Electric Ladyland |
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Recorded: 7/6/67 to 9/4/68 Released: September 16, 1968 Peak: 12 US, 6 UK, 13 CN, -- AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.1 UK, 3.23 worldwide (includes US + UK), 27.37 EAS Genre: classic guitar rock |
Tracks:Click on a song title for more details.
Songs written by Jimi Hendrix unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 73:56 Other Songs Recorded in This Era (12/21/67 to 9/4/68):
The Players:
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Rating: 4.635 out of 5.00 (average of 25 ratings)
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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A Rock Record with No BoundariesThis is “Hendrix’s original musical vision at its absolute apex,” AM “his ultimate statement for many.” AM After Axis: Bold As Love, It was “apparent that Hendrix’s sound was developing beyond blues rock…He considered his next works as ‘electric church’ music…as a concentration of experience.” ES-57 This was “a rock record where there seemed to be no boundaries.” B The album “mixes blues, rock, psychedelia, soul, jazz, and proto-funk.” TBBest Ever?It has been called “the best double album ever released,” NO “a towering work and the true masterpiece in The Experience’s canon.” ES-59 “For pure experimental genius, melodic flair, conceptual vision, and instrumental brilliance, The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Electric Ladyland is a prime contender for the status of rock’s greatest album.” CCIt “demonstrated Hendrix’s desire to expand his music beyond the restrictive verse-chorus limits of the single” TB It also features “inspired jamming throughout, and aural landscapes that seemingly come from another world” NO – “a magical place where guitars cry and mysticism reigns supreme.” RV He “could never again capture the effortless magic of Electric Ladyland.” CC The End of the Experience:This was the third and final album for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the trio consisting of its namesake as well as bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. Relationships were rocky at best; Redding was absent for most of the recording, appearing on only five of the album’s songs. CC Sometimes Hendrix covered Redding’s parts himself; sometimes he augmented the three-man studio line-up to incorporate keyboards, brass or woodwinds.” CCRecording the AlbumHendrix’s “restless ambition led to protracted sessions and many re-recordings” TB which Chandler perceived as “self-indulgence and lack of focus.” TB Chandler resigned as producer early in the sessions and as manager the next year. CC“To create this psychedelic landmark…Hendrix camped out at New York’s Record Plant for months, filtering the blues through effects-drenched arrangements and turning studio science into science fiction.” BL “What Hendrix sonically achieved on this record expanded the concept of what could be gotten out of a modern recording studio in much the same manner as Phil Spector had done a decade before with his Wall of Sound.” AM “Kudos to engineer Eddie Kramer…for taking Hendrix’s visions of a soundscape behind his music and giving it all context, experimenting with odd mic techniques, echo, backward tape, flanging, and chorusing, all new techniques at the time, at least the way they’re used here.” AM The SongsBelow is a breakdown of songs recorded by Hendrix from 12/21/67 to 9/4/68. This includes all songs from Electric Ladyland except “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” which was recorded 7/6/67 so is included on the Axis: Bold As Love page. |
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Crosstown TrafficThe Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 12/21/67 at Olympic Studios in London Released: 11/18/68 (single), Electric Ladyland (1968), Smash Hits (US version, 1969), Ultimate Hendrix (compilation, 1992), Experience Hendrix (compilation, 1997) B Side: “Gypsy Eyes” Peak: 52 BB, 36 CB, 39 HR, 3 CL, 37 UK, 17 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 90.31 streaming About the Song:“This is one of Hendrix’s best-loved and well-known songs.” ES-60 “Having just exhibited his command of the most subtle forms of soul music, Hendrix unveiled an aggressive, swaggering funk track” CC that showcased “blistering full-on rock.” TB The song exhibited a sense of humor by bringing in Dave Mason, the guitarist for Traffic, just to sing his band’s name in every chorus.” CC“On the surface the extended metaphor of trying to get through traffic is employed to demonstrate frustration in communicating with his lover.” ES-61 “The attack of this song comes like a car accelerating, then rushing past – the sound given speed by its panning across the speakers, stridently impatient yet vivifying New York taxi horns that are really kazoos.” ES-60 “In fact, Hendrix doesn’t use a genuine kazoo but a comb and paper improvisation.” ES-60 |
