SIDE A
1. …And The Gods Made Love – 1:19
2. Have You Ever Been To (Electric Ladyland) – 2:08
3. Crosstown Traffic – 2:25
4. Voodoo Chile – 14:50
SIDE B
5. Little Miss Strange – 2:47
6. Long Hot Summer Night – 3:21
7. Come On (Let The Good Times Roll) – 4:04
8. Gypsy Eyes – 3:38
9. Burning Of The Midnight Lamp – 3:33
SIDE C
10. Rainy Day, Dream Away – 3:39
11. 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be) – 13:25
12. Moon, Turn The Tides…gently gently away – 0:58
SIDE D
13. Still Raining, Still Dreaming – 4:19
14. House Burning Down – 4:26
15. All Along The Watchtower – 3:54
16. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) – 5:06
Among all the legends, and many more underappreciated musical talents, who perished at the mythologised cursed age of 27, Jimi Hendrix is perhaps the most revered and seminal in western culture. He is the quintessential guitar god. Though I have my own preferences and Progressive leanings, and there are many different ways to skin a cat, there is no doubting that Hendrix was both a virtuoso of absurd proportions and, perhaps more uniquely and importantly, changed the landscape of guitar playing forever. Before this awkward young American kid came on the scene in the mid 60s, guitar playing was becoming slowly more dexterous, creative and occasionally crunchy and distorted through the rock ‘n’ roll era. But Hendrix made the weapon an axe. He attacked his instrument with a violent vigour, generating all manner of noises at, especially live, cacophonous volume. Like so many of his contemporaries, the whirlwind vagaries of fame and fortune got the better of Hendrix. He passed away in 1970 at the age of 27 (why/how???). In subsequent decades, all kinds of content of different levels of quality and officialness have come out, containing all kinds of live shows and unreleased studio tracks. In many ways, the last great Hendrix statement he left us with is the mercifully filmed and recorded monster Woodstock set he closed the legendary festival with. You have to go back two years, to the 1968 double-album opus Electric Ladyland, for the last of mere three official studio releases in Hendrix’s lifetime.
Though there is other material out there, that only three studio albums exist as the primary output of such a legend is astonishing and speaks to his immediate and indelible impact. It was the ultimate meteoric career, shining brightly and briefly, as these three classic albums were released over just a 16 month span. 1967 saw the debut Are You Experienced? which I have spoken about briefly previously, and the patchier but powerful follow-up Axis: Bold as Love. The grander, more meandering, more diverse tome that is Electric Ladyland was naturally longer in the pipeline, released in October 1968. These three studio albums (unlike most later material, as Hendrix moved on with his Band of Gypsys) are all officially credited to his ‘Experience’ band. The influence of bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell on this historic power-trio cannot be underestimated. Alongside Cream, they were the first megastar rock bands to popularise the simple and direct three-piece format of guitar, bass and drums. Redding bought a combination of firm audible power and restrained discipline, which the bassist needs to in order to anchor a mere three piece. Mitchell was a wrecking ball, with a feeling of a slightly less out of control and far more precise and on the beat Keith Moon.
The three albums are interesting to compare. Are You Experienced often gets the greater reverence, for good reason. All things considered, it probably comes out marginally ahead when averaging out collective critical appreciation. As such a line in the sand, a genre-shifting culturally defining debut album, this makes sense. My official stance is that had the first album somehow found a way to include most, preferably all, of the non-album singles and B-Sides which were released contemporaneously, it might just top this album and sneak into the Top 40 all time. I’m particularly referring to Purple Haze, Hey Joe, The Wind Cries Mary and 51st Anniversary there. But as it stands, I can only strictly judge tan album on its officially released merits. Comparing original tracklists, though both albums are still superb and invariably the double Electric Ladyland does meander more, it has many more peaks and much more diversity than its great rival and companion album which is consistently if monolithically crisp hard bluesy psychedelic rock. Axis: Bold As Love meanwhile kind of slips through the cracks but is pretty much as consistent and good as Are You Experienced, just without the delirious peaks of something like Fire or experimental wonder of Third Stone From The Sun.
I often ponder why I consider Electric Ladyland a cut above and if I’m misguided or not, especially as it a bit more of a mash of disparate elements. But the answer somewhat lies therein. Not only does this album have the undisputed greatest Hendrix track and a number of other supreme classics, it is his most cutting edge, daring and experimental work. Just as importantly, its exploratory nature means that what would sadly turn out to be the final Hendrix album, satisfyingly and poignantly puts a bow on his musical output by exploring pretty much all his skillset. It is the least purely ‘Experience’ album of the three, with Mitchell and especially Redding not featuring on every single track, but some of the guest slots are superb and bring an extra element to the sound. Despite their relative backseat in this production, the time and space this double album provides still allows Redding and Mitchell to make some of their most iconic contributions ever.
Side A opens with the discomforting sound collage…And The Gods Made Love. Hendrix wastes no time in drawing a clear line in the sand about just what a fully-on psychedelic odyssey we’re about to go on. It has little of note or quality to report on but as an opening statement its bold and aptly representative. It also segues satisfyingly into the title track Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland) which is a sweet and simple little effort, of a particularly soulful nature. It is a crisp guitar workout but also features some of the quite effective, underrated and underutilised higher end of Hendrix’s hesitant middling vocals. It establishes a tender pleasant atmosphere for Crosstown Traffic to thunder over the top of, with its rollicking guitar and drums intro. One of the signature Hendrix pieces, the loud, fun and brief tune again achieves that occasional Hendrix sweet stop of firey hard rock with a hint of pop melody to it. The simple but effective innovation that tops is Hendrix doubling his guitar at times with a fabulous sounding makeshift kazoo played by blowing into a comb wrapped in tissue paper.
