Though Jimi Hendrix only got 27 years on this Earth to create music, and only really spent four of them in the studio cooking up new compositions and freaky covers, he managed to pack a lifetime’s worth of material into that short space of time. On March 9th, the guitarist’s estate plans on releasing yet another posthumous collection of previously unreleased material dubbed Both Sides Of The Sky.
Today, they’ve decided to give the world a small preview of what they’re in for in the form of a previously unreleased cover Jimi put together of Muddy Waters’ immortal blues classic “Mannish Boy.” Whereas Muddy’s original is a harmonica-drenched, soulful holler, Jimi kicks things into a whole new stratosphere of frenetic guitar wizardry, and playful vocal histrionics.
“Mannish Boy” is just one of the unique covers included on Both Sides Of The Sky. Another interesting selection is a take on Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock,” that was cooked up with CSNY’s own guitar maven Stephen Stills. “I wanted to see what would happen playing that with him,” Stills recently told Rolling Stone. “He was just the gentlest guy. Watching him play was like watching the greatest athlete you ever saw, like Julius Irving or Muhammad Ali. It was unbelievable. He taught me to quit thinking and let it happen.”
You can check out Jimi Hendrix’s take on Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy” in the video above.
