Walking down a busy street, mostly minding my own business, and I’m again confronted by my third-grade teacher, Ms. Lipman.
“Well, it must be raining rock-and-roll wisdom today - if it isn’t the fount of inanity himself.”
“Nice to see you again, Ms. Lipman, and let me say, that’s a smart overcoat – Donna Karan?”
“Shuddup while I abuse you. If you’re finished with the Doors, and Crosby, Stills and freakin’ Nash, and King Crimson, whatever the hell that is, would you just get to the point already?”
I Ask Myself
So, I ask myself. The last question Ms. Lipman put to me, before spitting on my shoes and walking away – Who – is/was the single most innovative; the truly pivotal musician in the history of rock. Easy. Now which album?
Ike And Tina Knew
Jimi Hendrix first appeared on record on an Isley Brothers session from 1964. Until he toured America, supporting the debut album of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Are You Experienced?” the left-handed guitar prodigy who forever changed music was a well kept secret. Under the management of Chas Chandler, together with Noel Redding (bass, guitar and vocals) and the amazing drums of Mitch Mitchell was Hendrix able to fully realize his visions in the bold new sound he created, beginning with the inversion of a standard right-handed guitar, attacked with a virtuosity unknown in popular music, in a production capable of bringing the whole to life on classic recordings.
By itself “Are You Experienced?” covers enough musical territory to merit GOAT status. Released in early 1967, few other records can be included among the primary musical signposts ushering in the Summer Of Love, particularly the ones that would shape the scene for generations to come. Hendrix’s distorted, yet tightly controlled sound was perfectly showcased in the new music, punctuated with inspired blues riffs and groundbreaking solos. Along with Cream, who had just released their debut album several months earlier, and The Who, the Jimi Hendrix Experience introduced and defined the “power trio” to the world of rock music.
Followed mere months later by the perfect “Axis: Bold As Love,” Hendrix was telling us something then that wouldn’t be fully discovered for several more years - that in Earth-time, the Experience would be brief, though fruitful beyond compare. I specify Earth-time, due to the lingering theory that Jimi Hendrix, at the very least, believed himself to be from another planet, bringing something new to humanity, shaped in a sonic package.
If “Are You Experienced?” was the new sound revealed, and “Axis” the example of psychedelic blues-rock perfected, “Electric Ladyland” was the extravaganza, the flurry winding up the fireworks display. Relations had fallen out with manager Chas Chandler and Experience member Noel Redding as the sessions for the record commenced, resulting in the expanded cast of musicians involved, and leaving Hendrix sole producer over what became one of rock music’s most revered double-LP’s of all time.
Before The Music Begins
Not to belabor the point, but with the sustained resurgence of vinyl in the 21st century, I would emphasize that the Experience, and “Electric Ladyland” in particular, begins before the (needle) has been dropped. Regardless of which pressing, most of us had the flaming head profile sleeve, a lucky few were able to procure a copy of the UK pressing (shortly banned thereafter) featuring a double-sleeve full of naked women - the thing begins with a look. Released in October of 1968, this record stands at the very apex of the rock revolution. Released a month prior to the Beatles “White Album,” both epoch defining double-LP’s expressed, in their respective, different ways, an entirety to the state of musical affairs.
What was looked forward to by critics, not the least Chas Chandler himself, as a puerile excuse for rock and roll indulgence and excess, shaped up to be one of rock’s more painstakingly executed statements ever put to record. Hendrix’s perfectionism, resulting sometimes in multiple takes, was clearly in evidence from the debut; “Electric Ladyland” is an eighty-minute celebration of beautiful, genre shattering, complex music, utterly nailed down within a perfect production.
Back Down The Rabbit Hole
Blasting off in similar fashion to “Axis:Bold As Love,” the record is heralded with a landing/departing spaceship with “…And The Gods Made Love,” leaving us in the brief, surreal “Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland).” Without giving us a chance to get our heads we’re thrown into “Cross-town Traffic,” a 2 ½ minute scorcher in the mold of the handful of instant classics from the first two albums. Still enough time between sardonic lyrics driven by intricately carved explosions, wrapped in masterful effects, to appreciate this blistering track on several levels. End of chapter one.
