Are You Experienced is the debut studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Released in 1967, the LP was an immediate critical and commercial success, and it is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. The album features Jimi Hendrix's innovative approach to songwriting and electric guitar playing which soon established a new direction in psychedelic and hard rock music. After struggling to earn a living on the R&B circuit as a backing guitarist, Hendrix signed a management and production contract in 1966 with former Animals member Chas Chandler and ex-Animals manager Michael Jeffery. Chandler brought Hendrix to London and recruited members for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, a band designed to showcase the guitarist's talents. In late October, after having been rejected by Decca Records, the Experience signed with Track, a new label formed by the Who's managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. Are You Experienced and its preceding singles were recorded over a five-month period from late October 1966 through early April 1967. The album was completed in 16 recording sessions at three London locations, including De Lane Lea Studios, CBS Studios, and Olympic Studios. Released in the UK on May 12, 1967, Are You Experienced spent 33 weeks on the charts, peaking at number two. The album was issued in the US on August 23 by Reprise Records, where it reached number five on the US Billboard Top LPs, remaining on the chart for 106 weeks, 27 of those in the Top 40. The album also spent 70 weeks on the US Billboard Hot R&B LPs chart, where it peaked at number 10. The US version contained some of Hendrix's best known songs, including the Experience's first three singles, which, though omitted from the British edition of the LP, were top ten hits in the UK: "Purple Haze", "Hey Joe", and "The Wind Cries Mary". Hendrix was unhappy with the cover artwork for the UK edition, and solicited photographer Karl Ferris to create a more "psychedelic" cover for the US release. In 2000, it was voted number 63 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. Rolling Stone ranked Are You Experienced 30th on its 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2010, the magazine placed four songs from the US version of the album on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time: "Purple Haze" (17), "Foxy Lady" (153), "Hey Joe" (201), and "The Wind Cries Mary" (379). In 2005, the record was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress in recognition of its cultural significance to be added to the National Recording Registry. Writer and archivist Reuben Jackson of the Smithsonian Institution wrote: "it's still a landmark recording because it is of the rock, R&B, blues ... musical tradition. It altered the syntax of the music ... in a way I compare to James Joyce's Ulysses."
Sometimes you just gotta toss your 5 stars to the wind and let Jimi take over. Genre-bending, passionate, energized, psychedelic. Incredible album from a powerful trio. Fantastic drumming, impeccable guitar work. If I wasn't wading through clouds of drywall dust while feeding a baby and keeping a barking dog at bay I'm sure I could opine for hours on how much I enjoy listening to this album. It never gets old.
The songs are still brilliant. It is easy to get caught up in Jimi's excellent guitar work but the other pieces of the band are just as great. There is a rawness to the guitar though that is so difficult to replicate that I once described as a imprecise precision. Jimi never misses a note and you get the feeling that he hits everything just as he wanted and yet there is a feeling of searching in the melody, like an artist sketching out a drawing. I once listened to someone play a Hendrix song and commented while they played well, that they played too well. Their cover was too clean and it lost the energy of the original. That is on no better display than on this album. The album contains some of my favourite Hendrix songs including The Wind Cries Mary and Are You Experienced. However, the songs do form a random collection of tracks and lack a sense of cohesion to tie them together which I think is a missed opportunity.
Look, I’ve been pretty hard on some of the “classic”, “greatest-of-all-time” records that appear on this list and there are very few that I plan on giving five stars. It’s not without good reason…a lot of those “classic” records, we’re just supposed to accept they’re classics because they sold a lot of copies or we’ve been told by the music press for decades that they’re important. I don’t think Rumors is a 5 star record…shit, I don’t even think Sgt. Pepper’s is a five star record. They both have their flaws to me and I’m not going to ignore them because everyone else thinks they’re perfect. Now I’m going be a little hypocritical. Are You Experienced? is not a perfect record, but it is a 5 star record. Why, you ask? Well, and here’s where I’ll be a little hyperbolic, it’s because no one on earth, since Jimi Hendrix, has had as much of a long lasting impact on music. This is a record that changed the world and continued to change the world for many decades after its release. There is rock music before and after Hendrix. He is the line in the sand, so to speak. He completely changed the way the guitar is played and used in rock music. The man basically created a new language for everyone else to learn and figure out. He is without a doubt the greatest of all time. You can track his influence all over the music that was released in the years, decades, half century following his debut. As an example, go ahead and listen to “Third Stone from the Sun” and try and tell me you can’t draw a straight line to the guitar squall and experimentation of Sonic Youth. Or listen to Eddie Hazel’s solo on Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain” or his playing on their ‘74 record, “Standing on the Verge of Getting it on” Or Stevie Ray Vaughan Or J Mascis Or Prince Or John Frusciante Or read about how Eric Clapton walked off stage the first time he saw Hendrix play. I believe “Is he really that fucking good?” was Clapton’s response to Chas Chandler right after he left the stage.(TBH, Jimi gets 5 stars just for knocking Clapton down a peg) Jimi Hendrix was so influential that Miles Davis started playing his trumpet through a wah pedal. I mean, I could keep naming musicians here, but you get the point, right? There is a pretty good chance that whichever guitar player you like wouldn’t be the player they are without Hendrix. I don’t think an album with the wealth of influence that Are You Experienced? left behind deserves anything other than 5 stars.
