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Release date: 12 May 1967
Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.) Purple Haze (3/17/67, #3 UK, #65 US) / Manic Depression / Hey Joe (12/16/66, #6 UK) / Love or Confusion / May This Be Love / I Don’t Live Today / The Wind Cries Mary (5/5/67, #6 UK) / Fire / Third Stone from the Sun / Foxey Lady (12/23/67, #67 US) / Are You Experienced?
The 1997 US CD release added: Stone Free / 51st Anniversary / Highway Chile / Can You See Me / Remember / Red House
Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, -- UK, 4.0 world (includes US and UK)
Peak: 5 US, 2 UK
Rating: 
Review: Are You Experienced? is “one of the quintessential statements of psychedelic rock” NRR and “one of the most groundbreaking guitar albums of the rock era.” NRR Hendrix “expanded the sonic possibilities of the electric guitar” TL by doing things with the instrument “no one ever dreamed about trying.” DV
It wasn’t just his guitar prowess, but “the range and scope of sheer sound” AZ which made him a virtuoso. By “building upon the experiments of British innovators like Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend” AMG and “radical new techniques in feedback and distortion,” RV Hendrix knocked Eric “Clapton and Townshend right off their guitar-god pedestals.” BN
The album also established him “as an innovative and sophisticated composer” BN featuring “psychedelic frenzy…instrumental freak-out jams…[and] tender, poetic compositions” AMG all done with “his Dylanesque vocals and spacey imagery.” CD The songs “sound as revolutionary and as far beyond category today as they did the day they were recorded.” TL
Purple Haze
Purple Haze serves up Jimi’s signature sound – “the wild soloing, the psycho lyrics, the screams…easily Jimi’s best songwriting effort.” GS The “dreamy The Wind Cries Mary” TL “represents Hendrix’s softer side” RV while Foxey Lady “helped define the power-trio format.” CD Other highlights are the “dramatically transformed West Coast hippie folk ballad,” JA Hey Joe, “the moody, waltzing” BN Manic Depression, and “the blues-powered Fire.” BN
Hey Joe
Hendrix developed “at a rapid pace throughout…his brief career,” AMG but “never surpass[ed] his first LP in terms of consistently high quality.” AMG “These songs pound, smash, crack, whirl, cringe;” GS making this “one of the greatest and most important debuts in rock history.” RV
Are You Experienced?
Resources and Related Links:
- ’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry
- album page on DMDB website (even more in-depth look at album)
- DMDB page for Are You Experienced?
- Jimi Hendrix’s DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry
- JA John Alroy, Wilson & Alroy’s Record Reviews
- AMG All Music Guide review by Richie Unterberger
- AZ Amazon.com review by Billy Altman
- BN Barnes & Noble review by Steph Paynes
- CD CdUniverse.com
- NRR National Recording Registry
- DV The Daily Vault review by Christopher Thelen
- RV The Review “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time.” (Vol. 128; Numbers 12-23: October-November 2001). By Clarke Speicher.
- GS George Starostin
- TL Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light, Time Magazine’s “All-TIME 100 Albums” (11/13/06)
Award(s):
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