My FriendJimi Hendrix |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 3/13/68 at Sound Center in New York City Released: The Cry of Love (1971), First Rays of the New Rising Sun (1997) Peak: 21 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 2.83 streaming About the Song:“My Friend, with its “low-key atmosphere and sweeping chord changes” DBW alongside “tinkling glasses and nightclub noises, could just have been the usual end-of-side-one throwaway, except for a set of lyrics which Hendrix almost casually injects. The style is Dylanesque, circa ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’: slightly surrealistic, a lot of friendly nonsense, and some very aware, deeply personal lines. ‘And, uh, sometimes it's not so easy, ‘specially when your only friend talks, sees, looks and feels like you/And you do just the same as him ...’ Not much. Just a little something to think about.” RS |
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Somewhere Over the Rainbow (aka “Somewhere”)Jimi Hendrix |
Writer(s): Harold Arlen (music), E.Y. “Yip” Harburg (words) Recorded: 3/13/68 at Sound Center in New York City Released: 1/8/13 (single), Crash Landing (1975), People, Hell and Angels (2013) Peak: 29 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 14.85 streaming About the Song:This song serves as “a sort of bridging sound between The Experience and The Gypsys, being recorded in March 1968. Mitch Mitchell later attempted to overdub drums on the track but despite Kramer’s praise, Stills’ bass line was said to be off on that take, making an already tricky task even more difficult.” ES-123 |
Moon, Turn the Tides…Gently, Gently AwayThe Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 4/23/68 Released: Electric Ladyland (1968) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 3.82 streaming About the Song:“Multi-dubbed guitar motifs restored the psychedelic jazz feel, vamping melodically for several minutes until the mood became almost frenzied and shifted into an electronically treated drum solo.” CC “The familiar themes of ‘1983’ re-emerged, to guide the suite to its conclusion, and complete 20 minutes of stunningly complex and beautiful instrumental tonalities.” CC This and “1983” made for “impressionistic science fiction epics that demanded headphones so you could get lost in their watery world.” TB |
Tax FreeJimi Hendrix |
Writer(s): Carlsen Hansen (Bo Hansson), Janne Carlsson Recorded: 1/26/68 and 1/28/68 at Olympic Studios in London; 5/1/1968 at the Record Plant in New York City Released: War Heroes (1972), South Saturn Delta (1997) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.47 streaming About the Song:This is “a lesser known track by Swedish duo Bo Hansson and Jan Carlsson, with whom Hendrix had jammed in Stockholm. It became a live favourite of his…The duo’s version is drenched with hints of ‘Voodoo Chile’ but it’s too circuitous to be as powerful as it could be, and Hendrix’s interpretation would sometimes follow suit, extending to 15 minutes with no direction home.” ES-113“’Tax Free’ was initially considered for Electric Ladyland…but ‘Voodoo Chile’ is the centerpiece of that album and ‘Tax Free’ would’ve tipped the collection into something of a torpor.” ES-113 |
Cherokee MistJimi Hendrix |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 5/2/68 at the Record Plant in New York City Released: Both Sides of the Sky (2018) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 2.66 streaming About the Song:“This is a fascinating track with multiple guitar tones.” ES-133 “Musically Hendrix worked out the rhythm first, jamming around it with Cox and Mitchell.” ES-133 “Mitchell’s drumming is sensitive, and Redding’s bass is the constant.” ES-133 “The sitar-like tone adds a contemporary feel.” ES-133“Hendrix plays the electric sitar – a new invention pioneered by Danelectro with session guitarist Vinnie Bell, which had been designed to be played more easily than a traditional sitar, as its fretboard was more like that of a standard guitar.” ES-133
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Voodoo Chile BluesJimi Hendrix |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 5/2/68 at Record Plant in New York City Released: Blues (1994) Peak: 33 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 8.24 streaming About the Song:A |
Three Little BearsJimi Hendrix |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 4/22/68, 5/2/68, 5/8/68 at the Record Plant in New York City Released: War Heroes (1972) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.35 streaming About the Song:A |