Ce que j'ai reproché au précédent album de Jimi à propos de l'emplacement de ses "tubes" dans la chronologie du projet n'est pas tombé dans l'oreille d'un sourd, et c'est une bonne chose. Vous savez probablement que j'ai fêté la semaine dernière le premier anniversaire du jour où je me suis fait licencier de mon premier cabinet d'avocats. Je vous dois la vérité sur cet épisode. Alors que je m'y rendis un matin avec le même entrain qu'habituellement, ma tutrice me convoqua dans son bureau. "Ferme la porte" me dit-elle une fois que j'eus franchi celle-ci. Je m'assis en face d'elle et c'est alors qu'elle débuta son laïus truffé de reproches : - Robserpillère, cela fait maintenant trois semaines que tu travailles chez nous et plusieurs de tes agissements nous poussent à nous interroger sur ta présence ici. - Quoi ?! - Nous t'avons plusieurs fois demandé de décrocher les posters de Hugh Masekela que tu as fixés sur les murs de la salle de réunion, tu n'en as pas tenu compte. - Mais hein ?! - Vendredi dernier, alors que j'étais en rendez-vous avec un client très important, tu as allumé ton enceinte et diffusé l'album O.G. Original Gangster d'Ice T dans le couloir. C'était extrêmement inapproprié. - Ta gueule ?! - De plus, tu as pris pour habitude de débrancher l'aspirateur de notre femme de ménage car cela t'empêche apapremment d'écouter ton album du jour. Ce comportement est inacceptable. - Pardon ?! - Tu es viré, Robgazinière... Voilà, vous savez tout désormais.
I imagine Hendrix sounded amazing when he arrived on the scene, unlike anything else. Now though, so many people have done so much better. He's obviously a legend and all, can't dispute that, but I struggle to listen to him for too long without finding it annoying. A couple of tracks here are fine, a whole album is too much for me.
It's been a few months since I last listened to Jimi Hendrix. Thus, I'm not sure if my enjoyment of the debut is different because of context or just because it's a better record. This is immediately obvious, virtuosic guitar music of the highest caliber. The vocals are tucked back in the mix, because they aren't the focus of the music. But they also can be there because the meaning is crystal clear with the instruments in front of it. The hour flies by with the album in the background, but each song stands up to closer listening as well. There's simultaneous appreciation of rock history and creative innovation.
One of my favourites and first got me into psychedelic music. The bass line and guitar coming in and out on Third Stone is what sold it for me. Foxey Lady is just such a great song
Uhh, best guitar player ever (arguably) and Matt’s favorite drummer playing psychedelic rock, yeah, you’re asking for Matt to hand out his first 5. The album is filled with banger after banger, no bad songs. I’ve always thought of this as a Jimi Hendrix Psychedelic album, now I realize it’s an album where Jimi spans like 5 genres and adds his magicians Psychedelic touch to each of them. I’m hearing R&B, folk, blues, rock, rockabilly, bebop and proto-funk—which is essentially what Jimi Hendrix is, a holy amalgam of skills, experiences and his time and setting spanning these genres to create psych rock. This album sets the stage for so many albums which follow it. This band might just be the perfect 3 piece, an insane guitar player with a really tight rhythm section. Every song has a great lick and impressive groove. Enough has been said about Purple Haze, it’s the single off an album that is made up of singles. The groove on manic depression is incredible. Hey Joe is perfect—misogynist lyrics notwithstanding. Wind cries Mary is perfect. Let me stand next to your Fire bangs. Third Stone is a solid jam session. Are you experienced is Jimi doing a Beatles’esque hippie anthem. Stone free is a great mix of R&B-psych. The only strike on this album, as with many Hendrix songs, there are some egregious fade outs, you want the song to keep going, he’s set the table for a breakdown and it just fades out. Stone Free and 51st Anniversary are the two worst offenders in this, though nothing will be as bad as bad, give you bigger rock blue balls than Little Wing (different album). Love that Hendrix ties it all together at the end with a solid blues cover, paying homage to the forebearers—note the Easter egg fart (distortion blip) at 3:14 on this song. Amazing album, long, love it even though I’ve heard it about 1 million times and it was my first real classic rock exposure at 12, doesn’t matter still tapping my feet to it at 36.
