And here´s one of the most important albums in the hisory of rock music:
Electric Ladyland is the third and final studio album by English-American rock band the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in October 1968 by Track Records/Polydor, and Reprise Records in North America. The double album was the only record from the band produced by Jimi Hendrix. By mid-November, it had charted at number one in the United States, where it spent two weeks at the top spot. Electric Ladyland was the Experience’s most commercially successful release and their only number one album. It peaked at number six in the UK, where it spent 12 weeks on the chart.Electric Ladyland is the third and final studio album by English-American rock band the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in October 1968 by Track Records/Polydor, and Reprise Records in North America. The double album was the only record from the band produced by Jimi Hendrix. By mid-November, it had charted at number one in the United States, where it spent two weeks at the top spot. Electric Ladyland was the Experience’s most commercially successful release and their only number one album. It peaked at number six in the UK, where it spent 12 weeks on the chart.
Electric Ladyland included a cover of the Bob Dylan song, “All Along the Watchtower”, which became the Experience’s highest-selling single and their only top 40 hit in the US, peaking at number 20; the single reached number five in the UK. Although the album confounded critics in 1968, it has since been viewed as Hendrix’s best work and one of the greatest rock records of all time. Electric Ladyland has been featured on many greatest-album lists, including Q magazine’s 2003 list of the 100 greatest albums and Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, on which it was ranked 54th.
Recording sessions for the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s third and final studio album, Electric Ladyland, began at the newly opened Record Plant Studios, with Chas Chandler as producer and engineers Eddie Kramer and Gary Kellgren. As recording progressed, Chandler became increasingly frustrated with Hendrix’s perfectionism and his demands for repeated takes. Hendrix allowed numerous friends and guests to join them in the studio, which contributed to a chaotic and crowded environment in the control room and led Chandler to sever his professional relationship with Hendrix. Redding later recalled: “There were tons of people in the studio; you couldn’t move. It was a party, not a session.” Redding, who had formed his own band in mid-1968, Fat Mattress, found it increasingly difficult to fulfill his commitments with the Experience, so Hendrix played many of the bass parts on Electric Ladyland The album’s cover stated that it was “produced and directed by Jimi Hendrix”. The double LP was the only Experience album to be mixed entirely in stereo.
During the Electric Ladyland recording sessions, Hendrix began experimenting with other combinations of musicians, including Jefferson Airplane’s Jack Casady and Traffic’s Steve Winwood, who played bass and organ respectively on the fifteen-minute slow-blues jam, “Voodoo Chile”. During the album’s production, Hendrix appeared at an impromptu jam with B.B. King, Al Kooper, and Elvin Bishop. Electric Ladyland was released in October 1968, and by mid-November it had reached number one in the US, spending two weeks at the top spot. The double LP was the Experience’s most commercially successful release and their only number one album. It peaked at number six in the UK, spending 12 weeks on the chart.
Hendrix’s studio perfectionism was legendary – he and Mitch Mitchell recorded well over 50 takes of “Gypsy Eyes” over three sessions. Hendrix was generally insecure about his voice and often recorded his vocals hidden behind studio screens. Hendrix sang all the backing vocals himself on the title track and on “Long Hot Summer Night”. He was said to be very happy with the vocal results on “Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)”.
According to music journalist David Stubbs, Electric Ladyland is “undoubtedly a rock album, albeit rock on the point of evolving into something else.” Uncut magazine’s John Robinson said that its music reconciles the psychedelic pop of Hendrix’s earlier recordings with the aggressive funk he would explore on his 1970 album Band of Gypsys.
During its recording, Kramer experimented with innovative studio techniques such as backmasking, chorus effect, echo, and flanging, which AllMusic’s Cub Koda said recontextualized Hendrix’s psychedelic and funk sounds on the album.
Electric Ladyland is a cross-section of Hendrix’s wide range of musical talent. It includes examples of several genres and styles of music: the psychedelic “Burning of the Midnight Lamp”, a UK single the previous summer (1967), the extended blues jam “Voodoo Chile”, the New Orleans-style R&B of Earl King’s “Come On”, the epic studio production of “1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)”, the social commentary of “House Burning Down”, and the Sixties-era Britpop of Noel Redding’s “Little Miss Strange”. The album also features an electric reworking of the Bob Dylan classic “All Along the Watchtower”, which has been well received by critics as well as by Dylan himself, and also “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”, a staple of both radio and guitar repertoire. Rolling Stone’s Holly George-Warren praised “Crosstown Traffic” for its hard rock guitar riff.
