Saturday, February 3, 1968
Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA
1st show
1 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2 Fire
3 Hey Joe
4 Foxy Lady
5 The Wind Cries Mary
6 Killing Floor
7 Little Wing
8 Purple Haze
2nd show
9 Rock Me Baby
10 Red House
11 Foxy Lady
12 Like A Rolling Stone
13 Purple Haze#
Composited from three sources:
¡ audience recording; 57 minutes, good quality (1#,2#,3#-11) (drop-outs on
first 3 tracks)
¡ audience recording, 2nd source; 35 minutes, very good quality (1-4,6-8)
¡ audience recording, 3rd source; 38 minutes, good quality (5,8-13)

Source one is probably 2nd gen, source two is 2nd gen, and source three is 1st gen

What's the difference between a "composite" and a "merge", you ask? A merge uses multiple sources simultaneously to, hopefully, give a better sense of "being there". A composite uses one main source and patches gaps and blemishes with alternate sources.

From Chris Dixon's 30th Anniversary Series © C S Dixon

February 3, 1998 marks the 30th anniversary of the 68 Winterland concert from the beginning of the first leg of Jimi's 68 US tour. He may have played a day or two before in SF but this is the first documented gig of the tour. Feb 3 also marks 10,000 days that Jimi's been gone. I'll dwell on the former milestone, thanks...

Here's a few tidbits about the Winterland show:

The first appearance of the extended intro to 'Hey Joe'. Jimi usually does some really nice stuff on this, but I've always thought this arrangement was just a little overly dramatic for a straightforward tune like HJ (just a random opinion, mind you!)

Third recorded performance of 'Little Wing'. Slightly extended solo, now with familiar guitar flourish before final chord (and this one is brilliant- I listened to just this bit about 5 times in a row just now!). I've got two sources for this tune (PYE lists 3 sources for the show, some incomplete). One of my sources is obviously recorded on floor and is marred by yells of "sit down!", the other has band louder and no yelling so maybe this guy was closer (maybe he was standing in front of the first guy!)

Last appearance of 'Rock Me Baby' before 'Lover Man' rewrite shows up a month later. They do overlap, though, as Jimi returns to 'Rock Me Baby' a couple of times in Aug 68. This version bit slower, and goes for much longer than usual before he starts singing.

First recorded time he does Red House in US, and only the third documented performance of it! Sadly, also one of the most out-of-tune Red House's I've heard. Jimi strums the guitar (probably the V) while doing the "we tune because we care about you ears..." bit, but he doesn't get it in tune- even worse, at least two strings are a little sharp, which he can't get around by bending. Of course he manages a few moments of brilliance, but overall a bit painful to hear...

Marks the first performance of 'Like a Rolling Stone' since Monterey 7 months earlier (and in the same town, well pretty close..). Very nice version with quite a long but low key guitar improv (over 4 minutes) before the vocals start. I always love Jimi's playing on this song, they way he embellshes the chords..

Apparently a soundboard tape has surfaced from this night and will be released by EH- let's hope sooner than later!