General Rating: 4

Introduction

ALBUM REVIEWS:

• Are You Experienced?
• Live At Monterey Pop Festival
• Axis: Bold As Love
• Electric Ladyland
• Live At Woodstock
• Band Of Gypsys
• First Rays Of The New Rising Sun
• Blues
• South Saturn Delta
• BBC Sessions

VIDEOS:

• Jimi Hendrix

I s'pose you already know everything about the guy, so why should I write anything at all in this stupid introductory passage devised specially with the one and only purpose - to present my long-winded and totally incomprehensible personal considerations to people who certainly have got a lot of their own personal considerations and don't need mine any more than anybody else's. Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'll still go ahead and repeat the same mistake. There is one particular thing about Jimi Hendrix that strikes me most of all whenever I listen to a recording of his or, more obviously, when I watch him on video. I'm totally amazed at the way he practically 'straddles' his guitar. Most great (and not great) guitarists treat the guitar as a musical instrument. Some, like Pete Townshend, treat it like a sonic tool. Jimi Hendrix treated his guitar like an inseparable part of his body. Every lick he produces, every chord he squeezes out of it seems so natural, so homely, so fluent, that I'm really left wondering whether he was born with a guitar in his hand. This way of playing produces mixed results for me, of course, because from time to time I really get annoyed with that raw, almost sloppy sound, as compared to the sharp, crystal clear chords of Clapton or almost mathematically precise distortion effects of Townshend. But I guess we just have to get over ourselves and force our poor souls to appreciate that sound.
Needless to say, he was the best guitar player of his epoch and probably could be dubbed 'best guitar player on Earth'. I wouldn't say that, though, because, like I said, he didn't really play it - at least, he played it in a way that no single person on Earth ever did before or after. This means that, when it comes to discussing best guitarists, I usually put Mr Hendrix aside, just because it's useless and impossible to compare him with anybody else at all. He plays stuff that no other guitarists play and other guitarists mainly play stuff that he doesn't play. He's just a unique and totally separate phenomenon. You might hate him or you might love him, but if you try to deny that this was the real thing - well, then I guess you can't understand what the essence of rock music is all about.
So when it comes to choosing my favourite guitar player, I usually say 'Eric Clapton', but believe me, this isn't really to do Jimi an injustice. When asked what was my favourite Italian city I've seen, I say 'possibly Florence, but I'm putting Venice aside, as this city is in a class of its own and impossible to be compared with the others simply because it has a completely different basis'. Same thing with Jimi - I can only discuss him separately.
That said, I'll also have to state that, talented as he was as a player, he was a next-to-none songwriter - and that's a real tragedy. I must say I'm really amazed at how few songs in Jimi's entire catalog (and it's actually rather large, if we consider all the posthumously released stuff) can really qualify on the same level with the ones written by the major songwriters of the decade. 'Purple Haze', 'Little Wing', 'The Wind Cries Mary', 'Voodoo Chile' (which, by the way, just has a cool riff, but essentially it's a generic blues), maybe a couple more, and that's about it. Everything else that he's written - well, we love it still, sure as hell, but we love it mainly because of the atmosphere and that incredible guitar playing, according to the formula 'the more he pounds on that dingus, the better it gets'. I could count all the great melodies actually written by Jimi on my ol' trusty ten fingers, and I'm serious about that. Maybe it would have been better for him to get together with a band (I mean, a real band, not a backing band like the Experience), where prolific songwriters would deliver the material and Jimi would carve his soul into it. By the way, did you know that there was a project of Hendrix joining forces with ELP in 1970? It seems that only his death prevented him from doing so. Imagine what could have been the effect!
Then again, this would probably overshadow his talent. Maybe it's best to leave Jimi as he was and not ponder about his fate. Even with his small songwriting skills, he could muster enough forces to produce a couple fantastic records and leave behind a huge legacy (I really don't know how many posthumous Hendrix releases there are in the world, but there should be at least a hundred. Maybe more). And I honour the guy by gladly presenting him with a 4-star rating because he truly was one of the greatest rock symbols of the Sixties. But mostly just because there hasn't been (and there probably won't be) another Hendrix. John Lennon had Paul McCartney as a counterpart. Eric Clapton had Jeff Beck. They were all great, but they were all within the limits of comprehensibility. Jimi Hendrix hardly belongs to this planet of ours. I wonder, does 'Third Stone From The Sun' give us any hint about his origins?
Lineup of The Jimi Hendrix Experience (okay, let us be honest and not forget these dudes made some fine contribution to the music, too): Jimi Hendrix, of course, on guitar and vocals; Noel Redding on bass; and Mitch Mitchell on drums. You should remember these guys, not only because they formed the first interracial band, of course, but also because Mitch Mitchell is an outstanding drummer in his own rights - fed up on the Keith Moon/Ginger Baker tradition, but somewhat more restrained and (probably, as a result) sometimes more inventive.

General Evaluation:

Listenability: 4/5. Jimi sometimes overrated his 'magical' abilities, launching into pointless noodling jams, but overall, your jaw will be dropping down to the earth on most occasions.
Resonance: 3/5. Often, he was marvelous - just as often, he was self-indulgent and 'professional for the sake of professionalism'.
Originality: 5/5. Nothing to add.
Adequacy: 4/5. See "listenability".
Overall: 4.0 = * * * * on the rating scale.

What do YOU think about Jimi Hendrix? Mail your ideas

Your worthy comments:

Simon Hearn <simon@leehearn.freeserve.co.uk> (07.09.99)

No doubt a great guitarist and good songwriter and performer, but come on a 4? 3 maybe. I have electric ladyland and I can safely say apart from 'all along the watchtower' (sent by god - Dylan) and 'cross town traffic' this album is tedious to listen to. A good act made into something he was not by his untimely death. Sad, but true.

<Huntr3@aol.com> (21.11.99)

George, George, George... I must disagree with your review on Jimi. I feel that Jimi Hendrix IS the absolute greatest guitarist in the history of the 6-stringed instrument. You were right on when you said it was like the guitar was an extension of his body. He could play the guitar, and i DO mean play the guitar, anyway he wanted to. Left and right handed, upside down, behind his back, strung upside down, under his legs, with his teeth, with his elbows.....i could go on. And you only give him a 4-star rating? I feel that the undisputed greatest guitarist ever should atleast get a 5. Its true that his band members were not the greatest. Mitch Mitchell WAS quite good, however. Noel Redding wasnt anything to write home about on bass. Billy Cox would have been pumping gas at a gas station somewhere if he hadnt served with Jimi as a paratrooper. And Larry Lee...well... i wont even go into Larry Lee. I also disagree with your statement of "......he was a next to none songwriter." Jimi Hendrix wrote BEAUTIFUL songs. "Little Wing" was amazing. "Bold As Love" and "Casltes Made of Sand" were amazing too. He also made previously written songs better. Look at 'Voodoo Child'. He added a 'Slight Return' to it and made it "The New American Anthem." Come on man. Now, i know Jimi could NOT sing. Neither could Bob Dylan, for that matter. Jimi coudlnt remember lyrics either, unless he wrote them. On the BBC album he forgets the words to "Watchtower" and completely stops the song to do a tribute to Cream. What a nice guy, aye? Well,keep up the good work.
[Special author note: all right, guys! Let us compromise! Take my 4-star rating and deem it as an average between Simon's three and 'Huntr3's five!]

Bob <tsivinp@limm.mgimo.ru> (16.02.2000)

Yeah, George, you may think what you want, and I shall also. For me, Jimi is THE GREATEST. Not, "The God", of course. But - first of all, a five-star artist because of "The Wind Cries Mary", "Bold As Love", "1983" and "Angel".

<Quarrymn@aol.com> (22.03.2000)

I dont need to say a whole lot...because reading what others have already said, you dont need anymore of a tongue lashing! But, I can tell you obviously are not much a Hendrix fan, especially if you can't for some reason or another figure out that not only was he the greatest guitarist ever, but a hell of a songwriter. Sometimes you just have to think, George. Think about who he had to work with, with the exception of Mitch Mitchell(one of the greatest drummers) all of those GREAT songs he came up with was basically all by his lonesome self. Also, seeing as how you only picked a few of his songs to be good enough, well, obviously you havent heard much, because I could go on and on. One other thing, I perfectly understand you choosing Clapton as your fav. over Hendrix, but to make the excuse that Hendrix was so great that you couldnt even talk about him in the same category as others or whatever is bullshit. Shouldnt that prove that he is the greatest! Ya know there isnt anything wrong with naming a second greatest guitarist, which is where you can put Clapton.

John McFerrin <stoo@imsa.edu> (27.03.2000)

Just a couple of thoughts wrt some of the comments from others here.
1. Yes, Jimi wrote a few FABULOUS songs. But even as soon as EL, which was only his third album, for crying out loud, the filler level starts to _really_ take over (though I'm not talking about all of the short songs - also, I adore 'Voodoo Child'). I think there's no question that the main heart of Jimi is not in his writing, but in his guitar playing. No man has ever been able to make a stronger claim to being "the complete guitarist" than Jimi, which leads me to my second point.
2. Saying that Jimi is the greatest guitarist ever is akin to saying that God is the most powerful guy in the universe. Well DUH. Jimi's abilities were so far beyond the comprehension of mere mortal men that it seems almost silly (and completely unfair) to merely place him at the top of the guitarist list. And in that sense, I can understand why you place Clapton at the top.

Jeff Blehar <jdb3@jhu.edu> (02.04.2000)

Unlike a lot of hard-core music lovers, for the longest time I had no affinity whatsoever for Jimi Hendrix's catalogue, barring "All Along The Watchtower" and maybe "Crosstown Traffic."  My native disposition tends much more towards music like Bowie's Station To Station and Low, or The Who's Quadrophenia, than "Purple Haze," and in fact I'm still not set on fire by that particular song, even though I know I should be.  Nevertheless, after several years of experience I have most definitely grown to love Hendrix, and I listen to his music these days more than ever, even if my love is more intellectual than instinctual. 
Why was he so damn good?  Aw cripes, can I actually add anything new to this?  You know what?  I don't give two guitar picks about Hendrix's axe technique and where it ranks among the guitarists of the world, and that's not because he wasn't the greatest guitarist to ever walk the earth (yeah, he probably was).  It's because what I really love about Hendrix is his ability to ROCK.  And The Experience, especially Mitch Mitchell, is an important part of this - no group so defined the future sound of hard rock as The Experience's drums/guitar/bass noise did, not even The Who.  There's a reason Are You Experienced? still sounds modern today, and it's 'cause nobody's really added to a formula that Hendrix and Mitchell (and to a lesser extent Redding) helped create.  There's more I could say, but I'll get to it in the reviews.
Before that, however, I'd like to say a word about the series of Hendrix reissues.  The CDs currently available on the market are the "Experience Hendrix" Hendrix Family Edition releases.  Prior to the release of these, MCA had ALREADY reissued the CDs two years earlier with new covers (something which rightfully pissed a lot of fans off, although the original covers can be found on the back of the liner notes), remastered sound, and (most importantly) EXQUISITE liner notes, so thorough and comprehensive that reading them was an experience in and of itself.  By all means, if you can find these versions of Hendrix's CDs (Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold As Love, Electric Ladyland, and :Blues) buy them, even if you have to pay a little more than normal price (you probably won't, as the only real place you're going to find them now is in used CD stores).  The liner notes completely make them worthwhile - even if you know little to nothing about Hendrix prior to buying his music, you'll be a real expert afterwards, which is great.  They even have bibliographies!  Furthermore, the NEW liner notes on the Hendrix Family reissues are quite inadequate - the best of them is Dave Marsh's essay on Are You Experienced? while the worst of them is Derek Taylor's useless notes for Ladyland.  God rest the man's soul, he was a wonderful fellow and he gave 60's rock PR a half-decent name by his talents alone, but he dropped the ball on this one.  Actually, come to think of it the worst one is :Blues - the great original liner notes were chock full of interviews with bluesmen and old legends and lore about the music, but the new notes are sparse and a pale shadow of the original (worst is the fact that it's almost impossible to determine which CD is the old Alan Douglas MCA one and which is the new Hendrix Family version - check the spine; if it reads "Experience Hendrix" it's the new version, which you should pass on).   This is nitpicking, to be sure, but I think it might be useful to folks poking around in the CD racks looking at two different versions of the same CD and wondering which one to get, since the sound quality on both sets of releases is (despite what you might have heard) identical. 

