Michelle Phillips,

the only surviving member of

The Mamas & The Papas,

first saw the Experience

perform at the

Monterey Pop Festival.

“We had never heard of him,

” Phillips remembers.

“I had absolutely no idea what to expect.

And when I saw him perform

I was mortified.

I had never seen anything like this,

I’d never seen anybody

treat their instruments like this.

He was pouring lighter fluid

over his guitar and

then setting it on fire and

– I really was shocked.

I had no experience with this

kind of rock and roll theatre.

And that was the first time

I had ever seen it.”

Backstage at the Hollywood Bowl

weeks later,

Phillips was won over by

Jimi Hendrix.

“I absolutely loved him,”

recalls Phillips

in the liner notes for

Hollywood Bowl

August 18, 1967,

penned by Jeff Slate.

“He was a gentleman,

he was lovely,

he was funny.”

She softened her view of

“rock and roll theatre,”

which was somewhat

antithetical to the more

stayed and

pitch-perfect folk tradition

from which her group emerged.

This very concert wound up being

The Mamas & The Papas’ last,

while the Experience’s

star was rising;

they would return to

the Bowl the following year

as The headliners.

Phillips remembers,

“In a couple of days

or months,

Jimi Hendrix was the

hottest thing happening.”

The Experience Hendrix team of

Janie Hendrix,

John McDermott

and

Eddie Kramer

prepared this special album

for its release.

Kramer, Hendrix’s

long standing recording engineer,

recently restored the audio,

and three-time

Grammy Award winner

Bernie Grundman served as

mastering engineer.

Highly Recommended

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