Friday, May 12, 2017

Today in Music (1967): The Jimi Hendrix Experience Are You Experienced? released in Europe

Are You Experienced?

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Released in Europe: May 12, 1967

Released in U.S.: August 23, 1967

Peak: 5 US, 10 RB, 2 UK, 15 CN

Sales (in millions): 5.0 US, 0.1 UK

Genre: classic rock

Tracks (European release):

Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.

  1. Foxey Lady [3:10] (12/13/67, 67 BB, 83 CB, 82 HR, 1 CL, 11 DF)
  2. Manic Depression [3:31] (5 CL, 14 DF)
  3. Red House [3:45] (6 CL, 8 DF)
  4. Can You See Me [2:35] (37 DF)
  5. Love or Confusion [3:05] (22 DF)
  6. I Don’t Live Today [3:48] (20 DF)
  7. May This Be Love [2:55] (8 DF)
  8. Fire [2:30] (11/14/69, 1 CL, 13 DF)
  9. Third Stone from the Sun [6:30] (12 CL, 39 DF)
  10. Remember [2:43] (10/31/71, 35 UK)
  11. Are You Experienced? [4:02] (8 CL, 2 DF)

    Added to 1997 Reissue:

  12. Hey Joe (12/16/66, 1 CL, 6 UK, 1 DF)
  13. Stone Free (12/16/66, B-side of “Hey Joe,” 6 CL, 13 DF)
  14. Purple Haze (3/17/67, 65 BB, 64 CB, 66 HR, 1 CL, 3 UK, 2 DF)
  15. 51st Anniversary (3/17/67, B-side of “Purple Haze”)
  16. The Wind Cries Mary (5/5/67, 2 CL, 6 UK, 6 DF)
  17. Highway Chile (5/5/67, B-side of “The Wind Cries Mary”)

Tracks (U.S. release):

  1. Purple Haze (3/17/67, 65 BB, 64 CB, 66 HR, 1 CL, 3 UK, 2 DF)
  2. Manic Depression [3:31] (5 CL, 14 DF)
  3. Hey Joe (12/16/66, 1 CL, 6 UK, 1 DF)
  4. Love or Confusion [3:05] (22 DF)
  5. May This Be Love [2:55] (8 DF)
  6. I Don’t Live Today [3:48] (20 DF)
  7. The Wind Cries Mary (5/5/67, 2 CL, 6 UK, 6 DF)
  8. Fire [2:30] (11/14/69, 1 CL, 13 DF)
  9. Third Stone from the Sun [6:30] (12 CL, 39 DF)
  10. Foxey Lady [3:10] (12/13/67, 67 BB, 83 CB, 82 HR, 1 CL, 11 DF)
  11. Are You Experienced? [4:02] (8 CL, 2 DF)

    Added to 1997 Reissue:

  12. Stone Free (12/16/66, B-side of “Hey Joe,” 6 CL, 13 DF)
  13. 51st Anniversary (3/17/67, B-side of “Purple Haze”)
  14. Highway Chile (5/5/67, B-side of “The Wind Cries Mary”)
  15. Can You See Me [2:35] (37 DF)
  16. Remember [2:43] (10/31/71, 35 UK)
  17. Red House [3:45] (6 CL, 8 DF)

The Players:

  • Jimi Hendrix (vocals, guitar)
  • Noel Redding (bass, backing vocals)
  • Mitch Mitchell (drums, percussion)

Rating:

4.780 out of 5.00 (average of 29 ratings)

Quotable:

“One of the most stunning debuts in rock history, and one of the definitive albums of the psychedelic era.” – Richie Unterberger, AllMusic.com

Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

“Seattle-born former paratrooper James Marshall Hendrix worked the back-breaking chitlin’ circuit playing guitar with the likes of Little Richard and the Isley Brothers.” TL Chas Chandler, the former bassist with the Animals, had settled in New York in search of other projects. A friend steered him to Greenwich Village’s Café Wha? to see Jimi Hendrix. Chandler brought Hendrix to England and ;aired him with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding. Hendrix signed with Track Records and charted with three top-10 hits in the UK before releasing his debut album.

