One night in the free-flowing 1980s, I saw Rainbow Bridge on TV, and was both confused and exhilarated. Of course, I wanted to see Jimi Hendrix, and he shows up in a couple scenes before playing a few numbers with Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox on a stage somewhere in Maui to end the movie. I couldn’t really tell you what the movie was about — something about a free-spirit girl traveling from San Diego to Hawaii with a little bit of surfing, meditation, yoga, and other hippy-like imagery and encounters to go with it. Besides director Chuck Wien, who died in 2008, no one else probably knows the message of the film. The one and only redeeming quality is the appearance of Jimi Hendrix. Fifty years later video and remastered audio of the performances, along with a documentary about the whole Rainbow Bridge fiasco, have finally bubbled to the surface in the form of Music, Money, Madness . . . Jimi Hendrix In Maui and the accompanying album Live In Maui.
The documentary more or less explains how Jimi Hendrix’s vacation to Maui turned into a job when his shady manager, Michael Jeffery, committed the guitarist to appear in Rainbow Bridge. Jeffery, who was also the producer of Rainbow Bridge, had drawn a huge advance to make the film, partly on the promise that the music would be scored by Hendrix. Once the money was all used up, the film — inspired by Easy Rider, no script, and an unfettered mess — needed a hook to punch up its appeal. Wein, a Harvard graduate and former Andy Warhol cohort, devised the idea of “a vibratory color sound experiment” in which Hendrix, Mitchell, and Cox would play on a makeshift stage next to a volcano for a few of the locals. Even the strong wind didn’t prevent it from being the highlight of Rainbow Bridge.
The Blu-ray, which features the full documentary, also includes all of the existing 16mm color film shot of the two performances. Technical problems marred the original audio recordings — so bad that Mitch Mitchell redid his drum parts at Electric Lady Studios in 1971 for the performances that were featured in Rainbow Bridge. With a few things moved around to fill the gaps, longtime Hendrix producer Eddie Kramer managed to ramp up the stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes. Playing the Blu-ray footage with a decent audio system provides a fairly strong representation, albeit a sync issue here or there, of what happened in Maui on July 30, 1970.
The sets sparkle with revved up versions of “Foxey Lady,” “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” “Fire,” “Purple Haze,” “Red House,” and then-unreleased “Dolly Dagger” and “Freedom,” plus plenty of free-form jams. The next day, Hendrix and the Experience played in Honolulu, then returned to New York City for more work at Electric Lady Studios before heading to Europe to begin what turned out to be the last tour. Jimi Hendrix died in London on September 18, 1970, and never had a say in what would happen to the video and audio recordings from Maui.
Music, Money, Madness . . . Jimi Hendrix In Maui is filled with unreleased footage and interviews with Billy Cox, Eddie Kramer, various behind-the-scenes players, friends, associates, and Rainbow Bridge cast members, including an impromptu chat from the archives with Chuck Wein. If you want to get into the meat, you’ll probably go directly to the performance footage. Be forewarned there are stretches of music without film and it’s nothing to get in a huff about. You can also track the two CDS or three LPs. Like Jimi Hendrix himself, the music is probably the most important part of the whole experience.
~ Shawn Perry
