Band Of Gypsys, Dec. 31, 1969 / Jan. 1, 1970, New York (Fillmore East)

After splitting with the Experience in June 1969, Jimi Hendrix took to the stage at New York's Fillmore East with pals Buddy Miles on drums and bassist Billy Cox for a 1969 New Year's blowout. Playing under the name Band of Gypsys, the newly formed trio rattled off two sets that day and two more the next, testing out a host of brand-new songs, including "Earth Blues," "Burning Desire" and "Stepping Stone," which were not known to have ever reappeared at a Hendrix concert.

At the Fillmore, Hendrix took his playing to new heights thanks to the simultaneous use of several different effects pedals. The jaw-dropping version of "Machine Gun" released on the live album "Band of Gypsys" is the best evidence of this, as Hendrix wrenches artillery fire and whirring helicopter sounds from his guitar in one of the most enduring performances of his tragically short career.

The track also spotlights a seldom-seen side of Hendrix: making music in direct response to the tumultuous Vietnam War, the unrest following the 1968 assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the violent protests in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. In fact, Hendrix dedicated the song to "the soldiers fighting in Chicago, Milwaukee and New York," as well as in Vietnam.

Elsewhere during the concerts, the band reveled in Miles and Cox's funky rhythms on "Who Knows" and "Power of Soul," and recast Experience favorites such as "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)," "Purple Haze" and "Hey Joe" in its own still-developing style. And though only six songs from the shows were featured on "Band of Gypsys," Experience Hendrix gathered up 16 cuts for the 1999 album "Live at the Fillmore East," including an alternate version of "Machine Gun."

Overall, the Band of Gypsys performances fed Hendrix's creative longing perhaps more than any in the last years of his life; he spent the next nine months fine-tuning material for a planned double-album, "First Rays of the New Rising Sun," but he died of a drug overdose on Sept. 18, extinguishing one of rock's most visionary minds.