“Are You Experienced? “released just before Hendrix returned to the U.S. from London to play the Monterey Pop Festival, established him not only as a supersonic marvel, but as an innovative and sophisticated composer.” BN The album “unleashed Jimi Hendrix onto a world in the midst of such cultural and musical shakeups that it really didn’t seem as ‘far out’ as it actually was.” AZ The Who’s Pete Towshend said, “He changed the whole sound of the electric guitar and turned the rock world upside down.” CM

The Experience

“From the moment he dropped the match on his guitar at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival to the day his own flame went dark only three years later, he was the brightest star in rock.” CS “Hendrix was an artist who had everything…as far as talent: great singing, great songs, and of course a great band, a prototype that, like the Velvet Underground, is still being die-cut and applied to this very day.” JSH

However, “not to be underestimated were the contributions of” RV Hendrix’s bandmates. “Power trios rarely get as powerful as the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The rhythm section of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell were the perfect match for the guitar wizardry of Jimi Hendrix. They held down the low end with loose yet steady grooves that their fearless leader vamped over with the colorful splashes of an action painting.” PM They “blast away with a barely controlled fury” CD and give “the music a rhythmic pulse that fused parts of rock and improvised jazz.” RV

“Redding is a melodic master, who plays in a kind of rhythmic counter-step to Hendrix, a throbbing mass that hits the chest and nervous system with a ferocious fury. And Mitchell is a rhythmic genius, a sacred combo of Keith Moon (for arms-flailing fills) and Elvin Jones (for syncopated up-and-down motion). Every member of the band totally attacks their instrument…with…precision and rough abandon.” JSH

Cornerstone of Guitar Rock

“If you’re an electric-guitar player, not knowing this album backward and forward is like a saxophonist not knowing Coltrane.” VB “It was his mind-boggling guitar work, of course, that got most of the ink.” RU By “building upon the experiments of British innovators like Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend” RU and “using radical new techniques in feedback and distortion,” RV Hendrix broke “through the barrier between innovation and enormous commercial success” CRS and, in the process, knocked “Clapton and Townshend right off their guitar-god pedestals.” BN

“The trio’s debut was an unprecedented barrage of joyful noise,” TL “the most rock-oriented of Hendrix’s official studio releases.” CD The album’s “distorted metallic edge…made…[it] a particular favorite among rock and heavy-metal guitarists.” CDIt stands as “one of the most groundbreaking guitar albums of the rock era,” NRR but “one of the most stunning debuts in rock history.” RU

Hendrix did “things with a guitar that no one ever dreamed about trying” CT and in the process “redefined and expanded the sonic possibilities of the electric guitar (strung upside-down for this left-handed virtuoso), while the propulsive rhythm section heightened the attack.” TL His “playing, while strongly rooted in the blues, also incorporated a variety of jazz influences and a uniquely personal vocabulary of emotive guitar feedback and extended solos.” NRR

Cornerstone of Psychedelic Rock

“However, “it wasn’t just Hendrix’s virtuosic skill as a pure player that was so impressive; it was, even more, the range and scope of sheer sound that he coaxed, cajoled, and ripped out of his instrument.” AZ The album “allowed a few different things to happen in the context of rock.” CT “Its influences are incredibly diverse.” CD “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.” RU

“But what’s really miraculous about Are You Experienced? is the way it combines psychedelia with blues and soul.” JSH It featured “psychedelic frenzy…instrumental freak-out jams…[and] tender, poetic compositions” RU and “opened the door for Hendrix and his mixture of funk and rock” CT and “gave jazz a chance to be heard in a more mainstream format and allowed rock fans to appreciate it.” CT He himself “once described the album this way, ‘It has a little rock ‘n’ roll, and then it has blues and it has a few freak-out tunes.” SM

