THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,776) Jimi Hendrix — “Freedom”
This — the A-side of the single from Jimi Hendrix’s first posthumous album — is my favorite Hendrix song. It reached #59 in April 1971. Of “Freedom”, Ray McGinnis writes:
“Freedom” was a single from the first album released after his death, The Cry of Love. Hendrix was influenced by Curtis Mayfield and it is suggested that his reference to “keep on pushing, straight ahead,” is an affirmation of the civil rights of African-Americans. “Freedom” was one of the last songs Hendrix recorded prior to his death. Freedom was something Hendrix had reason to be singing about. He was in a toxic relationship with the manager of his band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Michael Jeffrey. In July, 1970, under two months before his death, Hendrix stopped all communications with Michael Jeffrey. Hendrix told Chuck Wein, a film director at Andy Warhol’s Factory: “The next time I go to Seattle will be in a pine box.” Hendrix died on September 18, 1970. The news media reported that he died of a drug overdose. However, beyond the headlines, questions remained about Hendrix’s death.
https://vancouversignaturesounds.com/hits/freedom-jimi-hendrix/
In this piece, McGinnis strongly implies that Jeffrey had Hendrix murdered: https://vancouversignaturesounds.com/hits/wind-cries-mary-jimi-hendrix/.
“Freedom, ’cause I’ve got lotta to give, baby Freedom, so I can live” — Chilling. What could have been.
Bruce Eder writes that:
Hendrix, for the first time, [was] moving his songs specifically into a black music idiom, embracing R&B and funk elements in his singing, playing, and overall sound; some of it could qualify as Hendrix’s extension of his years playing with the Isley Brothers [see #1,137]. Songs . . . such as “Freedom,” “Izabella,” “Angel,” and “Dolly Dagger” show him finally acknowledging that musical world that he had largely by-passed . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/album/first-rays-of-the-new-rising-sun-mw0000619298
https://www.facebook.com/JimiHendrix/videos/behind-the-scenes-jimi-hendrixs-freedom/199844399011025
Live at the Atlanta Pop Festival:
Live in Maui:
Of this alternate version (Record Plant, New York, NY, February 16, 1970), Matthew Greenwald writes:
An alternate, early version of possibly Jimi Hendrix’s last great single of his lifetime, this version of “Freedom” appears on the exquisite The Jimi Hendrix Experience box set. Filled with a collection of diverse soul and R&B riffs that all seem, oddly, to make perfect sense, this song hangs together quite well. Some excellent percussion overdubs add to the song’s overall Afro-rock atmosphere.
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