Jimi Hendrix Experience 1967-1968

What the Experience did on three studio records is astounding. There's little I can add to the dialogue, but here goes anyway.

Hendrix not only redefined rock guitar in a way still not surpassed, or even approached, but he was also a gifted songwriter and an expressive singer, with the gift of nonchalance in all three categories.

Mitch Mitchell was a remarkable drummer who not only kept time, but played parts of the melody from time to time. A rock drummer with jazz-blues cred, he was certainly never intimidated by his band's leader, and their musical sparring is always perfect.

Noel Redding provided solid bass lines that held the rhythm, and allowed his bandmates to find their ways down all sorts of musical rabbit holes. His bass playing is more important than the credit he receives. 

The three records they released are all strikingly different, and all three are near perfect. Are You Experienced is a debut as big and bold as any, and the encyclopedia of rock guitar. Recent reissued versions (including a two-record vinyl version that's stellar) include the UK singles and UK album tracks that were absent from the original US release, and greatly enhance the record. To have heard this record in 1967 was mind-exploding. It was from Mars.

Axis: Bold As Love is the most commercial sounding of the three, and Hendrix experiments with stereo effects tricks and studio magic in a way that sounds a little dated today. But the songs and the playing are just fine, and some of these tracks (Wait Until Tomorrow, Little Wing, Bold As Love) are indispensable.

1968's Electric Ladyland found Hendrix letting loose with blues jams, as well as recording some of his most concise, single-worthy tracks. It's a sprawling affair, and rewards repeated listening.

There is little else you really need. Band Of Gypsies? Buddy Miles makes you miss Mitch Mitchell. Period. Billy Cox is more fundamental than even Redding was. This was never more than a brief whim in what should have been Hendrix's long career.

Everything else was released posthumously, and there are good reasons why that stuff never saw the light of day in his lifetime. I've heard plenty of it, and there's some that's worth hearing, but it isn't what we would have enjoyed had he not passed so young. I know there are plenty of fans that want whatever they can get their hands on, heck, there's been something like thirty records released since he died, and that was 42 years ago. But all most of us need is these three right here.

The Experience records are the bomb.

Jimi Hendrix Live At Woodstock 1999

I've been tempted by this record many times. Historical Document, yeah yeah, blah blah, etc. But I knew the story of Hendrix's little-rehearsed band and even though this was finally the (almost) entire set, I just never went for it. So the other day I'm at the library, and I stumble onto the 2 CD set.

I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am that I did not spend a dime of my hard-earned money on this really bad Hendrix live recording. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of Hendrix I love. The three studio records released during his brief life are near perfect, each in a different way. But I've never been a big fan of posthumous records culled from recordings that were not worthy the first time around.

And nobody would have released this material if Hendrix were a seventy year old geezer rocker today. He wouldn't have allowed it, unless he'd become a washed-up old has-been pushing "The Golden Sixties" three-CD set on late night TV. Which somehow seems hard to fathom.

First, the recording sucks. You can only really hear Hendrix, Billy Cox on bass, and the inimitable Mitch Mitchell on drums. The two percussionists and rhythm guitar are all but inaudible. Given the reputation of this short-lived experimental line-up, that may not be the worst thing about the record, but we'll never know, because you can't hear them. It's a sound board recording, and as such, not the worst, but that's only really good enough to be released when the performance is transcendent. A few Grateful Dead performance records come to mind. Not so much this debacle.

What you can hear is plenty bad enough. Billy Cox hasn't become familiar enough with these songs to sound like the solid foundational player he would become on Band Of Gypsies. Mitch Mitchell shines brightest, but only because I love his wild way with the kit. Hendrix himself seems mortified, uncharacteristically apologizing throughout the set. And although there are moments of greatness, it sounds like Hendrix is just way to stoned to play at the top of his game. And did I mention that the band were ill-rehearsed? This sounds like three guys flailing at instruments, maybe not even aware of each other most of the time.

The highlights, you ask? A crazy Spanish Castle Magic is worth hearing. The version of Fire is good (of course there are many better),  and the first half of Voodoo Child (Slight Return) is some killer Hendrix guitar, and it sounds like the band at least remembers how that one goes. The Star Spangled Banner is, well, it's of it's time, and you've heard it before.

The Sly and the Family Stone Woodstock Experience 2009 is the record to buy if you want to hear a great set at Woodstock. Hendrix was in a purple haze.