It was “one of the quintessential statements of psychedelic rock.” NRR “The guitar prodigy's inventive and cosmic psychedelia continues to influence new waves of rockers.” UT “Everyone says that it was Sgt. Pepper that sent dozens of bands scrambling to make their own psychedelic masterpiece, but in our heart of hearts, I think we know that it was this masterpiece that truly turned people on in the best possible way.” PM “Released in the Summer of Love, this [album, along with Sgt. Pepper’s] is the penultimate sixties soundtrack.” JSH

Race

“Not everyone appreciated Hendrix’s wild stage act. Some blacks decried his eccentric performances and flashy dress as selling out to a white audience – Hendrix became the first black rock artist to entertain mostly white crowds – and feeding stereotypes of black sexuality and eroticism.” CS Hendrix, however, told a New York Times reporter, “Man, it’s the music, that’s what comes first.” CS

The Songs

“For its bevy of Hendrix classics alone, this incendiary debut is a must-own.” EW’93 “What made Are You Experienced? more than a mere instrumental novelty was the strength of its songs…that sound as revolutionary and as far beyond category today as they did the day they were recorded.” TL “Guitar fireworks and Hendrix's under-recognized ear for pop animate barn-burners like ‘Foxy Lady,’' ‘Manic Depression,’ and ‘Fire.’” EW’12 He demonstrated an “uncanny ability to tackle psychedelic jams…smooth ballads…and blistering R&B with equal wizardry.” CS

By blending “his gut-wrenching guitar playing and introspective lyrics,” BN Are You Experienced? “established Hendrix as a singer-songwriter.” CD He “demonstrated the breadth of his songwriting talents” RU and “his Dylanesque vocals and spacey imagery make each tune a little gem.” CD

“Even his most gullible psychedelic excesses…never sound forced…in fact it sounds naïve and wonderful, a spark of sex and endless hedonism that epitomizes the eye-opening vividness of the era.” JSH “The doors of perception are forcibly opened by ‘Purple Haze’ and the psychedelic luge ride that follows carries you along hopped up expressions of lust and longing (‘Fire,’ ‘Love or Confusion’), cushy balladry (‘May This Be Love’), sweaty blues (‘Hey Joe’) and the kind of pleasantly meandering playfulness that goes all too well with the peak of an LSD trip (‘Third Stone From the Sun,’ the title track).” PM

“Hey Joe”
“Hey Joe was “Hendrix’s first single” JA as well as “his first recorded tune and first significant hit.” JA On the album’s only cover song, Hendrix “dramatically transformed [this] West Coast hippie folk ballad.” JA Still, he is “somewhat insecure and wary. He rarely lets go, except for the short, economic solo, and mostly sticks to displaying the thing that’s most essential to Hendrix music – his riffing techniques. The melody is jagged, twisted, rough, dirty and exciting, and the group’s harmonies and Mitchell’s mad drumming make the song an unbelievable ‘experience.’” GS

“Stone Free”
That song’s B-side, Stone Free, “is a joyous, rhythmically charged romp, once again supported by a fluent melodic sense, rolling drumwork by the skillful Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding’s amazing bass and Jimi’s amusing ravings about upper class citizens ‘pointing their plastic finger at me.’” RV It’s the “first example of the ‘manic’ Hendrix [and] more typical of his sound than ‘Hey Joe.’” GS “The way the rhythms actually fluctuate in a manner that’s a lot closer to sexual or oceanic than the clomping plod of Cream, and then consider not only P-Funk but Living Colour.” JSH

“Purple Haze”
With its “velvet aggression,” BN “breakthrough acid rock anthem” JA and second single Purple Haze “has the quintessence of Hendrix’s sound embedded into it: the menacing riff, the wild soloing, the psycho lyrics, the screams, the smoke, the everything…it’s…easily Jimi’s best songwriting effort.” GS

