# Songs for Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| All About Jazz | |
| AllMusic | |
| The Arts Desk | |
| Seattlepi | favorable |
| Uncut | |
Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts is a chronologically sequenced collection of American musician Jimi Hendrix's 1969–1970 New Years recorded performances at the Fillmore East in New York City. It was released as a box set of five-CDs on November 22, 2019 and an eight-LP set on December 13.
With over five hours of recorded music, the box set contains 43 songs, which Experience Hendrix (the current managers of Hendrix's recording legacy) note "assembles all four concerts from New Year’s Eve 1969 and New Year’s Day 1970". Several previously unreleased recordings are included, along with longer versions of some already issued. However, at least five songs were left off and at least one other was edited for the box set.

## Background and recording

Not long after his performance at the Woodstock Festival on August 18, 1969, Hendrix began rehearsing and recording with drummer Buddy Miles and bassist Billy Cox. As part of deal to settle a contract dispute, Hendrix agreed to deliver an album to Capitol Records. To meet this, four sets of performances over two nights at the Fillmore East auditorium in New York City were recorded by the trio. Sound engineer Wally Heider, who had recorded Hendrix live several times, including at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and Woodstock, supervised the recording.

## Songs

Since Hendrix was obligated to supply an album of new material, the set lists for the Fillmore East shows contained mostly new songs. Although songs such as "Lover Man", "Hear My Train A Comin'", and "Bleeding Heart" had often been played by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, they had not been issued on record. At Woodstock, Hendrix performed early versions of "Message to Love", "Izabella", and part of "Stepping Stone", which were not released officially until the 1990s (although studio versions of the last two were released as a single in the U.S. in April 1970).
In addition to these tunes, several new Hendrix compositions were debuted and recorded: "Power of Soul", "Machine Gun", "Ezy Ryder", "Earth Blues", "Burning Desire", and "Who Knows". Miles also supplied a couple of originals: "Changes" and the jam number "We Gotta Live Together". The set lists included the Jerry Ragovoy and Mort Shuman composition "Stop" (a hit in 1968 for R&B singer Howard Tate) sung by Miles. The popular Experience numbers "Stone Free", "Foxey Lady", "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", and "Purple Haze" were sometimes played for encores.
Experience Hendrix indicates that Songs For Groovy Children "boasts over two dozen tracks that have either never before been released commercially or have been newly pressed and newly remixed". Tracks not previously officially released in one form or another, include "Ezy Ryder", "Changes", "Message to Love", and "Stop" from the December 31 second show; and "Lover Man", "Steal Away", "Hey Joe", and "Purple Haze" from the January 1 second show. Additionally, longer versions of previously released tracks include "Who Knows" and "Stone Free" from December 31, 1969 second show; "Who Knows" and "Stop" from January 1, 1970 first show; and "Power of Soul", "Changes", "Machine Gun", and "We Gotta Live Together" from January 1, 1970 second show. However, AllMusic critic Sean Westergaard notes that "We Gotta Live Together" lasts "just under ten minutes", while the full performance lasted 18 minutes.

## Critical reception

In a review for AllMusic, Sean Westergaard notes the high quality sound and more comprehensive presentation of the four shows: "this is an amazing set. The band is completely locked into each other and Hendrix turns in some truly astonishing playing. Hearing all four shows gives a better idea of how improvised some of these performances were, yet how in tune the players were with each other." However, he feels that inclusion of longer versions of songs originally edited for the 1970 Band of Gypsys album "doesn't necessarily make for better listening" and that "the five complete tracks left off the second December 31 set ... should have been included."

