Jimi Hendrix

[Aegir]

The other day I was searching through the basement and found my parents' (my dad's, most likely) copy of Electric Ladyland. When I put it on and listened to the first "song", it sounded so weird I was afraid it was warped! I had to put the needle to a random place in the middle of the record to make sure it wasn't.

The psychedelia of most psychedelic music is tame to me, but Electric Ladyland was one of the first things to make me turn my head.

[Jason]

Great thread idea, Mr. Aegir.

Hendrix is great man, I could write books on him.

[Boxer Monkey]

Hugely IMPORTANT musician and as real as all hell. Love everything but listen most to the unfettered BBC sessions.

[Jason]

That's a wonderful release. Hell, Hendrix deserved a box set of his BBC sessions. I'm constantly blown away by those recordings.

Now if the Beach Boys had something like Dagger Records we'd all be happy.

[wind chime]

I respect Hendrix but dont have any of his albums...

[Jason]

I respect Hendrix but dont have any of his albums...

Go out and buy Are You Experienced?.

[I. Spaceman]

I'd say Axis and Band Of Gypsies.
The familiarity on classic rock stations with the AYE material could turn a person off.
Kinda like giving Endless Summer to someone as their first BB album.

[Jason]

Axis probably is the more rewarding listen, but AYE has its merits, despite sounding like a hits album. Electric Ladyland isn't the first choice by any means. That's harrowing, difficult music.

[I. Spaceman]

AYE is a wonderful album indeed, particularly in it's original British form/lineup.
I think harrowing and difficult can be a good intro, depends on the listener.
Most "hipsters" respond to SMiLEY first among the BB albums and that's certainly harrowing.

[wind chime]

I should say I once had AYE and liked it but got tired of it as well...plus our local Rock station cant stop playing All Along the Watchtower!!!yechhhh I dont want to hear it again....!!!!!!!! (I know it's on ELL not AYE)...

[Jason]

Hendrix fans are a curious bunch. There are the casual fans who like the same seven tunes from AYE that are played all the time and then there are the hardcore, like me. My father falls into the former category, I've played him selections off of albums like Nine To The Universe and Crash Landing and had them met with utter rejection. A lot of Hendrix isn't exactly commercial, which is the direction he was heading in.

[I. Spaceman]

The direction he was heading into was more compromise due to the reliance on familiar musicians. Which I think accounts for his depressed state at the time of his death.
The Band Of Gypsys/Gypsys SUn And Rainbows material is far more challenging for me than the First Rays stuff.

[Jason]

The direction he was heading into was more compromise due to the reliance on familiar musicians. Which I think accounts for his depressed state at the time of his death.
The Band Of Gypsys/Gypsys SUn And Rainbows material is far more challenging for me than the First Rays stuff.

The Gypsys Sun and Rainbows material is probably the most difficult of his stuff, and I'm of the opinion it was the weakest band he fronted. They were poorly rehearsed and just PUT TOGETHER a very short time before Woodstock. Not many recordings exist, IIRC.

[halleluwah]

I think AYE? is more consistant than Axis (there are a few of the more generic pub-rockin' songs on Axis, like "Ain't No Telling," that take it down a bit in my book), but the highs on Axis, particularly on the ballads, are higher.  Electric Ladyland, to me, has all of Hendrix's best features displayed in one sprawling place.  It's never particularly struck me as being that 'difficult,' though, except for maybe my first couple spins through the album's third side (which is stunningly brilliant, by the way; "1983" alone has more pure genius in it than most bands put into their entire careers).

I'm not the hugest fan of Band of Gypsies, honestly.  Like everybody else, I acknowledge "Machine Gun" as a masterpiece, but too many of the tracks just seem like ho-hum grooves in search of a song, or at least in search of some greater meaning that they never quite deliver.  I think part of the problem is Buddy Miles; his drumming often nails Hendrix to the floor (whereas Mitch Mitchell's could often help push him into the stratosphere), and his constant hammy scat-singing is damn annoying.  When I'm in the mood for some live Hendrix, I generally go for the Experience stuff instead, particularly Live at Winterland and the hodgepodge The Hendrix Concerts (both of hich are unfortunately out of print as far as I know).

