Jimi Hendrix is a guitar player. He played the guitar unlike anyone before him, and, though not for lack of trying, unlike anyone who came after him as well. He played the guitar in a totally natural manner, as if the Stratocaster were an extension of his skeletal and nervous system instead of a method of getting chicks into the sack. This guitar could be played as two or three or even six different instruments at once (more, theoretically, if he was feeding back), as fast as lightspeed or as deliberate and precise as a surgeon's knifehand. Jimi had the whole range of style and power at his disposal, and while he tended towards injecting more power and volume into his sound, it was implied that much more lay beyond the exterior squall. Hendrix did not play notes per se, not, at least, like other guitar players played them...he played sounds. No, let's rephrase that. He stimulated beauty and pain to emulate from his Fender. While Townshend raped it and Beck tickled it and Keef just rowed the thing, Jimi Hendrix enticed it...loved it. I always thought that if a guitar could somehow be taught to play itself, it would sound like Jimi. Sound too fucking pretentious from a Certified Pottymouth like me? Well, shit, man...it's Hendrix.

I'm really not going to enter a discussion here about whether Jimi Hendrix is the best guitar player or not. Besides not being too much of a fan of the idea of 'best ever', I really don't go to Hendrix for the ol' emotionally affecting sort of playing I might hear from Clapton or George Harrison or Steve Hackett or whatever, or for the aggressive, master-of-pain playing of Pete Townshend or some metal dudes. Nah, Jimi's all about the jaw-dropping, and it's usually jaw-dropping of a sort where you aren't even sure of all the ways Hendrix is astonishing you...are you ever sure of exactly what the hell is going on on that right hand of his? I guess that's also the main thing about Jimi that repels me...listening to his playing can be almost taxing at times, and he often overplays his hand by attempting to raise the quality of a lame-ass tune by going ape-shit on the guitar. But that's not to say that there aren't moments...a lot of them...where it's quite obvious that no one can play what he's playing, as perfectly timed and precisely matched to the emotional requirements of the piece. It simply blows you over, even if not all of it can fit in your puny little brain (or mine).

It's been said that Jimi Hendrix's drawbacks lie in his lack of songwriting prowess (or, at least, inability to self-edit) and only-fair singing voice. I don't agree with either conceit. Jimi Hendrix only released four albums (one of them a double) worth of new material in his lifetime, and still has been able to generate at least a small albums' worth of original songs that are simply classics - world renowned, radio-consumed, best-of packin' classics. Considering that Jimi didn't have to ramp up very far to reach the level of creativity and productivity that created his first album, unlike most of his Sixties peers who made a handful of covers albums (or 'Sixties albums'…a single or two padded to full length by use of covers) before finally walking on their own two legs around 1966 or so. I wouldn't say that Jimi wrote necessarily accessible music, he wasn't Lennon and McCartney (he was, however, at least a George Harrison) and I wouldn't say that he revolutionized anything with his songwriting, but it's still mighty strong, at least through the end of the Experience. About Jimi's voice…well, I really couldn't imagine anyone else singing his songs, can you? It's distinctive, which is a whole fuckload of a lot more than you can say about bluesy poseurs like Paul Rodgers who always get all the accolades. 

Anyway, a little tad history lesson for people who don't like history lessons...Jimi was born in Seattle, Washington and began touring after getting home from being in the Army (Airbone, as I remember). He toured with several R&B groups, most notably the Isley Brothers (who took as much from Jimi as they taught him musically) and Little Richard (Hendrix's showmanship definitely had more than a little taste of the Rich in it) before finding himself drawn to London and the burgeoning blues-rock/psychedelic scene happening there with the Who, Cream, and Jeff Beck's Yardbirds as the most obvious examples of early guitar wizardry and innovation. Jimi broke into this scene with the helping hand of manager and former Animal bassist Chas Chandler, who set Jimi up with the Experience. Hendrix's first shows in London were, by all accounts, earth shattering for the musicians already involved in the scene...it was over, no one could beat Hendrix. Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend were slightly miffed at Jimi's usage of their trademarked feedback squalls, but they also admitted that Jimi did it better.

It was then time for the Experience to break into the US, notably into the San Francisco freak-out longhair scene by way of the Monterey Music and Art Festival of Summer 1967. Jimi's legendary performance there (along with America's introduction to the Who) set him up as a new hero of the counterculture - a black hippie guru who surfed the waves of heavy sound even more deftly than his white counterparts. He released three albums in the next year and a half, one of them a double, and survived idiotic promo stunts like a tour opening for the Monkees.