## Set lists and releases

Key :
| † | Indicates first released on Songs for Groovy Children |
| # | Indicates more than one minute longer than original release |
December 31, 1969 first show set list & releases :
| Title | First official release (year) | Length (first official release) | Length (Songs for Groovy Children) |
| "Power of Soul" | Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show (2016) | 5:30 | 5:30 |
| "Lover Man" | Machine Gun | 3:14 | 3:14 |
| "Hear My Train A Comin'" | Band of Gypsys 2 (1986) | 9:05 | 9:06 |
| "Changes" | Live at the Fillmore East (1999) | 5:37 | 5:58 |
| "Izabella" | Live at the Fillmore East | 3:41 | 3:29 |
| "Machine Gun" | Machine Gun | 8:54 | 8:54 |
| "Stop" | Machine Gun | 5:30 | 5:30 |
| "Ezy Ryder" | Machine Gun | 5:55 | 5:55 |
| "Bleeding Heart" | Machine Gun | 6:38 | 6:38 |
| "Earth Blues" | Machine Gun | 6:24 | 6:24 |
| "Burning Desire" | Machine Gun | 9:40 | 9:40 |
December 31, 1969 second show set list & releases :
| Title | First official release (year) | Length (first official release) | Length (Songs for Groovy Children) |
| "Auld Lang Syne" | Live at the Fillmore East (1999) | 3:54 | 3:55 |
| "Who Knows" | Live at the Fillmore East | 3:55 | 8:40 |
| "Stepping Stone" | — | — | not included |
| "Burning Desire" | — | — | not included |
| "Fire" | West Coast Seattle Boy (2010) | 4:41 | 5:15 |
| "Ezy Ryder" | Songs for Groovy Children (2019) | — | 4:24 |
| "Machine Gun" | Live at the Fillmore East | 13:36 | 13:51 |
| "Power of Soul" | — | — | not included |
| "Stone Free" | West Coast Seattle Boy | 14:46 | 17:22 |
| "Changes" | Songs for Groovy Children | — | 8:06 |
| "Message to Love" | Songs for Groovy Children | — | 3:37 |
| "Stop" | Songs for Groovy Children | — | 7:02 |
| "Foxey Lady" | West Coast Seattle Boy | 6:29 | 6:45 |
| "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" | — | — | not included |
| "Purple Haze" | — | — | not included |
January 1, 1970 first show set list & releases :
| Title | First official release (year) | Length (first official release) | Length (Songs for Groovy Children) |
| "Who Knows" | Band of Gypsys (1970) | 9:34 | 10:52 |
| "Machine Gun" | Band of Gypsys | 12:38 | 12:38 |
| "Changes" | Hendrix: Band of Gypsys (DVD, 1999) | | 7:25 |
| "Power of Soul" | Live at the Fillmore East (1999) | 6:19 | 6:15 |
| "Stepping Stone" | Live at the Fillmore East | 5:20 | 5:30 |
| "Foxey Lady" | Band of Gypsys 2 (1986) | 6:36 | 7:21 |
| "Stop" | Band of Gypsys 2 | 4:48 | 6:07 |
| "Earth Blues" | Hendrix: Band of Gypsys (DVD, 1999) | | 8:50 |
| "Burning Desire" | Live at the Fillmore East | 8:22 | 8:56 |
January 1, 1970 second show set list & releases :
| Title | First official release (year) | Length (first official release) | Length (Songs for Groovy Children) |
| "Stone Free" | Live at the Fillmore East (1999) | 12:56 | 13:11 |
| "Power of Soul" | Band of Gypsys (1970) | 6:55 | 9:10 |
| "Changes" | Band of Gypsys | 5:11 | 9:33 |
| "Message to Love" | Band of Gypsys | 5:24 | 5:25 |
| "Machine Gun" | Live at the Fillmore East | 6:02 | 11:52 |
| "Lover Man" | Songs for Groovy Children (2019) | — | 2:35 |
| "Steal Away" | Songs for Groovy Children (2019) | — | 5:53 |
| "Earth Blues" | Live at the Fillmore East | 5:58 | 5:54 |
| "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" | Live at the Fillmore East | 6:02 | 5:59 |
| "We Gotta Live Together" | Band of Gypsys | 5:51 | 9:48 |
| "Wild Thing" | Live at the Fillmore East | 3:06 | 3:13 |
| "Hey Joe" | Songs for Groovy Children | – | 3:56 |
| "Purple Haze" | Songs for Groovy Children | — | 4:52 |

## Track listing

All tracks are written by Jimi Hendrix, except where noted

## Personnel

Musicians
* Billy Cox – bass, vocals
* Jimi Hendrix – guitar, vocals, original recordings producer (as Heaven Research)
* Buddy Miles – drums, vocals
Production personnel
* Bernie Grundman – mastering engineer
* Chandler Harrod – studio mixing engineer
* Wally Heider – live recording engineer
* Janie Hendrix – producer
* Eddie Kramer – mixing engineer, producer
* John McDermott – producer

## Charts

| Chart (2019) | Peak position |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) | 181 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) | 67 |
| French Albums (SNEP) | 174 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) | 64 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon) | 42 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) | 96 |

## Footnotes

* 1 2 The version of "Machine Gun" released on Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection (2001) runs 11:36.
* 1 2 The version of "We Gotta Live Together" released on Live at the Fillmore East (1999) runs 9:55.
* ↑ The timing is not listed; the DVD performance of "Changes" runs 6:31 (music only).
* ↑ The timing is not listed; the DVD performance of "Earth Blues" cuts in during the guitar solo and runs 4:37 (music only).
* ↑ Westergaard notes that while this release lasts "just under ten minutes", "We Gotta Live Together" runs a "full 18 minutes".