Rainbow Bridge (found 16mm footage of Jimi Hendrix Concert; 1970)
Jimi pictured alongside drummer Mitch Mitchell during the concert.
Status: Found
Date found: 20 Nov 2020
Found by: Experience Hendrix
Background
Rainbow Bridge is a 1971 film directed by Chuck Wein that is centred around the counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The movie was filmed with non-professional actors and featured improvised scenes with a variety of characters. The movie is largely known today due to the inclusion of concert footage of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix's heavily edited concert (no full songs were featured in the movie) appeared at the end of the movie. Rainbow Bridge was a critical and commercial failure. It was panned by critics upon release and failed to recoup the money used to fund it through box office performance. The original movie prior to release was alleged to be over four hours long before being edited down to 113 minutes for the theatrical release. Later it was further edited down to 70 minutes. A 2000 re-release by Rhino Video restored the full-length theatrical version.
Overview
Faced with a serious cash problem, Hendrix's producer, Mike Jeffrey, came up with the idea for a counterculture youth film, intended to be in the same vein of 1969's Easy Rider. He approached Reprise Records' parent Warner Bros. with his idea. After some negotiation, he was able to secure a $450,000 advance with the promise of a soundtrack album that would be supplied by Hendrix. Hendrix was originally not interested or willing to provide music for the movie. He was persuaded and begrudgingly complied. Jeffrey then enlisted the help of Chuck Wein, who was known for having worked with Andy Warhol. Wein brought Pat Hartley, who had appeared in some of his films. The movie was first titled Wave. Wein was then tasked to direct the movie. Wein and Art Director Melinda Merryweather invited many different and outrageous groups of people to portray themselves in the movie. This included but was not limited to groupies, priests, nuns, environmentalists, dope smugglers, and even a group of people claiming to be from Venus. Before long, the advance was used up with little commercial material to show for it.
Concert
After realizing that his youth counterculture film, now retitled Rainbow Bridge, was floundering, producer Mike Jeffrey brought in his client Jimi Hendrix to film an outdoor concert near the Haleakala Crater located in Maui, on July 30, 1970. This was done to hopefully reap his investment that he spent on the production of the movie. The concert was plagued with technical problems all throughout. 30 to 40 mph winds made it difficult to hear and record Jimi's playing, and the 8-track machines brought to record the concert malfunctioned and did not record correctly. Although over 50 minutes of footage was shot for the film, the final version of the film features only 17 minutes of Hendrix's concert, which were highly edited to shorten the length of each song. The remaining footage was deemed unusable. To date, no additional footage has been officially released, and the remaining film can only be found on the internet in bootleg format.
Update
In November 2018, a USA Today article announced that Experience Hendrix was working on a full-length release of the Maui Concerts alongside a full-length documentary to finally make the full concert footage available in the best possible quality. The Concert Footage will be released as a deluxe package on November 20th, 2020.
Availability
All 20 songs performed by Hendrix can now be streamed and purchased through Experience Hendrix's Live In Maui release, either as a 3 DVD set or a Deluxe 3 LP and DVD release. All of the existing footage is also included in the Box set.
Performance
Setlist 1
- Spanish Castle Magic
- Lover Man
- Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)
- In From The Storm
- Message To Love
- Foxy lady
- Hear My Train A Comin
- Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
- Fire
- Purple Haze
Setlist 2
- Dolly Dagger
- Villanova Junction
- Ezy Ryder
- Red House
- Freedom
- Beginnings
- Straight Ahead
- Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)
- Midnight Lightning
- Drum Solo
- Stone Free
Songs
| Date | Title | Status before November 2020 Discovery |
|---|---|---|
| July 30, 1970 | Spanish Castle Magic | Unknown. Possibly filmed. Exists as audio. |
| July 30, 1970 | Lover Man | Exists as an audio recording. |
| July 30, 1970 | Hey Baby | Filmed and recorded audio. |
| July 30, 1970 | In From The Storm | Filmed and recorded audio. |
| July 30, 1970 | Message To Love | Exists in audio format. Possibly filmed. |
| July 30, 1970 | Foxy Lady | Filmed and recorded as an audio. |
| July 30, 1970 | Hear My Train A Comin | Filmed and recorded audio. |
| July 30, 1970 | Voodoo Child | Filmed and recorded audio. |
| July 30, 1970 | Fire | Filmed and Recorded audio. |
| July 30, 1970 | Purple Haze | Exists as an audio recording. |
| July 30, 1970 | Dolly Dagger | Filmed and recorded audio. |
| July 30, 1970 | Villanova Junction | Filmed and recorded audio. |
| July 30, 1970 | Ezy Ryder | Filmed and recorded audio. |
| July 30, 1970 | Red House | Exists in audio format. Unknown if filmed. |
| July 30, 1970 | Freedom | Exists in audio format. Unknown if filmed. |
| July 30, 1970 | Beginnings | Exists in audio format. Unknown if filmed. |
| July 30, 1970 | Straight Ahead | Exists in audio format. Unknown if filmed. |
| July 30, 1970 | Hey Baby | Filmed and recorded audio. |
| July 30, 1970 | Midnight Lightning | Exists in audio format. Unknown if filmed. |
| July 30, 1970 | Stone Free | Filmed and recorded audio. |
Gallery
External Link
- The Wikipedia page for Rainbow Bridge. Retrieved 28 Feb '19
- The Wikipedia page for the "Cry of Love" tour. Retrieved 28 Feb '19
- https://jimihendrix.com/encyclopedia/