“All Along the Watchtower” became the band’s highest-selling single and their only US top 40 hit, peaking at number 20; it reached number five in the UK. The album also included one of Hendrix’s most prominent uses of a wah-wah pedal, on “Burning of the Midnight Lamp”, which reached number 18 in the UK charts.
Hendrix had written to Reprise describing what he wanted for the cover art, but was mostly ignored. He expressly asked for a color photo by Linda Eastman of the group sitting with children on a sculpture from Alice in Wonderland in Central Park, and drew a picture of it for reference. The company instead used a blurred red and yellow photo of his head while performing at Saville Theatre, taken by Karl Ferris. Track Records used its art department, which produced a cover image by photographer David Montgomery, who also shot the inside cover portrait of Hendrix, depicting nineteen nude women lounging in front of a black background. Hendrix expressed displeasure and embarrassment with this “naked lady” cover, much as he was displeased with the Axis: Bold as Love cover which he found disrespectful. The cover was banned by several record dealers as “pornographic”, while others sold it with the gatefold cover turned inside out.
The double LP was the Experience’s most commercially successful release and Hendrix’s only number one album. In the UK, it peaked at number six and charted for 12 weeks.
Electric Ladyland confounded contemporary critics; reviewers praised some of its songs but felt the album lacked structure and sounded too dense. Melody Maker called it “mixed-up and muddled”, with the exception of “All Along the Watchtower”, which the magazine called a masterpiece. In a negative review for Rolling Stone, Tony Glover preferred the less difficult “Little Miss Strange” to songs such as “Voodoo Chile” and “1983”, which he said were marred by reactively harsh playing. Robert Christgau was more enthusiastic, naming it the fifth best album of 1968 in his ballot for Jazz & Pop magazine’s critics poll.
Over time, Electric Ladyland’s critical standing improved significantly, with author and musicologist John Perry describing it as “one of the greatest double-albums in Rock.” According to author Michael Heatley, “most critics agree” that the album was “the fullest realization of Jimi’s far-reaching ambitions”; Guitar World editor Noe Goldwasser called it his greatest work. The record was also deemed an essential hard rock album in Tom Larson’s 2004 book History of Rock and Roll, and Clash reviewer Robin Murray viewed it as a “true classic of the psychedelic rock era”. In a retrospective review for Blender, Christgau wrote that it was the definitive work of psychedelic music, describing the record as “an aural utopia that accommodates both ingrained conflict and sweet, vague spiritual yearnings, held together by a master musician”. In Charlotte Greig’s opinion, much like Are You Experienced, Electric Ladyland was “groundbreaking, introducing audiences to a style of psychedelic rock rooted in the blues”.
Electric Ladyland has been featured on many greatest album lists, including a number 10 ranking on Classic Rock magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Rock Albums Ever, and number 37 on The Times’ 100 Best Albums of All Time. Music journalist and author Peter Doggett argued that it is very likely the greatest rock album of all time because of its exceptional concept, artful melodies, experimentation, and skilled musicianship, which he felt remains unparalleled by any other rock artist. In 2003, Q magazine included it on its list of the 100 greatest albums ever, while Rolling Stone ranked it 54th on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. (by wikipedia)
Jimi Hendrix Graffiti Tribute is a painting by Victor Cavalera
Jimi Hendrix’s third and final album with the original Experience found him taking his funk and psychedelic sounds to the absolute limit. The result was not only one of the best rock albums of the era, but also Hendrix’s original musical vision at its absolute apex. When revisionist rock critics refer to him as the maker of a generation’s mightiest dope music, this is the album they’re referring to. But Electric Ladyland is so much more than just background music for chemical intake. Kudos to engineer Eddie Kramer (who supervised the remastering of the original two-track stereo masters for this 1997 reissue on MCA) for taking Hendrix’s visions of a soundscape behind his music and giving it all context, experimenting with odd mic techniques, echo, backward tape, flanging, and chorusing, all new techniques at the time, at least the way they’re used here. What Hendrix sonically achieved on this record expanded the concept of what could be gotten out of a modern recording studio in much the same manner as Phil Spector had done a decade before with his Wall of Sound. As an album this influential (and as far as influencing a generation of players and beyond, this was his ultimate statement for many), the highlights speak for themselves: “Crosstown Traffic,” his reinterpretation of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” “Burning of the Midnight Lamp,” the spacy “1983…(A Merman I Should Turn to Be),” and “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return),” a landmark in Hendrix’s playing. With this double set (now on one compact disc), Hendrix once again pushed the concept album to new horizons. (by Cub Koda)
Alternate frontcovers
Personnel:
Jimi Hendrix (vocals, guitar, piano, percussion, harpsichord, bass on 02., 06., 08., 11., 14. + 15.)
