The Cry of Love

Recording and production

The Cry of Love featured songs Hendrix had been working on at the time of his death and was the first attempt at presenting his planned first studio recording since the breakup of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The Cry of Love is composed mostly of songs which Hendrix recorded in 1970 at his new Electric Lady Studios in New York City with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy Cox.

About half of the album's ten songs were nearly completed with mixes prepared by Hendrix. The balance were in varying stages of development and were mixed (and some overdubbed with new parts) after his death. The album credits Hendrix as a producer, as well as long-time recording engineer Eddie Kramer and Mitchell, who prepared the final mixes and track selection, with input from manager Michael Jeffery.

Seven of the songs on The Cry of Love were later included on Voodoo Soup, the 1995 attempt by producer Alan Douglas to present Hendrix's planned album. In 1997, all were included on First Rays of the New Rising Sun, along with seven other songs, in Kramer's most realized effort to complete Hendrix's last studio album.

According to Setting The Record Straight by John McDermott with Eddie Kramer, Dolly Dagger and Room Full of Mirrors were pulled from the original track listing and held back for the Rainbow Bridge soundtrack lp. They were replaced by Straight Ahead and My Friend on the final track listing.

Release and reception

The Cry of Love was released by Track Records in March 1971. It charted at number two in the United Kingdom and number three in the United States, where it had sold 500,000 copies by April. In 1998, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album platinum, which indicated sales of one million copies in the US.

In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Lenny Kaye hailed The Cry of Love as the authentic posthumous Hendrix album, his last work, and "a beautiful, poignant testimonial, a fitting coda to the career of a man who was clearly the finest electric guitarist to be produced by the Sixties, bar none". Robert Christgau originally wrote in The Village Voice that the album is an "excellent testament" and may be Hendrix's best record behind Electric Ladyland (1968) because of its quality as a whole rather than its individual songs, finding it free-flowing, devoid of affectations, and "warmer than the three Experience LPs". He was more enthusiastic about the songs in retrospect:

"It isn't just the flow—these tracks work as individual compositions, from offhand rhapsodies like 'Angel' and 'Night Bird Flying' through primal riffsongs like 'Ezy Ryder' and 'Astro Man' to inspired goofs like 'My Friend' and 'Belly Button Window.' What a testament."

In the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Colin Larkin later called The Cry of Love a "fitting tribute" to Hendrix, while Paul Evans wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide that it "showed the master, playing with Cox and Mitchell, at his most confident: 'Ezy Rider' and 'Angel' are the tough and tender faces of the genius at his most appealing." Dan Bigna from The Sydney Morning Herald believed although all of its songs were compiled on the more comprehensive First Rays of the New Rising Sun (1997), "there is something satisfying about having this first posthumous Hendrix release as a distinct object that illuminates the brush strokes of a genius". In 2014, VH1 deemed The Cry of Love "the greatest posthumous classic rock record of all time". That same year, it was reissued in both CD and LP formats by Experience Hendrix.

Track listing

All tracks written by Jimi Hendrix.