The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.97 You Save: $4.01 (29%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $6.95 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Are You Experienced
Free Music Review: The mother of ALL rock debuts
Hit: 5 Stars
THE BAND: Jimi Hendrix (guitars, vocals), Noel Redding (bass), Mitch Mitchell (drums & percussion).
THE DISC: (1967) Originally 11 songs and approximately 40 minutes long, this digitally remastered edition (1997) gives you 6 bonus tracks and a total listen of just over 60 minutes. Included with the disc is a 22-page booklet containing song titles/credits, song lyrics, numerous photos, short bios on each band member, and a 4-page intro on the artist and the times. All words and music written by Jimi Hendrix except "Hey Joe" by Billy Roberts. Label - MCA Records.
COMMENTS: Hendrix only put out a handful of albums and it's a crapshoot as to which one is best. I'd have to rank Hendrix's top studio albums as follows: #1 "Are You Experienced", #2 "Electric Ladyland", and #3 "Axis: Bold As Love". As good as "Electric Ladyland" is/was, it was a double length album - so twice as many songs to choose from; not to mention Hendrix leaning away from just his power trio - using outside influences from members of Jefferson Airplane and Traffic. "Are You Experienced" though was his debut album (with the original 3 members only)... and his mark would forever be made. Distinct and brilliant guitar playing - full of energy and new ideas. Decades later, his abilities have rarely been matched... depending on who you talk, maybe they haven't. In comparing Hendrix's album to other legendary rock debuts - Led Zeppelin, Boston, Van Halen, The Doors, Chicago and Nirvana come to mind - I would say "Are You Experienced" is the mother of ALL debuts. Six huge hits are found here - "Purple Haze", "Manic Depression", "Hey Joe", "The Wind Cries Mary", "Foxey Lady", and "Fire". Deep album gems include the mellow "May This Be Love", "Love Or Confusion", the 6+ minute psychedelic "Third Stone From The Sun" and the anthem-like title track with its backwards Beatle-esque overtones. The bonus tracks are nice add-ons. "Highway Chile" is always good to listen to, but the real gem is the blues tune, "Red House". The sound is better than on the original disc/album, but still not up to today's standards due to this being recorded in 1967, and so many improvements in the recording industry over the years. Classic disc (5 stars).
Free Music Review: Well? Are you?
Hit: 5 Stars
Not necessarily stoned
but
beautiful
Stand and salute
wave your freak flag high HIGH! (oops, wrong album)
too bad the brits destroyed and killedour great and glorious god
hear him hear before the total meltdown and sorrow of our losing our other war heroes like Dr. King (that night in 1968 Jimi and BB KING jammed together- back then we had no video cameras)
If you can just get your mind together . . .
you need no other disk than this
the trouble with cd's instead of vinyls on the ancient players is you cannot this cut (can we still call it a cut when it cuts no wax in the making?), THIRD STONE, at 45 RPM or even 16 RPM to hear clearly the squawking rap at the beginning which explains things in a radio call from Jimi's ship approaching Earth to Mother CEntral.
But, hey, you got this cut. Lay down when the sun goes down. Turn out the lights. Put this one cut on with REP ONE set on your player. Let this cut play until the sun comes up. Get up again in a whole new different time and place.
This cut is a jazz symphony, starting with a cool, clean jazzy guitar introducing the main theme after some wrangling around and a little Arabian gypsy pause, into that slow theme that continues to reappear throughout, but upon each resurrection it is no longer a clean jazzy Strat sound, but at first a regular HOT early sixties rock and roll sound, then increasingly wild and distorted fuzz boxed 1966 sound and beyond, until the space journey wiggles out on a softly throbbing whammy bar over the sound of a very late night elevated subway car.
Listen to the words. Jimi invented rap along with everything else. Let him land his kinky machine. You'll never hear surf music again.
This is the most constantly inventive and comprehensive piece of guitar work ever. I am certain Jimi also handled the bass (Noel wasn't worth a darn) but the drums from jazz to rock style always rumble and drop sweat on time on the dime.
Just play the one cut and thank God for it. THen after the sun arises, switch over to Are You Experienced? and arise to salute the new rising sun.
Free Music Review: Don't forget Mitch Mitchell
Hit: 5 Stars
Monster drummer.
If you listen closely you'll hear that on this record and Axis: Bold As Love, several of the songs are clearly vehicles for Mitch. Hendrix overshadowed almost everyone he played with but Jimi knew that Mitch was an innovator, so Jimi made sure that Mitch had room to stretch on several of the songs. He also stayed with Mitch for some time after Noel Redding left.
For me 1/2 of the experience was listening to Mitch. What fun.
Free Music Review: Shock And Awe: The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Hit: 5 Stars
No collection of popular music is complete without this CD; quite simply, it is the definitive rock and roll album. Sergeant Pepper may surpass it for beauty and complexity - but Are You Experienced sets the standard for both guitar virtuosity and sheer influence. Hendrix re-invented the rock idiom, and over the following 39 years no one has come close to matching AYE, indeed, no one has laid a glove on it.
The woods are thick with Hendrix wannabes; his impact has been so great that one forgets there was a time when he did not exist. Are You Experienced was hurled into our consciousness in 1967 like a hand grenade thrown through the window of an Edwardian tea party, it wasn't just new, it was profoundly unknown, like an artifact from space - with a force that was undeniable. As Zappa said, "You don't listen to the music of Jimi Hendrix, it eats you alive."
Charlie Parker has been dead for over half a century, but his technical genius was such that people still argue over how he was able to play with such lightning speed. Hendrix was equally dazzling, transcending technique, thoughts actualized as sounds. Self-taught, left-handed, axe strung upside down, Hendrix didn't play guitar; he lived it. I saw him in a small club in '67 and can vouch that he did indeed pick it with his teeth and play it behind his head and between his legs - there was nothing he couldn't do.
Neophytes are advised that only tracks 1-11 appeared on the original LP. The extras are fun, especially Red House - Hendrix was never better than when he played straight blues, witness Hey Joe and The Wind Cries Mary. Most songs are such cultural touchstones they require little discussion though two are oddly neglected. Are You Experienced rips, bends, and soars - taking you so high you might wonder if you'll ever return. Third Stone From The Sun could be the best track on the CD, there is an episodic, space-jam quality to it you've heard echoed by a legion of derivative, less-talented rockers.
Terrific remix on this one, and very nice booklet with photos, lyrics, and more. Pity poor Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums, living in that giant shadow. Both perform admirably, especially Mitchell who has some fast hands and always seems to know where Hendrix wants to go next. Hendrix was only 25 when he recorded this CD. It is a masterpiece in every respect, as satisfying now as the day it was released.
Free Music Review: Blew my mind!
Hit: 5 Stars
Okay, so maybe THIS is the best debut album ever.... I don't usually like shorter, radio- friendly tracks, BUT Hendrix packed so much psychedelia into each one that if they'd been any longer we would overdose! These songs are all brilliant, with the title track being my favorite even though it wasn't a hit single (surprise, surprise.) Hedrix's use of studio gimmickery was an artform in itself, rivaling the Beatles. Both of these bands were revolutionary in their musical styles and recording technique and changed the face of music forever. I'm STILL trying to figure out some of the noises Jimi made with his guitar. Truly an artist and the rest of the band was awesome, too. Mitch Mitchell was a monster on drums and Noel Redding's bass...You can tell he was a guitar player. Although I enjoy everything Jimi put out, this remains my favorite. "Excuse me while I kiss the sky...." Pure genious!