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Voodoo Child (Slight Return)The Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 5/3/68 and 5/4/68 at Record Plant in New York Released: 10/23/70 (single), Electric Ladyland (1968), Ultimate Hendrix (compilation, 1992), Experience Hendrix (compilation, 1997) Peak: 1 CL, 1 UK, 6 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 240.74 streaming About the Song:“Nothing compares to” RV Voodoo Child (Slight Return), “a landmark in Hendrix’s playing.” AM In the book 25 Albums That Rocked the World! Peter Doggett calls it “the single most impressive piece of guitar-playing this writer has ever heard.” CC“If ‘Voodoo Chile’ is the sound of midnight, then this is the dawn. It’s an audacious way of realizing what Hendrix heard in his head – the same song reconfigured.” ES-76 “Unlike ‘Voodoo Chile,’ this continuation features Redding.” ES-77 “The backing by Redding and Mitchell is comparatively restrained and allows Hendrix to take his lap of honor here are the close of the album. This is the promised sound of that utopia; the whole landscape galvanized, crackling with a fire-red energy.” ES-77 It is “an eight-minute jam that pays tribute to jazz legends Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. Steve Winwood’s manic keyboard playing and Mitch Mitchell’s whirlwind drumming help push Hendrix’s scalding guitar work.” RV It “compresses every ounce of Hendrix’s ambition, musical technique, production skill, and uncanny sense of impending disaster” CC into “an extravaganza of noise and naked emotion.” CC “It’s nothing short of an awe-inspiring performance from rock’s greatest guitarist.” RV |
Little Miss StrangeThe Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Noel Redding Recorded: 4/21/68 and 4/29/68, 5/5/68 at the Record Plant in New York Released: Electric Ladyland (1968) Peak: 32 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 7.21 streaming About the Song:This was written and sung by Noel Redding. He recorded the song while waiting for “an increasingly tardy Hendrix.” ES-63 It “did little more than repeat the ingredients of ‘She’s So Fine’” CC from Axis: Bold As Love. “Electric Ladyland would be a stronger album without it.” CC“Little Miss Strange nevertheless has many compelling moments.” ES-63 “When Hendrix heard it, he was impressed enough to add some of his most concise and sprightly guitar work.” ES-63 The first solo sounds like what “he might’ve played whilst backing Little Richard…[then] segues into a bluesier rock vibe a la Cream before finally squawking out with liberal use of psychedelic wah-wah.” ES-63 |
1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)The Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 3/13/68, 4/22/68, 5/8/68, 6/10/68 at Sound Center in New York City Released: Electric Ladyland (1968) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 9.68 streaming About the Song:“Hendrix seems thrilled by the idea of a subaquatic lifestyle, and this legend haunts many of his lyrics.” ES-68 Here he paints “in words the portrait of a world torn by war and despair, from which the only escape is the sea.” CC “While the track is an aquatic fantasia, there is an implied dystopia that the song’s characters are leaving behind, lifting it from the purely whimsical.” ES-68“The song guides us through the elements, with a sound collage that whistles, tinkles and whispers in the way Led Zeppelin would employ for the middle of ‘Whole Lotta Love’ before finally settling on water as the one element that will save us.” ES-69 “The track also shows Hendrix playing in a style similar to Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green.” ES-70 “It’s simply one of Hendrix’s most beautiful tones.” ES-70 “Delicate guitar passages established a mood that mixed psychedelic rock and jazz.” CC Hendrix “created an orchestral tapestry of sound, which flowed elegantly into a gentle chaos of tape effects, backward guitars and chiming percussion.” CC He played all the instruments except flute, which was played by Traffic’s Chris Wood. |
Voodoo ChileThe Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 5/1/68, 5/8/68, 6/10/68 at Record Plant in New York Released: Electric Ladyland (1968) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 22.49 streaming About the Song:“This is a superb jam that reveals more with each listen.” ES-62 This song and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” “are the twin pillars of Electric Ladyland,” CC “offering vastly different takes on the blues.” CC This one is “a slow blues jam, the other an uptempo rock arrangement.” TB“Chandler remarked that by the time this album was being recorded, Hendrix had moved away from arriving with completed songs. Kramer added that, nonetheless, Hendrix had ‘visions’ about the sounds he was trying to achieve. Whilst he might not have been armed with chord sequences and lyrics, he had moods he wished to recreate. Part of the vision (or rather sound) for this cut is the overdubbed audience murmur, lending it a smoky blues club atmosphere.” ES-62 The Experience regularly performed “Catfish Blues,” a Muddy Waters’ song, live in 1967. It “mutated into an original Hendrix song, built around an identical riff, and with lyrics that paid their dues to some of the most unsettling images from the Delta blues tradition.” CC A May 1, 1968, session included Jefferson Airplane bassist Kacy Casady and Traffic’s Steve Winwood. The result was “Hendrix’s surprisingly orthodox blues playing acting as counterpoint to Winwood’s sustained organ chords.” CC “The lyrics take us on a journey from the fiery opening of the red moon to the airy hummingbird, the predatory mountains, the ‘liquid gardens’ and ‘new red sand.’ The song’s landscape may have been inspired by Hendrix’s ambivalence towards his home town: ‘pretty Seattle.’” ES-62 |
