Dagger Records---Official 'Bootleg' Recordings--LIVE AT THE OAKLAND COLISEUM

When Jimi's family regained control of Jimi's catalog and legacy, creation of a separate label for his previously issued albums was key. But with a huge amount of bootlegged albums in the market , the quality was more important than the amount in circulation. So Experience Hendrix LLC made a wise decision, eliminate the bootleggers by attacking them at their own game.

Create a sub-label featuring recordings which were not up to the standards of the commercially released product, but were worthy of release in some form. Dagger Records is the specialty name for such recordings. Product needed to be found but bootleggers couldn't do any thing to protect what they had illegally issued, so why not take the best bootlegs, submit them to the professional audio engineers, and re-introduce these recordings to the world, the way they should be. Like a fine piece of leather with minor flaws, Dagger did just that and more.

Another piece to the puzzle is to find the owners of live recordings made during concerts ( audience recordings, sound board tape, whatever was in storage, forgotten for years ). Such was the case of Dagger Records first release, a double CD, LIVE AT THE OAKLAND COLISEUM. Recorded the day after the legendary LIFELINES Disc IV ( The Los Angeles Forum Concert  04/26/1969 )

The 'master' tape was an audience recording of the Bay-Area return of the Experience following six performances in October 1968 at Winterland. The quality of tape, which had sat for many years, was fairly good for an audience recording and with some work from the aforementioned engineers and audio technicians, Dagger unwrapped the album in March 1998.

It shows The Jimi Hendrix Experience two months prior to their break-up in Denver, June 1969. Nothing short of an excellent show, it sounds as if it was well worth the price of admission. Remembering that we're talking of a three piece group known for their loud volume playing, the album reflects well on all, the audience, the guest bass player ( Jack Casady of the Jefferson Airplane ) who sat in on Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and the entire Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Overall, Experience Hendrix LLC/Dagger Records hit one out of the park in this first release. Not for the new Jimi fan, let them first learn from the masterpieces of AYE, AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE, ELECTRIC LADYLAND and FIRST RAYS OF THE NEW RISING SUN and work their way to this very special album.

Highly Recommended, Mono Recording

DMZ

At Last The Beginning

This is the first of what I hope will be many postings about Jimi Hendrix. His music runs counter to what many, in the "recording industry", think is marketable. Immediately after his death, many had the notion to wave him off as nothing but a 'flash in the pan', you know, here today, gone tomorrow. Even his management team, (corrupt in so  many ways) milked his music, his image, his very essence and could not see past their own noses that Jimi Hendrix was a true legendary individual with talent that reached far beyond those, that followed his path, forty years into the future
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A guide post, a messenger, a spiritual leader, and dare I utter these words, a prophet, in musical history. I became aware of this gift of his when in 1969, my father went out of his way to purchase a vinyl copy of JIMI HENDRIX SMASH HITS, the US version, but still a great compilation album. My father was a professional musician in Nebraska and had seen musical talent since the 1930s, having been on the road traveling with big bands of that era. Guitarists were not extremely well regarded in his world. He played piano and with a bass and a drummer and could do his thing just fine. It goes to show he knew talent when it showed itself.

I've titled this post 'At Last The Beginning' because it was the working title to the opening song on the highly regarded Electric Ladyland album. Retitled as '. . . and the Gods Made Love' , it is a most creative way to open an album as rich and fulfilling as has been noted for years.