Are You Experienced? (Remaster)-The Jimi Hendrix Experience

In 1967, I was an aspiring, and very impressionable, teenaged musican who was avidly trying to learn the licks of all the great guitarists who were on the scene. There were a lot of great ones around, too--Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and George Harrison were all busy creating styles that guitarists today are still trying to emulate. It's fair to say that my whole musical philosophy and playing style changed when I first heard the debut album of Jimi Hendrix in 1967--Are You Experienced? really taught me how music is irrevocably linked to the human mind. "Mind over matter" is a pretty old saw that few of us really take literally, but Jimi Hendrix showed all musicians, especially guitarists, that wringing hot licks out of a guitar is an emotional, as well as physical, thing.

Jimi Hendrix could get sounds out of his guitar that no one had ever imagined--by the same token, his licks were constructed in a way that no one had thought of before, which means that he had a style that was truly his own. All guitarists are influenced to some extent by the styles of other guitarists--what separates the great ones from the rest of us is the personal spin that the player puts on his influences. So it was with Jimi Hendrix--his blues and jazz influences were stood on their respective heads and rearranged, creating a playing style that was unique and truly one of a kind.

I had the great pleasure of seeing Jimi Hendrix in concert in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. With sidemen Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, Hendrix generated as much energy and emotion as I've ever seen in any live performance. His band didn't lose anything in the transition from studio recording to live performance, and his guitar playing was like nothing I'd ever heard in my young life. I'll never forget it.

Are You Experienced? was the debut album of Jimi Hendrix, and it's exceptional in a lot of ways. It was recorded over a period of just a few days, and it was produced by Chas Chandler, bass player for The Animals, and at the time, an aspiring producer. Many of the tracks were recorded "live" in the studio, which accounts for the concert feel that this album has. Another element of Are You Experienced? is the free-form structure of some of the songs. Mitch Mitchell explained it this way: "When we go into the studio we never rehearse anything, we never knew what we were going to do in advance. When it came to the rhythmic structure, everything was left up to me and Noel. Jimi would say to Noel 'this is the way the song goes, these are the notes that are available, but around that structure you can play anything you want'".

This is the stuff from which great albums are made.

The CD version of Are You Experienced is different from my old wax album (I can't put my hands on it at the moment)--is has seventeen tracks while the original had only eleven, if memory serves me correctly. Any remaster loses a little something, but this one stood up pretty well in the transition from acetate to compact disc.

Some of my favorite Hendrix numbers are here--Purple Haze is an LSD influenced anthem that got it's name from a type of LSD that was in vogue at the time, and Hey Joe, a tale of tragedy, is the only Hendrix non-original on the album. The frantic Manic Depression makes me feel manic, while Love Or Confusion literally reeks of emotion and yes, confusion. Foxy Lady and Stone Free feature Hendrix and his band at their hard rocking best, while Red House is his tribute to all those old blues masters who influenced his playing style. Third Stone From The Sun is my favorite Hendrix tune--the free-form, jazz framework works to show you just how talented Hendrix and his sidemen really were.

The insert that accompanies the CD is loaded with information about Jimi Hendrix and the recording of this album. Each track is dissected and lots of personal insight is given from Hendrix, Redding, Mitchell and Chandler. It makes for a pretty engrossing read.

Are You Experienced is one of the great albums of all time, and a must-own for any music fan. Even though he left us way too soon, the reverberations started by Jimi Hendrix are still being felt today.

Thanks for reading.