Fall Mountains Fall
Hard to imagine that it’s Steve Winwood’s ominous growl introducing what can be argued as the most powerful Hendrix tune, the heaviest blues jam ever. “Voodoo Chile” lays waste to fifteen minutes of the most dangerous, air-shattering testimony ever put to record. With lyrical images of going to the mountain, facing the storm and confronting the devil, viewed from Edenic heights, “Voodoo Chile” brews and bubbles over with slow moving rage. Played “live” in front of the continuous gathering at the Electric Ladyland studios, the monstrous bass of Jack Cassidy lays the bottom, making the track an altogether new Experience.
Noel Redding is back to start side two, with bass and vocals for the frantic, explosive “Little Miss Strange,” an incredibly layered, meticulous arrangement, again shoved into a mere 2 ½ minutes. Only the Experience could have delivered this degree of controlled, frenetic activity in such concise portions.
With “Long Hot Summer Night” things take a turn down a slightly drunken alley of late-nite blues delight. Newly developed studio effects only helped to unveil the song, shining a broader light on the strange, dark places the blues were taking rock music to. “Come On” does just that, in more straightforward blues fashion, highlighting once again, Hendrix’s unearthly guitar chops. “Gypsy Eyes” show us the same late-night alley from an even more heated viewpoint. Jimi’s guitar sounds so effortless, each riff finding its proper home; never in the history of electric guitar had so many different things been revealed at once. The first record closes with the haunting lament “Burning Of The Midnight Lamp,” a tour-de-force of psychedelia, featuring some of Hendrix’s most lyrical, penetrating poetry.
50 Million Miles Without Moving An Inch
Side three is a suite, beginning with “Rainy Day, Dream Away” The wispy tenor saxophone of Freddie Smith takes us to a room where Jimi’s sitting, looking out the window on a rainy day, riffing away, when he falls into a dream, which comprises the remainder of the side, “1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)” and “Moon, Turn The Tides…Gently, Gently.” Hendrix’s cosmic poetry sets the stage for some of the freakiest music ever heard, driven by the magical, one-of-a-kind drumming of Mitch Mitchell.
Back To The Window
Beginning side four, “Still Raining, Still Dreaming” takes us back to Jimi’s window frame. The pace and volume have picked up though, Mike Finigan’s screaming Hammond B-3 organ, provides a delicious foil for Hendrix’s wah-wah pedaled blues rave. A piercing guitar line opens “House Burning Down,” a sharp piece of social commentary, produced to sound as if fluttering in waves, like a house on fire.
Ironically, the one cover tune on the album, Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower,” still stands as the big radio hit, the commercial handle on “Electric Ladyland” as it were. Even crotchety Bob himself had to admit the complete success of the Hendrix interpretation. Utterly brilliant, “Watchtower” has since become closely associated with the Jimi Hendrix legacy.
Now, For A Quick Overview
Closing the record, “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” does just that; flies back over the landscape at mach speed, showing us through impossibly vertiginous guitar lines, everything we’ve just heard and witnessed. An altered, speeded-up picture of the Hendrix repertoire of blistering pentatonic attacks flanged and distorted over impeccable changing rhythms, “Voodoo Child” tells it all – just in case you only have five minutes to hear it all. I highly recommend making room for the seventy preceding minutes; there was and is nothing like it.
Recalled
And so the original Experience ended in “Electric Ladyland.” The following year Hendrix would form Band Of Gypsies with army buddy Billy Cox (bass) and powerhouse drummer/vocalist Buddy Miles. He would shake the world with his performance at Woodstock, cut another amazing studio album and make his departure within a year, just short of twenty-eight years old. Hours and hours of priceless footage and recordings of the brief career of Hendrix are available; although the live recordings vary widely, there’s genius in every performance. This understood, there’s nothing quite equal to the splendor of the original Experience, exemplified in the three studio recordings, and epitomized in “Electric Ladyland”.
Scott Cramer - Scott lives in Chicago and is an insufferable know-it-all on certain topics. He writes fiction (primarily short stories) much of which ...
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