Ed Schumann <edschumann@home.com> (08.04.2000)

I'm experiencing some confusion as to the reasons you seemed to toss away Jimi's songwriting abilities.  I actually think of him as a genuinely creative and clever songwriter, with interesting melodic ideas to boot with brilliant and layered guitar work full of intricate and expressive lines.  He's actually a very capable and idiosyncratic composer and I think you're being a bit crass in your judgement.  Also, you may think me ignorant for saying this, but I really enjoy Jimi's display of lyricism.  There's a profound Dylan influence on him, but I don't think he comes off as aping him as much as he's realizing his spirit.  Listen to the lyrics of "The Wind Cries Mary", or "Castles Made of Sand", and you'll realize the genuine poetic merit of his words and unique expressions. Also, you called Are you Experienced? the first hard rock album and then give the same title to Beggar's Banquet by the Rolling Stones which came out a year later? Well, which one is it? And I also think that describing Jimi's music as hard rock is a bit of pigeon-holing him, but you have your own interpretatons.

jpcs <jpcs@xtra.co.nz> (15.06.2000)

Yeah,"3rd Stone From The Sun" probably does offer a hint about Jimi's origins, seeing as how the 3rd planet from the sun is this one we're sitting on.duh. ---

King Booben <booben1@online.ru> (02.08.2000)

Well, George, to me Jimi will always be the greatest artist and, first of all, improvisator. The guitar world is full of talented players with highly developed manner and technique of performin' , but none of them gives this feeling of something supernatural, wich flies much higher than ordinary playing - for the soul has been put into the music of Hendrix.

mjcarney <mjcarney@netzero.net> (23.08.2000)

Sure, Hendrix is always remembered for his excellent guitarwork--and believe me on guitar he cannot be beat.  However still, playing guitar really well doesn't necessarily make for a brilliant overall rock artist.  Jimi on the other hand was capable of writing and performing some amazing songs.  His greatest are well known--"Hey Joe", "Purple Haze", "Voodoo Child(Slight Return)", "Crosstown Traffic", "Little Wing" etc. etc.  However, many of the not-so-big Hendrix songs are subpar to say the least.  He really only made one masterpiece of an album--Are You Experienced--and he then started slipping, never fully able to repeat his first triumph.  That is not to say his later material is too bad, some of it far surpasses that of AYE, but also some of it is far worse than anything on his debut.  Also, Hendrix had a really poor voice which makes his poor songs--like a good third of Electric Ladyland for instance--such a chore to listen too.  I know that it is almost a crime to put down the holy Hendrix, and I can fully understand his importance in rock and roll history.  He virtually reinvented the guitar in rock and roll, he was a master innovator continually trying new and more experimental things, he was a tremedous live performer, and a great blues player.  However, I still feel that Hendrix wrote only about 25-30 great songs.  These songs are nearly untouchable by any artist.  Yet, it remains that too much of his work is poor (not horrible but poor)--and would never be listened too if it weren't for his tremendous guitar.  I wholeheartedly agree with you George that Hendrix wasn't much of a songwriter and if you look over his catalogue, this becomes blatantly obvious.  Hendrix is much like Jeff Beck--a superb guitarist who should have remained in a band to add his talent rather than try his own luck as a solo artist.  The only difference is that Hendrix is a much better guitarist than Beck, or Townshend, or Clapton, etc.  But guitar playing in rock, is only about 40% of the necessary ingredients--20% goes to bass and drums,  10% goes to voice, and 30% goes to good songwriting in my book and especially with Hendrix's style of music.  Hendrix's grades are a full 40% on the guitar, his band supplied a strong 17% on the bass and drums, his voice is rather poor (much worse than Dylan's) so there he gets a 3%, and for songwriting/arranging I would rate his a 20%.  Overall that would be about an 80% of a possible 100.  So therefore I agree with your 4/5 overall rating.  He was a tremendous artist, but giving him a 5 is getting a little carried away. 

<SkylerFlash@aol.com> (29.08.2000)

Jimi Hendrix cannot sing. Singing in a rock song is very important (just ask Meatloaf who lost 15 years of his career due to a lost voice). If only Jimmy would have only become a guitarist and not tried to be lead singer also, I may have actually become a fan. I cannot get past his voice. I've never liked rock songs without words as I feel they limit the expression of the artist. Jimi was a unique and gifted instrumental genius, but hell, so is Kenny G. HE CANNOT SING and if he acknowledged it, why the hell can't his critics. Had he lived he would have quickly lost popularity and ended up a "Poor man's Chuck Berry." Be honest, death glorifies things, and youthful death distorts and enhances one's reputation to the point of absurdity! (Are you listening Janis?) Had Michael Jackson died in the 80's he would probably have an Elvis like aura about him. Hendrix is very good, but he punishes the listener with his voice.PLAY IT DON'T SAY IT!! Clapton can actually sing a little bit, Jimi couldn't!! FACT, FACT, FACT!! I'll never be a fan, but then I'm not a guitarist either. Jimi, you died do to your own actions, and I will judge you based on the pleasure of your creations. To all his loyal fans, I must apologize. No denying his guitar playing, just couldn't get past his voice.

Spyridon Merianos <silverknight72@hotmail.com> (01.10.2000)

My name is Spyridon from Corfu Island -Greece and I would like to say just this:
God (which must be someone up there to care for us) was good enough to send some people just to show us the way to heaven (where heaven is the contact between soul and mind,that perfect balance) Jimmy,as with people like J.S.Bach or Vivaldi was a perfect teacher of how a simple man can touch (and feel by that) the inner self that we have locked up,deep as it gets.Dont stay at the songs,the music forms and all that (after all that E7#9 was his musical id) but try to feel the way he was feeling the songs the time that he was on stage..
improvisation is just a word but when you hear the sounds of war at the "machine gun" you walk the way a warrior walks and when you sing the "Voodoo child" you talk the way a god can talk "..I was standing next to a mountain,and I chop it down,with the edge of my hand.."
Music is nothing more than just an empty word without that special touch that only if we look deep inside us and bring out all our fears and hopes we can -finally- have.A true and unique blessing.
ps.an advise :don't compare,music is not a competition.

Thomas M. Silvestri <cc3000@earthlink.net> (18.10.2000)

There are some very intelligent remarks here and the subject of Hendrix could and invariably does take up volumes, so I only want to add a few things. First of all, for people really interested in the unique way Hendrix heard and created sounds, I highly recommend David Henderson's 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky, the most musically sophisticated book on Hendrix. Secondly, I don't know how anyone could ever say Hendrix was not a great rock songwriter. For one thing, the kind of "songs" he wrote completely blew the pop world out of the orbit of the Tin Pan Alley tradition, not surprisingly considering his enthusiasm for Dylan, who took a huge first step in this direction only a few years before. Only a very few "songs" like the Byrds "Eight Miles High" had even hinted before Hendrix at the kind of more complex compositions rock musicians could offer. Suffice it to say that without Hendrix, there would be no "heavy metal" or "progressive rock," no Houses of the Holy without Axis: Bold as Love, no Dark Side of the Moon without Electric Ladyland -- at the very least, progressive rock would've come into its own many years later than it did without Hendrix. The man's influence is clearly seen as unparalled when you can hear everyone from Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night to Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull raving about him. Finally, if we're talking along the lines of people like Astrid Gilberto, Placido Domingo, Montserrat Caballe, Sinead O'Connor, or even Freddie Mercury, no, Hendrix did not have a technically "good" voice. But if we're talking about classic rock 'n' roll singers, singers who come largely out of the American blues and R&B tradition, white singers like Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis and Lennon and McCartney and Jagger and Winwood and Rod Stewart and Jim Morrison and Gary Brooker, guys who grew up almost completely in awe of the music of African-Americans, Hendrix was a giant as a vocalist. A simple exercise offers proof: Listen to Dylan's vocal on his seminal "Like A Rolling Stone" (the song that Joni Mitchell says told her that American pop music had "finally grown up") and Hendrix's on his live version at Monterey. The two tracks are of course totally different and totally enjoyable in their own ways, but it's phenomenal how Hendrix effortlessly infuses this seemingly uniquely personal, impossible-to-cover song with an utterly cool, bluesy authenticity rooted in over a hundred years of American black music. And P.S. on those notes to the original Hendrix Blues album: they also offer great testimony from leading bluesmen on Hendrix's monstrous gifts in that department. (The only two copies of Hendrix records in a famous blues museum were donated by B.B. King! And it's quite fascinating to hear the once-so obviously envious Clapton, who derided Hendrix as a guitar player so foolishly in the 1973 documentary A Film About Jimi Hendrix, basically admitting twenty years later that he's never been anything but a Chicago blues-mimicking nostalgia artist when compared to Hendrix. To Clapton's credit, he recently said in an American radio interview that "Sunshine of Your Love" was directly the result of Clapton taking Jack Bruce to see Hendrix live for the first time, with Bruce rushing home to write something like Hendrix's heavier stuff and coming up with the famous "Sunshine..." riff.) P.P.S. For those who've bought into a lot of slanderous crap about Hendrix throwing away live shows, I saw the guy five times in four different venues and he was brilliant in a different way each time.
[Special author note: I would just like to note that I am in no way disrespecting Hendrix's HUGE influence on subsequent rock (and not only rock) music - I am taking this for granted. But one mustn't confuse influence with the actual quality of the material. The basic structures of Jimi's songs are actually quite simple, not a bit more complex than whatever the Beatles or any other bands with an experimental edge were making at the time. It's when we speak of Jimi's skills as a guitar technician, arranger and "soundmaster" that his talents come to light. It's one thing to discuss the basic melody of 'When The Wind Cries Mary' or 'Crosstown Traffic', which are very basic and even rudimentary, and another thing to discuss the way they are actually arranged and performed. Also, I'd like to defend Clapton: I've seen that Hendrix movie, but I don't remember Eric actually ridiculizing the guy - they were good friends and took a lot from each other.]

Thomas M. Silvestri <cc3000@earthlink.net> (20.10.2000)

Respectful response to George: I'm thinking more of tracks like "Manic Depression," "Third Stone From the Sun," "I Don't Live Today," "Up From the Skies," If Six Was Nine," "Bold as Love," "1983," "Rainy Day, Dream Away," "House Burning Down," "Freedom," and "In From the Storm" when I argue for Hendrix's skills as a songwriter. All of these songs feature really advanced (especially for their era) chords, rhythms, and time and meter changes, particularly the ones with the more pronounced jazz leanings. As for Clapton in that movie, I'm referring specifically to his ludicrous claim near the opening of the film that "he [Hendrix] wasn't that great a guitarist, he really wasn't." (I haven't watched it in awhile, but I believe that's an exact quote.) While Clapton's point that there was much more to Hendrix (charisma, vision, humor, kindness, style, showmanship) than pure playing ability is undeniable, this nevertheless bizarre remark is especially curious coming from a guy who's somehow managed to spend almost forty years in the music limelight without ever playing a jazz chord. (On that score, Moby Grape's Jerry Miller experimented more boldly and successfully on that band's first album than Clapton has done in his whole career.)

George Starostin (20.10.2000)

Okay, since a discussion is obviously brewing on here, I might as well step off the tiny font and present myself as a true commenter. Yes, it's true that Hendrix brought the jazzy trimmings into rock (which explains why so many of his songs sound so messy), but that wasn't his sole merit - Frank Zappa did it before, and while Clapton really isn't much of a jazz musician, Jack Bruce certainly is, and the whole style of Cream was based on the opposition of Clapton's bluesy guitar and Jack's jazzy bass. As for the above-mentioned songs, none of them strike me as particularly well-written, apart from a couple or so; these rhythms seem to merely provide a launching pad for Jimi's amazing playing style, and many of their rhythms could have easily been interchanged. True, they are jazzy, and they're based more on a unique improvising style and a deeply felt sense of rhythm than a sense of self-sufficient melodism.
Re the Hendrix/Clapton battle again - experimentation in music cannot be reduced to stating whether a certain musician has borrowed a lot from jazz or not, and statements like the one about the Moby Grape album are obvious exaggerations. Books have been written about Clapton's musical innovations on the Sixties scene, and I'm not going to bring up the topic here, especially since I would never argue that Clapton ever was a bigger innovator than Jimi, or even comparable. I'm not also arguing that Clapton was a better songwriter, as the general tendency is that great guitarists are rarely great songwriters. I'm not even comparing the two of them: as I said, Jimi's guitar abilities are out of the question. It's like trying to determine the best rock group and leaving out the Beatles as a separate phenomenon on a level of its own. But I'm sick of people dissing Clapton for wiredrawn crap like 'too boring' and 'too simple' and 'too derivative', etc. Eric has explored more guitar styles and playing techniques in his life than any Chicago bluesman, adding an amazing playing technique and an ability to emotionally draw in more people than Chicago bluesmen ever had. For some reason, many people prefer to judge him exclusively by his work of the last ten years, during which he was already semi-retired and playing exclusively for self-contentment, rather than his Sixties and Seventies work, which is just as important for understanding rock music as Hendrix' output.
P.S. I can't verify that Clapton quote now since my VCR is malfunctioning, but I seem to remember Eric expressing his relative disgust with Jimi's showmanship rather than his playing (the guitar-breaking thing, 'the teeth-picking', etc.). It would be a most foolish thing for Eric to say that Jimi wasn't a great guitarist in a movie dedicated to Jimi. What I do know for sure is that Hendrix agreed Chas Chandler to take him to England only on condition that Chandler would introduce Jimi to Clapton. Thus, it's rather futile to try to deride one of the two great guitarists based on the acts of the other, as there are always numerous counterarguments to be held.

Brian Adkins <badkins@mail.calltech.com> (09.11.2000)

Cmon man, you gotta give Hendrix a five. He was most certainly one of the top three guitar players, songwriters, live performers and practically perfected the speaker to speaker effect in the studio. What more can a man possibly do??? In my opinion, I dont know much about actually making music but I listen to some damn good bands (Cream, The Who, Stones, Zeppelin and some other bands you talk about) and I prefer listening to Mitchell play drums over Baker, Moon whom I think is way overrated, and Bonham. He may not be a better drummer but just playing with Hendrix at the crazy energy level he plays at, Mitchell grabs my attention and keeps it. His Woodstock performance and Ladyland alone place him in the top three drummers for me. I also like the bass playing by Noel Redding, everyone says they like Billy Cox better but if I'm not mistaken Redding plays bass on three studio albums from Exp. to Ladyland and the bass sounds great to me. As I said before I'm not a muscian and dont know excatly how guys make the sounds they make with their respective instruments but the Hendrix Experience is the only band I have listened to and could not find a song I just wanted to play again as soon as I heard it. I know its all personal preference but this is by far my favorite band and live performers. The only person I like more than Hendrix as an individual is Dylan whom I just love. Well with all that said I must say I love your website and its by far the best classic rock site I have ever visited. I would love to listen to the majority of the albums you review in my life. I am only 19 so I dont have near the record collection as you but I have a few albums by a few of these bands you talk about and I must say you are one of the most knowledgable people I have read about on the net when it comes to classic rock. Well I would just like to say thanks for all the info about so many classic rock bands and HENDRIX DESERVES A FIVE.