Inside OutJimi Hendrix |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 6/11/68 at Record Plant in New York Released: People, Hell and Angels (2013) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.55 streaming About the Song:“Using the Leslie speaker to invoke a more 3D sound, this is an extraordinary piece, with only Hendrix and Mitchell. Their experiments in this rhythm pattern would flower on ‘Ezy Ryder.’ There’s a whiff of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Oh Well’ in some of the licks although that song was still to come) and it has a pleasing propulsion with a lacing of menace.” ES-125 |
Have You Ever Been to Electric LadylandThe Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 12/21/67 at Olympic Studios in London; 6/14/68 at Record Plant in New York City Released: 12/21/67 version: Electric Ladyland (1968); 6/14/68 version: Loose Ends (1974) Peak: 11 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 20.49 streaming About the Song:“Whilst the vocals and arrangement are strong, it’s lyrically more pertinent to the feel of the album than sonically. ‘Electric ladies’ was Hendrix’s term for groupies, but it could also be reasoned that the real electric lady was his Fender.” ES-60“This soft-soul classic added studio trickery to the obvious influence of Curtis Mayfield’s guitar.” CC “The guitar lines are dreamy and the track’s brevity prevents it from becoming too torpid. The solo is gorgeous.” ES-60 “With Noel Redding absent from proceedings, Hendrix handled the bass as well,” CC “making this a two-piece performance…a sign of things to come.” ES-60 and topped off a delightfully airy confection with some precise falsetto vocals.” CC He is “more in control of the timbre of his voice.” ES-60 |
South Saturn DeltaJimi Hendrix |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 5/2/68 and 6/14/68 at Record Plant Studios in New York City Released: South Saturn Delta (1997) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.44 streaming About the Song:This is “an inviting glimpse of a possible future Hendrix sound.” ES-111 Larry Fallon (the Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter,” Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks) “helped Hendrix with the horn arrangement on this intriguing cocktail of jazz, blues and funk…Hendrix had long wanted to not only augment his work with horns, but to compose a piece to showcase how they and the guitar could work more innovatively together.” ES-111Fallon said, “I guess he maybe never really had the chance to do the things he really wanted to do in that particular world of music…I think…the record company doesn’t think it’s commercial enough for an album in this direction.” ES-111 “Some critics have argued that the brass doesn’t really add anything, but it’s as if Hendrix is testing out a new medium. Also it seems more collaborative than much of the Band of Gypsys album, with Mitchell and Hendrix responding to each other sensitively and the horn syncopation lending a ruminative atmosphere.” ES-111 |
Rainy Day, Dream AwayThe Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 6/10/68, 6/28/68 at Record Plant in New York Released: Electric Ladyland (1968) Peak: 33 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 8.84 streaming About the Song:This is “a laconic, smooth piece of jazz-funk.” ES-68 The song features “jamming through a set of jazzy changes with a cool, late-night feel, and an equally laid-back lyric.” CC “The piece has the carefully informal atmosphere of Traffic’s Mr. Fantasy.” ES-68 “This might be the sound of a voodoo chile who was born when the moon turned a sunflower yellow with its carefree shuffle and the chuckle in Hendrix’s voice.” ES-68Freddie Smith plays the saxophone, illustrating how complementary it is to Hendrix’s sinuous guitar.” ES-68 The other players included Buddy Miles, Michael Finnigan on organ, and Lary Faucette on percussion. Hendrix “dueled with…Smith as though modal jazz was back in fashion.” TB Their lengthy jam was divided between this and “Still Raining, Still Dreaming.” CC |
