TheCellarTapes

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced
(1967)



Tracks



Born in 1940's Seattle, Jimi Hendrix would go on to be the ultimate guitar Legend in both his native America and more crucially here in the UK. In the mid sixties, Eric Clapton was God having given the blues sound a complete overhaul, however in the late sixties Clapton was revealed to be just a mere prophet for Hendrix had arrived to save us all.

It's well documented that Hendrix had a gift for creating noises from his guitar that only he could create, this much is true, problem is he raised the bar to a level which has not even been sniffed at since the time of his tragic death in 1970, which certainly has left a big hole on mankind's ability to create.

Despite Hendrix's ability and obvious talent, it was only in the last 5 years of his life that he managed to have the huge impact his talent deserved. In 1966, The Animals were on the verge of breaking up, and their bassist Chas Chandler decided he would try his arm at management. Luckily for us, a chance viewing in New York of Hendrix playing blues in a club convinced a gob smacked Chandler that he needed to get this guy over to England.

In England, a rhythm section was forged around him, arguably one of the best rhythm sections ever created. Mitch Mitchell, possibly one of the greatest drummers ever to pick up a pair of sticks and Noel Redding on bass, both had the key ability to keep up with Hendrix and produce the glue needed to make the songs sound the way they did. This new three piece would be called The Jimi Hendrix Experience.



Their first record in the UK was a triumph, released in 1967 on MCA, Are You Experienced was a stunning debut, incorporating at its base the fundamentals of Blues, Rock and Soul with the addition of a more futuristic fuzz sound trying to kick out from all angles, there was also an undeniable jazz influence coming from Hendrix's rhythm section, which probably allowed all these elements to gel with such wonderous results.

Nothing more demonstrates the power in Hendrix's fingers then Foxey Lady, imagine if you will just sitting there having placed the needle on the record to hear that guitar slowly marauding its way through your amp and breaking through to produce one of the most hypnotic guitar riffs ever created, brilliant. Yet more Psychedelic wonders and memorable riffs follow with Manic Depression and Purple Haze, but there is much more then just that. There's a mental instrumental with Third Stone From The Sun, and even a tender side being demonstrated on the album, with beautifully poetic songs like The Wind Cries Mary and Hey Joe

This is album is frenzied and raw yet at the same time is beautiful, this album was responsible for launching Hendrix onto a stage much bigger then those days where he was in the Isley Brothers backing band a few years earlier, the clamps were now off and he was loose, this was where the legend began.

Thanks to later issues, there is now no missing links between the UK version of this album and the US version, its now all available on one album, if you're one of those collector types, you might want to buy both versions, but if not, I'm sure the 17 track version will do you fine.