Javier Rodriguez <javier@interactiveedge.com> (04.12.2000)

Not only do you have no understanding of Jimi's musical ability, I can guarantee you (even if you are Eric Clapton) that you are in no way as talented as Jimi, s why knock his shit??? Jimi was doing something that few artist save for Morrison and Miles were doing and that is pushing their music in spite of themselves. It would have been a hell of a lot easier to crank out 'Voodoo Chile 1 , 2, 3' but instead he tried to explore his roots. Oh and by the way Electric Ladyland is the best Hendrix Album ever, spiritual funky and cool, just like Morrisoon and Miles

<Sabbath246@aol.com> (15.12.2000)

I disagree with your comment that this was "the first ever hard rock album". The first ever hard rock album was The Doors' debut, released just four months before this. While the impact of this album is obvious, it's just not as influential and mystical as The Doors. Jimi was, of course, a guitar mastermind, but I can think of two players who could bury him without hesitation: Carlos Santana and Floyd's Dave Gilmour, in my mind the two greatest and most emotional players ever to walk the Earth. Anyway, this album is still f.cking great. Aside from the over-rated tunes "Hey Joe", "Foxy Lady", the title track, and "Purple Haze" (the psychedelic anthem that defined a generation), there's killer cuts like "Manic Depression", "Red House", "Highway Child" and "The Wind Cries Mary". This album is great, but if you want to hear Jimi at his absolute best, get Live At Woodstock. It'll knock u on yer ass!!!

Year Of Release: 1967
Record rating = 10
Overall rating = 14

Amazing guitar tone, great hard-rockin' songs. The first ever Hard Rock Album, in fact!
Best song: PURPLE HAZE

The best thing about this album is that my version starts with six bonus tracks - Jimi's first three singles that didn't make it onto the LP first time around. Except for the rather stupid B-side '51st Anniversary', the other five songs are actually better than most of the stuff on the LP itself. And this, considering that the stuff on the LP is shattering, is fun! The three A-sides on here - 'Hey Joe', 'Purple Haze', and 'The Wind Cries Mary' - could probably serve as a mini-Hendrix anthology. 'Hey Joe', his first recorded tune and first significant hit, is yet somewhat insecure and wary. He rarely lets go, except for the short, economic solo, and mostly sticks to displaying the thing that's most essential to Hendrix music - his riffing techniques. The melody is jagged, twisted, rough, dirty and exciting, and the group's harmonies and Mitchell's mad drumming make the song an unbelievable 'experience'. However, this is just the beginning. 'Purple Haze', on the other hand, has the quintessence of Hendrix's sound embedded into it: the menacing riff, the wild soloing, the psycho lyrics, the screams, the smoke, the everything. Let's face it, as much as the song can be overplayed on radio (I wouldn't know, though, never listening to radio), it's still a dang classic, and easily Jimi's best songwriting effort. Finally, 'The Wind Cries Mary' presents us Jimi the balladeer, Jimi the Dylan-imitator: this is certainly his best attempt at imitating Bob's lyrics, and the gentle melody is also sparse, economic and haunting. Even the other two B-sides are good: 'Stone Free' is the first example of the 'manic' Hendrix (it's more typical of his sound than 'Hey Joe', by the way), and 'Highway Chile' probably marks the beginnings of rap, doesn't it? I mean, whatever you might call Hendrix' music, it's black music rather than white music, and it shows: no British or American white boy band at the time could have thought of a melody as exciting as that of 'Highway Chile'. Mind you I can't stand rap music, but this probably derives from the fact that it's been overexploited and overabused during the past fifteen years. 'Highway Chile' is great, though!
Now if you axe me 'bout the LP itself, this is what I'm gonna tell you. It rules. It was a huge sensation back then, and it still continues to amaze me even now. These songs pound, smash, crack, whirl, cringe... they're totally unbelievable. This was the place on which Jimi's only purpose was to display all his talents as a guitar player. Later on, he would start becoming arty, long-winded and, in the long run, rather screwy. Here he just revels in his newly-found studio freedom. In fact, the only 'alien' vibe he'd incorporated at the time was psychedelia, in both its 'flower power' and 'astral' form; but this is just what was needed to give his playing a little, you know, 'serious' backing. If you don't get my meaning, lemme just give you one example: the half-instrumental 'Third Stone From The Sun' might be treated as just a bunch of cool noises and outstanding guitar picking, were it not belonging to 1967. As it was, it's a groovy cosmic fluke, dude! The main melody is among the best ever written by Jimi, and is nicely complemented by special effects-laiden, encoded vocals pronouncing all kinds of space incantations.
My favourite tunes on here are the ones built on solid,. memorable riffs (because, believe it or not, riffing, not soloing, is what Jimi does best), like the sexist stage favourite 'Foxy Lady', or another sexist stage favourite 'Fire'. These songs are all incredibly simple and, frankly, I don't think they were that hard to compose, yet nobody tried doing it before Jimi! Why? Was it bravery on Jimi's part? Who can tell? That opening riff on 'Fire': why wasn't it done earlier by, say, the Rolling Stones? Drop me a line if you know the reason... You also get a couple generic, but convincing, blues tunes, like the fascinating 'Red House', and some straightforward R'n'B, like the psycho-flavoured 'Can You See Me'. Apparently, this wasn't enough for Jimi who decided to pull all the stops. For that reason, he also included some total noisefests, like the raving, bashing and crashing, appropriately-titled 'Manic Depression', and the fading in and fading out of 'I Don't Live Today' (later reprised properly only by the Beatles in 'Helter Skelter'). Of course, as Jimi was never a perfect songwriter, the album also has its share of stinkers: as soon as he relinquishes his gimmickry to play some 'normal' tunes, they quickly become infatuatingly boring, like the silly nostalgic 'Remember'. I'm also not a big fan of the mellow ballad 'May This Be Love', although I've softened my attitude a little over time - the most redeeming moment on the entire track, though, is the charming little guitar 'bleep' before the beginning of each new verse. And the title track isn't that groovy as well, except for the cool backward drums; I know I may get flamed for this, but it's far too slow, monotonous and repetitive for me. Still much better than that crazy answer from Eric Burdon, 'Yes I'm Experienced', that he put on the Winds Of Change album. At least, 'Are You Experienced?' is notorious for its lyrics which could serve as a kind of introduction to the whole hippie movement ('have you ever been experienced? not necessarily stoned, but... beautiful').
All in all, this is the kind of album that has already evaded judgement. Like it or not, it's legendary, and rightly so. What would happen if I were to give it a lower rating? Nothing. Simply nothing.

Remember to mail your ideas

Your worthy comments:

John McFerrin <stoo@imsa.edu> (25.10.99)

I'm reading your review of Are You Experienced, and am absolutely flabbergasted; there were actually versions of this LP without 'Hey Joe,' 'Purple Haze,' and 'Wind Cries Mary'? Damn the record company indeed!!
Otherwise, yeah, fantastic. The only Hendrix I own (I'll probably get EL and A:BaL eventually, though), but it's fine enough for me. I'd be shocked if any of his other albums could possibly be better than this one.

Nick Karn <glassmoondt@yahoo.com> (25.10.99)

The first significant revolution in electric guitar playing - what can I say about this one? Here's something: if there was ever a studio record (and this is a debut!) that can come close to resembling a greatest hits collection. it's gotta be Are You Experienced?. Before I heard this record and looked at the track listing, I was stunned by how many of the songs I already knew either from radio airplay or cover versions - EIGHT out of eleven tracks.
I gotta agree with you that "Purple Haze" (later badly bludgeoned, hardly 'covered' by Winger) is the top song on this album - amazingly distinctive riff that proves your point, like all the other tracks do, that his main strength was indeed creating memorable riffs. "Manic Depression" (later covered by King's X) also has fine playing (especially from Mitch Mitchell, a highly underappreciated player in my opinion) and lyrics as well - they may be a bit too derived from Dylan, but are still FAR from fluff like so many other hard songs from the late 60s on). "Hey Joe" (later re-covered by The Offspring) is an awesome cover version with lots of fire, and it also shows his shy nature in the studio at the time. "Love And Confusion" and "May This Be Love" are two great lesser tracks (the former with a haunting atmosphere, and the latter actually one of my favorite tracks on the album with beautiful guitar textures and colorful imagery). "I Don't Live Today" (later covered by the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band), meanwhile, succeeds on its' frantic nature (especially at the end).
The second half opener "The Wind Cries Mary" is just beautiful, expressive and just as memorable as the more electrifying cuts, while "Fire" (later covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers) has amazing sexual energy and is an outstanding example of Jimi's chemistry with the experience. "Third Stone From The Sun" is trippy, weird, and certainly interesting, "Foxey Lady" is sexually energized yet again with an appropriate riff for the occasion, while the title track is the most obviously trippy and psychedelic, and is another one of my personal favorites because of it - great year, 1967. As for this album, one of the easiest 10's I've ever given out, and one of the few releases I've heard that's generally perfect straight through.

<TheManticoreKing@aol.com> (28.01.2000)

Strange is may seem 'Fire' is not about sex. According to a compliation I have, with a brief biography in the liner notes, He enetered a home after remaining in the cold. I forget who the person was, I think a relative of one of the memebers of the Experience. He was freezing and pleaded the resident, "Please, let me stand next to your fire" but there dog remained perched there and refused to move. Yes, I know it sounds dumb but that's how the story goes...
[Special author note: hmmm... sounds rather fishy to me. Wouldn't that be a myth, like that story about Phil Collins and the drowned guy? Not to mention that the rest of the lyrics hardly confirms this hypothesis...]

Hunter Smith <Huntr3@aol.com> (11.02.2000)

Actually, i think he might be right about "Fire." Noel Redding claims that they were in England in December, i believe, and they stopped by Redding's mother's house. Jimi was cold. He asked if he could stand by the fire. The pooch was in the way. I know that this doesnt explain the "You dont care for me, i dont care about that" part or the "You say your momma ain't home, that ain't my concern" part either, but it does take care of the "Move over, Rover... and let Jimi take over." Of course it doesnt make sense. JIMI himself didnt make too much sense. But thats the story according to Noel Redding, and he seems to be a pretty serious chap, so......

Fredrik Tydal <f_tydal@hotmail.com> (17.03.2000)

The Hendrix family have done a really good job remastering Jimi's catalogue. And the Experience's debut album is really price-worthy, I mean; how can an album with "Foxy Lady", "Fire", "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze" and "The Wind Cries Mary" miss? It just can't. Particulary when you have hidden gems like the excellent "Highway Chile", which easily could have been a hit with that riff. This is *the* Hendrix album and it perfectly explains Hendrix's act and why he was so successful.

Jeff Blehar <jdb3@jhu.edu> (02.04.2000)

