Are You Experienced

One of the most stunning debuts in rock history, and one of the definitive albums of the psychedelic era. On Are You Experienced?, Jimi Hendrix synthesized various elements of the cutting edge of 1967 rock into music that sounded both futuristic and rooted in the best traditions of rock, blues, pop, and soul. It was his mind-boggling guitar work, of course, that got most of the ink, building upon the experiments of British innovators like Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend to chart new sonic territories in feedback, distortion, and sheer volume. It wouldn't have meant much, however, without his excellent material, whether psychedelic frenzy ("Foxey Lady," "Manic Depression," "Purple Haze"), instrumental freak-out jams ("Third Stone From the Sun"), blues ("Red House," "Hey Joe"), or tender, poetic compositions ("The Wind Cries Mary") that demonstrated the breadth of his songwriting talents. Not to be underestimated were the contributions of drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding, who gave the music a rhythmic pulse that fused parts of rock and improvised jazz. Many of these songs are among Hendrix's very finest; it may be true that he would continue to develop at a rapid pace throughout the rest of his brief career, but he would never surpass his first LP in terms of consistently high quality. The British and American versions of the album differed substantially when they were initially released in 1967; MCA's 17-song CD reissue does everyone a favor by gathering all of the material from the two records in one place, adding a few B-sides from early singles, as well.

The question of how Jimi Hendrix came by his revolutionary approach to electric guitar playing is so often asked, but the question is almost always merely rhetorical with no clue of how to even approach answering it. I think the main reason why the question still seems so mysterious and impenetrable has to do with the fact that even though Hendrix has such enduring and widespread fame, the essential characteristic of Hendrix the artist is facilely dismissed just as often as that question is asked. I am referring to the fact that Hendrix was a psychedelic artist and all things psychedelic have become to so many people just a joke. But it was not a joke to Hendrix and if you don't understand this then you can't understand how he created his way of guitar playing or the real essence of his greatness.
Hendrix developed his skill on the guitar in an environment that was dominated by blues, R&B, soul, and evolving pre-psychedelic rock music, and he absorbed and totally mastered all these ways of playing, but none of them really reflected the sounds and voices he heard deep inside himself. As that seed of his artistic vision began to open and flower he was driven to find ways to reflect it with his chosen artistic tool, the guitar. The rock groups that are often categorized as early psychedelic, such as The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and The Fish, and The Beatles of Sgt. Pepper's have some legitimacy in being so categorized in terms of the overall thrust of their work, but there is no true psychedelic guitar in any of these bands. Hendrix was the first with a vision of psychedelic guitar and it actually dominated his sensibility before he knew how to express it. As he learned how to express it, psychedelic guitar music came into existence. Hendrix mastered blues guitar and rock guitar, but he wasn't a blues artist or an ordinary rock artist. The blues did not express the artistic vision that Hendrix carried inside himself and neither did pre-psychedelic guitar rock. And again it must be remembered that Hendrix wasn't influenced by psychedelic guitar art because it didn't really exist yet, he was the primary creator of it. The closest thing to the psychedelic guitar before Hendrix was the work that Jeff Beck did during his eighteen months with The Yardbirds in '65 and '66, the work Pete Townshend was doing in `66, and there was a Texas band called The 13th Floor Elevators who also developed a guitar sound that somewhat approached what Hendrix would completely open up. But Hendrix was the first with a full vision of psychedelic electric guitar art and his realization of this vision is what makes Hendrix great, it is not his skill as a blues guitarist or a blues-rock guitarist. Only people who think of Hendrix as primarily a blues or a blues-rock guitarist are baffled by the question where he got his approach to the electric guitar and these are the people who tend to dismiss everything psychedelic.
What makes ARE YOU EXPERIENCED such an important recording is that its ground, its foundation, is not the blues and rock elements that are contained in it. Those elements have been completely swallowed by the psychedelic vision that has found manifestation here. Without this vision there is no ARE YOU EXPERIENCED, no AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE, no ELECTRIC LADYLAND. These are all examples of great psychedelic art, not blues art or mere rock art.
So what did psychedelic mean to Hendrix? It meant creating patterned musical sounds by means of the electricity running through a guitar that could penetrate into and help open up into consciousness deeper psycho-somatic realities of the human being than were ordinarily allowed into consciousness by the habits, rituals, and laws of "straight" society, that dreary domain where "there ain't no life nowhere." It meant crossing over into what Hendrix called "experience" and really learning that the love of power needs to be replaced by the power of love. If this psychedelic vision of art makes you wince with embarrassment then you don't really know or understand Jimi Hendrix who asks, ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?, you only know what you have remade in your own mind for your own comfort, that hallucination of "straight" society called the greatest blues-rock guitarist. Forget that guy, he's a lifeless figment. Instead, tilt the axis, take the hand of the Voodoo Child, the Merman, and come across into Experience, into Electric Psychedelic Land. Do I hear laughter? "Let them laugh..." May this be love.

Are You Experienced is classic Jimi Hendrix and am I experienced? Yes. Is Metallica experienced? Yes. Is even Joe Satriani experienced? Yes. All of them are experienced. He experienced a lot of guitarists. Just the other day I got this album on the original LP to frame and it was still in nice condition from over 40 years ago. These days, I've been loving this CD and singing Purple Haze along with the lyrics, by now I know all the words to Purple Haze and I can sing even better than him, I was going to record that song on a tape eventually. I also sang songs to The Wind Cries Mary, Fire, and Foxey Lady. Fire is a lot harder for me to sing though, it's faster lyrics. Hey Joe is a great song, but I don't like the lyrics, the lyrics contain a lot of violence and I don't sing that song but I like the beat and it is still really great. 3rd Stone From the Sun is almost a Jimi Hendrix instrumental which if you close your eyes, you can feel like your going out in space. If you are experienced, you must add this album to every collection, this and Electric Ladyland are excellent. This legendary guitarist is awesome and we all really loved him. Happy Easter, Hendrix!

Cr@$#!!! "Chris" CRADDOCK, the Honky Tonk Starbucks Realtor, says:
"1967 was quite a year for music, and no one had as much impact as guitar virtuoso and song writing genius, Jimi Hendrix. He was a super nova who would blaze across the sky, leaving much too soon, but leaving some wonderful music behind."

Electric Ladyland

Axis: Bold as Love

Band Of Gypsys

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix - Signature Licks

Jimi Hendrix - Volume 2: A Step-by-Step Breakdown of His Guitar Styles and Techniques (Guitar Signature Licks)

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Smash Hits: Guitar Play-Along Volume 47 (Hal Leonard Guitar Play-Along)

Jimi Plays Berkeley

Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsys (Live at the Fillmore East)

Jimi Hendrix - Rainbow Bridge

Excuse me while I kiss the sky.

I hate people that say, "Hendrix wasn't a good guitar player, my friend can play his stuff." (Or something similar.) The thing was that JH was much more than a great guitar player, he was also an amazing song writer; and song writing and guitar playing are totally different. You can feel his emotions on this album without listening to the words being sung. It's like the music is playing him in a way. Most of my friends prefer "Electric Ladyland" to this album, but I think this has sort of a "heavier" sound to it, which is what I prefer. I would also recommend this if you are new to Hendrix. If you are a guitar player, they also sell the transcribed score book if you're up for a challenge and want to play along.