Hell yes. It's a perfect album. Beautiful soft balllads, explosive songs, trippy arrangements, huge hooks too. Even just they way this album sounds is perfect. The warm tape. It must've been recorded together live rather than track by track. A goddamn masterpiece. At one point I thought, maybe it's too long, but then realized Spotify added 6 songs to the end and doubled the album lenght! Favorite tracks are the trippiest - Third Stone and Are You Experienced. I had a quintessential stoner moment with that song, just the right slight high and pulled into my driveway and it came on. Sounded so good I put it on repeat, louder and louder, until Rico came outside a bit worried. We all know Jimi's considered the greatest guitar player, largely on the back of his soloing. I think more music critic ink needs to be spilled on his rhythm guitar chops. He would curl his thumb over the top of the neck to fret the low E and do these percussive melodies with the other four fingers below the neck. MASSIVE HANDS. A+
Favs: May This Be Love and Manic Depression are personal favorites. The Wind Cries Mary. Fire. Hey Joe. Foxey Lady. Purple Haze. Mehs: No mehs on Jimi albums. I guess Third Stone From the Sun is my least favorite, but it's still good Hendrix's guitar work is still a mind blowing display of blues guitar. You get that with Mitchell's great drums, and you still get the clever lyrics: "You can hear happiness staggering on down the street Footprints dressed in red." Great stuff.
Jimi Hendrix is glaringly the greatest, most charismatic, most talented artist of the 60s, and here we have his debut. In truth, this is not so much structured as an album but rather as an assemblage of Hendrix songs, showcasing what voodoo mojo geetar freakoutery he could do. But what a showcase! Virtually every moment and every aspect stuns the listener. Since everyone knows Hendrix's guitar virtuosity (he was quite good, apparently), I shall instead talk about his voice. Hendrix himself was rather disparaging about his voice, and was very self-conscious about it. To every other listener, Hendrix's dismay is baffling. His voice is somehow warm and seductive yet simultaneously masculine and fiery. Another aspect perhaps overlooked, though to a lesser extent, is the range of styles Hendrix adopts and mutates into his own; the rock, ballad, blues, raga, soul, R&B and psychedelia displayed here all bend towards Hendrix's star, a process sustained in his later albums. Hendrix had talents far beyond the guitar, and this album is proof. Why aren't you listening to this now?
An undisputed essential in rock history. In many ways, this is not only Hendrix at his best, but 60s rock at its most far out, psychedelia at its peak, the electric guitar at its most expressive. It's blues, soul, R&B, psychedelia and pop all crammed into a 40 minute package, and I had so much fun hearing it again for the first time in years. I've gone between the different track listings of the UK and US versions when listening to this album (US adds three singles, including the iconic "Purple Haze", but removes "Remember", "Can You See Me" and "Red House"). For me, the US version wins out on a song-by-song basis, but the UK is structured more comfortably as an album, with more ebb and flow between the hard-edged rock and the lush ballads. As far as individual tracks, they're all winners, though I'd single out the instrumental "Third Stone From The Sun" as a blissful freak-out, full of guitar effects, feedback and intricate drum patterns, held together by a hypnotic three note bassline. The main guitar riff in this track, vibrato and all, is one of my favourite Hendrix moments on the record. "Are You Experienced" is another classic, all hinged around one chord, intoxicating marching snare beat and the insistent one-note piano refrain solidifies the band as a force to go down in history. "Red House" is the most forgettable track for me, leaning too far into a standard mid-tempo blues than the other songs on offer. There's little else I can add to the heaps of praise already given to this album, other than: Hendrix's voice suits the songs beautifully- it's bluesy husk is perfect and underrated. Noel Redding's bassline in "Fire" is exceptional. The ballads on offer are sublime and deserve as much credit as the rockers: "The Wind Cries Mary", "Remember" and "May This Be Love" all have beautiful melodies that cascade around the guitar lines. So it's a real classic and essential listening for rock music fans. Some of the techniques used might be dated now (trippy stereo panning, backmasking, wah pedals) but they only serve to capture the Jimi Hendrix Experience as true pioneers in 1967, riding the wave that would ultimately be too large even for them.
The 1968 Bob Gibson season of albums. Even in the so-called "Year Of The Pitcher", Gibson having an ERA of 1.12 is just insane. So are 28 complete games and 13 shutouts. It's similar to an original album that contains Purple Haze, Hey Joe, May This Be Love, The Wind Cries Mary, Fire, however you want to spell Foxey Lady, and of course, the title song. There will never be another Bob Gibson. And there's never been anyone like Jimi Hendrix.
Hendrix first album one of the greatest. Can listen to it over and over again. Not a bad song on it.
He really is one of the greatest guitarists. This album can’t be overrated.
So this has easily three of the most powerful and potent Hendrix songs. Not only that, but it is the debut! Fucking nuts.