Don't expect me to try to be different and say something bad about Are You Experienced?, 'cause you'll get no such thing out of me.  However, I would like to write this review from the point of view of a Saul who has converted to a Paul - I must honestly say that when I first bought this album it really didn't appeal to me.  I mean, I respected it immensely (can anyone with a proper sense of history NOT?), but I didn't really enjoy it, truth be told, because my basic musical predilections are towards melody (a la The Beatles) or ambient sounds (a la Eno and Bowie), neither of which this album has in abundance.  Only after being floored by Electric Ladyland (my metaphorical road to Damascus) could I come back and appreciate the stripped-down fury of this album.  Yes, I just described the album as "stripped-down," despite all the fancy effects and geegaws Hendrix puts on his guitar, because despite Hendrix's showy guitar, this music is as basic and unprententious as it gets, hippie lyrics aside.  I'm sure it must have seemed quite the opposite to contemporary audiences: what on EARTH was the precedent for this in rock music?  What even gave a hint of the music Hendrix would make prior to his arrival?  The closest I think you can get is The Who on My Generation (yet not on A Quick One), but that's a pale shadow of AYE?'s impact.  It must've been like dropping a 10-ton boulder into a lake:  the immediate result was a tidal wave, the ripples were felt by everybody, and even after 30+ years, we're still catching the aftershocks. 
But if the best case I could make for Are You Experienced? was a historical one, I would probably still hold it at the respectful distance I did when I first bought it.  No, this album might be a historical document, but it's also a perfect rock 'n' roll record (and not "rock," but "rock 'n' roll," - I'd agree with Dylan that there's an important difference between the two, and the "roll" aspect of rock has sadly gone by the wayside in recent years in favor of dull plodding).  I mean, it's amazing; I have something like 900 CDs and 27 boxed sets, which means I try not to obsess on any one band too much at a time (because I want to listen to as much stuff as possible), and yet I find myself listening to this for 60 minutes, and immediately wanting to go back and hear it again.  So many records I love have aged, become a little less exciting with repeated listenings (like Who's Next, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, or Bowie's Scary Monsters (And Supercreeps), to name but a few major ones) but this one doesn't get boring.  And that's an achievement of the first order considering the fact that I'm not naturally disposed to Hendrix in the first place.
It's almost silly to review the individual songs, since every one is a stone cold classic.  I'd just like to say that "Purple Haze" does nothing special for me whatsoever; I insist that the only reason it's held in higher regard than say, "Manic Depression" is because it was released first.  Not to say that it ain't great, but that everything else here is just as good (bar perhaps "Remember," which is the ONE song that is noticeably less inspired than the others).  Like "Love Or Confusion," for example.  That's my personal favorite on the album.  Can anybody give me one good reason why every rock fan hasn't commited this song to memory?  It's just riff after riff of amazing music, powered by those drums.  Speaking of drums, I'd also like to say that the secret weapon of Jimi Hendrix is Mitch Mitchell.  I guarantee you that this album would not have been half as good as it is were it not for Mitch Mitchell's absolutely amazing work on the trapset.  Noel Redding's a good anchor on bass, but Mitchell is absolutely spectacular, perhaps the best drummer of the Sixties after a certain Mr. Moon.  Mitchell's drumming on this album deserved to win the Nobel Prize - in physics.  A 10/10, of course, and there's so much more I could say.  And really, George, this is where your "artist rating" system kind of breaks down; how on earth could this album rationally deserve anything but a 15/15?  But it can only get a 14 the way you've set it up.  C'mon, man, it's one of the most important albums of the last half-century!
In fact, here's one more thing: try to find the MCA remaster of this album rather than the Hendrix family version, not only because of the liner notes (which I mentioned above), but because of the much more logical (and faithful) track listing.  This is the somewhat confusing story: way back in 1967, this album was released in the U.K. before it was in the U.S., chiefly because us Americans are racist bastards.  Prior to its release, Hendrix released three singles, perhaps you've heard of them?: "Hey Joe"/"Stone Free" (released December 1966), "Purple Haze"/"51st Anniversary" (released March 1967), and "The Wind Cries Mary"/"Highway Chile" (released May 1967, concurrently with Are You Experienced?).  Hard as it may be for some Americans to believe, these songs were NOT on the UK version of the album (they were put onto the US version, and "Red House, "Can You See Me?," and "Remember" were dropped), and the MCA remaster did right in placing the singles/B-sides at the front of the disc and then giving the album in its original, UK running order.  Because let's put American snobbishness aside (unlike Dave Marsh in his liner notes for the new Hendrix Family version of the album) and admit that the UK version is the authentic one, just like the British Revolver or Rubber Soul are the authentic versions of those albums.  If you want to set up your Hendrix Family disc to play in the original running order (I always do), here's how you program it (I've thrown so much useless information into this review, why not this too?): (singles/B-sides) 3, 12, 1, 13, 7, 14, (UK AYE? album) 10, 2, 17, 15, 4, 6, 5, 8, 9, 16, 11.  Have fun.
Oh, and one final thing: after listening to "Hey Joe," I think we can all safely say we know where Jimmy Page REALLY stole the "Whole Lotta Love" riff from.  

Year Of Release: 1986
Record rating = 6
Overall rating = 10

If you can draw the burning guitar in your imagination, get this at all costs.
Best song: ROCK ME BABY

Certainly the most historically important Hendrix live performance, just because it really introduced him to vast American audiences in that crucial Summer of Love, 1967: actually, he impressed the audiences so much that the fat guys immediately signed him up as a warm-up act for... the Monkees. Heh, heh; poor Jimmy, he was always stuck in a somewhat unsuitable company. (His next States tour was with mister Humperdinck, if I'm not mistaken). To be serious, though, the concert simply made Jimi an overnite international star and basically changed the course of rock music: after the festival, hard electrifying rock really became a terrifying force to be reckoned with, and this is for the most part due to performances by the Who and Jimi.
However, if you take away historical importance (and you should: I'm not reviewing these albums as archive units of interest to rock music historians, dammit, I'm reviewing them as pieces of music for one's overall enjoyment, to be listened to today!), it's not that great. Jimi is in top form, of course: he really wanted to be in top form, and, seeing as he was following the Who, he needed to be in top form (there's a humorous little tidbit, in fact, about Jimi arguing with Townshend over who was gonna go first on stage, but I'm not gonna reproduce that bearded story right here). And the song selection is quite okay: all of his incredible early A-sides, some groovy material from Experienced and some immortal covers. But...
...believe it or not, I can't really imagine what these performances add to the original versions. In that respect, I'd much prefer listening to a late, half-improvised Hendrix jam session, or, better still, confine myself to his studio albums. See, while it might have originally been Pete Townshend's idea to bring the live sound of their concerts into the studio, he never quite succeeded at it: after the initial shy attempts of 'Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere', 'My Generation' and 'The Ox' he drifted off into 'artistic wasteland', and from then on the Who live and the Who in the studio became two different bands. Likewise were the Stones and Cream - two other essential live bands of the late Sixties. Jimi, on the other side, mastered the effort of going berserk in the studio completely - so much, in fact, that his terrifying, uncompromised guitar howls in the studio are often downright more exciting than the live ones. This means one thing: you don't really need any live Hendrix albums if you're not a complete fan. And Monterey is a clear proof. The early singles sound like carbon copies of the originals, and the Experienced numbers ('Can You See Me' and 'Foxy Lady'), although done with enough verve and fire, are still inferior. Yeah, it's interesting to see how Jimi plays all these things in a totally 'raw' manner, but problem is, his studio playing was quite 'raw', too; in any case, the band didn't really employ that much special tricks on their first album (full-blown experimentation wouldn't begin until Axis), and the tunes where they did employ special tricks, like 'Are You Experienced?', aren't performed here, although Jimi does insert the 'not necessarily stoned, but beautiful' motto into the spoken sections of 'Purple Haze'.
That leaves us with the four covers, and you might think they would at least be worth your money. Don't think that. Okay, the two R'n'B numbers - 'Killing Floor' and 'Rock Me Baby' - are totally shattering, mainly because they're faster than anything Jimi tried on his debut LP. They roar and tear, and you get to witness that Jimi was just as well a speed master as anything else. 'Rock Me Baby' is particularly good, with Jimi almost throttling his guitar through every verse. However, the seven-minute long cover of 'Like A Rolling Stone' is dull (it was Mark Prindle's remark that he says 'okay, now let me bore you for five or six minutes' and then proceeds to do so, and I agree completely): his first attempt at covering a Dylan tune makes it lose most of the charm that the song ever contained. And the album (and show) closer 'Wild Thing'... well, I know it's a classic, of course, and as a song, it's funny, but the thing is, he finishes it with that guitar-burning/smashing trick, which should be watched (I saw it in the movie Hendrix, actually, and it's fascinating). When just listened to, it doesn't produce any effect at all, at least, not on second listen. Just a bunch of horrendous, totally unbearable noise. Truthfully. You'll just have to switch off your CD player five minutes too early. Which leaves us with two indispensable covers, five inferior versions of superior originals, and two unbearable 'jams'. I deem it worth a 6, but that's not Jimi's fault. Mind you, the show was certainly terrific. But if you want to get some entertaining live Hendrix, you'd better find something later (like Woodstock, for instance), where he goes on that improvisatory vibe and actually adds something to your listening experience.
Actually, the grooviest sections of this whole album are probably Jimi's on-stage banter: all these remarks depict him as a really friendly and talkative kind of guy, even if his endless rapping does sometimes get on my nerves, plus I often can't even decipher a thing he says. And who knows what he was talking about when he said he was gonna 'sacrifice' something before he tears into 'Wild Thing'? Was that his doomed guitar he was talking about?

Rock me baby, by mailing your ideas

Your worthy comments:

Fredrik Tydal <f_tydal@hotmail.com> (13.03.99)

I've got this one as part of the Monterey box set, which includes Hendrix's whole set. "Killing Floor" and "Rock Me" smokes of course. I also like all album and single cuts; can you ever get enough of live "Purple Haze"s? I think "Hey Joe" is great, too. I don't know, maybe that's because The Byrds does an awful cover of it on the previous disc of the box set. On a side note, Crosby introduces their "Hey Joe" by dedicating it to "a cat whose gonna perform here tonight - Jimi Hendrix". The crowd didn't make a sound, of course, they had no idea who he was; but the next day, they would know. Ah, well - I like the cover of "Like A Rolling Stone", actually. Perhaps because it's totally unpredictable. The original is superior of course, but I have heard worse covers of it, I tell you. He seems so self-assured on that one; perfectly in control of the song ("yes, I know I missed a verse; don't worry"). I think he catches some of the charm and power of the song, but just some. Just one question; why does he keep refering to Bob Dylan's grand-mother? He does it, like, three times during the set. Seems to come right out of the blue. Well, Jimi's completely unpredictable - like when he seemingly launches into "Strangers In The Night" during "Wild Thing". The guitar burning and smashing during the same number is of course also unpredictable, but should be seen on film. All in all, I think Jimi's Monterey show is far more than historical importance.

Year Of Release: 1967
Record rating = 8
Overall rating = 12

Hendrix as the Guru of Psychedelia. If you're interested in that aspect of his, this, not RUX, should be your first buy.
Best song: LITTLE WING

Hrr, hmm. Obviously, Mr Jimi Hendrix didn't want to imagine himself as a simple guitar-burning hero already at this early point in his career. That's perfectly understandable, but it hurts his next record significantly. Experienced? was such a perfect recording in the first place that there was nothing left to prove about Jimi: he was the greatest guitarist, he was THE experimentator, showing these wusses the Who some real tricks, and the 'really cool dude', too. So on Axis he tried a more complicated approach, putting care into his lyrics and reveling in Dylanish imagery. There's also not as much guitar craze: apart from special distractions like 'If 6 Was 9', the experimentation is less wild and, I'd say, more artificial - read the liner notes to find out what pains the band members had to go through in order to find some new amusing kind of feedback or anything like that. And, since your attention isn't really drawn to gimmicks this time, you can't but try to concentrate on the melodies. And this is where the obvious becomes evident (my, that's a good way I have with words): these melodies are all trivial, if existent at all. Lots of songs are really one and the same, and even Jimi's masterful riffing doesn't save them nohow.
'EXP' begins the record quite fine, with a humorous 'cosmic' sound collage devoted to Paul Caruso and flying saucers, but immediately afterwards lovers of heavy guitar rock will be disappointed because, one after another, Jimi just delivers mellow pop songs! There's just about a couple of songs which have that old rockin' magic about them, and both are certainly inferior to the older ones. Well, I've grown to like them more than I once used to: originally, I just considered 'Spanish Castle Magic' a bore, for instance, while now I'm able to recognize the melody and the fact that the song really has substance, not just an overwhelming, powerful beat borrowed from 'Foxy Lady'. Now I simply regard the song as a nice, strong psycho anthem - but still, nothing more. And the magnum opus of the record is the schizophrenic chaos of 'If 6 Was 9', which is just a bit too schizophrenic for my tastes: in the long run, it is saved only by some interesting lyrics reflecting Jimi's life philosophy and the cool noises in the end, including a flute imitation.
But none of the other songs have even a tenth part of this power. Worse, they all resemble each other (I think I said that already): they start with some dirty, Hendrix-style sloppy rhythm playing with Jimi humming some rappy lyrics along to himself so that nobody can hear him at all, after which he goes wheeez! and we go off into the fast and heavy part which features exactly the same components, only everything is louder (songs sometimes include backing vocals by Noel and Mitch; strange enough, these often save the songs in the end). 'Up From The Skies', 'Wait Until Tomorrow', 'Ain't No Telling', 'Little Miss Lover', 'You Got Me Floating', they're all really the same song. Well, maybe not exactly the same song, but they all sound samey to me. They set the same mood, get it? Strike the same chord! Bite the same nerve! thank God, they're all short: Jimi wasn't yet willing to go for lengthy structures that would surface on his next album. And thank God, they're all quite listenable. They're all catchy and very nice, in fact, and the guys do some lovely work on the vocal harmonies, especially on 'Wait Until Tomorrow' and 'You Got Me Floating'. Dang, 'Ain't No Telling' might even be one long-forgotten classic on here - I love it how Jimi sings 'well there ain't no' and Noel and Mitch echo 'ain't noooooooo...' But what can really be done? I can easily call these songs good and solid, but definitely not outstanding. Something is only outstanding when it stands out, see, and these tunes don't stand out - they're all so similar it's sometimes maddening.
Still, not everything is that pathetic. In between all the 'artistic' filler, you'll find inserted several eternal gems, like the beautiful ballad 'Little Wing' (IMHO, it was later done much better by Eric Clapton as a posthumous tribute, but that's just me; I regard Clapton's version as far more emotional, maybe because it works better when taken in the context of Jimi's death), or the Dylan-inspired musing 'Castles Made Of Sand' (still far inferior to 'The Wind Cries Mary'). And Noel Redding's often overlooked contribution, the trippy love ballad 'She's So Fine', turns out to be better than most of Jimi originals on here. Which says a lot for me, really. Finally, I'm an active hater of the title track: a misguided, melodyless raving which distinguishes itself only by featuring phasing for the first time on a rock record (even if the liner notes say that they were preceded by the Small Faces). Don't condemn me. I sat through it ten times in a row once trying to figure out what the heck is the big deal with it. I'm still at a loss.
Why do I give the record such a high rating then, would you ask? Well, I really don't know. I might be saying a very strange thing, but the record cooks on the general level. The individual songs might nearly all be so-so, but this is one album that must be listened to as a whole - even if it is not, strictly speaking, a concept album at all. There's just something about the general atmosphere of it that's intoxicating. A kind of chemistry, because, if you try to analyze it element by element, you'll be highly disappointed. Maybe it's just that Hendrix sound that seems so enchanting, regardless of anything he is really trying to produce. Like I said - he sounds as if he was born with a guitar attached to his arm. This is just such a friendly, inviting record. He's, like, trying to really tell you: 'Look here, brothers and sisters, forget about the macho sexism, the revolutionizing of the guitar, the wild behaviour in the studio, let's just play guitar and have a good time'. For me, the album works even better if I'm not trying to listen to it carefully - it works as great, moody background music, a music which I don't have to get deep into, but neither do I have to dance to it. I just can live to it, if you get my drift. Anyway, that's what Jimi always wanted, isn't it? Wasn't he the one who said that he was trying to use his music as a call to action? Well - there you go.