This just leaves Voodoo Chile to fill out the remainder, and vast majority, of the opening side. This fifteen minute icon is a live in-studio jam based around a simple Muddy Waters blues figure. It came about because of the unique and chaotic nature of the recording sessions, where Hendrix insisted on many hangers-on, and New York’s Record Plant Studios basically became a party space. This hindered recording and caused tension between Hendrix and his understandably frustrated producer Chas Chandler. One night, Hendrix was invariably still in the studio at a very late hour, and ended up arbitrarily jamming the night away with an astonishing on the spot supergroup of a crew. Mitchell was present, but Redding not, as was often the case due to commitments with his new band Fat Mattress. In his stead stood Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady, while Traffic keyboardist and general session legend Steve Winwood was also present. At the end of the night this awesome foursome riffed on the simple central theme Hendrix established, and created a psychedelic blues workout for the ages.
Side B is the most straightforward of the four sides on the record. The three tracks in the middle are each a bit different and all solid but fairly down the middle of the typical Hendrix road, rooted in a kind of more joyous energetic blues. Long Hot Summer Night is the most soulful of the three, with a crunchy intro but delicate body including Al Kooper in piano. Come On (Let The Good Times Roll) is the first of the album’s two covers, a rollicking version of a classic rhythm & blues standard from the iconic New Orleans r&b legend Earl King. Gypsy Eyes has slightly poppier feel with a more English-style firm direct beat and melodic main phrase, but Hendrix riffs off this basis with some dexterous blues soloing.
The second side is bookended by two altogether different propositions though, unique in both style and sheer quality. Little Miss Strange is a straight up almost-bubblegum psychedelic pop song, written by Redding. It is my personal sleeper favourite on the album, veering far from the blues into a happy shiny pop territory, based around Redding’s acoustic guitar and Redding and Mitchell’s shared and distinctly 60s British Invasion sounding fun lead vocals. It compromises nothing on cutting edge and quality though, as the band rocks away and Hendrix shows how effective he is just as a pure lead-guitar player, even on someone else’s song. Burning of the Midnight Lamp is even greater still, representing the absolute peak of Hendrix’s foray into pure quintessential psychedelia. It is a simple pop song structurally, with the Experience themselves on the backing track and introspective and somewhat meta lyrics about Hendrix’s loneliness and frustration at being unable to master and finish the writing of the song. But some simple sonic additions transcend it into the most eclectic and gorgeous of any Hendrix work, beginning with Jimi himself playing an electric harpsichord, most brilliantly for the song’s captivating intro, but throughout the whole piece. This exotic sound is further complemented by liberal usage of a wah-wah pedal on the guitar parts, and some subtly brilliant explorations high on the fretboard during the delirious crescendos of each verse. The final beautiful ingredient is a huge, choral, processed backing vocal from R&B girl group The Sweet Inspirations led by Whitney Houston’s mother Cissy.
The third side on double LPs is notoriously the weak side. So many examples of classic double albums feature an often meandering, experimental unfocused period at this stage of proceedings. This can sort of be said to be the case here too, with the direct focused songs giving way to a spaced out drugged out extended musing, except that it is thoroughly excellent. Rainy Day, Dream Away comes first though and is quite stock standard blues jamming, but it is the remarkable 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be) which dominates. It starts as a notably slow and spacious but otherwise fairly conventional song, based around a gorgeous simple guitar riff. But after these opening verses it breaks down into pure avant-garde, with effects, backwards recordings, birdsong, spoken word and a lot of patience required. Winwood’s Traffic bandmate Chris Wood features heavily on flute, adding to the general feel of exotic experimentation. The final minutes are the most satisfying, as everything gives way to an amazing solo bass sequence, played by Hendrix himself, which then builds back to a cacophonous band finish.
The final side starts with the initial impression of running out of steam before we get the ultimate big finish. Still Raining, Still Dreaming is exactly what it says, a reprise and jamming continuation of Rainy Day, Dream Away. House Burning Down is another of the kind of upbeat more poppy blues tracks that are dotted throughout the album, but then suddenly comes undisputed masterpiece of the whole Hendrix oeuvre. All Along The Watchtower has long reached total saturation point in general society, for good reason. Jimi’s take on the simple but apocalyptic Bob Dylan composition is one for the absolute pantheon of all rock classics. Right from its triumphant intro to the sawing solo coda to the end, every move is so sweet and special. Despite the vast expansion in scale, Hendrix is still fundamentally loyal to the original by dynamically slowing and calming down for the verses, which he sings tenderly over a simple and gorgeous rendering of Dylan’s chords. Dylan’s original song was unusual in that it was basically a dirge-like poem, with no chorus. Hendrix expertly exploits that arrangement, filling in between verses with ‘choruses’ of raw instrumental energy. This conveniently also creates a familiar pop song feel to the structure, adding to its commercial appeal. Then there is the very best sequence still, the bridge, as everything stops and gives way to those iconic slides up the fretboard and the huge wah-wah solo and Redding fills. Just magnificent.
Similarly iconic is the final track, Voodoo Child (Slight Return) with its much mimicked and parodied sexy wah-wah intro, forever defining that sound as THE Jimi Hendrix sound, despite the fact that he only really used it these few times on this album. After that intro, this thematic reprise of the opening side’s long jam just goes nuts and Hendrix pretty much delivers a supreme four minute solo which, unthinkably tragic though the notion would seem at the time, is pretty much the perfect sign-off for rock ‘n’ roll’s ultimate guitar god.
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