Jimi's main backup band, the Experience, were anything but slouches. It's still amazing to me how underrated these guys were. Sure, they may have chafed under the yoke of being Jimi's 'sidemen', but he simply never had any better. Bassist Noel Redding, afro-haired popster dude, was a guitar player before switching to bass at manager Chas Chandler's behest, and he plays like it. Melodic, inventive, rarely laying down in front of the Hendrix steamroller, Redding's bass was the fuel off which Hendrix soloing machine shot through the cosmos. Noel's main fault was that he wanted to write pop tunes ala the Who's Happy Jack album rather than just heavy freakouts. Jimi politely added a few of Noel's tunes to the last two Experience albums, but it was clear that they were as out of place as Snoop Dogg at a Charlie Daniel's concert. Noel was out by '68, ready to pursue a DOA solo career and long years of legal battles. Noel died earlier in 2003.

Mitch Mitchell is even more of a bewildering case for me…he's a jazz-influenced roll-monster behind the set ala a less insano in the faceo Keith Moon, and often kept thing interesting even when Jimi couldn't. Not only did he fit in perfectly on the hard rockin' Are You Experienced, was able to stretch out on Axis and Ladyland, but could even hold his own in the transitional '69 band. It's been said that Mitch could lose the tempo during his flights of Tony Williams-influenced wigging, but I don't really hear too much of that. And in the studio, he was a rock. It was only when Hendrix's desire to surround himself with only black players did Mitch hit the road…and subsequently pointed up Buddy Miles' fatty lack of drum agility and creativity.

Following the end of the Experience, Jimi went through several failed projects and one-offs, attempting to find the band that would lead him in the R&B/funk direction he was already leaning towards on Electric Ladyland. He formed the Band of Gypsys, another power-trio, starring Buddy Miles on drums (already a star himself for his work with the Electric Flag and others) and his ol' army pal Billy Cox on bass. The all-original live Band Of Gypsys album showed Hendrix already even shying away from his 'frontman' role in addition to eschewing psychedelic rock for a sort of heavy R&B that made clear Jimi's intentions to 'get back to roots', a journey many rock artists began around that time.

The Hendrix legacy was cut short by a combination of unfortunately heavy drug use if any chemicals that came to hand, Jimi's disillusionment at his public persona as the guitar-burning, tongue-flicking, teeth-picking Uncle Tom of psychedelic rock and subsequent lack of public interest in his actual playing skills, and a noxious group of hangers-on that sucked his money and energy. Jimi simply wasn't a particularly strong personality and was taken down by his own compromises, much like Brian Jones a year earlier.  Jimi died in circumstances that doomed his memory as a 'drug casualty', which wasn't even necessarily the case (Jimi, for example, was never the ragin' junkie that we usually associate with rock star excess) considering Jimi was able to function creatively up until his final days.  Of course, there has been a disgusting feeding frenzy upon his leftovers and live tapes after his death by bootleggers and self-serving producer Alan Douglas, one that has just recently been brought under control by his family, most notably his father, a man who has proven himself to be very wise and caring when dealing with his son's legacy.

Jimi's is a story that seems destined to end in a shroud of mystery and idolatry. He was another one of the singularities in modern art that operated on a plane that defied convention and bewildered audiences. Jimi Hendrix's recorded output, even during his lifetime, is far from perfection, but this simply adds to his interest. He's simply a compelling, colorful figure in this vanilla planet of ours.

And, by the way, Jimi Hendrix, not Neil Armstrong, was the first man to walk on the moon. 1967, baby!

Are You Experienced? - MCA 1967

Now, I'm reviewing here the super-expanded MCA reissue version of the AYE? that includes all of those fantastic early singles of his that you used to have to buy Smash Hits and a few-odd outtake collections to get, followed by the UK version of the original album (it starts with 'Foxey Lady', if I'm not mistaken). The original album was released in both US and UK versions, and of course they're completely different from one another, but whoever has enough bread and wherewithal to go out and hunt down the old US LP version of this album is already sold on this fucker, so let's just get this ball rolling down the mountain already.