Ain't no telling when you're gonna mail your ideas

Your worthy comments:

Jeff Blehar <jdb3@jhu.edu> (02.04.2000)

I've got to admit, For the longest time I never really understood Axis: Bold As Love.  Recently it's begun to improve in my estimation, but it's still gruesomely overrated.  I see some people inexplicably rating it as Hendrix's finest album (pace Wilson & Alroy), but all I see is a really good but not great album which has been elevated to immortality by the Hendrix Myth.  You know that myth: it's the one which says that everything he released while he was alive was brilliant, perfect, and touched with divine genius.  And, as folks like George and Mark Prindle have calmly pointed out, it's just that - a myth.  Well okay, Mark said it funnier, but he always does.  Now both of them call it a myth for different reasons; the album they like to downplay is Electric Ladyland, which I maintain is Hendrix's magnum opus, but it might as well apply to Axis.
Of all the Experience albums, this is the most subdued, flying under radar almost the entire time - the first ten times I listened to it, I would have had trouble telling you much about ANY of the tracks bar "EXP" (which I don't really mind: what's wrong with sound experiments?  It's not a great one, this I'll admit, but it's one of the first, and that should surely count for something) and "Little Wing," which actually isn't super memorable but I had known it before.  In fact, none of the songs here except "If 6 Was 9" are immediately memorable in the way that the reversed drum patterns of "Are You Experienced" or the galumphing swingstep of "Manic Depression" are.  But here's the twist: just 'cause they're not as immediately grabbing as the tracks on Are You Experienced? doesn't mean they're not great.  The byword for Axis is subtlety.  Subtle like the supercool brushes and wah-wah pedal on "Up From The Skies," which I really dig for its laid-back groove.  Subtle like the heart-wrenching guitarwork and classy glockenspiel on "Little Wing" or the (good) "Wind Cries Mary" remake of "Castles Made Of Sand."  There's exactly ONE AYE?-style rocker on this album, and it's "Spanish Castle Magic": catchy like anything else from that album, but somewhat out-of-place.  The other up-tempo numbers ("You Got Me Floatin'," Redding's decent "She's So Fine") are more pop than rock, while "Little Miss Lover" betrays a heavy R&B influence that would come to the fore on Ladyland.
So the album is certainly good, and very thoughtfully produced, but that thoughtful production is so painstaking precisely because it masks the fact that Jimi isn't really progressing much as a musician or as a writer.  There's nothing really original on this album like there is on AYE? and Ladyland, nothing except very professionally done power trio rock.  Perhaps that's why some people say it's Hendrix's most consistent album - unlike AYE? which, while brilliant all the way through, was produced in such a way that each track sounds separated from the next and disunited.  Axis doesn't really stumble anywhere (although I for one don't care for "Bold As Love," phasing or no phasing), but it doesn't really soar, either.  There isn't a "Love Or Confusion" here, no "House Burning Down," not even a thoroughly beautiful ballad like "Angel" (although that song DID begin its life at the sessions for this album, as anyone who owns South Saturn Delta will know).  I'll give it a 7/10 and perhaps it will grow on me even further.

Year Of Release: 1968
Record rating = 7
Overall rating = 11

The famous Hendrixopaedia, it just isn't that easy to assimilate, and, frankly speaking, I'm not sure whether it's even worth assimilating.
Best song: VOODOO CHILE (SLIGHT RETURN)

Oh, well, at least we may be sure Hendrix wasn't one of those types that were happy with re-doing the same record over and over again. This is probably his most well-crafted and meticulously conceived project - the aim was to take all the best from the previous albums and add something new. So it manages to combine the ooomph! and wild guitarmanship of Are You Experienced? with the artsiness, psychedelia and, er, lyrical wit of Axis, and does it in a good way, so that it becomes possible to think of Hendrix the axeman and Hendrix the guru as the same person. But, since the album is a double one, you also get lots of cool grooves: lengthy blues jams, tons of Floydian special effects, as well as Jimi's newly-found soul identity and a beautiful, definitely 'physical', naked ladyland on the album cover (apparently, there are several variants of the cover floating around, but mine is the original one). Terrific!
Unfortunately, Jimi blew it on one count. The individual songs, when carefully processed and assessed, just aren't that good, which means his songwriting clearly had no way of improving itself. The best numbers on here are either covers of straightforward blues/R'n'B ripoffs, and the few moments of genuine enjoyment are usually provided by tidbits of phenomenal guitarwork (some of his best ever chops are hidden in the depths of the record) or by straps of his newly-found singing voice which turns out to be a good one after all. The melodies? Nada. The album is, in fact, dominated by two mega-huge (at least, for 1968) compositions, both of which have their moments but are totally unbearable when taken in their wholeness. The 14-minute 'Voodoo Chile' jam (featuring Stevie Winwood on piano) is good at first listen, because, after all, a Hendrix jam is always something special, but it's not the kind of thing you'd like to turn to again and again, if you're not a diehard, of course. There's some good soloing, of course, but the non-soloing part is deadly boring (and long), and the solos themselves are often superated in smaller songs throughout the album (most notably in the last three numbers). And the second number is even longer: a multipart psychedelic suite ('Rainy Day Dream Away' and the following) which starts okay, like a hip-hopping rocker, then becomes a plaintive chant with an actually beautiful melody ('1983'), and finally degenerates into a seven minute noisefest which doesn't have anything to do with Hendrix - it's just an obligatory tribute to the 'artsy' sound collages of the epoch. I do, however, admit, that 'Rainy Day' and its reprise 'Still Raining Still Dreaming' do feature one of the most fascinating guitar bits I've ever heard. It's the little instrumental passage before Jimi starts singing ('rainy day dream away...') where there's a wah-wah guitar sounding like two people talking to each other. It's so cool I could listen to it for hours - unfortunately, it's maybe about fifteen seconds long. Now here's a truly creative idea, Jimi, why didn't you milk this one instead of fuckin' up on 'Moon Turn The Tides Gently Gently Away'?
So, anyway, it's mostly some of the short numbers that make the grade. 'Have You Ever Been To Electric Ladyland' has Jimi sounding like a really great soul star (which he more or less was). 'Crosstown Traffic' is one of the few Axis-tinged numbers on here, a cute little pop tune with Experience backing vocals I like so much. Noel gets his last chance to shine on 'Little Miss Strange' - I don't know why everybody hates the guy's songwriting so much. Me, for one, thinks he had at least as much talent for songwriting as Jimi himself. He just wrote soft pop numbers, that's all, but Jimi often did even softer numbers. Then there's the rave retro rocker 'Come On (Let The Good Times Roll)'; it's a cover, and good for it, 'cause Jimi couldn't write a song nowhere near as good. He sure could play an old rock'n'roll song, that's for sure! Ever heard him playing 'Johnny B. Goode', by the way? No? Blows the original to pieces! 'Gypsy Eyes' is good, but my favourite part is where Jimi sings 'well I realize I really need those eyes', it's such a weird guitar line over there. Unfortunately, it turns into a pedestrian rocker soon afterwards. So screw it and take 'Burning Of The Midnight Lamp', an old rewritten single with a fascinating wah-wah intro and a sea of guitar sound. 'House Burning Down' does nothing for me just as well, but the final two songs are a real something.
First of all, there's the famous cover of Dylan's 'All Along The Watchtower' which just can't go wrong. Since Jimi's main problem lied in creating melodies, how could he ruin such a great one? It's an all-time classic, and rightly so: the stellar guitarwork on the solos certainly presages Jimmy Page's solo on 'Stairway To Heaven' and is actually one of the first and best examples of these 'heavenly', climactic solos that would later become so popular and, unfortunately, so abused among prog rockers and metalheads. My only complaint is that, try as he might, Jimi just can't beat the master at his own game: the song's lyrics do not fit in with his arrangement at all (not that he cared, there are multiple live versions where he sings the first verse three times). Whoever calls this version an improvement over Dylan's original should better not listen to Dylan at all. It's just something very different - okay, not necessarily worse, just different.
Finally, the album closer (for which I specially raised the rating one point) ranks among the most guitar-powerful songs of all time. Yeah, yeah, I know I said I hate 'Voodoo Chile', but this five-minute '(Slight Return)' isn't really like that boring jam at all! It's a steamy, powerful rocker where Jimi plays just one guitar but it seems like he's playing at least three at the same time - one for rhythm, one for solo, one for the wall-of-sound! And he spews out some amazing licks which you'll never get to hear from him on any other studio track: if you ever doubted his being in excellent form on the album, this is his final remembering to you that he really is.
So I'm tired. Tired of everything. Tired of having to sit through the album, tired of having to write this review, tired of life, and Jimi's to blame. Nope, kidding again. It's a good record, but no sir it doesn't live up to its reputation. I still think the two previous albums stated the point much more precisely and effectively. If I want a fourteen-minute long jam, I'll go and get myself a live album. Hmm. Come to think of it, 'Voodoo Chile' is a live jam. Just not a very good one.

Have you ever been to electric ladyland? Then tell me what you think about it

Your worthy comments:

Marco Ursi <zeppelinwho@hotmail.com> (01.09.99)

Oh my, no one has even made a comment about any of you Jimi Hendrix reviews! Even Ringo's page has a comment for goodness sakes! Oh well, I'm listening to this album right now and I've just realized how good it is. It has a lot of soul. It sounds like black music. Jimi's singing is great on here, better than on any of his other releases. The atmosphere of the album is very laid back and I even like the screwy stuff like "1983...". Very cool. The 13-minute "Voodoo Chile" jam is great. The Dylan cover is better than the original, no matter what you say George. And "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" has the great riff of all-time. I'd give it an 8.

Nick Karn <glassmoondt@yahoo.com> (25.10.99)

This ambitious collection simply suffers from what almost all double albums do - too much filler, particularly on Side B ("Burning Of The Midnight Lamp", "Little Miss Strange", etc.), which are far from the Experience's best efforts, but I'd still give this album an 8 instead of a 7 in spite of its' disappointments (the very boring and rather pointless jam "Voodoo Chile" is tops as far as that goes) because the best tracks are truly in a class by themselves. "Come On", "All Along The Watchtower" (I haven't heard Dylan's version of this one, but Jimi does a great enough job here), and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" are all standards for God-like guitar soloing (particularly that triumphant final cut).
Meanwhile, the two underappreciated classic sleeper songs here in my opinion are "Crosstown Traffic" and "House Burning Down", which are Jimi at his most infectious. The absolute peak of this album for me, though, is the whole 20 minute-plus "Rainy Day, Dream Away" suite. The beginning title track is totally groovy, but the "1983" section with that gorgeous, phenomenal melody and surreal atmosphere is such an otherwordly experience, so it more than makes up for whatever harm that following noise collage (which doesn't seem that nasty to me anyway) might do. The ending "Still Raining, Still Dreaming" goes back into that cool groove to finish things off, and like you, I also find that 'guitar that sounds like two people talking' bit interesting. I guess those two people had their 15 seconds of fame there - it's too bad Jimi and his artsy ambitions had to take it away from them. :)

Jeff Blehar <jdb3@jhu.edu> (02.04.2000)

Is Electric Ladyland really that difficult to assimilate?  I don't really remember having any problem getting into it instantly, and up until the point I bought it I didn't much care for Hendrix.  I'm beginning to think that this album is just one of those places where my views are just fundamentally different than a lot of other people's, since everywhere I turn I see people calling the songs I really like from this album "filler."  (This refers to the comments on Prindle's site as well.)  I just don't see it; how can "Crosstown Traffic," "Gypsy Eyes," "Long Hot Summer Night," "Burning Of The Midnight Lamp," or "House Burning Down" be filler?  Those are highlights!  For me the only "filler" (and it's not really filler, just songs I like less than the others) on Electric Ladyland is "Rainy Day, Dream Away" and "Still Raining, Still Dreaming," although what's in between that jam sandwich is triumphant indeed.
Anyway, I'm focusing on the trees when I ought to be looking at the forest: Electric Ladyland is Jimi Hendrix's finest album, one of the few double-albums without clutter, and a hazy, trippy, foggy (look at that back cover!) psychedelic masterpiece.  I'm sure some people find the 15-minute blues of "Voodoo Chile" to be boring and hopelessly self-indulgent, but I find it to be not only an amazingly dark mood piece, but an important part of Hendrix's personal mythology and, all-around, a thrillingly engaging, lumbering beast of a song.  It drips menace from every pore, smokey bass notes vibrating here and there, a demon guitar solo splitting the air, and all held together by Steve Winwood's organ.  And that's really the most controversial song here, except possibly the noise tracks "...And The Gods Made Love" and "Moon Turn The Tides...gently, gently away," both of which I'm gaga over.  Why do people object to these?  They're there because Electric Ladyland is supposed to be heard as a whole (yeah, that's a lot to sit through); these are the scene-setters.  In fact, THAT'S what makes Ladyland so powerful; it's not the individual songs (though they're almost all good) but the overall effect: Hendrix is working in soundscapes here, cross-fading tracks and using effects to conjure images in the listener's head.  Eventually the album just becomes a swirling miasma of sound, and every now and then a more fully-formed song like "Watchtower" bubbles to the surface and erupts.  Nowhere is this sound-painting technique better illustrated (or better executed) than in the epic aquatic journey of "Rainy Day"/"1983"/"Moon Turn The Tides"/"Still Raining": this is just flat out amazing, insofar as you really go on a JOURNEY, starting above water, and gradually descending to the bottom of the ocean.  Doesn't anybody else feel like they're walking on the sea floor when that echoey, watery flute comes in near the end of "1983?"  Perhaps if you don't like sound effects you'll hate this, but if you do it's about ten thousand times better than Pink Floyd's similar attempt in "Echoes."
What else is there to say?  Other than the fact that I think you really need to hear this album as a cohesive whole rather than a collection of separate tracks, not much.  It IS a Hendrixopaedia as you said, except that I think it manages to capture all the most mesmerizing aspects of his music, and very few of the boring ones (let me again say that I have little affection for the jazz/blues of "Rainy Day").  Even Noel Redding's song ("Little Miss Strange") kicks ass; it's a great way to return to the real world after the extended freak out of "Voodoo Chile."  I'll grant that it's exhaustive, and this isn't an album you can listen to every day at the drop of a hat, but if you've never been to Electric Ladyland, now's the time to make that journey.  As the man himself said, "Don't be late."  10/10.

