South Saturn Delta

This article is about the album by Jimi Hendrix. For the Japanese band, see Yamazaki Maso.

South Saturn Delta is a posthumous compilation album by American rock musician Jimi Hendrix. Released in 1997 by Experience Hendrix (operated by his estate), it consists of material such as demo tapes, unfinished takes and alternate mixes, and previously released material, most of which Hendrix had been working on prior to his death in 1970.

South Saturn Delta
Compilation album by Jimi Hendrix
Released	October 7, 1997 (1997-10-07)
Recorded	July 1967 – August 1970
Studio	London New York City Hollywood, California
Genre	Rock blues jazz
Length	65:47
Label	MCA
Compiler	Janie Hendrix Eddie Kramer John McDermott
Jimi Hendrix chronology
Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix (1997) South Saturn Delta (1997) Live at the Oakland Coliseum (1998)

Background

Released prior to South Saturn Delta, First Rays of the New Rising Sun was Experience Hendrix's attempt at presenting Hendrix's planned fourth studio album.^[1] The album consists of songs previously released on his first posthumous albums The Cry of Love (1971), Rainbow Bridge (1971), and War Heroes (1972).^[2] South Saturn Delta collects five songs from the latter two then out-of-print albums that were not selected for First Rays.^[3]

Other tracks include "The Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Dice", an early Jimi Hendrix Experience B-side single that saw release on the UK compilations Smash Hits (1968) and Loose Ends (1974), but never officially released in the US on a Jimi Hendrix album.^[4] Alternate takes and mixes of previously released songs and demos for new songs that Hendrix may or may not have completed for release flesh out the album.^[3]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
Blender	[6]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[7]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[8]
Pitchfork	7.6/10[9]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[10]

In a review for Rolling Stone, David Fricke viewed South Saturn Delta as an inconsistent compilation that is "less of a mess" than the albums that preceded it but does not explore deep enough into Hendrix's recordings.^[11] Robert Christgau wrote in Blender, "it establishes the listenability of Hendrix's dribs and drabs", despite being "discographically presumptuous".^[6] AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine said the album serves as an attempt to "capture the full range of Hendrix's music through an alternate history ... an intelligently sequenced, listenable collection of some of the very best outtakes and rarities from Hendrix".^[5] James P. Wisdom from Pitchfork found the songs full of Hendrix's growing embrace of fusing rock, blues, and jazz sounds "in ways that had never been considered".^[9]

Track listing

No.	Title	Original release	Length
1.	"Look Over Yonder"	Rainbow Bridge	3:25
2.	"Little Wing"	Previously unreleased version	2:44
3.	"Here He Comes (Lover Man)"	Previously unreleased	6:33
4.	"South Saturn Delta"	Previously unreleased alternate mix	4:07
5.	"Power of Soul"	Previously unreleased alternate version[12]	5:20
6.	"Message to the Universe (Message to Love)"	Previously unreleased	6:19
7.	"Tax Free" (Bo Hansson, Janne Carlsson)	War Heroes	4:58
8.	"All Along the Watchtower" (Bob Dylan)	Previously unreleased alternate mix	4:01
9.	"The Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Dice"	UK single B-side to "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" (1967)	4:20
10.	"Midnight"	War Heroes	5:32
11.	"Sweet Angel (Angel)"	Previously unreleased	3:55
12.	"Bleeding Heart" ([13])	War Heroes	3:15
13.	"Pali Gap"	Rainbow Bridge	5:08
14.	"Drifter's Escape" (Bob Dylan)	Previously unreleased alternate version[14]	3:05
15.	"Midnight Lightning"	Previously unreleased	3:07

All tracks are written by Jimi Hendrix, except as noted

Personnel

• Jimi Hendrix – guitar, vocals, bass guitar (tracks 4, 7 and 8)
• Mitch Mitchell – drums (tracks 1–4, 6–10, 13 and 14)
• Noel Redding – bass guitar (tracks 1, 3, 9 and 10)
• Billy Cox – bass guitar (tracks 5, 6, 12, 13 and 14), backing vocals (track 5)

Additional Personnel

• Rocky Isaac – drums (track 12)
• Brian Jones – percussion (track 8)
• Larry Lee – guitar (track 6)
• Dave Mason – 12-string guitar (track 8)
• Buddy Miles – drums and backing vocals (track 5)
• Juma Sultan – percussion (track 6)
• Jerry Velez – percussion (track 6)
• Unknown horn players – 2 trumpets, 2 saxophones, arranged by Larry Fallon (track 4)

Recording details

Track	Location(s)	Recording date(s)
Track 1	TTG Studios, Hollywood, California	October 22, 1968
Track 2	Olympic Studios, London	October 14, 1967
Track 3	TTG	October 29, 1968
Track 4	Record Plant Studios, New York City	May 2 & June 14, 1968
Track 5	Record Plant	January 21 & February 3, 1970
Track 6	The Hit Factory, New York City	August 28, 1969
Track 7	Olympic; Record Plant	January 26 & 28, 1968; May 1, 1968
Track 8	Olympic	January 21 & 26, 1968
Track 9	Mayfair Studios, New York City	July 19, 1967
Track 10	Olmstead Studios, New York City	April 1 & 3, 1969
Track 11	Olympic	November 13, 1967
Track 12	Record Plant; Electric Lady	March 24, 1970; June 1970
Track 13	Electric Lady	July 1, 1970
Track 14	Electric Lady	June 17, July 19–20, & August 22, 1970
Track 15	Record Plant	March 23, 1970

References

1. McDermott 1997a, p. 1.
2. McDermott 1997b, p. 4.
3. McDermott 1997a, pp. 3–20.
4. McDermott 2013a, p. 13. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMcDermott2013a (help)
5. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Jimi Hendrix: South Saturn Delta – Review". AllMusic. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
6. Christgau, Robert (December 2005). "Back Catalogue: Jimi Hendrix". Blender. New York. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
7. Larkin, Colin (2006). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Muze. p. 249. ISBN 0195313739.
8. Sinclair, Tom (October 10, 1997). "South Saturn Delta". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
9. Wisdom, James P. "South Saturn Delta". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on February 16, 2008. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
10. Evans, Paul; Brackett, Nathan (2004). "Jimi Hendrix". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 374–75. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
11. Fricke, David (December 25, 1997). "South Saturn Delta". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
12. Truncated version released on Crash Landing as "With the Power"; full version released on Both Sides of the Sky
13. Several Hendrix releases of "Bleeding Heart" credit Elmore James as the songwriter including the most recent one, Valleys of Neptune. However, James is not listed as such on the South Saturn Delta liner notes.
14. An alternate mix was first released on Loose Ends (1974).

Sources

• McDermott, John (1997a). First Rays of the New Rising Sun (CD booklet). Jimi Hendrix. Universal City, California: MCA Records. MCAD-11599.
• McDermott, John (1997b). South Saturn Delta (CD booklet). Jimi Hendrix. Universal City, California: MCA Records. MCAD-11684.

External links

• South Saturn Delta at Discogs (list of releases)