Rainbow Bridge (film)
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| Rainbow Bridge | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Chuck Wein |
| Produced by | Barry De Prendergast Michael Jeffery |
| Written by | Charlie Bacis |
| Starring | Jim Hendrix |
| Music by | Jimi Hendrix |
| Cinematography | Vilis Lapenieks |
| Release date(s) | March 1972 San Francisco |
| Running time | 74 min. (original) 125 min. (director's cut) |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Rainbow Bridge is a 1971 film featuring footage of a Jimi Hendrix concert directed by Chuck Wein. The "Rainbow Bridge" concert was a free concert by Jimi Hendrix that was held on July 30, 1970, in a horse pasture just above Dairy Road on the slopes of Haleakala, the volcano that makes up 75% of the island of Maui, Hawaii, it is officially listed as being active.
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[edit] Overview
A modest audience of a few hundred island hippies, surfers, and students turned up following announcements that Hendrix would play a free concert for a film. Hendrix was also in Hawaii to play the last concert on his 'Cry of Love' tour with his reformed 'Jimi Hendrix Experience' (with Billy Cox replacing Noel Redding on bass & backing vocals. Mitch Mitchell & Cox were also - previously - members of Gypsy Sun and Rainbows). The director Chuck Wein introduced Hendrix' performance (no mention of a group name) as the driving force of this mystical planetary colour/sound meditation "experiment" called the 'Rainbow Bridge', (this title is often mistaken as being the name of the site of this concert rather than the name of this "Planetary meditation" cult). The original cut, not surprisingly used very little of the concert footage, as this was not intended to be a concert film and no music from the film was released on the official Reprise LP 'Rainbow Bridge' which was falsely sub-titled "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" for contractual reasons and due to the original music soundtrack being unreleasable due to its very substandard sonic quality on account of strong winds that day. However, the music was distributed as a bootleg recording for three decades, before Radioactive Records released this same bootleg recording on the 2003 album, The Rainbow Bridge Concert: The Early Show until it was withdrawn due to a court action by 'Experience Hendrix' which makes this officially a 'bootleg' CD release.
The 'Rainbow Bridge' concert was the penultimate performance by Hendrix in the United States, his last was two days later on 01 August 1970, at his final concert of his 'Cry of Love' tour in Honolulu, Hawaii. Hendrix died less than two months later on September 18, 1970 in London, England.
