Drawing twice as many people as Woodstock, the 1970 Isle of Wright Festival sounded one of the many death knells for the '60s. Over half a million fans demanded a free weekend of concerts and surged across the barricades. It was much to the consternation of promoters whose top-drawer lineup of musicians—including the Who, the Doors, Jethro Tull and Miles Davis—demanded payment for their services. The tumult is evident but marginal in Murray Lerner's documentary of Jimi Hendrix's headlining performance, Blue Wild Angel. Most of the film (out now on DVD) is a close-up observation of the stage where the guitarist and his band performed.
A few latter-day interviews cast some light on the situation. According to tour manager Gerry Stickells, Hendrix didn't really want to play the festival, but there's no trace of apathy in his performance. Drummer Mitch Mitchell reminds viewers unfamiliar with England of what an odd place for the festival was the Isle of Wright—a place where middle class families take the ferry for a week at the shore in summer. It would have been like staging Woodstock on Mackinac Island.
But despite bassist Billy Cox's description of the audience as “monstrous,” the crowd was rapt for Hendrix's dynamic performance. From the opening of “God Save the Queen” (reprising his “Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock), Hendrix tore through a set of older and newer songs, trading covers of “Sgt. Pepper” and “All Along the Watchtower” with “Spanish Castle Magic” and “Purple Haze.” The wild, power surge abandon of Hendrix's playing was disciplined by the rock beat and grounded in his love for the blues. It was a grand performance at the edge of chaos.
Not long before the Isle of Wright, Hendrix made his American network television debut (at a time when cutting-edge rock was an unusual sight on TV). Bits and pieces of Hendrix's appearances on the Dick Cavett have been seen in other documentaries, but a new DVD, “The Dick Cavett Show,” includes longer interviews and some special material on the background of Hendrix and his TV talk show guest appearances. The main deal remains the artist himself, who expands on the easygoing but serious about music personality glimpsed in concert. Along with the two DVDs, the Legacy label has also issued greatly expanded versions of a pair of classic live albums, Winterland (recorded in 1968) and Hendrix in the West (1969-1970).
