Ranking 10 Greatest Albums Made Out Of Contractual Obligation
5. Jimi Hendrix - Band Of Gypsys
In 1969, Jimi Hendrix's career looked like a truly painful experience as he was deep in the throes of a long-running legal battle with Capitol Records. Hendrix owed them an album, and was also hurrying to meet a deadline for his new record company, Warner Bros.
The quick solution was to round up his old pals Buddy Miles and Billy Cox, go out and perform a couple of live shows, and press record. In one easy step, he could be rid of his dusty old contract and get to working on his opus. Unbeknownst to Hendrix, Band of Gypsys would be the last album he released before his death in 1970.
Fortunately, though it may not be Jimi's finest work, it stands as one of his personal greatest live performances. His virtuosic guitar skills eclipse the occasionally clunky drumming and muddied vocals, proving beyond a doubt that Jimi's abilities on the Stratocaster could make up for a whole lot.
He plays tighter than ever, letting the musicianship speak for itself rather than simply bending and stretching each note to its psychedelic limit. On standout track "Machine Gun", Jimi works a frenetic blues riff that feels like a paranoia-soaked revisitation of "Voodoo Chile". If only for this 12-minute epic alone, Band of Gypsys was an extremely worthy "sayonara" to Capitol Records.