Mitch Mitchell (drums, percussion, vocals on 05., background vocals)
Noel Redding (bass, background vocals, guitar and vocals on 05.)
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Jack Casady (bass on 04.)
Larry Faucette (percussion on 10, + 13.)
Mike Finnigan (organ on 10. + 13.)
Brian Jones (percussion on 15.)
Al Kooper (piano on 06.)
Dave Mason (guitar on 15, , background vocals on 03.)
Buddy Miles (drums on 10. + 13.)
Freddie Smith (saxophone on 10. + 13.)
The Sweet Inspirations (background vocals on 09.)
Steve Winwood (organ on 04.)
Chris Wood (flute on 11.)
Tracklist:
01. And The Gods Made Love (Hendrix) 1.20
02. Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland) (Hendrix) 2.13
03. Crosstown Traffic (Hendrix) 2.26
04. Voodoo Chile (Hendrix) 14.59
05. Little Miss Strange (Redding) 2.53
06. Long Hot Summer Night (Hendrix) 3.27
07. Come On (Part I) (King) 4.10
08. Gypsy Eyes (Hendrix) 3.45
09. Burning Of The Midnight Lamp (Hendrix) 3.41
10. Rainy Day, Dream Away (Hendrix) 3.40
11. 1983… (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) 5.49
12. Moon, Turn the Tides…Gently Gently Away (Hendrix) 7.51
13. Still Raining, Still Dreaming (Hendrix) 5.28
14. House Burning Down (Hendrix) 4.33
15. All Along The Watchtower (Dylan) 4.01
16. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) (Hendrix) 5.13
“There must be some kind of way out of here,”
Said the joker to the thief,
“There’s too much confusion.
I can’t get no relief.
Businessmen – they drink my wine,
Plowmen dig my earth.
None will level on the line,
Nobody of it is worth.
Hey!”
“No reason to get excited,”
The thief – he kindly spoke,
“There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I – we’ve been through that.
And this is not our fate.
So let us not talk falsely now.
The hour’s getting late.
Hey!”
All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went.
Barefoot servants too.
Outside in the cold distance
A wildcat did growl.
Two riders were approaching,
And the wind began to howl, hey.
Rainbow Bridge is a compilation album by American rock musician Jimi Hendrix. It was the second posthumous album release by his official record company and is mostly composed of recordings Hendrix made in 1969 and 1970 after the breakup of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Despite the cover photo and subtitle Original Motion Picture Sound Track, it does not contain any songs recorded during his concert appearance for the 1971 film Rainbow Bridge.Rainbow Bridge is a compilation album by American rock musician Jimi Hendrix. It was the second posthumous album release by his official record company and is mostly composed of recordings Hendrix made in 1969 and 1970 after the breakup of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Despite the cover photo and subtitle Original Motion Picture Sound Track, it does not contain any songs recorded during his concert appearance for the 1971 film Rainbow Bridge.
First Rays of the New Rising Sun. “Look Over Yonder” began as “Mr. Bad Luck” while Hendrix was performing in Greenwich Village, New York City, with his group Jimmy James and the Blue Flames in the summer of 1966. The version included on Rainbow Bridge was recorded by the Experience in 1968.[5] Two songs by the Band of Gypsys, “Room full of Mirrors” and “Earth Blues” date from 1969, although the latter has subsequent drum overdubs by Mitchell. “The Star Spangled Banner” is a 1969 solo studio recording by Hendrix. The remainder of the songs were recorded with the “Cry of Love” group (Mitchell and Cox) in 1970: “Dolly Dagger”, “Pali Gap”, and “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)”. “Hear My Train A Comin'” is a live recording from the first show on May 30, 1970, at the Berkeley Community Theatre. An edited version appears in the 1971 concert film Jimi Plays Berkeley.
Blues is a posthumous compilation album by musician Jimi Hendrix, released April 26, 1994, on MCA Records. The album contains eleven blues songs recorded by Hendrix between 1966 and 1970. Out of these eleven, six were previously unreleased. The tracks include seven of Hendrix’s compositions along with covers of famous blues songs such as “Born Under a Bad Sign” and “Mannish Boy”. Most of the album’s material consists of leftover studio tapes that Hendrix might have never intended to release.