John McFerrin <stoo@imsa.edu> (25.10.99)

Well ... I like it. Quite a bit. It's nowhere near as good as AYE, but it's great. I agree completely with all those who point out that this _must_ be listened to as an album and not merely as a collection of individual songs. Which is important, because some of the shorter songs are undeniably filler. I don't hate as many as Prindle does, but I don't like 'Long Hot Summer Night', 'Gypsy Eyes', 'Burning of the Midnight Lamp' or 'House Burning Down' much at all.
The rest, on the other hand ... For starters, I will say that I flatout adore 'Voodoo Chile'. It's just so dark and menacing, and I would say that I loved it from the very first listen. And I also love that suite. Man, when the vocals start breaking up and echoing in '1983', I feel like I'm entering paradise. And the sound bit is simply mesmerizing, if you ask me.
Throw in classic songs like 'Slight Return', 'Watchtower', or even lesser-knowns like 'Little Miss Strange' (great song) and 'Crosstown Traffic', and you have a psychadelic masterpiece. I'd give it a 12 easily, and maybe even a 13! Just because it works so well as a whole.

Fredrik Tydal <f_tydal@hotmail.com> (27.07.2000)

Seven is a bit low... I feel there's a whole lot of good individual tracks here to justify a higher grade. True, "Have You Ever Been..." is a lovely song, while I think "Crosstown Traffic" is kind of the quintessential Hendrix song - a mixture of all his styles. "Voodoo Chile" might be a bit long, but I like it - a really inspired performance. Jack Casady's thunderous bass is a delight to listen to. Casady was actually considered the part as Jimi's new bass player after the Experience broke up, but in the end Jack probably couldn't abandon his good pal Jorma. Interestingly, though, Hendrix mis-spelt his fellow musician as "Cassidy" in the original liner notes and it has remained so ever since, even in the subsequent re-issues. Redding's "Little Miss Strange" is enjoyable, with some tasty guitar-work from Hendrix. The album moves on to even more solid tracks, with stand-outs in B.B. King's "Let The Good Times Roll" and "Burning Of The Midnight Lamp". But then, unfortunately comes the mis-step with "1983" - which starts out just fine but then moves on to deadly boring, uncharted territory. As to "All Along The Watchtower", the original and Jimi's cover is two different songs with different qualities. As a side-note, Dylan actually said in an interview that "I guess he [Hendrix] improved it ["Watchtower"] with those guitar solos". And the album closes off on a really good note in "Slight Return". I have to admit there's a certain aura over the album, so there's a bit more to it than the sums of its parts. So, all things considered, I'd give it an 8.5, verging on a 9.

<Tally05@aol.com> (20.09.2000)

your statement about 'miss strange' is crazy that song is obvious in its inferiority and could make us seriously prejudiced fans cringe even with the best drugs to help it along. please stop boasting about not having listened to the radio etc. it was your loss/. having fun reading your stuff though I am a serious music review fan and am drawn to reading it for some reason.
[Special author note: You said it, Tally05. Stop being a prejudiced fan. As for the radio, not listening to it might have been my loss, but I guess it also saved me a couple million brain and nerve cells. You know, fresh healthy brain cells and nerve cells are rather hard to come by these days.]

Year Of Release: 1999
Record rating = 7
Overall rating = 11

Just one thing: you won't find Jini playing like this anywhere else.
Best song: VOODOO CHILE (SLIGHT RETURN) and everything that comes after it

Historically important? Without a doubt. But to hell with historical importance; this is probably the best live Hendrix album ever released. Beware: like so many other Hendrix artefacts, this performance has also been subject to lots of rip-offs over the years. Recently, though, the Hendrix family has finally cleaned up the product and released a double CD-set that contains the complete performance, remastered and cleared and with all the audience interaction and probably tons of liner notes and stuff, so any diehard Hendrix fan should immediately start tracking it down. Me, I have a single-CD variant of the album (possibly a pirated copy? ah, who knows - Russia is a land of surprises) which omits a couple of songs, notably 'Spanish Castle Magic' and some other instrumental whose name I've forgotten. I'm quite happy with this single-CD copy, though - it's eighty minutes long, and it does wear me out when it comes to the end of the rope.
The usual complaint is: for Woodstock, Jimi had assembled his worst backing band ever; the players barely knew each other and the material, and this was so far from the tight gel of the Experience that some consider the concert to have been quite shitty. There are several counterarguments to this theory, though. First, I never feel any real trouble with the backing band. If I don't listen too close to a Hendrix live recording, I never hear anything much except for Jimi's guitar anyway - okay, guitar and drums, maybe, but Mitch Mitchell is drumming at this concert, and he hasn't lost a thing (why should he?) So I don't care, really, if it's Noel Redding or Billy Cox on the base - who pays attention to bass guitar at a Hendrix live show, anyway? The only evident minus is that there are no band harmonies at all, and thus, for instance, this version of 'Fire' seems pathetic because there are none of these robotic 'let me stand next to your fire' backing vocals that made the tune so fascinating in the first place.
The second counterargument has been said many times before - Jimi tried to compensate for his backing band's lack of prowess by completely overshadowing everything with the guitar and going off into lengthy, thunderstorm-like jams. And boy, does he really pull all the stops on here. If it's Jimi's amazing guitar techniques that attract you most of all (and, well, they should), Woodstock is the place to start. Or, maybe not - maybe it's the place to finish; after you've sat through the final quarter of the album even once, every other guitar passage on any other selected album, live or studio, will seem pale in comparison.
The main section of the concert, to be quite frank, isn't all that fascinating. 'Fire', like I said, sounds pathetic, and Jimi brings on a couple of weaker tracks from his 'new' upcoming project like 'Izabella' which hardly go anywhere. 'Red House' and 'Foxy Lady' are good, but formulaic; 'Hear My Train A-Comin' is too slow and too long, and the real excitement is only provided in the album opener, 'Message To Love', where Jimi solos like a demon. But if you ask me, well, he'd simply been saving his most impressive efforts for the end - starting from 'Voodoo Chile', it's really hard to get distracted from even a single note.
I've always loved 'Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)' in its studio variant, but let me tell you: if you haven't heard the live version off Woodstock, you haven't lived. It's impossible even to start describing it here - the intro sounds like a couple hundred guitars joined in unison, as Jimi masterfully adds his staccato solos onto the main crunching riff, and the main solo of the tune crushes every possible barrier on its way. The poor fans who'd already gone home (Jimi played his set on the very last morning of the festival when the site had already been half-cleared) must have spent the rest of their lives cursing themselves for having missed this moment. It seems that Jimi simply set himself a goal - to examine every single fret and every single knob on his guitar and to squeeze out every possible sound it could ever reproduce in given conditions. However, 'Voodoo Chile' is a song, after all, not just chaotic noisemaking; what follows it, though, is chaotic noisemaking, as Jimi successfully butchers 'Star Spangled Banner'. I guess that everyone has heard Jimi butcher the national anthem at least once in his or her life, but it certainly sounds better when placed in this context, jarred between the breathtaking versions of 'Chile' and 'Purple Haze', than isolated on a hits collection.
But I'd also like to point out that the album ends with 'Woodstock Improvisation' and 'Villanova Junction' (not to mention the encore of 'Hey Joe') - two improvised tracks the likes of which you'll simply never meet anywhere else. Because these two tracks are something different - they're not even rock music. On 'Improvisation', Jimi simply strums his guitar at an alarming rate, resulting in a series of strange, upbeat sequences that are somewhere in between jazz and Latin, but are neither; and on 'Villanova Junction', he quiets down the band, calms down himself and plays this moving, captivating melody that has no aggression at all - just a deep sense of mystique, compassion and wiseness. This piece of music is also used in the Woodstock movie - it is synchronized with the security and cleaning guys walking through the heaps of garbage left by the hippies and cleaning everything up. Time to relax and analyze the festival's consequences, eh?
Actually, much of this piece, starting with 'Voodoo Chile' and ending with 'Junction', is present in the movie itself, albeit severely cut (and on the movie soundtrack, too). In that way, I'd probably recommend you to start with the movie - and if you like it, well, you can proceed to the album from there. But believe me, this sequence of five tracks - and I'm not exaggerating - might well be the culmination and the quintessence of everything Jimi was ever up to. Mindblowing.

Hear my train a-comin', and mail your ideas

Your worthy comments:

Hunter Smith <Huntr3@aol.com> (05.02.2000)

I fully agree. The Woodstock Live album IS the real deal. Yes, Jimi does go off on too many solo's, (most of them dont go together either) its still the most amazing thing i have ever heard, or seen. I just bought the performance on DVD and lemme tell you something, fellas, its NICE. It doesnt have "Hey Joe" or "Spanish Castle Magic" but it has everything else (i think). I agree on the "Fire" part, it was kinda bad, but i thought it was hilarious when he breaks into his solo and points in Larry Lee's direction, and then smiles really big and tears it up, and i do mean tears it up. 'Voodoo Child' is the coolest ive heard, accept for the song change in the middle. The name of the song is "Trying to Be" and its not all that great, but if you listen to the lyrics about his guitar, its pretty funny. I cant post it, it might be considered obscene. Well, keep up the good work George.

<Sabbath246@aol.com> (01.08.2000)

It can all be summed up in one word: legendary. Jimi was sure at the top of his game for this one. This performance was without a doubt Hendrix's best. When I first listened to "Voodoo Chile" it left me stunned. That's a jam and a half! The other awe-inspiring moment on here is "Red House". Along with Cream's version of "Crossroads", I'd have to say it's the greatest blues guitar jam I've ever heard. "My baby don't love me no more, I know good 'n well that her sister will"! I love that! Of course, the lyrics fail poorly in comparison to the guitar playing, which is never less than magnificent. I even enjoy the version of "Fire" on here, simply because I love that high-pitched, squeaky guitar tone that he gets in the solo. Also, "Woodstock Improvisation" is a jaw-dropping moment in guitar history, an underrated classic. Many rock fans consider Jimi the greatest. And while I disagree, I do believe that he was probably the most influential, anyway. This is Jimi's tour-de-force, how he tried to conquer the world on one memorable night in August, 1969.

Year Of Release: 1970
Record rating = 5
Overall rating = 9

Too much crappy soul jams for my taste, but Jimi is such a good player that this is somewhat endurable.
Best song: MACHINE GUN

