Jimi Hendrix : Midnight Lighting

TO UNDERSTAND

BOTH SIDES OF THE SKY

YOU GONNA KEEP ON GROOVING, YEAH

 Midnight Lightning

is a posthumous compilation album

 by American rock guitarist

Jimi Hendrix

It was released in 

November 1975

 by Reprise Records

in the US 

and Polydor Records

in the UK. 

It was the second

 to be produced by

Alan Douglas 

and 

Tony Bongiovi 

and contains 

demo-type recordings 

that were overdubbed 

with musicians 

who had never 

played with Hendrix. 

Despite including 

reworkings of 

the popular live songs 

"Hear My Train"

 and 

"Machine Gun",

 the album was not

 as well received

 as its predecessor, 

peaking at numbers 43

 in the US

 and 46 

in the UK.

Background

Douglas continued

 the controversial methods

 he had adopted on

Crash Landing

and brought in many 

of the same session musicians 

to overdub parts of songs.

 The only original recording

 (apart from those by Hendrix) 

was Mitchell's drumming on 

"Hear My Train".

 In response to the previous 

outcry from fans and critics, 

Douglas did not claim 

co-writer credit 

for any songs on 

Midnight Lightning.

 After Experience Hendrix

 secured the rights to 

Hendrix's recordings in 1997, 

original versions

 of the tracks 

have been released on

 further albums 

and boxsets.

Critical Reception

In Christgau's Record Guide:

 Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), 

Robert Christgau regarded

Midnight Lightning 

as an improvement by

 Douglas over 

Crash Landing 

because of highlight

 instrumentals such as

 "Trash Man", 

overdubbed guitar from

 Jeff Mironov 

and 

Lance Quinn, 

and "the blues playing — as opposed

 to singing or writing".

 AllMusic's 

Joe Viglione

 later said the enduring quality of 

Hendrix's music was retained

 in spite of Douglas's 

"doctoring and

 musicians jamming

 with his art after the fact

Personnel

• Jimi Hendrix – guitars, vocals
• Mitch Mitchell – drums on "Hear My Train"

Added in 1975

• Jeff Mironov – guitar on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5 and 8
• Lance Quinn – guitar on tracks 2, 4, 6 and 7
• Allan Schwartzberg – drums on tracks 1, 2, 4–8, percussion on tracks 3 and 4
• Bob Babbitt – bass guitar
• Jimmy Maelen – percussion on tracks 2 and 8
• Maeretha Stewart – backing vocals on tracks 2, 4 and 7
• Barbara Massey – backing vocals on tracks 2, 4 and 7
• Vivian Cherry – backing vocals on tracks 2, 4 and 7
• Buddy Lucas – harmonica on track 7

9-14 Bonus Tracks 

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