Still Raining, Still DreamingThe Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 6/10/68, 6/17/68, 6/28/68 at Record Plant in New York Released: Electric Ladyland (1968) Peak: 34 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 6.79 streaming About the Song:“Still Raining, Still Dreaming picks up where ‘Rainy Day, Dream Away’ left off. ‘Rainy Day’ gets things warmed up, and then ‘Still Raining’ comes along and just blows you away.” NO The jam works its way through another verse of “Rainy Day” before moving into “a coda that gradually wound down the mellow jazz groove of the original track.” CC“Hendrix had recorded ‘Rainy Day, Dream Away’ as one piece but felt it wasn’t as evocative in its longer state. It would’ve unbalanced the album by having this and ‘1983’ in the second half too. Here the guitar and Mike Finnegan’s organ duet more together than in the first half.” ES-70 “The organ builds and blurs like sheet rain on a window. Hendrix’s guitar has previously blazed, stormed, and thundered on this album, and now it’s a deluge of sound. The track has a running, liquid timbre with drums splashing behind it.” ES-70 |
…And the Gods Made LoveThe Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 12/21/67 at Olympic Studios in London, 6/29/68 at Record Plant in New York Released: Electric Ladyland (1968) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 6.34 streaming About the Song:“Opening the album with a big bang in more ways than one, this is a storm of noise and turbulence with panning drum effects. It stands amongst Hendrix’s creation-myth songs, but now it’s entirely conveyed through sound.” ES-59 “The storm gathers pace, swirling and twirling, building to the rustling of the climax before falling away in deep breaths.” ES-59“Conceived under the more prosaic title ‘At Last the Beginning,’ this solo guitar concoction presaged the multi-dubbed delights to come, as Hendrix conjured magnificent pictures from musical genius and technical brilliance.” CC |
Long Hot Summer NightThe Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 4/18/68, 5/8/68, 7/29/68 at the Record Plant in New York Released: 9/2/68 (B side of “All Along the Watchtower”), Electric Ladyland (1968), Ultimate Hendrix (compilation, 1992) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 8.91 streaming About the Song:Long Hot Summer Night “seems an almost frivolous tale of sexual longing. But alongside this are images of chaos.” ES-64 It is “a weird but effective and surrealistic blend of politics, sexuality and voyeurism.” ES-65“Hendrix doubled up on bass and guitar, while Al Kooper’s keyboards took a minor role on this piece of urban soul.” CC “Mitch Mitchell’s drums were marooned on the far left of the studio picture, while the other instruments never quite cohered into any kind of whole.” CC |
House Burning DownThe Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 5/1/68, 5/4/68, 7/26/68, 8/23/68 at the Record Plant in New York Released: Electric Ladyland (1968) Peak: 34 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 5.79 streaming About the Song:Like so many of Hendrix’s songs from this period, there was an atmosphere of impending doom in the air, inspired by the outburst of black-on-black violence that had shaken some of America’s ghettos earlier in 1968.” CC “House Burning Down” “is the anguished sound of frustration at ingrained prejudice.” ES-72 Hendrix moved “from asking the vague ‘Are you experienced?’ to challenging protest and its causes. Being experienced is no longer about sex or drugs but understanding the paradoxes of destruction for creation’s sake and creative acts that lead to destruction..” ES-71 Jimi advised to find salvation “via a friendly visitor from another galaxy.” CC“House Burning Down twisted through several key changes in its tight, swirling intro, and then shifted again as the strident chorus moved into the reportorial verses.” CC The song “makes extraordinary use of foxtrot rhythm and has an outro with one of Hendrix’s most far-out pieces of guitar.” TB |
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Gypsy EyesThe Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 4/22/68, 4/24/68, 4/29/68, 5/1/68, 5/17/68, 6/17/68, 7/24/68, 8/27/68 at the Record Plant in New York Released: 10/30/68 (single), Electric Ladyland (1968), Ultimate Hendrix (compilation, 1992) Peak: 35 UK, 28 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 17.47 streaming About the Song:“Opening with a drum rhythm that builds anticipation before Hendrix’s guitar blindingly lasers in, Gypsy Eyes is a skillful blend of the static and dynamic. The scratchy guitar fills after the first chorus and the slight increase in tempo imply a delicious and infectious impatience.” ES-65The song “was a masterpiece of creating substance out of little more than a riff and a message of love. Hendrix’s guitar patterns…and the interplay he built up with his own bass runs, can be heard resounding down the history of subsequent rock/funk crossovers, notably Prince’s early-to-mid Eighties work.” CC It “was a difficult track to record, requiring multiple takes…to sculpt a three-dimensional sound. Hendrix’s guitar vibrates, rolls and leaps around the track, even managing to sound like a laser or death ray at times.” ES-66 “In some ways, ‘Gypsy Eyes’ is the track that captures much of where Hendrix’s music would grow to in the future, with flashes of ‘Freedom’ in its embroidered textures.” ES-66 “The lyrics refer to a curious incident whereby strange men had contacted Hendrix, claiming to be his real father.” ES-65 “In some ways, this could also allude to a tussle between the contractual obligations of Chalpin and Jeffrey.” ES-66 |