A transitional album by all means, and by 'transitional' I don't mean transitional between life and death (since, sure enough, Jimi died within a month of the album's release). No, what I'm talkin' 'bout is a sheer change of musical direction. The Jimi Hendrix Experience had happily disbanded a year earlier, and Jimi decided to go back to his Afro-American roots by assembling an all-black band with his former mates Billy Cox on base and Buddy Miles on drums. Rumour actually has it that he was feeling guilty about betraying his black roots, and was only too happy to assemble an all-black combo at long last, thus satisfying both himself and the entire black population, finally taking him for "own blood". Unfortunately, the result is sadly predictable: Jimi is transformed into a soul/R'n'B performer, and his guitar pyrotechnics becomes just a tasty supplement to the standard R'n'B riffage. It's not that he's degraded to a, say, state like Eric Clapton's in the mid-Seventies, when the latter energetically got rid of his image as a guitar god. No, the strength and the will are still there, but the whole album sounds tired, tired and almost senseless. And hey, nobody actually ever put forth the proposal, but I think it would have been way more cool for Jimi to join Sly and the Family Stone as lead guitarist - just imagine what an ass-kicking machine this would have made.
The album itself is a live recording (the 'Band Of Gypsys' didn't even have a chance to use a proper studio booking) from a concert at the Fillmore on New Year's Eve, and the material is all new, written partly by Hendrix, partly by Buddy Miles. The performance has recently been released in its entirety by the Hendrix family under the title Live At The Fillmore, if I'm not mistaken, and is presumably better because some of the classic Hendrix material is included as well; here, though, the songs are all new, written more or less on occasion.
Anyway, not even a single song on Band Of Gypsys rocks with the classic Hendrix power, although the only acknowledged classic, 'Machine Gun', comes close. The longest song on here (about twelve minutes), it's also the most emotionally moving, being one of the few direct Hendrix anti-war songs, and the most perfect technically: the rattling, furious solos are enough to get your best friend scraping you off the wall. However, these are not the kind of lively, psychedelic, radiant solos you'd meet on any standard Hendrix album. These are what I'd call 'paranoid' solos: slow, wailing, vibrating and moody. They sound good, but they also reflect a certain state of soul - a state of fear and tiredness, maybe? Of course, Jimi's death might have been a coincidence, but if you forgive me my romanticism, I'd say that 'Machine Gun' is certainly a hymn of death - his own death. When these delirious, phrenetic vibratos come on at the fourth minute, you really understand there's something wrong with the man, some Morrisonesque influence in his playing, and that only makes the album press on you even harder.
But as for the other material, I can hardly find any good words for those songs. The Buddy Miles numbers are atrocious, mostly dated, incompetent soul crap ('Changes', 'We Gotta Live Together') with no melodies at all. Jimi doesn't even bother to play his guitar on these ones - his best soloing is mostly reserved for his own compositions, while Buddy is often engaging in self-indulgent and not very pleasant 'singing'. 'We Gotta Live Together' is supposed to be an anthemic crowd-pleaser, but the audience's bleak clapping clearly shows that the people were clapping more because they were required to rather than of their own will. Being anthemic doesn't mean you can happily dispose of the melody, Buddy.
Jimi's own compositions are also in the soul vein, and they're notably better because the man at least knew that a song needs to have at least a certain essence to it, with a catchy bit or a neat riff or a memorable vocal melody or anything like that. But there's still too few essence for me. 'Power Of Soul' has a chorus that's quite sing-along-ey, but otherwise just rambles on pointlessly; 'Message Of Love' is all right because it manages to recreate at least a little of that happy heavy energy that made songs like 'Killing Floor' so damn attractive, and I like the riffage on that one, but it's still not one of his best efforts; and the album opener 'Who Knows' is just a groovy dance number with more tolerable riffing and some absolutely shitty cooings from Buddy in the middle. All of these songs have one particular defect: they are generic. Jimi might not have been a great songwriter, but at least he was original, and he always used the music of his roots as just a polygon for his experimentation and burning spirit. Here he just plays generic soul and rhythm and blues with no passion at all. Stupid, simply stupid stuff; not the worst I've ever heard, but such a huge letdown from his usual songwriting style that it's bound to get you disappointed.
What else can be said about it? The only thing I can say is repeat that this is just a transitional album (between the Experience and Jimi's last studio recordings, that is, not between the Experience and his death, I mean) - it's hard to believe in fact, that he was recording this depressing set of half-baked numbers almost at the same time with Cry Of Love. As it is, you don't need this one if you aren't a completist or if you're not interested in the origins of hip hop.

Who knows if I'm right about it? Mail your ideas

Your worthy comments:

Jeff Blehar <jdb3@jhu.edu> (02.04.2000)

Another example of the "Hendrix Myth" in action, here we see Band Of Gypsys, in reality a completely mediocre live album of funk/rock/R&B fusion, elevated to "classic" status because it was released during the man's lifetime and just before he became a rock saint.  The mainstream music press, which deifies every move of his, holds Band Of Gypsys up as a fourth pillar of the Hendrix legend; they seem to have forgotten that even Hendrix himself wasn't very happy with this release, putting it out only to fulfill a contractual obligation with Capitol Records and filling it largely with songs too weak to make the cut on his upcoming album ("Who Knows," "Power To Love," "Message To Love") and the Buddy Miles songs "Changes" and "We Gotta Live Together," two fetid pieces of tripe if ever there were any, larded with Miles' excruciatingly jive-ass "cooing" (good word choice, George!).  To think, THESE songs were the reason I stayed away from Stevie Wonder's awe-inspiring back catalogue for so long; you see, I always hear Band Of Gypsys described as soul/funk, and I thought to myself that if THIS was the best they could do, I don't want anything to do with this genre.  Folks, was I ever wrong: go get Talking Book and Innervisions right now - you won't understand how you could have lived without them after you have them.
But back to Band Of Gypsys.  I simply cannot bring myself to listen to this album all the way through.  I finish with "Machine Gun" (the only really good song here, and even then the main feature, Hendrix's mind-blowing soloing, is not something I'm really interested in) and then I pop the CD out.  What can I say?  More than being bad, Band Of Gypsys is just BORING, and that's saying something when you're dealing with a performer as pyrotechnic as Jimi Hendrix.  It's been said that he was really unhappy around the time of this recording (New Year's Eve 1969/70), and it shows in these listless, draggy performances.  Please people!  Take Hendrix off his pedestal!  This is NOT classic music.  This isn't even very GOOD!  I'll give this a 5/10, but that's merely a concession to other fans who might like this more than I do - in a world where only my opinion mattered, I'd probably give it a 3. 

John Williams <john.w@wespac.net> (23.08.2000)

The shows that this band played at the Fillmore East on 3 straight nights (I believe it was December 30-31, 1969 & January 1, 1970 - not a month before he died, which was September 18, 1970) are considered by many to be some of the most seminal live shows in the history of rock. "Machine Gun" alone is reason enough to buy this album as it is probably the greatest example of Jimi's awesome power captured live. The original album that was released in the States, with only 6 or 7 songs on it, certainly doesn't measure up to Jimi's studio releases, but that wasn't really the point, and if I'm not mistaken, I think the reason this was originally put out was a half-hearted attempt to placate Jimi's record label. As you state, the re-release a couple of years back is much better, but if you're a big Hendrix fan or a rock guitar player, this album is a must have.
P.S. This was the first of your reviews I've read, but to say that Jimi was not a great songwriter is (IM & many other people's HO) just wrongheaded. OK, so maybe you believe you need complicated orchestration or conceptual type releases to be considered a "great songwriter" (I'm not sure what your criteria are), but for someone who had only a brief 3 1/2 year stint of a career, this guy was very prolific and has many songs that will undoubtedly be considered "great" even 50 years later. Think "The Wind Cries Mary" and "Castles Made of Sand", in addition to many others that aren't simply great because the guitar was brilliant. [As far as I get it, 'The Wind Cries Mary', as well as many others, is based on a pedestrian folkish melody that's been previously employed at least a couple dozen times by other artists. That's the only thing I wanted to say - Hendrix's melodies are not original, and very rarely cleverly thought out - G.S.]

Year Of Release: 1997
Record rating = 6
Overall rating = 10

As with every release from the vaults, this sounds a bit raw. But I fear it wouldn't have sounded better in any case.
Best song: ANGEL

Hendrix novices should be very careful when it comes to Hendrix postmortem releases: everybody knows there's at least half a hundred of them, and most are either pathetic rip-offs or lousy live recordings (one of the few most nasty of these is the infamous New York '68 jam session with a, er, 'pixilated' Jim Morrison mostly spitting out obscene copulation metaphors, if you get my drift. Strange enough, it's available under at least a dozen different titles. Avoid it like plague). However, since Jimi's family finally took control over his legacy, things seem to start getting better, and we might hope for a decent, straightened out catalogue appearing soon with all the rip-offs deleted and gone for eternity. So far, most of the interesting stuff that, according to Prindle, Jimi recorded in Heaven and fed-exed down on Earth, has re-surfaced on two of these re-issues: First Rays Of The New Rising Sun and South Saturn Delta (reviewed below). This concrete album replaces the earlier issued and generally better known Cry Of Love released in March 1971 - the album that Hendrix didn't have enough time to record, rather like Janis' Pearl, along with some lesser known tracks. So you might easily dub it 'the great lost fourth Hendrix album'.
Unfortunately, while I'm not going to argue with the 'lost' thing, calling it 'great' seems quite an arrogant task to me. 'Cuz it's not great at all, in fact, it's even worse than Electric Ladyland. No, it doesn't have any fourteen-minute jams - most of the songs are three or four minutes long. And it doesn't have any dated gimmickry: no buckets of water for the amps that time. But somehow these songs never thrill me as much as his 1967 albums. Say what you want, and I'll say what I want (again): Jimi's terrible lack of songwriting ability comes through once again. Moreover, these songs are as rambling and unsecure as never before: the time was pressing hard on Jimi, and his problems didn't translate well onto music. Call me crazy, but I think he was in a somewhat Barrett-ish state at the time: stoned nearly out of his mind, personal affairs a mess, the Experience annihilated and musically and artistically exhausted. God only knows what he would go on to make... anyway, let us not digress any more. There are some good compositions on here. Sometimes Jimi's tortured soul steps on the surface and he lets go with a blazing, confessional ballad ('Angel') that rivals 'Little Wing' as his most emotional piece of writing. Sometimes he gets an interesting technical idea - the unique guitar tone on 'Room Full Of Mirrors' turns it into a head-spinning psychedelic experience. Sometimes he delivers a scorching blues tune with precise and thought out, Creamy licks that we're not grown to expect of him ('Freedom'). Finally, there's a fantastic riffing excercise (the instrumental 'Beginnings'). But that's about it.
Most of the other tracks fall into three categories. First of all, there's a lot of aimless guitar wanking on uninspired bluesrock tunes like 'Dolly Dagger' or 'Earth Blues'. They're all fairly impressive from a technical level, but for how long did Jimi expect he could impress us? Nothing can be more impressive than 'Foxy Lady'! Creatively speaking, they're all weak. His lyrics are maybe getting more poetic, but I don't know whether that's a good thing or a flaw. It seems obvious he was trying to step off the psychedelic hippie train, but it seemed to be moving too fast for him. So he ends up sounding like a cross between Marty Balin and Jim Morrison, with a slight touch of Syd Barrett again (the stupid cosmic song 'Astro Man'). To be honest with you, his derivative mystical lines do not impress me in the least: while he was always trying to present himself as the 'intelligent' one, I never found any signs of real 'intelligence' in Jimi's lyrics. Pretension, yes, sometimes. But he was mostly ripping off other people, just as well as other people were trying to rip off his songwriting.
Next, the second category is 'Bad Ballads'. 'Drifting', for instance, which just drags for three and a half minutes and tries to sound exalted but just manages to sound phoney, or the overlong title track. Finally, the third category includes a Dylan rip-off: 'My Friend' is a feeble imitation of a) Dylan's singing; b) Dylan's lyrics; c) Dylan's arrangements (the drunken company noises remind one of 'Rainy Day Women'). It's amusing, but hardly essential for anybody but those whose only aim in life is to prove that Hendrix was a better songwriter than Dylan (fancy that).
So no, I'm not impressed. I do admit that I can't call the album 'bad' in a plain sense of the word. The playing is good, and the decent songs I've named above are enough to redeem it. But it's a serious letdown compared to Jimi's 'classic' works, and had he continued in that blues-o-mystical direction, I'm sure he'd have ruined his career in less than a couple of years. Now wait, maybe the problem is... yes... YES that's where the rub lies. The album is too long, you see? It's like seventy damn minutes! Scoop out all the filler and you'll get a nice little record stuffed with delicacies like 'Room Full Of Mirrors' or 'Angel'. I respect Jimi as much as anybody, but he never deserved a double album - and he put out one before his death and one after his death. What a silly trick of fortune.

My friend! Mail your ideas!

Your worthy comments:

<JASONT413@aol.com> (02.08.2000)

I disagree with you on "Drifting" I think it's one of Jimi's most beautiful songs. "drifting on a see of forgotten tear drops" that line just sticks in your head you know. I also like the backward guitar parts that swirl around in the backround. One of the best songs I've heard with backward guitar parts. "Dolly Dagger" is pretty fun though. But as a whole the material on this album isn't so hot.

Year Of Release: 1994
Record rating = 6
Overall rating = 10

Blues.
Best song: HEAR MY TRAIN A-COMIN' (acoustic)

This is one of the more recent releases, but before the Hendrix family managed to wrestle control over his legacy from Alan Douglas and his company of cash-craving sharks. Due to this sad state of affairs, most of these 'releases' over the years have been fairly unlistenable, and I'm pretty sure ninety-nine percent of this stuff will disappear over the next few years. So, while it still hasn't, better go ahead and acquire this record with such a fairly modest title, 'cause it might be one of the few worthy items in the 1971-1996 Hendrix catalogue. Basically it's just what the title says: a load of tracks with Jimi playin' and singin' the blues at various periods of his short career. Many of them have been available earlier on various rip-offs, but the album's value lies in that it has no overlaps with the 'standard' catalogue reviewed above, so I fell free to treat it as a regular archive release rather than a compilation (which, frankly speaking, it is).
Not that the songs are really spectacular, of course: fans will love this for the incredible solos and further displaying of the man's technique (as if they didn't have enough proof already), but average Jimi lovers will probably just yawn and scratch their back. This record just isn't able to disclose any surprises, if you know what I mean: one lengthy wankfest after another. Some are more inspired, some less, but it's really hard to tell. The standout tracks for me are as follows. First, there's a great acoustic version of 'Hear My Train A-Comin'' which is a rare thing by itself, because, you get me, you don't often hear Jimi plucking an acoustic. I mean, his playing on here is anything but spectacular, but, on the other side, it's typically Hendrix, and he does feel at home with the instrument, and of course nobody played that guitar like that. The strange improvisatory piece 'Jelly 292' is memorable for its peculiar riff, and the solos on the instrumental 'Born Under A Bad Sign' and 'Catfish Blues' are terrific. But that's about it, the rest just falls into background music category. If you already know what to expect from Hendrix, you won't be shocked. Personally, I even find it problematic to sit through two versions of 'Red House' and the electric, twelve-minute jam on the same 'Hear My Train A-Comin'. If you don't have that problem, good for you.
I mean, I do admit that the man's playing is awesome, he's a friggin' genius indeed. I do envy people who get carried away with his solos, but me, I can only follow their example in exceptional cases. For me, Jimi's playing still lacks emotion. He's certainly more on the technical side, and I'm not the one who says that it all depends on how fast and fluently you can play. But maybe I'm just a dumbass. Whatever. Anyway, the record is a must for you if you really want to test your love for Jimi. Here he won't even bug you with crazy feedback experiments or psychedelic motives. He just stands and wails on his guitar for a bloody seventy plus minutes. If, after having listened to this all the way through, you'll prefer putting it on again immediately, call yourself a true Hendrix aficionado and prepare for a visit to your local psychoanalyst.