Are You Experienced? did as an album exactly what Jimi himself did as a performer during those first few months on the London underground scene - took already existing ideas and pushed them further than anyone had thought possible. Again, I'm not entirely sure you could call this the first ever 'hard rock' album (that probably goes to the Doors, though there's 50 bucks that says the crown probably goes to something by ? and the Mysterians or some band off the Nuggets compilation) , but it definitely defines the stuff for us neophytes. Jimi and the band create a sound that's distorted, heavy, but undoubtedly alive, something that sounds quite unlike the Led Zeppelins and other heavy-rock bands that the Experience helped create. This band sound is taut, sinewy, and incorporating surprisingly effective levels of heavy and poppy. And fresh...AYE? still sounds vital, quite unlike the dated Disraeli Gears from the same year. Jimi knew the importance of resisting the idiotic tendency to make psychedelia sound childish and goofy...this album is about as far from 'music hall' (pheew!) as you're likely to find. In short, if you're a metalhead and have been reluctant about grabbing a rock album from the pre-metal era because of questions about it's Kickass Factor, or are a lover of 60's pop who wants to experiment within the realm of the psychedelic guitar freakout, I simply cannot recommend Are You Experienced? any higher...

'Hey Joe' is, yup, the same song the Byrds covered a few years prior, but it's about as 'folk rock' as a Kalashnikov. Jimi keeps the song clean, but the busy, jumpy tempos of the original are replaced by a very deliberate, haunting stride that builds into the climax ('I took a gun...and I SHOT HER!!!') along the lines of 'House Of The Rising Sun' but without the white guy oversinging the black-dude sounding part. 'Stone Free' is cowbell-loving, bassy funk from deep down in Jimi's R&B soul and actually quite similar to what he'd pursue with the Band of Gypsys years later (and less successfully). The lyrics are of that 'I'm a FREEE BIRRRRRDDDD!!!' stripe that now sound about as cliched as a song about trains or rain (or brains), but it's quite possible that this stuff was pretty revolutionary back in '67, a time when Gerry and the Pacemakers were still considered 'hard'. Jimi'd kinda run this free-spirit subject matter into the ground on this album, but let's chalk this stuff up to inexperience, shall we?

Beginning with a cough and one of the most paranoically recognizable intros in rock history, 'Purple Haze' is almost a clinic in creative heavy riffing. Jimi's guitar growls and moans like a wild animal on the loose while Our Acid Guide intones invitations to lysergic tourism that sound alternatively intriguing ('scuse me while I kiss the sky') and scary ('oh help me...I can't go on like this...') and would become his calling card. This is inexplicably followed up by the former B-side '51st Anniversary', a decidely non-freaky fast rocker about old people in love (and how Jimi really doesn't want to get married. According to Are You Experienced?, Jimi is pretty fucking against the institution of marriage. Somewhat related to 'being tied down', apparently. I guess our Jimi's just got happy feet and a wang that likes different flavors of Tang.) with a great live-in-the-studio sound and what sounds like him taking a hit off a joint on the line 'blow your...*ssssuck!!* sweet little mind!' Another change of pace follows with the lilting heavy-ballad/rocker 'The Wind Cries Mary', one of Bob Dylan's favorite Hendrix songs and one that shows some surprising lyricism and restraint on the solo section. Really, we're six tracks through the album now and the guitar freakouts have been kept to a minimum. But just you wait...these are singles. Singles weren't allowed to have more than 400 total notes in them prior to 1969 (by penalty of being shot in the kneecaps by Phil Spector). Just you wait until we hit the album tracks...

'Highway Chile' is kinda jive hard-rockin' naggy lead-linin' and more lyrics about getting the fuck away from whatever woman is trying to hold you down with her home-cookin' and moist lips, but it's the weakest track on here. 'Foxey Lady' kicks off the original LP and is much more like it...sorta a heaving fuck-strokin' revisitation of 'Purple Haze', it's yet another hard classic. Amazing how slow it is, though...any slower and it'd be a Swans song, but it hides it's very dragginess by as being as brontosaurus-deliberate as physically possible. Jimi really does sound sexy, too...this has gotta be one of the best leering tunes ever written. 'Manic Depression' is faster...amazing interplay between Jimi's off-beat lead line and Mitch's cacophanous drumrolls. The tunes on the AYE? LP were obviously written some time after the singles as they show a larger tendency to experiment with interplay and form, and are somewhat more satisfying (if less accessible) as a result. 'Red House' mixes in a heaping helping of blues-traditionalism of a sort Jimmy Page was always trying to equal (and never quite got to...notice, for example, how close the introductory solo to 'Red House' is to Page's 'Since I've Been Loving You'. For a blues-lover, I've always thought the solos here were nothing short of perfect - imminently memorable, thick, buttery tone, and always respectfully behind the beat.

