First Rays of The New Rising Sun - Controversy Over Control of Hendrix's Music

Controversy Over Control of Hendrix's Music

For many years after Jimi Hendrix's death, producer Alan Douglas controlled the release of the musician's remaining unreleased tracks. Many of Douglas' choices were controversial, such as his removal of the original backing musicians, replacing them with studio musicians who had never played with Hendrix, overdubbing guitar parts and adding female backing vocalists, reworking most of the songs and claiming co-composer credits on some.

In 1995, Douglas had produced an album of Hendrix's work titled Voodoo Soup. This collection covers much of the same material as First Rays of the New Rising Sun but leaves out several important tracks, replaced by songs that have no connection to the original project. In addition, its tracks were heavily edited. For example, some drum parts were removed and replaced with new overdubs by Bruce Gary (best known as drummer for pop-rock group The Knack), who had never played with Hendrix.

After a long legal struggle initiated by Al Hendrix and his adopted daughter Janie, they finally gained control of Jimi's recorded works in 1995 (under the name "Experience Hendrix LLC") and hired Eddie Kramer—-who had recorded most of Hendrix's music, including his last songs—-to put these tracks back together on one album, where previously they had been separated onto three.