“51st Anniversary”
This was the B-side of “Purple Haze.” It “is a kind of rubbery blues that swings with rhythm the same way a good Mingus or Charlie Parker tune does.” JSH

“The Wind Cries Mary”
The third single, the “dreamy The Wind Cries Mary” TL was “written for his ex-girlfriend.” SM It “represents Hendrix’s softer side, which echoes with a sense of longing and loss supported by wistful guitar work and heartfelt vocals.” RV The song “presents us Jimi the balladeer, Jimi the Dylan-imitator: this is certainly his best attempt at imitating Bob’s lyrics, and the gentle melody is also sparse, economic and haunting.” GS

“Foxey Lady”
Along with ‘Purple Haze’, “the worshipful” BN Foxey Lady, which kicks off the original UK album, “helped define the power-trio format, thanks to Hendrix’s full-bodied rhythm guitar and his soaring solos.” CD

“Manic Depression”
“The raving, bashing and crashing” GS of “the moody, waltzing” BN and “appropriately-titled Manic Depression” GS is a “total noisefest.” GS “The churning Afro-Cuban polyrhythms” BN “evoke John Coltrane and Elvin Jones.” CD The song “picks up on the driving refferama of the Yardbirds and takes that back to Chicago’s Hubert Sumlin and rocks it into orbit.” CM

“Red House” and “Can You See Me”
There are “a couple generic, but convincing, blues tunes, like the fascinating Red House, and…[the] straightforward R&B…psycho-flavoured Can You See Me.” GS

“I Don’t Live Today”
“I Don’t Live Today employs ritualistic Native American drumbeats” CD and uses a “fading in and fading out [technique] later reprised…by the Beatles in ‘Helter Skelter.’” GS

“May This Be Love”
With May This Be Love, Hendrix “paints shimmering six-string waterfalls” BN while “the blues-powered Fire” BN is “built on solid, memorable riffs…[which are] incredibly simple [but] nobody tried doing it before Jimi…That opening riff…why wasn’t it done earlier by, say, the Rolling Stones?” GS

“Third Stone from the Sun”
The half-instrumental “Third Stone from the Sun recalls the supple octaves of jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery.” CD It “starts out as a conventional space jazz track. Over the rolling modal foundation Hendrix drifts off into a storm of elegant, majestic feedback.” CM “The main melody is among the best ever written by Jimi, and is nicely complemented by special effects-laiden, encoded vocals pronouncing all kinds of space incantations.” GS

“Are You Experienced?”
“By the time Jimi escorts us out of our ‘measly little world’ with Are You Experienced?…we’re convinced this guy is from outer space.” BN “The title tune borrows the Eastern airs of sitarist Ravi Shankar” CD and is “all drenched in feedback and backwards guitar, relentless piano and Hendrix’s seductive vocal.” CM “In one sense it’s a typically soul revue play, but in the context of 1966 and the youth revolution and also the revolutionary sound coming out of Hendrix’s Fender, this is a whole new demarcation line in the culture war.” CM

The song is a bit “notorious for its lyrics which could serve as a kind of introduction to the whole hippie movement (‘have you ever been experienced? not necessarily stoned, but... beautiful’).” GS

Conclusion:

Hendrix “would continue to develop at a rapid pace throughout…his brief career,” RU but later become “arty, long-winded and, in the long run, rather screwy. Here he just revels in his newly-found studio freedom.” GS “He would never surpass his first LP in terms of consistently high quality.” RU “These songs pound, smash, crack, whirl, cringe... they’re totally unbelievable.” GS “Hendrix casts a mystical spell” BN on Are You Experienced?, which “remains one of the greatest and most important debuts in rock history.” RV

Notes:

The European release, which preceded the U.S. release by three months, had a different track listing, as indicated above. When the album was reissued in 1997, the European and U.S. releases added bonus tracks. Both versions had the same songs, but in different running order.

Resources and Related Links:

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First posted 3/21/2008; last updated 7/16/2024.

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