I don't much like the rote 'Can You See Me', another fast rocker, in comparison with the tracks here that earn the right to the adjective 'classic', but the end of this record provides a psychedelic rush that proves all is forgiven. 'Love Or Confusion' has fucking galaxial interplay between the chording rhythm guitar and feedback lead, and an undeniable propulsiveness. This is noise rock of the first (and original) order...grooving, teeth-gritting, and beautiful. 'May This Be Love' is another R&B-influenced track that's entirely too noisy and hard to be considered Rhythm and Blues, but I insist that's exactly what it is....soul for the inner-ear, that's all. Needles into the pleasure centers of the brain. Jimi pleading to be killed so he can return to where he came from...a little peek behind the mask, maybe? 'Remember' is probably closer to what people consider 'soul', another strutter, another groovin' winner that thrives on Jimi's charismatic delivery ('I wanna...kiss you in the mornin' baby *smack!*') 'May This Be Love' is even more beautiful than 'Wind Cries Mary', 'Third Stones From The Sun' a surfy-instrumental pleasure that alternates between groove and sci-fi swooshes (plus some frigging hilarious lines from the 'alien' Hendrix...good shit) and full-on psychedelic freaking out. 'Are You Experienced?', with it's single-note piano, forwards-guitar- that- sounds- backwards, backwards-drums-that-sound-forwards, Ultimate Fantasy Camp soloing and constant pleading by Jimi to try this motherfucking joint already, is about the most compelling electronic psychedelic noise-soup since the funk classic 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. If you aren't willing to slide down the rabbithole after listening to this nightmare-vision, you're hopeless. Enjoy voting Republican, square!

Shit, when 'Fire' sounds tame, you know your second side is fucking bananas! Man, Jimi was growing by leaps and bounds not album by album, like most artists, but track by track. This album is sequenced perfectly to induce a very 'susceptible' frame of mind. Susceptible to beauty. Susceptible to power. Though it has a few rote gestures and doesn't produce a melodic winner each and every time, it's sheer raw energy and audacity make it a classic rock album for the ages. That doesn't suck or sound old or nothin'. There's still plenty of room for us all to get Experienced.

Capn's Final Word: Jimi's introduction of himself into our world, and (more importantly) us into his. Rocking, gorgeous, groundbreaking.

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Nathan Harper nator9999@comcast.net    Your Rating: A+
Any Short Comments?: It's just a classic. Electric Ladyland is probably more cohesive with a much smoother slow, but the plain truth is that unlike electric ladyland, everything on here just kicks ass. Hendrix's best.

Catrippee Troubadour     Your Rating: A+
Any Short Comments?: What is this narrowminded view of jimi's music? How in the Hell is Foxey Lady anything like Purple haze? Pick up an instrument every once in a while instead of a soapbox. Different key, different phrasing, even the soloing is painfully more straightforward. Dig your site but man you are way off on the comparison department. Stick to writing the rating. It's only one letter but you always seem to get it right.

(Capn's Response: I rather liked it when I said that your letter sounded like Andy Rooney choking on a Junior Mint.)

Randy     Your Rating: A
Any Short Comments?: The best way to experience this album is to take out all the filler cuts that weren't included in the first American release and put them at the end of your custom made cd; the notable exceptions being Stone Free and Red House.  That way you needn't be bothered by listening to Wait Until Tomorrow, Highway Child and that one about "so you say you wanna get married."  These songs, while mostly ok, definately belong in the bonus tracks section.
 

Mike     Your Rating: A+
Any Short Comments?: Listen, I pray you, to "Are You Experienced" backwards...it's *unbelievable*...

For all of us in the digital age, you can download WavePad, download an "Are You Experienced" mp3, open it within WavePad, select the entire track, then go to Effects, select Reverse, and then play the song.  Ooohhh....Drool...it'll show you just how much of the song was really backwards tapes...it's a mind milkshake!

Oh, the album? Yeah, it's a classic, 'nuff said.
 

nazar     Your Rating: A+
Any Short Comments?: This is my favorite album of all time. I've already had it several years,and I still listen to it. The sound is so raw, it grabs your attention and forces you to listen. Also, Jimi's voice goes very well with the music. Huh, imagine Phil Collins singing Hey Joe. The extra bonus tracks make it only better. AYE is anything but short of classic tunes, get it today!
 