Come On (Let the Good Times Roll) (aka “Come On, Part 1”)The Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Earl King Recorded: 8/27/68 at Record Plant in New York Released: Electric Ladyland (1968) Peak: 24 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 16.06 streaming About the Song:“The Experience ploughed through the standard chord changes and lyrical imagery” CC on this blues song originally done by Earl King, a guitarist from New Orleans. It is “a rip-roaring cover…but nonetheless it seems superfluous on Electric Ladyland.” ES-65 “Its last-minute addition to the album was strange,” CC given that it was a “pleasant but undemanding” CC song that “nodded to the traditional excitement of blues rock.” TB Mitchell felt it was to pad the album out and indeed it…does seem to stall the meticulous building of the album’s atmosphere. Perhaps this was Hendrix looking back over his shoulder, acknowledging the roots of these brave new sounds.” ES-65 |
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All Along the WatchtowerThe Jimi Hendrix Experience |
Writer(s): Bob Dylan Recorded: 1/21/68 at Olympic Studios in London, June – August 1968 at Record Plant in New York Released: 9/2/68 (single), Electric Ladyland (1968), Smash Hits (US version, 1969), South Saturn Delta (1997), Ultimate Hendrix (compilation, 1992), Experience Hendrix (compilation, 1997) B Side: “Long Hot Summer Night” First Charted: September 14, 1968 Peak: 20 BB, 18 CB, 8 GR, 18 HR, 1 CL, 5 UK, 1 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 229.53 video, 871.07 streaming |
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Song:Jimi Hendrix is largely credited with reinventing the electric guitar and his prowess is never more apparent than on his take on Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” Hendrix’s “most recognizable work” RV is “a song so indicative of the Hendrix sound, most people don’t realize it’s a cover.” RV Hendrix’s version pulls off the rare feat of giving the world a cover that outdoes its original source. After hearing Hendrix tackle it, “you can’t imagine it...any other way.” BBC Dylan himself admitted that in his subsequent performances of the song, he strove to emulate Hendrix’s version. RS500 “When I sing it,” Dylan said, “ I…feel like it’s a tribute to him.” LWDylan first recorded the song for 1968’s John Wesley Harding. Musically, the song is a perfect example of why Dylan songs lend themselves so easily to re-interpretation. “Aside from a few harmonica flourishes, it is a fairly basic affair,” BBC both “direct and unadorned.” LW “In its original acoustic form, Dylan threw the emphasis of the song on its apocalyptic imagery.” CC “Raging and climactic where Dylan’s had been soft-paced and relaxed,” AMG “Hendrix used the sound of the studio to evoke the storms and the sense of dread, creating an echoed aural landscape.” CC Lyrically, the song took the form of a conversation between a joker and a thief in “an allegorical tale about the sweeping away of society’s old guard.” BBC Peppered with “Biblical imagery and apocalyptic words,” AMG the original has “such an odd, abstract lyric that hardly anyone…could have held on long enough to spot the song hidden within,” DM but the lyrics are “almost irrelevant once Hendrix infers and then implies them through sound.” ES-74 Hendrix’s version “is an omnipotent force, swooping, surging, rising, falling” ES-73 and gives the song an “urgency and edginess…far more in keeping with its apocalyptic message.” BBC “The track opens with one of the most famous intros ever: a dry-thundery sound strangely recalling the rhythm of ‘Louie Louie.’ Whilst it borrows from folk, country, rock and blues, it also has an element of garage.” ES-75 The song functions as “a paean to creation and destruction.” ES-75 While at a party, Hendrix proclaimed to Traffic’s Dave Mason his interest in recording the song just a few weeks after its release. Just days later, the pair assembled (with Mason on bass and acoustic guitar) with drummer Mitch Mitchell at London’s Olympic Studios to nail down their rendition AMG that has now become a rock standard.
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First posted 9/16/2012; last updated 8/15/2026. |
