Bleeding Heart

Album: Valleys of Neptune (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is a cover of a tune originally recorded by American Blues guitarist Elmore James, who was known as "The King of the Slide Guitar." The song was released posthumously as a single two years after his death in 1963.
  • This angry Blues number was recorded by Hendrix at New York's Record Plant, on April 24, 1969. It was one of the guitar hero's first sessions with bassist Billy Cox, an old army buddy he'd recruited into his new ensemble. The track also features Rocky Isaac on drums, Chris Grimes on tambourine and Al Marks on maracas.
  • The song is included on Hendrix's 2010 posthumous album, Valleys of Neptune. Long-time Hendrix studio engineer and friend Eddie Kramer commented to Toronto's The Globe and Mail March 5, 2010: "It's certainly a nice little jaunt for Jimi. Any time he felt he could take off in wild direction, within reason, he would do it – not so much to prove a point, but to stretch the boundaries."
  • A music video was filmed by Julien Temple to accompany the song's single release. Temple's résumé includes work with talents such as The Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Kinks, Neil Young, Tom Petty and Janet Jackson, as well as such feature films as The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle, The Rolling Stones Live at The Max and The Filth & The Fury.
  • Hendrix did a different recording of the song a month later with Cox and drummer Buddy Miles. Before they began, Jimi instructed the pair that he wanted to establish a totally different beat than the standard arrangement. That version can be heard on Hendrix's posthumous album, People, Hell & Angels.

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