The second album by the Experience shows their quick transition into a psychedelic pop band from a heavy rock band, and an increased focus on lyrics. Of course, both of these developments pretty much take them further from their main strengths: their raw power and Jimi's guitar. Of course, I spoke about Jimi's 'subtlety' last time, but when the Experience doggedly refuses to rock out, it's sort of difficult to get your mind around it, y'know. This album is so subtle it's stealth. I mean, I've probably heard it about 200 times over the last ten years or so, and if someone says 'Up From The Skies', I still don't know exactly which one of these songs they're talking about. Is that my fault, or is it Jimi's? Is it even a fault? I guess if I can say this is a great album regardless of the slippery nature of this music, there's nothing wrong with how this album is constructed.

First off, there's the goofy Frank Zappa-esque alien-skit 'EXP', which some Linda Tripps out there want us not to like, but what's not to like about someone smashing a guitar? That's all it is, fer chrissakes, and it only goes on for a minute or so. That one's memorable. So's 'Spanish Castle Magic', probably the only pure hard rocker on here, the only one that could really pass the Are You Experienced? test, anyway, and it's loads of funzies. You may know 'Little Wing' from the Derek and the Dominoes album, where Clapton made it scream like it had been his all along. Hendrix's version is a bit more pedestrian (not to mention poorly mixed) but respect still needs to be paid to a guy who is always seen as such a hard rocker pulling this fragile, intricate ballad out of his arse. That's songwriting talent, ladies and gentlemen, and people who claim Jimi is lacking in it have simply deposited Mr. Head into the National Ass Bank And Trust on a 6-month CD.

As for memorable tunes, 'If 6 Was 9' is definitely one of them…it's as bent as a pig's dick and about as pretty. Jimi raps about 'white collar conservative flashing down the street' and whatever else kept him up at night while the Experience either overplays (Mitch) or barely does anything at all (Jimi and Noel). The effect, especially after the irritating around-the-world volume panning starts in and the howling, twittering flute-thing (is that a guitar? Fuck me, that's gross!) is repellent…very much a rarity on a Jimi Hendrix song. You'll have to go looking long and hard through his 70's ripoff records to find something as bad as 'If 6 Was 9'.  

Umm…the rest of these tunes are great, but they're just that runtogether pop-rockin stuff I mentioned earlier. But just try to spend more than a couple words describing the jazzy 'Up From The Skies' and 'groovy 'Wait Until Tomorrow', Noel's 'She's So Fine', a pretty good Quick One gogo-rock impression, not to mention all those basic rockers like 'Little Miss Lover', and you're bound to fail. 'Castles Made Of Sand' is a nice rewrite of 'Wind Cries Mary', 'One Rainy Wish' a cross between 'May This Be Love' and, umm…cock rock? Weird, but highly effective. It's a lost classic, I'd say.

 Most folks have the same general impression of Axis - that it's generally difficult to discern and harder to remember. I'm no exception, but the true test is how you react to such a quandary. Some rate this Jimi's best, more accomplished than AYE? (Huh? because of some pop and some Dylan influences? Wha?) and more consistent than Electric Ladyland (I'll agree there, but EL's highlights beat the crap out of this record), and others just go with gut feeling and give it a lower grade due to it's lack of impressive punch. I'm quite happy it exists as a counterpoint to the freakouts on the other two, and I think it shows a lot of growth, but I simply cannot say that I'd really prefer to hear 'Spanish Castle Magic' over 'Purple Haze' or 'Fire', and 'Axis: Bold As Love' is pretty faint when compared with the title track to AYE? as a statement of purpose. Axis: Bold As Love will have to stay where it lies…a little enigmatic, quite a bit confusing and maybe more (or less) than it seems.

Capn's Final Word: Jimi makes an album so consistent you can't tell it apart from itself. Neat trick.

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mEf     Your Rating: A
Any Short Comments?: YOU TALK TO MUCH SHIT ABOUT GREATEST MUSICIAN/SPACE TRAVELER.... C'MON MAN, J-I-M-I WAS THE FUCKING GREATEST!!! BETTER THAN THAT FUCKING REDNECK BLUES WANNABE STEVIE "GAY" VAUGHN.
 

Mike     Your Rating: A
Any Short Comments?: I thought I was the only one who thought "If 6 Was 9" sucked balls. "Little Miss Lover" is pretty damned funky, and one of Jimi's best rockers - many of these songs are among his best.

Electric Ladyland - MCA 1968

Jimi's grand personal statement, made in the studio that he helped create and under his total artistic control, and home to some of his most flat-out astonishing work. This double expands on everything that he'd tried on his first two records, from the hard rock and wiggy psychedelia of Experienced? ('Crosstown Traffic', 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return') to the more melodic work he introduced on Axis ('Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)', 'The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp'), and points much further beyond. Jimi gave us all he had on Electric Ladyland, and unfortunately means he gave us everything he had as well…there's about four or five songs on here that simply bore, and I sincerely don't mean the incendiary blues meltdown 'Voodoo Chile' or the jazzy, mind expanding trip down 20,000 tabs under the sea '1983/Moon Turn The Tides'. Sorry to be shocking…should I put my pants back on again? 