[I. Spaceman]

It was weak because it was underrehearsed, but when it was on, it was glorious.
I'll take Jam Back At The House/Beginnings over Third Stone any day.

I'm not a big Mitchell fan, at all. I think his drumming at Woodstock/Isle Of Wight is purely atrocious.

[Jason]

Gypsys Sun And Rainbows never really had a chance to be on for long. Hendrix didn't have the band together long after Woodstock. That's probably him thinking his ideas went too far. He realized that by augmenting the reformed Experience (Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell) that better results could be forthcoming.

[I. Spaceman]

The Experience getting back together had nothing to do with Jimi, and IMO, better results were certainly not achieved.
Larry Lee says in the Woodstock documentary that he left to take pressure off Jimi.

[Jason]

I think Jimi was always being told by the record company that they wanted more hits like "Hey Joe" and "Purple Haze" and Jimi wanted to get into more fusion, blues territory. I can't blame the man for being depressed, considering his dreams were being stifled.

[Boxer Monkey]

Being it's the only album over which Hendrix had complete control, I find it a little difficult to regard "Ladyland" as anything but definitive. Plus it runs the motherfuggin' gamut as per his talents, a nearly complete portrait of the guy.

I've also always found the "First Rays" material to be relatively lifeless in comparison to what preceded it.

[cabinessence]

EL-land is my favorite, I can't say why exactly except that it represents the whole Jimi Hendrix Experience (emphasis on Jimi H. and add an apostophe s following his name, Hendrix's ) than any other other record I have he was involved in. I agree with Boxer.

[I. Spaceman]

Being it's the only album over which Hendrix had complete control, I find it a little difficult to regard "Ladyland" as anything but definitive. Plus it runs the motherfuggin' gamut as per his talents, a nearly complete portrait of the guy.

I've also always found the "First Rays" material to be relatively lifeless in comparison to what preceded it.

Yep, it's pretty amazing. Perfect album.
1983 is just sublime.

[Boxer Monkey]

1983 is just sublime.

Hell yeah! I wore that suite out! And Hendrix's bass playing on that -- now THAT'S sublime. What a fucking soundscape!

[Old Rake]

I've also always found the "First Rays" material to be relatively lifeless in comparison to what preceded it.

I disagree. Couldn't disagree more, in fact. I've always found E. Ladyland to be overindulgent and overlong and unfocussed, while I find the First Rays material to be gritty, heavy-hitting and extremely tightly focused, like a sharp knife. I love Ladyland, really -- especially some Crosstown Traffic, that's one of his finest songs ever, and a hit that shoulda been -- but First Rays has that special something. I can't even tell you what.

Funk, maybe?

[I. Spaceman]

It's funky, but nothing could have been funkier than the Gypsys.

[Boxer Monkey]

I've also always found the "First Rays" material to be relatively lifeless in comparison to what preceded it.

I disagree. Couldn't disagree more, in fact. I've always found E. Ladyland to be overindulgent and overlong and unfocussed, while I find the First Rays material to be gritty, heavy-hitting and extremely tightly focused, like a sharp knife. I love Ladyland, really -- especially some Crosstown Traffic, that's one of his finest songs ever, and a hit that shoulda been -- but First Rays has that special something. I can't even tell you what.

Funk, maybe?

"Ladyland" "unfocused"? Like, compared to the scratch vocal tracks on "First Rays," with its wandering guitar solos clearly meant to be punched in later? The scalpel strut of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" in comparison to Hendrix-aimlessly-trying-on bland-funk-stylings-in-search-of-a-new-direction "unfocused"?

Yeah. TOTALLY hear what you mean. (I couldn't even tell you what, either.)