#53 Jimi Hendrix, 'Electric Ladyland' (1968)
Previously #55
The third and final album released in Hendrix’s lifetime, ‘Electric Ladyland’ was also his only #1. As I mentioned previously, Hendrix was incredibly prolific, releasing 3 albums within the space of 17 months. This record came 10 months after ‘Axis: Bold As Love’ (#92). Hendrix was notorious for his perfectionism, sometimes recording 50 takes of one song. Producer, Chas Chandler, grew increasingly frustrated with Hendrix. This plus his droves of guests in the studio while recording pushed Chandler to quit. Hendrix would take on the role of producer. Bassist, Noel Redding, also started moving away from the group, which led Hendrix to take on bass duties on a lot of the songs.
The record was an innovation in guitar playing. Hendrix continued to do things that no one had ever heard before building on his own innovation the previous two releases. Along with Eddie Kramer, the pair furthered recording, pioneering techniques and sounds. Opening with ‘…And the Gods Made Love,’ a track designed to sink us into a psychedelic haze, only to then be introduced to the place created in Hendrix’s mind, ‘Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland).’ ‘Crosstown Traffic,’ the second single and third track begins with Hendrix playing a comb with tissue paper. I absolutely love the panning from left to right and back again as he sings “Crosstown Traffic/So hard to get through to you.” The almost 15-minute track, ‘Voodoo Chile,’ is a self-indulgent jam featuring Steve Winwood on organ and Jack Casady from Jefferson Airplane on bass. It foreshadows the final track on the album, arguably the greatest guitar song of all time, ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return).’ Redding takes lead vocals on ‘Little Miss Strange,’ while elsewhere on the record some of my favourites are ‘Long Hot Summer Night,’ ‘Come On (Let The Good Times Roll),’ the old Blues standard, ‘Gypsy Eyes’ and the epic ‘1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be).’ The hit on the record, and in fact, Hendrix’s most commercially successful song, is his interpretation of Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along The Watchtower;’ a version so good that Dylan himself has since performed Hendrix’s version in concert. Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones, another member of the 27 Club, played percussion on this song. The aforementioned ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return)’ is the perfect song to close the record with. Hendrix really was a star that burned so bright that his life was over before it had even really begun.
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