After an enjoyable long weekend it
was back to work – but that also meant it was back to getting some walking time
in, so I was able to finally finish listening to this next album.
Disc 766 is….Electric Ladyland
Artist: Jimi
Hendrix
Year of Release: 1968
What’s up with the Cover? The U.K, release of this record
had a cover with a bunch of naked ladies on it, but I had to settle for this
American cover of Jimi’s Giant Head.
How I Came To Know It: Sheila saw the special edition of
this album and “Are You Experienced” and bought them both.
How It Stacks Up: We have all three of Hendrix’s
studio albums – he died before he could make any more. I’d put “Electric Ladyland”
right in the middle at #2.
Ratings: 3 stars
“Electric Ladyland” is a three star album on the
strength of its artistry, even though at times it felt like a chore to listen to
it from start to finish.
The talent of Hendrix and his supporting band (“The
Experience”) is on full display. These guys can really play, and in terms of
rock guitar, Jimi not only invented a style, he did is so well no one has ever
successfully emulated it.
That said, a bit of restraint here and there might
be called for. I know it is 1968 and everything, but it feels like this record
is about getting really high and then challenging yourself to still make
amazing music. The band is incredibly talented for sure, but they also sound like
they got really really high. The
struggle for direction that results is beautiful a lot of the time, but painful
for the rest of it.
Being that high (or at least channeling the idea) leads
to a lot of musical meandering – enough to stretch the recording to a double
album – but not all that meandering needed to make it onto the finished
product. The cutting room floor of the studio was probably so clear of litter
you could’ve eaten dinner off of it.
After a strange and pointless intro number, the
first real song is the sexy-as-hell “Have
You Ever Been to (Electric Ladyland).” This song is just two minutes long because
as the Flying Concords teach us, “two minutes in heaven is better than one
minute in heaven.”
And a few songs later, you get fourteen minutes of
aimless but brilliant noodling on “Voodoo
Chile.” This song just goes on and on like the swaying drunk late at a
party who just doesn’t have sense enough to call himself a cab and go home.
About 11 minutes in I thought it was going to end when the guitar amp starting
kicking up some feedback, someone calling for it to be turned down. They don’t
stop the song because of this, though. Hell no, they aren’t going to waste 11
minutes of perfectly good noodle.
And that’s the worst part of this record; the
noodling and the excess are so masterfully done they encourage a generation of
rockers who follow to try to accomplish the same. Most will spectacularly fail.
Hendrix was the noodler that shook the world.
Despite the brilliance of “Voodoo Chile” I much prefer the stripped down four minute version, “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” which
shows up as the last song on the collect three
album sides later. I don’t just like it because it is spelled correctly,
either (although that doesn’t hurt). I appreciated that it has a modicum of
focus to its brilliance.
Maybe after the sexy slow number and the
acid-fuelled noodle you think you have a handle on this album’s sound. Nope. Jimi
throws you for a loop again, with “Little
Miss Strange,” a song that sounds like a cross between Buddy Holly and the Who
which is a goofy little song that has been Jimi-fied with guitar brilliance. Jimi
has no business sounding this good on a track that pointless, but he does it
anyway.
The album’s greatest song is a Hendrix classic (and
Sheila favourite) “Crosstown Traffic”
which is a perfect rock song despite Jimi’s insistence on experimenting with
stereo. (“Check it out – the traffic is
in your left ear – and now your right ear! Far out!”). “Crosstown Traffic” perfectly blends the
frustration of a traffic jam with the frustration of not being able to
communicate in a relationship. It is a masterpiece of rock and roll.
Later, Jimi and the boys (presumably after
smoking/dropping some more of whatever they are smoking/dropping) give us the
album’s second epic, this one the thirteen and a half minute “1983…A Merman I Should Turn Out to Be”
which is apparently how Jimi sees the future. 1983 was sadly not nearly as interesting
as Jimi’s marine adventure imagined it would be. This song has strange
percussion, odd whistles, fun with stereo (again!) and all manner of other
bat-shit craziness. I kind of liked it, but I don’t think I’d want to sit
around and listen to it very often.
With all this innovation – good, bad and crazy – I am
loathe to even mention the appearance of a cover song, but it would be wrong to
ignore Hendrix’s classic cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” Better than the original (which is
great) there is a reason this song is forty-seven years old and still sounds fresh
and new. Jimi may never have played the guitar better, which is a frightening
prospect.
This album is a great example of Jimi Hendrix doing
whatever the hell he wanted. At every turn his genius is on full display. I’d
like to cut the whole thing down to one record and 40 minutes but maybe that
would just wreck it.
Best
tracks: Crosstown
Traffic, Gypsy Eyes, House Burning Down, All Along the Watchtower, Voodoo Child
(Slight Return),
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