Yes, there was a time when music was exciting, forward thinking and still popular.
The third and final album by the world shattering Jimi Hendrix experience with drummer Mitch Mitchell, bassist Noel Redding and actually produced by Hendrix (and still engineered by Chas Chandler) was a wide ranging double album at the time which took music as far as it could go in as many directions as possible. It included top ten hits like Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” (which Zimmerman himself loved), hard driving headbangers like “Crosstown Traffic,” the wildly space kadet sounds of “1983…(A Mermaid Should Turn To Be)”, the highly influential blues jam of “Voodoo Child” and the psychedelic “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” that had Hendrix glued to the wah wah pedal.
The liner notes ( which includes Hendrix’s own handwritten song drafts and some great rare pics) and Blu-Ray The Making of Electric Ladyland help clear up a lot of background information about the notoriously chaotic sessions. Credits to drummer Buddy Miles/dr, Stephen Stills/b(!), Paul Caruso/harmonica, Al Kooper/p, Mike Finnigan/org, Freddie Smith/sax, Larry Faucette/perc are annotated and dated, with insightful interviews by Chandler, Redding and Mitchell as well as vintage studio footage.
A bunch of early takes of “Voodoo Chile” and material such as “Gypsy Eyes,” Snowballs at My Window,” “Little Miss Strange” the wonderful “Hear My Train A Comin’” and others are included on a separated disc as well, complete with conversations between takes. And, if that weren’t enough, there’s a concert performance of the Experience at the Hollywood Bowl from September 14, 1968. The sound quality is surprisingly acceptable, and the versions of “Hey Joe” and “Red House” display Hendrix’s blues roots days with Curtis Knight, whereas a read of Cream’s “White Room” and his own “Are You Experienced” are nuggets from the Psychedelic days of black light posters. A couple songs are not complete, such as the end of “Foxey Lady” and the beginning of “Fire” and the band seems to be having a kick out of the fans jumping into the pool that then separated the band from the audience. The intro to the concert with a wildly distorted segue into “Are You Experienced?” boldly asserts that no one is listening to surf music anymore.
Not only did Hendrix’s playing change the way we listened to and played guitar, but this album in particular, a “concept” album of sorts, broke down barriers between what not only guitarists, but musicians and fans of all genres. This 3 disc/Blu-Ray boxed set shows that it was a gauntlet run that we are still feeling the ripples from. Essential for music and culture.