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. 3rd Stone from the Sun
10. Remember
11. Are You Experienced
A
Well here we are at album 100. I didn't think I'd make it this far. Only 901 albums to go! I thought maybe I'd do something special for this, but then I couldn't think of anything, and nobody reads this anyway. So, eh.
Anyway, this is a great album to have at number 100. We've had a lot of gradual shifts and developments so far, but nothing like this album. The opening of "Foxy Lady" - a warbling chord that fades in only to explode into the biggest, loudest, dirtiest riff imaginable - was like nothing else in 1967, and it still sounds incredible today. There's not much you can say about Jimi Hendrix as a guitarist that hasn't been said before, really. His approach to music was like nothing else before, and while I don't love all his songs, his best pieces are fucking incredible. He was also an innovative singer, with his stoned-out, declamatory style hitting as hard as a drum kit. I remember seeing a documentary on Hendrix once, where he wanted them to hire someone else to do the singing, but he kind of got pushed into it because he had such a unique and incredible rhythm and tone.
The backing band, too, were pretty damned great. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was effectively assembled by Hendrix's manager to support and highlight Hendrix as a performer, and the drums and bass really are the perfect foils for Hendrix's guitar and vocals. I know this was the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but the other two guys are often unfairly overlooked.
Still, it's Hendrix we remember, and we remember him as a brilliant guitarist and songwriter. I've adhered to the original UK track listing for this album, which means no "Purple Haze" or "The Wind Cries Mary", but there's still a great range of styles on display, all brilliantly executed, and really there's not a bad song on the album. The great thing about Hendrix is that he was a brilliant guitarist, but (at least on this album) he didn't give in to proggy excess. So you have a massive stormer of a song like "Manic Depression" anchored by a hook you could learn to play approximately ten minutes after first picking up a guitar, while at the same time featuring utterly blistering solos. Then you have softer songs like "Remember" and "Love or Confusion", and even a kick-ass blues number in "Red House", showing that Hendrix could play "normal" music, too, and wasn't just hiding behind acid-tinged weirdness and studio trickery.
And as for that trickery? Well, this album is at the same time very well-produced, and, due to budgetary and technical limitations, possessed of a fuzzy rawness that perfectly complements the music. So you have both the slick sci-fi weirdness of "3rd Stone from the Sun" and the skull-crushing dirtiness of "Foxy Lady" on the same album. And through all the sound is big and distorted in a way that seems logical to us in the present day, but was quite revolutionary at the time. I tend to think Hendrix gave in to excess a little on his next two albums, but here the Experience are straining against the limitations of the technology, and that gives the music a verve that can't be matched by a more polished recording. Although advances in studio recording would of course lead to classics like "Castles Made of Sand" and "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)". Then again, my favourite Hendrix album is Band of Gypsys Live at the Filmore East.
Anyway, that's my opinion to the extent I can be bothered defending it. Here's to 901 more rambling, incoherent observations.
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