Album Review

As a starting point, I’d like to say that I’m not a big fan of the blues and I’m not big on guitar players. Until I got this copy of the Jimi Hendrix’s masterpiece of psychedelic rock, I probably hadn’t given him a listen since I was a teenager in the early ’90s. So I feel like I approached listening to Electric Ladyland with a clear palate.

I expected biker music, admittedly. Something between Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jefferson Airplane. What I got instead was another of the great musical leaps forward that occurred between the arrival of the sixties and rock’s eventual fizzling out during the mid-to-late eighties. Released after a pair of pop-oriented, if still edgy, rock albums, Electric Ladyland saw Jimi Hendrix pushing outward into as-yet uncharted territory. Progressive musicians of the time, including The Beatles and early Pink Floyd, took very calculated risks that pushed the envelope of what rock could do. But on this record, Hendrix executes an altogether organic journey into breaking the rules. With one foot in Sgt. Pepper’s and another in the manic future of Iggy and the Stooges, Hendrix’s very complex and thoughtful work gives the twin impression of something both intellectually calculated and completely out of control.

The album’s first standout track, “Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland),” is a swirling, fuzzed out soul tune that breaks down genre barriers as it invites the listener into what promises to be a dreamy concept album from its opening bars. This leads into “Crosstown Traffic,” a harsh put-down of a song that sounds better with age. In fact, its blend of proto-punk guitarwork, hard-funk lyrics and sing-along chorus seems as eclectic now as current indie rock.

As a fan of prog-rock, I do not fear the 15-minute song. “Voodoo Chile,” however, threatens us all with that Sunday Harley-rider kind of blues. Hendrix’s guitar lopes and drags us deep into a heavy blues exercise that lost me until about halfway in, when a tumult of feedback and garage-style organ playing gets things moving again. This track is definitely for the aficionados. The later, jazzier free-form romp “1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)” is the better long tune for my money. “1983” and its follow-up “Moon Turn the Tides,” are as dreamily experimental as early Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream, but with a little less of the dreary bookishness.

As for shorter pop tunes, there is the peculiar British Invasion of “Little Miss Strange,” featuring some impressive guitar throughout that never stops, but never hinders the songcraft. The incredible guitar playing on “Gypsy Eyes” doesn’t get in the way, either. This infectious stomp, like many of the songs on Electric Ladyland, pulls the listener forward. There’s almost no time to lock down on the notes you’re hearing before they are erased by a new round of experiences.

“Burning of the Midnight Lamp” is one of the best tracks here. Apparently recorded in the same underwater bunker later used by Talking Heads for “Once in a Lifetime,” the song builds a full environment around the listener – one that drips and oozes, albeit with paisley wallpaper and angelic voices. One of the more amazing things about this intricate pop experiment is that it was recorded in ’68 and not just a few years later, when producers and musicians who had learned from Hendrix’s applied research could pull off similar sounds with ease.

Of course, the centerpiece of the album is still the incredible rendition of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” Perhaps no song is so deeply ingrained in our collective consciousness than this one. It’s hard to disassociate it from the images of sixties turbulence and upheaval. The paranoid, dark lyrics fit our shared idea of the times, sure, but it is Hendrix’s powerful delivery that makes the words and images seem so immortal. And the composition here is about the heaviest rock had been. You can see bands like Sabbath and Zeppelin sprouting off from the chunky chords.

“Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” is one of the classic Jimi Hendrix tracks, and if you’ve been waiting for the moment on the album that proves he was unquestionably the most inventive and talented guitarist in rock music, this is it. From the opening riff to the anarchic coda, you’ll get the feeling you’re listening to two, three, maybe four guitarists at once. In times like now, when guitar heroes aren’t so celebrated, it would do us all some good to plug this song in our ears.

This new edition of Electric Ladyland comes with a feature-length documentary DVD with extensive period footage and performance excerpts. It tells the story of how Hendrix and his bandmates recorded the album amidst touring and production complications. Going into the studio, engineers and musicians break down the tracks and tell the stories behind each one. But what makes the documentary important is the way it fits Hendrix in to his time period. You get a real sense of who this guy was (not a brooding sadsack, more of an amateur comedian) and how involved he was in every aspect of the recording (a perfectionist, as well as a master at composing). His obsession with Bob Dylan is exposed and his secret talent as a piano player is brought to light as well. The inclusion of the DVD with this new re-master makes it a must-have for fans and a great jumping-off point for the uninitiated like myself.

JamsBio is commemorating the release of the Electric Ladyland Collectors Edition by giving away a V-Factor (Flying V) Gibson guitar! All you have to do is create your own list of the guitar god’s best songs or solos.

Comments (4)