The Smiley Smile Message Board

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.

Great thread idea, Mr. Aegir.

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

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

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.

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

Go out and buy Are You Experienced?.

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.

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.

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.

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)...

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Yep, it's pretty amazing. Perfect album.
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!

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?

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

"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.)

 ::)

I will pit "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" against "Ezy Rider" or "Stepping Stone" any day of the effing week!

I'll take those raw vocal tracks, too, any day. I've never been one to prize exactness, especially from a singer as not-so-great as Hendrix. To me, the First Rays material sounds passionate as hell, and absolutely tight.

Yeah, well, I love "Stepping Stone," too, but then Hendriz actually finished that and released it as a single. I don't see how you can call unfinished work especially focused, particularly when Hendrix clearly meant to go back and correct songs that were essentially works in progress. "First Rays" is a lot about the process of discovery -- I mean, the title itself essentially admits as much -- but I think you're filling in a lot of gaps if you're going to be listening to that album as something complete unto itself. Not what I'd call a unified, cohesive work by any means (maybe it would be if anyone could agree on what was supposed to go on there). Certainly no "Ladyland," which apparently had Hendrix driving everybody crazing in search of some intangible perfection only he could hear. But he apparently found it. Given time, he surely would have been able to pull together "First Rays," and I give him all the credit in the world in this regard -- HE WAS JIMI-FOCKIN'-HENDRIX!!!!! -- but the fact is, he didn't. But "Ezy Rider" trumping, say, "Watchtower" or "Come On"? Fuggitabouddit.

And yet you find "Big Star 3rd" an"unholy mess," you magnificent bastard!  ;)

By "focused," I mean "the songwriting is as focused and tight as a laser beam, finished or not." Hell, you could play me demos played on a kazoo of some of those songs and I'd still say they're focused -- by which I mean tightly, tautly written using economy and power and groove to drive the songs like little nails to the skull.

And yes -- Big Star 3rd, still an unholy mess! A damn fine one, all told, but a mess!

OK, you got me: I'm gonna go back and listen to this stuff again tonight ... I will concede that the songwriting is great on "First Rays," a new plateau for Jimi.

I like Ezy Ryder more than Watchtower too.

Great thread idea, Mr. Aegir.

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


Hmmmm... let's see here, CH.1 THE PLASTER CASTER GIRLS!!!! oh yeah oh yeah.haha

Oh, shut up.

OKay,Sly

Reviving a long-dormant thread because earlier this week I heard Dolly Dagger on the radio during my drive home. I don't know if it was a new mix or remaster as a part of one of the recent re-releases--I know there have been things coming out and I haven't heard them--or if it just hit the spot, but I realized I haven't listened to Hendrix intentionally in a long, long time. (Staple of my youth, though, from maybe age 12-22, and as much as my music doesn't reflect it, a huge influence on my guitar playing.)

So I'm importing all my Hendrix CDs, which I'd lugged from apartment to rental house to rental house to apartment to my own house over the years, barely played, and I'm really excited to listen at high volumes. I know these albums so well that even after all this time, I can hear them before I hit play. I'm pretty jazzed about this.

Live at the fillmore east is just amazing. Band of Gypsys are incredible. Listen to their versions of voodoo child and stone free. Every bit as good as the experience. Different but just as good. For my money Electric ladyland is his greatest album but first rays is great. I don't put myself in one camp, both periods are so rewarding

I don't like Band of Gypsys as much as I like the Experience records, though I do like them a lot. I do like the post-Experience studio music quite a bit as well.

Lololololololololol

You're a fucking idiot.

 :lol

Love the Jimi Hendrix Experience!

Jimi is THE greatest guitarist of all-time of course, Mitch Mitchell is one of the greatest drummers ever, and Noel Redding is so underrated it makes me sad.

Are You Experienced is by far their best album. Fire is the only full song I can play bass to so far, and there isn't a weak song on the whole album!

I have a soft spot for the underrated She's So Fine on Axis, they should have put it out as a single!

Electric Ladyland I do find a little overrated, but it's still great!

Have the mono mixes of Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love ever been issued on CD at all?

I've got to admit I'm a fan of course but I kinda got burnt out on him in the 90's when the "oh my god he walks on water" stuff kicked into full effect.  Yeah he's great, yeah he's probably the greatest ever but after I listened to everything 100 times I just moved on. 

Rei,  If you like Noel, you should check out Fat Mattress.   

Yeah, I've checked out a few of their songs. While I do prefer his work in Experience, Fat Mattress is fairly underrated. They should have been a bigger success!

  Mitch Mitchell was a much better drummer for Hendrix than Buddy Miles.

  I like some of Jimi's later work - "Drifting" is among my faves - but I wonder if FIRST RAYS OF THE NEW RISING SON would have been up to previous levels. It seems as if he was unsure of where his music was going, or maybe the problem was management.

 ELECTRIC LADYLAND is my favorite Jimi Hendrix album. Love the Bach like chord progressions of "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" and "1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" will blow our minds, forever. Quite possibly a key influence on Mike's ATLANTIS RISING suite. ::)