#0100: Are You Experienced? - Jimi Hendrix

I'm in a bit of a cleft stick with this.  I know a lot of the songs but I've never heard this album in its entirety in order.  So some songs I'll be reviewing as old friends and others in the cold light of whatever mood I'm in today.

I didn't get into Jimi Hendrix until my 20s and even now I don't listen to it that often.  I don't remember hearing it earlier and dismissing it either.  I do remember hearing the Star Spangled Banner from Woodstock and seeing footage of him setting light to his guitar and disapproving.  That would've been around the time of Live Aid.  Maybe that's why I always sidestepped giving it a listen.

Then in 1987 I bought Sting's album Nothing Like The Sun.  On this album was a beautiful song with a guitar solo from guest legend, Eric Clapton.  It was called Little Wing and confirmed for me my opinion of Sting as a songwriting genius.

I am shaking my head in despair at the unabashed cockwombling of my younger self.

Are You Experienced begins with Purple Haze*.  I've always had mixed feelings about Purple Haze. The intro is so discordant but the notes are revealed to be the extremes of a big chord arpeggiated by his opening phrases.  One sure thing is that once the groove kicks in, I'm just in it.  I'm committed.  I couldn't turn the song off if my life depended on it.  Even at the end of the second verse, where the band loses time so badly I'm struggling to understand why they didn't do another take, my body is unconsciously urging forward on the chair, willing them to find it again instead of reaching for the skip button.

The song continues with what is quite a messy break really, but the guitar solo is undeniably sweet and rejoins the intro seamlessly.

So mixed feelings, yes, but it's mostly love if for nothing else than the smile that spreads across my face when I think of rock and roll's most famous mondegreen and of course, The Cure's cataclysmic tribute version.

Manic Depression

The first version of this I heard was by Seal on an outtakes/rarities compilation of some kind.  Seal's voice is absolutely incredible.  I don't think anybody would dispute that.  What I hadn't noticed was how his phrasing seems influenced by Jimi Hendrix at times.  Hendrix's voice is unusual.  I wouldn't say he was a "singer" as such but yet his vocals are so easy to listen to.  He swings from tune to speech, from metered to arrhythmic but never seems to blur the line between the two.  I've never had a sharp intake of breath because a note was flat.

The deep, grinding tone he gets from the guitar swaying and driving thru the riffs on this song is mesmeric.  The stops Mitch Mitchell fills with such delicate fury make this compelling listening.   And across it all, Hendrix taking apart the complexities of depression, anxiety and mania long before the psychiatric profession had even considered the term bipolar.

Hey Joe

I already have shivers up and down my spine as this tale told in conversations reveals its tragic, horrifying narrative of a possessive man who upon discovering his partner's infidelity, murders her and flees the country.  Dunno if there's anyone who thinks this song glorifies domestic abuse but to me it's fairly clear Joe is the dick of the story.

Mind you, this is the first time I've really given a moral fuck about the lyrics.  I've always just accepted the song for what it is - a slowly building crescendo of tension towards the final outpouring of all that pent up hurt that somehow represents every character in the story.   The split scale anthem that enters perfectly expressing the end of one tale and the continuation of the cycle.

Love Or Confusion

This is one I hadn't heard before.  It's got that trademark Hendrix format where the groove goes round to the change and climaxes on a stop where there's a hook and the whole thing either repeats or goes into the change.  The hook is great and makes use of a compressed distortion (I think?) we haven't heard so far.  That groove is the same as Purple Haze but it's built on a different progression from the preceding tracks so it all stays fresh.  It's a perfectly functioning album track and I can see this becoming as beloved as the others with familarity.

May This Be Love

On to the pace change then and another song new to me.  Hendrix taking a couple of well-pitched risks here.  He attempts double tracking the vocal in places, which works well and hasn't fallen foul of the problem where what was hoped would make the sound bigger ends up sounding like 3 children all trying to sing louder than the others. 

He has also branched with the complexity of the progression and melody on this and the drums are taking a break from their frenetic funk to provide a sort of Caribbean feel?  It's a gentle song but still has that edge.

I Don't Live Today

Lyrically this appears to be an argument between depression and mania.  I don't want to live today but it's a shame to waste my time.  Ego presumably can think of something to do with that time that the depressed id can't see from behind the black dog.  It does pretty well and has a very punchy chorus but the latter minute and a half is a steadily increasing cacophony of velocity overload that begins to fade out and back in again while Jimi can be heard saying unintelligible stuff in the dips.  It's not pleasant but it doesn't go on for too long I guess and has some illustrative value.

The Wind Cries Mary

I think this is the first song where I've heard his trademark 2-string hammer-on technique.  This is a song with a similar groove to Little Wing (anachronistically speaking) but the verses are so short you never really get lost in it.  At the end of each verse the climbing resolution recurs and there's a slowing, free time feel that puts you in a state of suspended animation until it all kicks in again.  No fucking idea what the words are about, mind, but they're nice.

Fire

Once upon a time in New York City, I was walking thru the Union Square subway station heading uptown to a gig.  I saw three guys to my left just finishing setting up guitars and a small kit.  I wasn't gonna stop until I heard the drummer start playing this fucking sick syncopated beat at what felt like a thousand beats per minute.  It literally stopped me in my tracks.  I turn just in time to hear the guitars come in with this minimalist stopping riff; only a handful of notes and then left the bar open for the drums again.  So spacious.  So infectious.  I was captivated.

The guy starts singing some words I can't make out across the cheering crowd that had gathered and then there's a stop and they burst into this open, much more fluid version of the progression while he's singing what sounds like "let me stand next to your fire" over and over.

In a couple of minutes they were done and I had to force myself out of the reverie they'd created and run for my train, cursing the fact that there were too many people and not enough time to fight my way thru them to put some money in their hat.

