Ask any rock fan to make a top ten list of the best rock guitarists and you're sure to have plenty of arguments about who is at number two, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Pete Townsend? But for most people the number one spot certainly belongs Jimi Hendrix.
ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?
On the 20th May 1967 a little known three-piece rock outfit known as the Jimmy Hendrix Experience released their first LP 'Are You Experienced'. This record quite literally changed the world of rock music.
The band made up of Jimi Hendrix (lead Guitar), Mitch Mitchell (Drums) and Noel Redding (Base) had been brought together by ex-Animals Chas Chandler and after some time building up a fan following by playing small live venues, he got them in to the studio to record some of their material.
To begin with there was no clear plan to record a full album, initially the studio work was meant to record the singles 'Hey Joe', 'Purple Haze' and 'The Wind Cries Mary'. At the end of these recordings the band cut some extra tracks, which eventually became the basis for 'Are You Experienced'.
THE TRACKS
1. Foxy Lady 2. Manic Depression 3. Red House 4. Can You See Me 5. Love Or Confusion 6. I Don't Live Today 7. May This Be Love 8. Fire 9. Third Stone From the Sun 10. Remember 11. Are You Experienced
(Additional tracks on CD)
12. Hey Joe 13. Stone Free 14. Purple Haze 15. 51st Anniversary 16. Wind Cries Mary 17. Highway Chile
To say this is one of the most important records in Rock music is not an exaggeration. Other groundbreaking guitarists such as Eric Clapton, had developed and extended blues music in a Rock music context. Other musicians such as Jeff Beck and Pete Townsend had started experimenting the
mechanics of the electric guitar sound by incorporating feedback in to their music but no other performer had ever managed to fuse together such disparate elements as Soul, Blues, Psychedelia, Pop and Jazz into the rock framework.
The collection of songs on this album perfectly illustrates the advances that Hendrix had made in defining a new kind of rock music. The initial tracks 'Foxy Lady' and 'Manic Depression' are an early example of the frenzied psychedelia, which Hendrix was to further develop on 'Electric Ladyland' and which was in sharp contrast to the more ethereal psychedelia developing with bands such as Pink Floyd.
The most impressive aspect of these tracks and on others like 'I Don't Live Today' the 'Purple Haze' (not on the original vinyl UK release) is Hendrix's amazing capacity to draw out primeval sounds and sonic effects from his electric guitar that not other guitarist before or since has quite managed to achieve. These tracks are the harbingers of a new type of Rock-fuelled high-energy Soul that was to influence many artist though the years. Also ever-present on these tracks is the base and drum backing provided by Redding and Mitchell that managed to anchor the swirling rhythms produced by Hendrix to the framework of the song whilst at the same time providing a high charged accompaniment.
Hendrix's ability to create innovative sounds from his guitar can be best illustrated on a track 'I Don't Live Today'. At one point the guitar sounds like a muffled trumpet then it breaks down in to sonic shudders before a false end to the song dramatically leads in to an explosion of sound including dive bombs and Banshee-like shrieks.
Hendrix's feel for more traditional musical forms can be seen in the track 'Red House'. This song is a classic blues lament. Hendrix adds some emotive vocals and a sublime nonchalant sounding guitar riff. The slow pace of the song is in sharp contrast to the previous tracks and provides further evidence of Hendrix's adaptability and virtuosity in guitar styles. The brilliance of this track is further enhanced when we know that it was recorded, like many other tracks on the record (Manic Depression, Remember and May This Be Love) in one single take and was largely ad-libbed.
Because of financial and time constraints most of the record was recorded in short studio sessions in between gigs. All the song featured had been newly written by Hendrix but the musical arrangement had yet to be worked through. Chandler the manager/producer had not had much experience in producing and was not a great fan of long sessions in recording studios seeing them as a waste of time and money. He was very keen to get the tracks cut as quickly as possible. Chandler had sold off his collection of bass guitars in order to keep the group alive over the past few months and was really working off a shoestring budget. Songs were hardly ever rehearsed instead Hendrix would show Mitchell and Redding the riffs and then they went straight in to a take. It is a tribute to the understanding that the three had for each other that the tracks on this album sound of such high quality. This impromptu style to the recording gives the song a live feel and seems to enable the listener to directly connect with the music as if the band were playing in the same room.
Other outstanding tracks on the original vinyl recording include 'Fire' supposedly the first song Hendrix ever wrote and 'Third Rock From the Sun' a rambling psychedelic jam building up to a chaotic frenzied finale.
The final track of the vinyl version 'Are You Experienced' (track 11 on the CD) is also the most complex it includes many sound effects and backward solos, which did take some time to get sounding just right. Again it shows us to what extent Hendrix and the band were engaged in experiments with their music trying to achieve new sounds and sonic effect with their instruments.
Of the tracks added to the CD version Hey Joe, Stone Free and Purple Haze are classic examples of Hendrix at his innovative best but my personal favourite is the slower more emotionally tender 'The Wind Cries Mary', which must rank as one of Hendrix best and most poetic compositions.
As I've said before on CD reviews, I'm torn over the addition of extra tracks on CD versions of original vinyl recordings. I can see how having more music on the CD is of great value but if you consider a album as a complete work in to which some thought has been put over the song selection and order of play any addition to that original choice must be done carefully if at all so as not to spoil the overall feel of the record. In this particular case the choices are good ones and in terms of quality and style match up to the original songs on the vinyl version, there is also some logic to the choices in that most of the extra tracks were recorded at the same time as the original album tracks very often at the same studio sessions.
One reservation I have is that the track 'Are You Experienced?' is a perfect track to end the record with as it did originally on the vinyl version, placing it 11th out of 17 tracks does somewhat detract from the atmosphere the original order of play created.
Overall the album is a psychedelic patchwork of musical styles. A perfect blend of vocal and musical talents infused with rawness and energy that you rarely come across in any art form.
I first came across this album in my teens in the late 70's, knowing very little of Hendrix or his music. I remember being completely overwhelmed by it and not able to categorise alongside anything else I had heard before. I quickly searched out all of Hendrix's other music but soon found that because of his untimely death at the age on only 27 Hendrix had not left us with many example of his extraordinary talent as both musician and a songwriter. Although it was already more than a decade old when I first heard it the record had not dated, and the same can be said about it today. The music is still stands on its own, it still sounds special, different, in many ways even after more than thirty years still pushing at the boundaries of the rock music.
'Are You Experienced' is special for many reasons. It is rightly remembered as one of the definitive record of the psychedelic era. It is probably also the most outstanding debut album ever made and it created a new form of rock, which although was firmly rooted in the musical traditions of the past still managed to sound futuristic and innovative. At the time it was released is caused a huge interested rock and pop circles and was only kept of the number one spot by the Beatles 'Sgt Pepper's…' released a week later.
It never managed to overtake the 'Sgt Pepper's…' in the charts in its 33 week run but of the two records 'Are You Experienced' is the one that has probably still had most lasting influence on rock music.
Even though the band was in the studio over a period of months, it only took them and Chandler an actual total time of six days to record and mix the album. Not bad for a weeks work! Have you experienced it yet?
As emblematic of its time as of its sorcerer-like creator, 1967's Are You Experienced? ... more
unleashed Jimi Hendrix onto a world in the midst of such cultural and musical shake-ups that it really didn't seem as "far out" as it actually was. It wasn't just...
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Foxy Lady Manic Depression Red House Can You See Me Love Or Confusion I Don't Live Today ... more
May This Be Love Fire Third Stone From The Sun Remember Are You Experienced Hey Joe Stone Free Purple Haze 51st Anniversary The Wind Cries Mary Highway Chile
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