The Jimi Hendrix Experience Electric Ladyland: Rock's Crazy High

When Jimi gentle asks "Have you ever been to Electric Ladyland?" at the beginning of this monumental 70 minute recording, the initial response is surely "no, Jimi, I haven't." In fact, on first listen, it is impossible to have a clue what he is actually asking us. As the album draws to a thumping close with Jimi's immortal signature number Voodoo Child (Slight Return), it kind of leaves you thinking "well, Jimi, I guess I just went, and you know what? I'd kill to go again..........."

I was at college when I first discovered Jimi. That seemed pretty late since I'd been listening to Floyd, Clapton, Dire Straits, The Stones etc since my early teens. If I remember rightly Voodoo Child was on an advert - and it is paining me to think what for, though I just don't remember. What I do remember is the first time I heard that searing and unforgettable guitar riff. In fact, it was so striking that it seemed like something or somebody superhuman was playing it. Turns out I wasn't far wrong on that count. Jimi was something else. Something that this world wasn't ready for. He took the guitar and quite literally turned it on its head. He was a genius and a revolutionary, a visionary and a freak. He did for guitar based Rock music what the Wright brothers did for the plane. In my opinion, that means pretty much invent it.



There was this guy at college who used to come in with Hendrix T-shirts on all the time. Great big pictures of Jimi's face splattered across his chest, with messages such as 'Guitar God' scrawled across them. I put two and two together, did the research, and found that this song I'd been hearing on the TV was on an album called Electric Ladyland. Needless to say I went straight to town and bought my copy. The front cover - a magnificent, fiery picture of Jimi in action - was, at first, captivating. I still believe it is one of the most powerful album covers ever. So simple and uncluttered, but at the same time saying so much. And the inner sleeve, declaring in bold type: HE SHALL NOT GROW OLD, AS SOME WHO ARE LEFT TO GROW OLD, was equally as exciting. Indeed the sentiment in the sleeve notes is perfectly agreeable - posterity has taken care of Jimi Hendrix, and the legend of this guitar virtuoso who died needlessly young will be forever protected by the wealth of genius he left behind. I find it unbelievable to think that I now share the age in which he died - 27 - and he had achieved so much. He probably managed to live and achieve more in that short life than most people could in a century.



And so, the album. It's an odd start - strangely subtle and delicate, like being ushered through the doorway by a kind and gentle host. Then the power of this magical three piece - featuring Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell - crashes into the room with Crosstown Traffic. It is impossible to know what should come next, but equally as impossible to believe what does come. A scintillating 14 plus minute freak-out jam named Voodoo Chile featuring Steve Winwood on Organ, which simply has to be one of the greatest live studio recordings, if not the best, ever. It is dark and brooding, moody and bluesy, in parts spacious and utterly compelling. Parts of this song have the same effect as Led Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused - you sort of know deep down inside that it can't be right having a song of this length on a studio album, but you just can't help but love it all the same. Jimi's vocal is impeccable, which is a testament to his musicianship - he is all too often forgotten for his great voice, and heralded only for his guitar wizardry. Winwood's contribution is outstanding. He runs side by side with Hendrix throughout the whole fourteen minutes, trading licks and controlling the tempo with his expert subtlety. As for the guitar playing, it is thoroughly mesmeric. In parts soft, in others frantic, but always note perfect. A song of unimaginable brilliance, and in my opinion the highlight of the first side.



Little Miss Strange is a total departure from what has come before - Noel Redding sings it, and it adds a quirky feel to the record. Long Hot Summer Night is vibrant, as is Come On Baby (Let The Good Times Roll), though Hendrix excels most on Gypsy Eyes. It is a sexy song; driving, but strangely sensual. This period on the album displays his songwriting credentials; Burning Of The Midnight Lamp and Rainy Day, Dream Away are fantastic songs, superbly crafted, and wonderfully eclectic. This album can't be defined simply as an 'episode in guitar playing.' It is a journey through many styles and genres of music, and demonstrates a musician taking all the flavours of his influences and producing a cataclysmic sound encompassing the whole lot. The imagery is immediate; the sound is evocative and omni-present.



The highlight of the whole record for me comes in the form of 1983. . . (A Merman I Should Be). This was a pinnacle moment in my life when I first heard this song. I am like everybody else; I like a drink, I am very sociable, and have often, in my younger years, been enticed into the world of drug-taking. This song showed me why I'd never need to take drugs ever again in my life. Listening to this epic was, and still is, the greatest high. It is very trippy, at times lucid, and often confusing. - but immense all the same. In a nutshell, it is an acid trip without the acid. It is hard not to imagine yourself walking softly on marshmellows and soaking up life's light show as Jimi declares: "me and my love make love on the sand / to salute the last moment that we're on dry land."



Moon Turn The Tides. . . gently gently away is an extension of this mad trip, culminating in the instant turn-on of wha wha guitar in Still Raining, Still Dreaming. This is where Jimi truly makes his guitar sing. Mike Finnigan's organ contribution is also worthy of praise - a superb addition to a great song. House Burning Down is a stomper, in which Jimi cries "look at the sky burn a hellfire red/Lord, someone's house is burning down, down, down. . ." This album was the first, I can be sure, to turn my sky hellfire red. Then comes probably the greatest cover version of them all - All Along The Watchtower - in which Hendrix takes Dylan's song and blows it wide open. It is, along with Joe Cocker's take on With A Little Help From My Friends, the most inventive and powerful remake ever in my opinion. His passionate vocal and howling guitar solos are simply astounding. Dylan must have wondered what on earth he had helped create when he first heard it. I certainly did.



And to the aforementioned Voodoo Child (Slight Return). Probably an overplayed signature song, but one that will never lose its relevance or appeal. Hendrix's experimentation reaches a climax here, and when the six minutes are over, it, at first, left me feeling like I'd been thrown from an aircraft only to land heavily back on the ground, wondering where I'd just been for over an hour. Electric Ladyland is an incredible journey, which is still as fresh and as vibrant as it was the very first time. Hendrix is a well-worn icon these days, similar to Che Guevara or Lennon, or Jim Morrison for example. If you do, of course, subscribe to the commercial airing of his face then there is one thing I would expect from you: that you are, excuse the pun, 'experienced' in Electric Ladyland. If you're not: shame on you.