Hendrix first made it big in the UK in 1966. Ex-Animals bassist Chas Chandler brought Hendrix over after seeing him perform in Greenwich Village, NYC, with the intent of managing and producing the guitarist as part of a new act. Teamed with drummer Mitch Mitchell and guitarist-turned bassist Noel Redding, the Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded and released their first single, "Hey Joe" in December. As the single hit the charts in January 1967, others followed and the band began cutting their debut album.
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| Are You Experienced US Cover |
Released on May 12 of that magical year of 1967 among the bold new experimentation of established bands like the Beatles and the Beach Boys, and amidst the first steps of future giants like the Pink Floyd, Are You Experienced might easily have been lost in the psychedelic swirl of that year's competing new music. Rather, this sonic reinvention of blues-based rock, along with the band's memorable live performances, served to cement the group's--and more specifically Hendrix's--place in the pantheon of rock legends.
As we delve into the album, I'm afraid I must make a confession, first. I do not particularly like the first track off the US edition of this album, "Purple Haze." I know, shocking, right? Probably the single most well-known of Hendrix's songs and I'm not a fan of it, and I really don't know why. Musically and thematically it's not really any different from the rest of the album. Maybe it's the overexposure or the fact that it focuses a little too much on the guitar tricks and not what the Experience could do as a trio. Or maybe it's that goddamn mondegreen, which despite the fact that Hendrix used to use it in concert himself, stopped being funny circa 1975. Regardless, every time I hear it I just want to move on to the good stuff.
Which we immediately get on the following track. "Manic Depression" is a prime example of just how tight this outfit could be. Noel Redding's bass line anchors the song with Hendrix's guitar nearly indistinguishable from it at first, and Mitch Mitchell beating around it, both of them building up to more free-form playing as the song goes on. This is kind of the core method for the group; Redding, as a the time keeper for Hendrix's more experimental guitar and Mitchel''s free-form, almost jazz-based drumming. While this relationship eventually led to Redding's disillusionment and departure from the band, it really did work and work fantastically.
The other notable element of this song is Jimi's vocal tempo. He has a unique, soulful delivery rooted in his blues background that, while melodic, occasionally has a very odd delivery to it. Lyrics split in half into sung and spoken sections, some even as an after thought. His pacing is also reminiscent of Dylan's, breaks between words and syllables that you just don't get from anyone else. It's part of the Hendrix package, which borrows from many different sources and spins it all together into something unique.
We see the another major component of his delivery style in "Hey Joe," the aforementioned first single from the Experience, one of the album's slower, bluesier tracks. Featuring the "question and answer" format, Hendrix comes off conversational on the song, at times quite bemused. His sense of humor was well-known and often quite evident in his music.
But Hendrix also shows a deeply sensitive and often spiritual side in his lyrics. Despite the copious amounts of mood-altering drugs and alcohol he was known for consuming, I'm personally of the opinion that it was not necessarily a major component of creating the music itself. Already gifted with talent and imagination, Hendrix often cited his dreams rather than any drug experience for his inspiration. And often his lyrics are a quite sobering introspection. The slow, moody "May This Be Love" with its beautiful slow rolling drums from Mitchell, speaks of love giving personal strength. The existential "I Don't Live Today," contains what may be Hendrix's most eeirly prophetic lyric in "Will I live tomorrow? Well I just can't say," considering the fact he was dead at 27.
Probably the most beautiful song on the album follows these two. "The Wind Cries Mary," is 3:21 of pure emotional bliss. It's amazingly restrained compared to the rest of the album but it finds its strength in not being a wailing, feedback-laden heavy rock track. The lyrics are magnificent in their Dylan-esque imagery. I could almost expect them to have come straight off Highway 61 Revisited. Coupled with the equally magnificent "Little Wing" off Axis: Bold As Love, this is my favorite look into Jimi's more soulful side.
We punch it up again with Redding's bass thumping its way through the tongue-in-cheek "Fire," featuring more of Jimi's energetic solo guitar, before moving on to the jazz-influenced jam session of "3rd Stone From the Sun." Probably the most free-form song on the album, it's a precursor to some of the longer works on the Experience's final album Electric Ladyland. But as free-form as the song is, the band still operates as a unit, once more with Noel Redding's solid bass time-keeping giving Hendrix and Mitchel something to work around until the song's feedback-laden conclusion.
"Foxy Lady" is, much like "Purple Haze," one of the band's song's I'm not too enamored with. In this case I think it's more the start-stop chord work that Hendrix uses, as well as the over exposure of the song. It is notable, however, for its use of feedback in the beginning and toward the end of the song. It is a well-used, well-controlled feedback and not a straight-up ear-splitting screech, showing just what he could use a guitar for beyond its traditional sound.
Likewise, the final track on the US version is in itself a journey in sonic experimentation. Artists had used back masking, that is reverse tape effects, prior to this point but primarily for vocals and a few instrumentals (as on the Beatles Revolver) but not nearly to the extent as seen in "Are You Experienced?" The entire song, asking one to step beyond their comfort zone, alternates between forward and backward guitar and drums with Redding's bass anchor seemingly the only constant. It's distinctive and makes for one of the most unmistakable intros ever in music.
Later editions of the album, possible through the advent of the Compact Disc, include those tracks from the UK edition that were not present on the US pressing, usually in the form of bonus tracks. These include the rollicking "Stone Free," and the delta blues-based "Red House."
Rarely will you find such an Earth-shattering debut as Are You Experienced. Taking a little of what had been done before, Jimi and the Experience redefined what music was and could be. The band's influence was felt as early as the end of 1967, for instance, with the release of the Eric Clapton-Jack Bruce-Ginger Baker supergroup Cream's second album, Disraeli Gears. Helping to pioneer the power-trio format in rock, their initial work was more traditional British interpretation of American rhythm and blues. But after the release of Are You Experienced, Cream, whom Hendrix had jammed with in fall of '66, took a definitely more psychedelic and experimental bent. The Jimi Hendrix Experience had arrived, and nothing would ever be the same again.
Next time, we set the Way Back Machine for 1990, and SoCal punk outfit Social Distortion's self-titled major label debut.
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