I mean 'Come On' (come on and finish this generic fucking soul cover), 'House Burning Down' ('House Falling Asleep' is more like it), 'Gypsy Eyes' (get in your caravan and move the fuck right on out of town). There's a few more that I probably ought to list, but come on…I've never found these songs to be anything more but as forgettable as Axis and a whole lot less accessible to repeated listenings. There's really a tendency among Jimi's work that seems to indicated that if he can come up with some impossibly difficult riff over a soul groove (or even a dull, plodding riff over a soul groove…see Band of Gypsies) he can come up with a song, but I feel like sometimes Jimi is engaged and sometimes he's not. On the 'Voodoo Children', he's engaged. On Noel's tunes, no way. On 'Watchtower', sure…'Come On' is autopilot. So, Electric Ladyland is far from flawless…as spotty as Michael Jackson's dong and about 100 times as long, that's for sure. But I still love it to death…quite often I'm moved by Electric Ladyland as I am few other rock albums.

I enjoy this album (70% or so, anyway) so much because Jimi is free of the time restrictions that must've stifled him before. The demon rundown dark-blues 'Voodoo Child' (the first one, starring the Jefferson Airplane's Jack Casady and organist Stevie Winwood of Michelob-shilling fame) leads somewhere new each and every one of it's 15 minutes, which is exactly what a blues jam ought to do, and so few people were able to get right when this stuff was in vogue. Even the sidemen play like possessed Haitians, shocking this blues Frankenstein's Monster to life and marching it right on down into the village to slaughter a few merchants. I really cannot conceive of this song losing even one bar (which is precisely what makes the version on the Blues CD so weird as it contains a very different approach to the same jam). '1983 (A Merman I should Turn To Be)/Moon Turn The Tides…Gently, Gently Away' is even more accomplished…a science fiction tale (Jimi and girlfriend build a machine to turn them into mermaids to escape war on the surface) that not only has an intriguing and evocative set of lyrics, but actually has musical passages that - lo and behold!- actually resemble what it might be like to travel through the beauty of the undersea world like a natural inhabitant! Rock music, prog especially, constantly attempts to evoke certain unearthly worlds via musical experimentation, but most of them fail to sound like anything but a bunch of longhair Brits in a studio smoking pot and figuring out new ways to wear ruffled shirts. From the stately melody-line and march-step drumbeats to the echo effects on Jimi's voice, straight through to the 'space' section complete with bass solo (Jimi) and various watery squiggles and moans, and onto the hard-charging roar that accompanies the flute solo, this suite is fantastic. Is it any coincidence it's placed between the jazz-groove bookends 'Rainy Day, Dream Away', and 'Still Raining, Still Dreaming'? I hate to mention what may be obvious to everyone else, (it certainly wasn't to me, not for a long time), but our narrator is hanging out, smoking weed on a rainy day and falls asleep, dreams the whole '1983' mermaid thing (cool dream), and then completes the sequence with 'Still Raining, Still Dreaming'. I mean, that's nearly as cool as thinking up the three Star Wars trilogies all at once, or maybe inventing cigarettes. It's just that cool. Just get over the fact that it's long, that's all you gotta do.

Forget that the dull likes of 'House Burning Down' totally ruin the mood and launch into Jimi's version of 'All Along The Watchtower', which Dylan had released just weeks before Jimi recorded this totally transformed and immeasurably improved version of the John Wesley Harding mood-piece. They're two completely different songs, sharing nothing but a chord sequence, a lyric sheet, and an oppressive foreboding, and I feel that Jimi's peculiar blend of accidental genius and master of technique come together perfectly on this song. Given the right seed, he made it work.

Jimi didn't need a seed for 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)', which has nothing to do with the other song of the same name other than the supernatural lyrical subject matter, live-in-the-studio recording, and the fact that it KICKS FUCKING ASS. Why more people don't hold this tune up as a simple classic of pure, genuine rock 'n' roll mastery is beyond me. To me, it's the perfection of all things attempted by Hendrix so far. The riff itself is mesmerizing, and Jimi never plays it the same way twice. The Experience latch onto a metallic, funky, heaving bastard of a groove that moves mountains (and makes sand) all by itself. Is it unjustly forgotten because Jimi solos most of the way through? I believe these are some of his most brilliantly off-the-cuff lines ever, and I love it when he makes his Strat sound like a train by flicking the pickup selecter like that. Whenever I try it, I just go *click! click!* as the note dies away entirely too quickly and I look and sound like a retard on his way home from camp. Little things…it's the little things that make Jimi Hendrix a legend. Oh, and the big things, too. Fuck it…it’s everything. You gotta buy this record.