I told the story when I got to the gig and the first guy I told instantly said, "Jimi Hendrix.  Yeah it's fuckin' awesome, man." 

A few years later, back in the UK, I arranged songs for the band I was in and sometimes formed unlikely medleys.  We were working on Live And Let Die when I realised that the flute hook was the same progression as Fire so I transposed them making it possible to branch from one to the other.  The drummer hated it but I had a lot of fun until his patience finally came to an end and we had to drop it from the set.

My favourite bit was the line before the chorus of Fire.  I would do it in different voices.  Most notably.

Michael Caine: "Let me.  Stand next to.  Your fire."
Jimmy "not yet utterly disgraced so still a fun impression to do for all the family" Savile:"(Tarzan cry) Dear Jim, please could you fix it for ME, to stand to next TO your FIRE"
Yoda: "Mmmm.  Next to your fire, let me stand."

So, yeah.  Awkward turtle.

Third Stone From The Sun

 Jazz influence front and centre for this instrumental piece that is the longest track on the album by...well, it's twice as long as the next longest.  There are some words being spoken in there somewhere but I can't make them out.  I think it was a mistake to use the same bass line as Fire for this track.  It has a more Hendrixy sounding section which is basically a slower version of Fire.  When it returns to the jazzy bit, there's a lot of weird noises and arrthymic drumming leaving Noel Redding holding the tempo baby on the bass.  You get a good couple of minutes of that shite before the main theme returns briefly before collapsing once more into absolute gash.

I fail to see the artistic merit in this.  If so many great recordings were made during this period then why the fuck wouldn't they put some of the others on here instead of this obvious and insulting filler?

Foxy Lady

Is it really Foxey Lady?  That would be pronounced "Folksy lady" wouldn't it?

"Ooooh, you know you're a little brownie baker,
mmm folksy
and you know you're a little crochet maker,
folksy lady,
I wanna take you home
to meet my mum,
I'm sure she'll want the pattern
for that cardigan"

Yeah, I'm going with "foxy".

I know the song.  I love the song.  It was a long long time before I figured out that guitar lick on the turnaround isn't actually wildly out of time, tho.  He's just *really* fucking with the tension points.  Cunt.

Are You Experienced?

The sounds of the guitar on this really remind me of the outro on Queen's I'm In Love With My Car.  Wouldn't mind betting Dr May robbed that tinny effect straight off this.  Although this sounds great for about a minute and a half, you've then got some experimentation with backwards tape loops and guitar solos which I'm tempted to play forwards to see if it's any better.  The song then resumes and I like the tune and some of the words are coming thru as I'm writing this.  I guess if he's talking about acid then it has to be a little weird but it's quite noisy and my trippy head likes its music a bit more peaceful.  Camel's The Snow Goose is what you want when you're tripping.

Having said that, me and a couple of mates sat and listened to a Hendrix compilation on repeat for about 5 hours on acid one night.  One wasn't actually tripping but he was pretty stoned, idolised Jimi Hendrix, was our friend and was quite happy to stare at the lava lamp with us while taking occasional hits on a bottle of amyl nitrite we had in our possession for some unknown reason.

Fuck.  I'd forgotten how cunted we used to get.  Good times.

Stone Free

Seal again in my memory.  He has recorded at least 3 Hendrix songs that I know of.  This is such a welcome break at this point as it seems like a lifetime ago I was telling you about Fire.  Too much weird in the interim and I for one definitely needed to hear more of that urgent pace and rebellious ire.  Both are delivered with impudent aplomb on this old favourite.

51st Anniversary

And the beat goes on.  The pace is continued with this never-before-heard track that seems to further promote the idea of being single.  The progression is one of my favourites - try it yourself if you play.  It's ii I V (or Em D A in the key of D).

What's interesting about this one is it breaks from the hook and pause format to give the bass focus for the hook and leave the dangling note in favour of dropping onto a repeated bass note that holds the next section together.

Highway Chile

First time I've heard him play a roadhouse blues.  It's worth the wait.  The sounds he's got on this guitar I have heard other guitarists trying to emulate but nothing come close to how this screams without ever hurting your ears.  I can hear how The Sweet were probably influenced by this track in particular.  Honestly, I'm starting to feel like Hendrix is to guitarists what the Beatles are to songwriters.

Can You See Me

Another new one and this one in the driving zone too.   If so many of them are similar, why am I not frustrated by that?  I think it's the articulation and grouping in the hooks, in the incidental work during the verses.  It's important to not let a song stand entirely on its vocal, I believe.  And it's not like I'm sitting here listening for what I perceive to be mistakes.  If I start getting bored or irritated, that's a reaction and I have to figure out what's causing it, not the other way around. 

Remember

Opening with a blaze of his signature licks, Remember snaps into it a strutfest of a groove with an underpinning riff supporting this wistful appeal to rejuice an old squeeze.  A solo links to the next verse that's just dripping with sweet notes that make you do your jazz face.  It's over way too soon but it's a classy example of leaving them wanting more.

Red House

And finally, a traditional 12 bar swing blues whose beauty is in the execution of this well-trodden form.  The precision and definition of his guitar playing effortlessly punctuating the lyrics, the throwaway comments as he climbs thru repeating, accelerating licks that are so easy to suck at.  It's a masterclass and a perfect end to what must be one of the biggest game changers in rock and roll history.

5 stars.  Like you needed confirmation.

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* On the CD and Spotify.  It is noted that Foxy Lady opened the original UK release but I'm breaking my rule of only listening to the tracks originally released on this occasion so that I don't miss the opportunity to write something about the other tracks included since, like The Wind Cries Mary and Stone Free.