Are You Experienced

This is a classic! A seminal piece of work by one of the greatest guitarists who ever lived.

What can I say about Jimi Hendrix that hasn't been said? I will start out by saying that I am very proud that we can claim him as our own in Seattle, Washington, where I reside. What's more, his brilliant musicianship is incomparable. There will always be guitar players, and, no doubt, many will aspire to develop their talent to the hilt that Jimi Hendrix possessed, but none will ever match him. Jimi really really came from another world. He wasn't like you or me. Hendrix was nothing short of brilliant. The moment you put on track one from ARE YOU EXPERIENCED, this is made evident immediately. "Purple Haze" invites us on board for a musical acid trip of a lifetime. Though, I have never done drugs in my life, I could swear I felt the room spinning! The innate sense of musicality that Hendrix possessed, alongside the brilliant collaboration of his bandmates creates the illusion of colors, shapes, textures and sensations that permeate your senses. That guitar just tears it up and you can't stop the album. You've got to proceed down that path, further into your trip. All the cuts everyone is perhaps most familiar with are here. They include "Hey Joe," "The Wind Cries Mary" and "Foxy Lady." It's mandatory that you add this to your record collection. This is how it all began.

Don't expect me to try to be different and say something bad about Are You Experienced?, 'cause you'll get no such thing out of me. However, I would like to write this review from the point of view of a Saul who has converted to a Paul - I must honestly say that when I first bought this album it really didn't appeal to me. I mean, I respected it immensely (can anyone with a proper sense of history NOT?), but I didn't really enjoy it, truth be told, because my basic musical predilections are towards melody (a la The Beatles) or ambient sounds (a la Eno and Bowie), neither of which this album has in abundance. Only after being floored by Electric Ladyland (my metaphorical road to Damascus) could I come back and appreciate the stripped-down fury of this album. Yes, I just described the album as "stripped-down," despite all the fancy effects and geegaws Hendrix puts on his guitar, because despite Hendrix's showy guitar, this music is as basic and unprententious as it gets, hippie lyrics aside. I'm sure it must have seemed quite the opposite to contemporary audiences: what on EARTH was the precedent for this in rock music? What even gave a hint of the music Hendrix would make prior to his arrival? The closest I think you can get is The Who on My Generation (yet not on A Quick One), but that's a pale shadow of AYE?'s impact. It must've been like dropping a 10-ton boulder into a lake: the immediate result was a tidal wave, the ripples were felt by everybody, and even after 30+ years, we're still catching the aftershocks.

But if the best case I could make for Are You Experienced? was a historical one, I would probably still hold it at the respectful distance I did when I first bought it. No, this album might be a historical document, but it's also a perfect rock 'n' roll record (and not "rock," but "rock 'n' roll," - I'd agree with Dylan that there's an important difference between the two, and the "roll" aspect of rock has sadly gone by the wayside in recent years in favor of dull plodding). I mean, it's amazing; I have something like 4000 CDs and 55 boxed sets, which means I try not to obsess on any one band too much at a time (because I want to listen to as much stuff as possible), and yet I find myself listening to this for 60 minutes, and immediately wanting to go back and hear it again. So many records I love have aged, become a little less exciting with repeated listenings (like Who's Next, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, or Bowie's Scary Monsters (And Supercreeps), to name but a few major ones) but this one doesn't get boring. And that's an achievement of the first order considering the fact that I'm not naturally disposed to Hendrix in the first place.

It's almost silly to review the individual songs, since every one is a stone cold classic. I'd just like to say that "Purple Haze" does nothing special for me whatsoever; I insist that the only reason it's held in higher regard than say, "Manic Depression" is because it was released first. Not to say that it ain't great, but that everything else here is just as good (bar perhaps "Remember," which is the ONE song that is noticeably less inspired than the others). Like "Love Or Confusion," for example. That's my personal favorite on the album. Can anybody give me one good reason why every rock fan hasn't commited this song to memory? It's just riff after riff of amazing music, powered by those drums. Speaking of drums, I'd also like to say that the secret weapon of Jimi Hendrix is Mitch Mitchell. I guarantee you that this album would not have been half as good as it is were it not for Mitch Mitchell's absolutely amazing work on the trapset. Noel Redding's a good anchor on bass, but Mitchell is absolutely spectacular, perhaps the best drummer of the Sixties after a certain Mr. Moon. Mitchell's drumming on this album deserved to win the Nobel Prize - in physics. A 10/10, of course, and there's so much more I could say.

In fact, here's one more thing: try to find the MCA remaster of this album rather than the Hendrix family version, not only because of the liner notes (which I mentioned above), but because of the much more logical (and faithful) track listing. This is the somewhat confusing story: way back in 1967, this album was released in the U.K. before it was in the U.S., chiefly because us Americans are racist [...]. Prior to its release, Hendrix released three singles, perhaps you've heard of them?: "Hey Joe"/"Stone Free" (released December 1966), "Purple Haze"/"51st Anniversary" (released March 1967), and "The Wind Cries Mary"/"Highway Chile" (released May 1967, concurrently with Are You Experienced?). Hard as it may be for some Americans to believe, these songs were NOT on the UK version of the album (they were put onto the US version, and "Red House, "Can You See Me?," and "Remember" were dropped), and the MCA remaster did right in placing the singles/B-sides at the front of the disc and then giving the album in its original, UK running order. Because let's put American snobbishness aside (unlike Dave Marsh in his liner notes for the new Hendrix Family version of the album) and admit that the UK version is the authentic one, just like the British Revolver or Rubber Soul are the authentic versions of those albums. If you want to set up your Hendrix Family disc to play in the original running order (I always do), here's how you program it (I've thrown so much useless information into this review, why not this too?): (singles/B-sides) 3, 12, 1, 13, 7, 14, (UK AYE? album) 10, 2, 17, 15, 4, 6, 5, 8, 9, 16, 11. Have fun.

Oh, and one final thing: after listening to "Hey Joe," I think we can all safely say we know where Jimmy Page REALLY stole the "Whole Lotta Love" riff from.

By far one of the greatest rock records of all time, but beyond that I think there are just so many great Hendrix gems that adorn this album. Wind Cries Mary, Purple Haze and heck just all of them are great. We had to wait for the family to get the rights to release some later material but in the meantime this album really held me over for that time. Just a remarkable pinnacle of guitars playing and songwriting.

This is probally the best JHE album ever relesed this is when they were at their prime its truly pure gold its a great classic album a true acid rock album that rocks! this album came out with some of jimi hendrixs best songs,

purple haze, hey joe, wind cries mary, fire etc. its a essential album if you do not have the whole album you need to get the full album now if you dont have it yet or inleast download it i mean c'mon. so if your new to the JHE then i suggest this album or the best of