Capn's Final Word: Never mind the bullocks...here's Jimi Hendrix

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Nathan Harper  nator9999@comcast.net   Your Rating: A
Any Short Comments?: Of all the reviews I've read of this, I agree with yours the most. You don't worship it, but you don't condemn it either. Sure, a bunch of the pop tunes following "Voodo Chile" are crappy filler, but everything from "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" to "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" is fucking amazing. Not to mention "Voodoo Chile" and "Crosstown Traffic!" The whole dream sequence in particular is fantastic. If Jimi could have jusst cut out some of the crap, this could have been his best album.
 

mEf     Your Rating: A
Any Short Comments?: THIS ALBUM IS TRULY A MASTERPIECE....
 

Capn's Final Word: Once the engine turns over, it's off to the races. Side 2 is like a rush headlong into a hurricaine.

Brian Dickson      Your Rating: A
Any Short Comments?: My favourite Hendrix concert. It's interesting to hear how different it is from Monterey. That concert was clearly Jimi making as big a statement as possible. The liner notes to Monterey state that the Chinese had "squibbed their first H Bomb the day before but Jimi's set was the bigger blast". Woodstock though is a much more relaxed affair. Not so much in the music, which is as scorching as ever but in the attitude; "hey man we've got an audience..that's cool, now let's get back to the jam" This is Jimi at his most natural, before the fatigue became apparent in 1970. Woodstock has no stage antics, no burning guitars, just an hour of great musicianship. He's not trying to impress anyone this time, he's just having a good time.
 

Jimi Hendrix had remained listless and unsure of his musical direction ever since the breakup of the Experience following the release of Electric Ladyland. Generally looking for inspiration anywhere he could find it, one of the ways he attempted to resurrect himself from drug-induced depression was to make a return to his R&B roots. He decided that the best move to make was to reaffirm his 'blackness' after spending two years in the spotlight surrounded by two white guys. He formed the Band Of Gypsies with bassist Billy Cox from the Woodstock band (and one of Jimi's friends from his Army days) and star drummer Buddy Miles. The BOG played only three shows, right around New Year's 1970, taking their setlists from Jimi's as-yet-unfinished fourth studio record, and adding in a few old hits and Buddy Miles tunes. The disc I'm reviewing is not the expanded, two-CD set Live At Fillmore East, which contains a more complete picture of the shows, but rather the original, single disc contractual obligation that Hendrix released in early 1970. Apparently the Fillmore discs are astonishing in the same way as Woodstock, but there's little hint of that going on here. Jimi may have been trying to get back to his roots, but I seriously doubt his roots were this unreservedly boring.

 A little explanation may be necessary as to why this was released at all. Hendrix's Capitol recording contract was about to run out, and he wanted to release an album that a) didn't include any Experience songs, b) didn't include anything that might make it onto his unfinished First Rays Of The New Rising Sun record, and c) could be completed quickly and easily so as not to take time away from the arduous recording of Rays. Bingo…Band Of Gypsies. It had the commercial drawback of being live and not including any of the hits, but I guess people underestimate the drawing power of Billy Cox. Anyway, don't buy this. I'll reserve judgment on Fillmore East until I hear it, but if this heap is any indication, you better just stick with Woodstock.

An Drew      Your Rating: A
Any Short Comments?: How can anyone deny this record? The funky riffs of "who knows" and "changes," the mind-blowing solos (machine gun). The tone of jimi's strat has never been heard as powerfully as it is here, live or in the studio. The downside is jimi's singing, which is horribly spotty, but he was FUCKING BUSY with the guitar, and having only a mediocre rhythm section to work with. Buddy miles' voice is a welcome change, though mitch mitchell would have been much better. Overall, definitely a requisite hendrix album.

George A. Gelish     Your Rating: A+
Any Short Comments?: Dude, if you gave this album a C- you are not a Hendrix fan!  This record documents a transitional period in Hendrix'career where he was trying to get to another level but in the end would be thwarted.  Hendrix walks away from the Experience to grow and stretch out as an artist, teaming up with cohorts Buddy Miles on drums and Billy Cox on bass. 