Born under a bad sign - still no ideas from you!

Your worthy comments:

Hunter Smith <Huntr3@aol.com> (11.02.2000)

I agree! All of Jimi's friends say that blues was Jimi's favorite music. That he absolutely loved it. I just can't seem to get with this CD though. I play guitar. Im in a band. We play blues. But i cant see how ANYONE can sit down and put this CD in and say "Man! This is great!" Personally, i'd rather slam a precious part of my anatomy in a door.....numerous times. But, i am a BIG Jimi fan, so i do listen to this on occasion. I still feel that the best blues was not played by the best guitarist (Jimi). I have come to the conclusion that the best blues player of all time is unknown. Who knows? It could be some old boy playing on his back porch drinkin' cheap wine. Whoever it was, it was not James Marshall Hendrix. Once again, keep up the good work.

Fredrik Tydal <f_tydal@hotmail.com> (24.03.2000)

Apparently, the Hendrix family felt the same way you did about this "album" and chose to reissue it after they took control over Jimi's estate. Which means that this one has got the usual remastering and booklet treatment and won't disappear from the shelves. I enjoyed this CD (with an inventive cover) and it is particulary nice to hear Jimi playing the acoustic. His acoustic technique seems to be somewhat similiar to that of Robert Johnson. Other high-lights are Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy", "Voodoo Chile Blues" and the closing electric "Hear My Train Comin'". A good CD, which doesn't double any other albums, except for "Red House" which is on some versions of "Are You Experienced".

Year Of Release: 1997
Record rating = 8
Overall rating = 12

Terrific outtakes, these ones. They might do fine as your selection for a 'Jimi retrospective'.
Best song: HERE HE COMES

Ah, now this is a different matter entirely! The second 'family release' after First Rays, this is also, unquestionably, the most enjoyable and highly entertaining one. The fifteen tracks on here present a solid picture of Jimi's activities taken from different periods of his career, and some of them have not even been released previously, although most had been released on bastardised albums like War Heroes and Rainbow Bridge and millions of other releases that the greedy managers were pumping out while Jimi was grinding his teeth in his grave. This, however, is the new, re-mastered, re-assembled, re-freshed and re-invigorated collection that, I hope, is going to be definite.
Not all of these songs are masterpieces - some sound as lifeless and tired as the material on First Rays, in fact, which is small wonder as they date from the same sessions. But every now and then, in among the filler comes smashing a terrific gem worthy of all possible praises! When I first heard that gritty, flaming riff of 'Here He Comes (Lover Man)', recorded live in the studio, I knew I was in for a treat - in fact, I hadn't heard Jimi playing so forcefully and so recklessly since I last switched off my Monterey CD. Hendrix practically burns the controls down with this song, tearing out convoluted solos, all kinds of desperate riffage and, well, what can I say? What can be better than vintage Hendrix at his very, very best?
Another lost gem is the great psycho anthem 'The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice', which starts off as a light, groovy Axis-style acid ditty and then evolves into an 'astral jam' with tons of weird noises, Mitch's cool percussion, some kind of mumbled dialogues, and Jimi's flawless soloing all over the top - stunning, ain't it? 'Power Of Soul' and 'Message To Love' also uncover their powerful selves as the strong, catchy tunes they should have always been, not the weak, stumbling versions as presented on Band Of Gypsies, but strong, convincing performances with not a single note wasted.
Plus, there are surprises - hey, almost Easter Eggs! The title track is a slight, a bit throwawayish jazzy instrumental, but you'll be surprised to hear horns on that one, horns that do not seem to be overdubbed by Alan Douglas or somebody, but were instead thrown in at Jimi's request to make a suitable tribute to his favourite jazz heroes. There's a strange, lumbering instrumental version of 'Little Wing', where Jimi goes for a much more bombastic, powerful arrangement, which at times doesn't sound like 'Little Wing' at all - sometimes it's closer to 'Angel', sometimes it seems to me like he's throwing in some lines from his arrangement of 'Like A Rolling Stone' (sic!). You'll probably be interested anyway. There's an alternate take on 'All Along The Watchtower', which doesn't stray too far from the original, though. And lastly, in among the surprises you'll find yet another Dylan outtake, a funny, rockin' cover of 'Drifter's Escape'. Sometimes I wonder if Jimi ever listened to any records in 1968 other than John Wesley Harding.
All of these might seem a bit disjointed, but in reality, the album flows perfectly, or, well, near-perfectly; like I said, there's some filler, too, although it's kinda relative. There's yet another version of 'Bleeding Heart' (you might find an earlier one on Blues), and I've never been fond of the tune: messy, pretentious and absolutely NOT hard-hitting, unlike that tight arrangement of 'Message To Love'. A couple of instrumentals, like 'Tax Free' and 'Pali Gap', are also a bit pale and shabby, though 'Tax Free' definitely HAS its moments. The alternate version of 'Angel' loses quite a bit due to being unpolished; and, while there are many good and well-intended dudes out there that crave for more stuff like the acoustic 'Hear My Train A-Comin' and all that, the only acoustic track on here - 'Midnight Lithning', the album closer - does not do anything important for me except showcasing the man's technique some more. Even so, it might have been a wise choice to end the album on a light note: after the hour-long storm (and most of the tracks are so punchy and ferocious, it sometimes feels like an unstoppable hammer pounding on your head), a bit of a calm that makes you feel relaxed and maybe even shed a little tear or two over Jimi's untimely demise.
In any case, if you're relatively new to Hendrix and haven't yet had time to spend your cash on the miriads of his posthumous rip-offs, or if you simply want to start from scratch, Delta is probably the only Hendrix outtakes collection you'll ever need in your archive. 'Nuff said.

Bleeding heart waits for your ideas

Year Of Release: 1998
Record rating = 8
Overall rating = 12

As usual, the BBC dudes did a great job.
Best song: DAY TRIPPER

Well, this is just another phenomenal archive release from the BBC vaults which shares the usual advantages and flaws of all BBC releases. The advantage is that the sound is crystal clear: the band plays live but there are no impeding crowd noises, apart from a few 'sit-in' sessions. The flaw is that several of the songs are played several times, and this ain't good no matter how fantastic the song might be. I, for one, don't really need three different versions of 'Hey Joe'! Do you? Or three different versions of 'Driving South', for that matter. It's a great instrumental, for sure, but... oh, wait, do you really want to tell me that the BBC have completely drained their Hendrix vaults with this release? In that case, I withdraw my complaint. I actually hoped for 'Ain't No Telling' or 'Highway Chile'; if one day I find out they never released that stuff I'll kill somebody.
Nevertheless, despite the potential complaints, this beautiful 2-CD package offers quite a lot of goodies that you might not get otherwise. Minor surprises include Jimi's hilarious 'radio jingle' made specially for Radio One: 'Radio One, you stole my gal but I love you all the same'. Ha! And played as hard as possible, too. Why don't they make radio jingles like that any more? Mind you, 'Radio One Jingle' is quite probably the first heavy metal song ever written (!!!)
Another definite highlight comes at the end, with the famous 'Lulu incident' when Jimi came to a show hosted by the then-famous ex-performatrice (what's the feminine for performer, dammit?) Lulu, on her request started playing a totally crazy version of 'Hey Joe', incidentally including a half-baked riff that would later on become the central point in Jimmy Page's 'Whole Lotta Love', then stopped it and, saying that they weren't going to play this rubbish any more, suddenly crashed into an unexpected instrumental take on 'Sunshine Of Your Love', dedicating it to the freshly disbanded Cream. He didn't have more than one minute to go before the band was 'rudely interrupted', but whatever, the confusion WAS already made. The Cream boys must have been blushing from head to toe. And it's all on here - ain't it fun?
Out of the songs that didn't make it onto the regular studio releases at the time, you do get quite a few. There's an energetic take on Dylan's little-known B-side 'Can You Crawl Out Your Window?' - another minor gem to add to your 'Hendrix does Dylan' collection; a wild, pull-all-the-stops instrumental called 'Driving South', with Jimi giving out such ferocious lines as have never been found on studio releases; an amusing cover of 'Hound Dog', with Mitch and Noel pulling off completely authentic whines and howls; two more versions of 'Hear My Train A-Comin'', slightly marred with more annoying backing vocals from Mitch and Noel, but otherwise almost smoking; and, guess what, they even do 'Day Tripper'! No, there is no John Lennon on backing vocals, as some of the rumours go, but still, this is a touching tribute (note also how Jimi plays a few lines from 'I Want To Tell You') in the beginning.
Of course, there's also a lot of 'blues wanking', but you know Jimi. Some of the blues numbers on here are captivating, in fact: 'Hoochie Coochie Man' is probably the 'hardcorest' version you'll ever find in existence, only equalled by the Allman Brothers' take on Idlewild South, and 'Catfish Blues' gives out the origins of the 'Voodoo Chile' jam - except it's shorter, and never threatens to become as boring. Plus, there's 'Killing Floor'! Fast crazy boogie! What else do you need?
This is all heavily diluted by radio standards - 'Purple Haze', 'Burning Of The Midnight Lamp', 'Hey Joe', 'Hey Joe', and... 'Hey Joe', 'Foxy Lady', another 'Foxy Lady', and, of course, the unforgettable 'Fire' - plus some less famous tracks like 'Love Or Confusion' or 'Spanish Castle Magic'. But I won't tell you a lot about these because they're... well, they're standard Hendrix. And they don't change the arrangements much; apparently, most of the songs were performed fresh from the studio (they even reproduce the 'OOOH - AAAH' parts in 'Purple Haze', something I've never heard on later live shows), apart from 'Hey Joe' which I suppose Jimi must have hated to death. Especially stupid... since in the track 'A Brand New Sound' Jimi discusses 'Hey Joe' with Alexis Korner and they come to the conclusion that 'Hey Joe' is not really representative of what the Experience are really trying to do and then Korner says 'So now can we hear 'Hey Joe'?' You can actually hear Jimi going 'what the fuck...' in his mind, but of course he wouldn't say it cuz he was such a nice guy and all. It's really no surprise that he cut the song off at Lulu's and desperately ripped into 'Sunshine Of Your Love' - it's very symbolic. And it's symbolic that they didn't let him play that thing to the end, too. Very symbolic and very sad.
Still, Alexis is generally a good master of ceremonies - everything is lightly peppered with bits of studio chatter and dialogue, and both the questions and the answers, and the hilarious remarks on Jimi and his 'ridiculous crew' work as good as anything.
In fact, I'd probably go as far as to state that this is the one and the only Hendrix live album you should ever get. He's unusually concentrated on most of the songs - wild and totally self-controlled all the time. You know what I'm speaking of: sometimes he just goes over the top and the thin borderline separating his genius from cacophony vanishes. Here, all the guitar parts are clever, sharp, clear and tasteful. There's not a lot of experimentation going on - for that approach, you'd better try Woodstock or even Band Of Gypsies - but in the end, it's just a guarantee that nothing on here will offend the casual Hendrix lover. And 'Driving South' - it's bound to knock you from your chair, because you won't find these incredible chops on any studio record, I tell you. Of course, quite a few of the numbers aren't at all superior to their studio counterparts, but none are inferior, and that's a compliment - any of these versions could have easily substituted the studio originals.

Can you crawl out your window and mail your ideas?

Your worthy comments:

Fredrik Tydal <f_tydal@hotmail.com> (24.03.2000)

Just great. The BBC are almost always dependable. Might as well be the ultimate Hendrix live album. Good track selection; most of the well-knows are here, along with obscurities like "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" (man, Hendrix did really know his Dylan catalogue), "Hound Dog" and the infamous Lennon-less "Day Tripper". I don't really mind the three "Hey Joe", since the first two are great and the third is kind of brief and leads into one of the album's minor highlights, namely the Cream tribute - how cool was that by Jimi? And that jingle...

Year Of Release: 1973

An ultra-boring documentary. Not that it doesn't have its moments, of course: there's plenty of live performances by the man, some of which you'll be likely to have experienced elsewhere (his famous take on 'Star Spangled Banner' at Woodstock, for instance, or the Isle Of Wight performances), but some of which are unique. Highlights include some extracts from the famous Monterey performance ('Rock Me Baby', the tedious 'Like A Rolling Stone', and 'Wild Thing' whose famous ending you just gotta see - it might have been senseless on record, but it sure makes for a great visual effect), studio footage of Jimi working on 'Hear My Train A-Comin' and a hilarious 'Johnny B. Goode' where Jimi seems intent on demonstrating everybody how terribly Chuck missed the mark by not inserting a couple ear-bursting feedback noises and some teeth-plucking into the song.
However, the video is horrendously spoiled by tons and tons and tons of banter - and it's probably all right when you see Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend or Mick Jagger as the authors of this banter. But having to sit through almost half an hour worth (maybe more) of Jimi's friends and girlfriends trying to recollect everything they remember and everything they don't is more than I can take. And, since the banter is interspersed with the performances, it gets too tedious to have to skip through it all the time. Result? I hardly ever watch the movie. Get yourself a video of Jimi at Woodstock instead or sumpthin' like that. Of course, if you're a novice and, especially, if you're illiterate, the movie's a must for you - but even an illiterate won't be glad to have to watch it more than once or twice.

Mail your ideas