Some have called BOG "the first black supergroup" and they are probably right to an extent.  Buddy Miles was and has been an underappreciated artist in the annals of Rock. His fantastic drumming and singing with the Electric Flag - not to mention his own stellar first solo album - are now largely forgotten. Not to mention the many good songs he's recorded after this one.

A lot of people prefer Noel Redding's bass playing to Billy Cox, although I disagree.  Cox's bass is funkier and more "in the pocket" that that of Redding, who was always a frustrated guitar player and jealous of Jimi being the star.

For his part, Hendrix expands on his expermentations at Woodstock with Sky Church.  Here he stretches out into free-form jams like the twelve-minute "Who Knows" and an expanded eight-minute version of "Machine Gun."  While the former is a hit-or-miss, sometimes unfocused jam (aren't they all?) the latter is Hendrix at his most brilliant and passionate.  Here he shows he has perfected the war sounds he famously used on "Star Spangled Banner" at Woodstock. 

In addition to documenting a killer show, at its release "Band of Gypsies" debuted some of Jimi's best songs - "Message of Love" and "Power of Soul."  There is also a spirited version of "Them Changes;" a very different and psychedelicized version than the very good version on the "Buddy Miles Express" LP.

"Band of Gypsies" is a must-have for any Classic Rock collection. 

Mike    Your Rating: B-
Any Short Comments?: And that's a low B minus. Good Christ...the reasons why this album sucks in comparison to other Jimi stuff can be summed up in one word: Buddy Miles. That is not very good drumming, and compared to Mitch...I mean, Buddy's a better drummer than Nick Mason, say, but when we're comparing drummers to Nick Mason, we've hit the skids. And I would have been perfectly content to have never heard Buddy Miles sing lead. He's good enough as a backing vocalist, but someone should tell him that scatting is not his forte.

"Who Knows" is an underwritten jam, doesn't feature remarkable Hendrix playing, and wastes an unconscionably large amount of time in the middle on Miles' terrible vocal hooting. Seriously, he sounds like a pigeon. "Them Changes" isn't a good song, neither is "We Gotta Live Together," and "Message To Love" is all right, but nothing special. That leaves "Power of Soul" and "Machine Gun." "Power of Soul" ain't bad, not amazing, but definitely fun: Jimi gets some good riffs around Billy Cox's bass, and generally I like it.

But "Machine Gun" is unbelievable. Everything works here, from Buddy's stalking, military, unrelenting drumming, to Billy Cox's amazingly cold, evil bass groove, and even Buddy's backup vocals work startlingly well. But Jimi...oh, good God. This is very likely some of his best guitar playing ever recorded. This has been beaten into the ground, but his guitar really does conjure up the sounds of helicopters, explosions, bullets...visceral, terrifying playing. Buddy's lead vocal at the end is all right, even. I know I'm really harsh on the guy, but c'mon...that's not good singing, or even soulful. The drumming's most often a joke in front.

I wouldn't get it, really. But you should find "Machine Gun" right now - 12 minutes of depressing brilliance. Even Jimi's speaking intro to the song is uneasy...that's not a happy man talking. 

Joe Scott     Your Rating: A+
Any Short Comments?: You Absolute COCK!! This album is just another showcase of how Jimi could handle any stlye of music...The tracks on here have more soul and power and feeling of musicianship than any of Jimis other albums...... just because its not a pyscadelic freakout dont make it boring. Im not saying the music here is Jimis best or any more revolutionary but I still think its a beautiful album...noone around could reproduce such a perfect blend of funk soul, blues, rock and pyscadelia. Tracks such as power of soul have a lot of power and do have a structure and i find songs like this most enjoyable when jamming with my band, and the response we get from people askin what were playin is ace..

(Capn's Response: The fact that people have no idea what it is you're playing may say more about your abilities than Jimi Hendrix's.)

Matt     Your Rating: B+
Any Short Comments?: Jesus, Machine Gun....BORES me so bad.
 

The first of producer Alan Douglas's corpse-chomping post-mortem albums released only in the purest respect for what Jimi Himself might've wanted (right), The Cry Of Love was a collection of the studio tracks Jimi was most close to completing at the time of his death. Of course, all of this has now been supplanted in it's entirety by the comprehensive CD-age First Rays of the New Rising Sun so let's move on there for more info on the tracks themselves.

Capn's Final Word: Let the shameless captialization of a defenseless dead guy get underway! Got your cutout bins ready?

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War Heroes - Reprise 1972