Most people agree, the 1001 ratings scale should top out at 11. This survey says it all. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/92Y86QN
Hey, wait, which of the dozen different versions of this album are we meant to be listening to? Think I'm fine with the 17 tracks on my hard drive, a rare case of the bonus tracks being essential - Hey Joe and Purple Haze feature. I expected to be torn over this. Many of these songs are foundational to me, my dad inculcating a love for the band, whom he'd seen in Chelmsford as a teenager. Recent dips into Hendrix's work have provided a patchy harvest; Electric Ladyland might be a more challenging assignment. But scanning the track listing, the first five tracks I didn't need to listen to again (though I did) to know they're incredible, and most of the rest is similar. His guitar never gets dull, and he had the most beguiling singing voice of his contemporaries, a seductive conversational tone. Misogyny is impossible to ignore, particularly after hearing the bonus track 51st Anniversary. To paraphrase Norm MacDonald, that Joe was a real jerk! But Third Stone From The Sun! Feel like that’s a path that was never successfully followed, apart from by Right Said Fred, as pointed out by my dad, angry and tipsy one NYE when “ I’m Too Sexy” emerged on Capital Radio’s Listeners’ Best Songs Ever countdown, and my dad furiously sought out his original LP…
ooOOoo foxey lady
Now Jimi played guitar Jamming good with Weird and Gilly And The Spiders from Mars He played it left hand But made it too far Became the special man Then we were Jimi's Band Jimi really sang Screwed-up eyes and screwed-down hairdo Like some cat from Japan He could lick 'em by smiling He could leave 'em to hang He came on so loaded, man, Well-hung, snow-white tan So where were the spiders While the fly tried to break our balls? Just the beer light to guide us So we bitched about his fans And should we crush his sweet hands? Oh yeah Jimi played for time Jiving us that we were Voodoo The kids was just crass He was the naz With God-given ass He took it all too far But boy, could he play guitar Making love with his ego Jimi sucked up into his mind (ah) Like a leper messiah When the kids had killed a man I had to break up the band Jimi played guitar
There's some fantastic guitar playing on this album, as you might expect. It really feels like something from ten years ahead of when it was recorded. Jimi changed the way that rock bands did guitar. Most surprising was learning that part of I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred was lifted direct from a riff on Third Stone from the Sun.
Vous n'êtes pas sans savoir que je possède 3 générateurs pirates en plus du générateur des 1001, afin d'étendre au maximum ma culture musicale. Aujourd'hui, robpenitencière, qui avait déjà réussit le tour de force de s'incruster dans mon aventure des 1001, a réussi à dénicher le lien menant à mon gigantesque fichier Excel proposant ces 3 générateurs clandestins. A peine arrivé, il tente déjà de remodeler le fichier selon ses préférences, alors même que la communauté pirate vivait jusqu'alors dans une parfaite harmonie musicale. Il détruit les classements des uns et les commentaires des autres, ne laissant que fumée et pleurs sur son passage. La communauté des générateurs clandestins prépare une réponse à cette intrusion, je vous tiendrai au courant dans une prochaine review des avancées de la rebellion.
The great tracks we all know and the other great tracks. Nearly loses a point for some of the lyrics.
Excellent Album -- Masterclass in electric guitar and blues rock.
Been a while since I’ve Jimi’d
Fantastic album. You have to like the sound, but it turns out that, this morning at least, I do. I didn't realize this was their DEBUT album, which makes it that much more amazing. Pretty easy 5 stars.
It's a goooooood one. Not sure what else to say, just excellent guitar playing, singer, what a sound, boy oh boy.
Purple hazeeee heeeeyyy joeeds
smoky riffy take on the blues. sounds great. fav track: the wind cries mary
Just awesome, great songs
One of a kind. Crazy talent.
yee boi. hendrix was something else
Listened to 01/12/21 Purple Haze was obviously a top hit... recognized it off the bat without actually knowing the name of it or that it was a Jimi song. Wind Cries Mary is probably my 2nd favorite after that one, and it was also a top hit from the album. I like the sound of Are you Experienced? as well. Seems like a song that could be sampled and probably has been. Remember is a song covered by Jack Johnson, and I didn't know the original was Jimi. Great song. Highway Chile had some great melody as well. Red House is an amazing song and great example of Blues/Rock & Roll that makes me realize why Jimi was regarded as the genius he was. Also, Third Stone from the Sun made me feel like I was on something...
love this one
yes yes yes. frigging icon. this album is legendary and revolutionary in every way.
Very good.
Stone cold classic
CLASSIC
Excellent guitar play. Songs do sound the same and voices could have been more clear.
This is his debut album!! Insane
Well, its simply the best isn't it. Wonderful guitar playing, riffs and solos. Smooth and sexy and feel-good and fucking cool. Right amidst a golden age of music writing
A true classic
Of the albums on this list so far, I liked this the most. But I've always liked Hendricks, I had "Smash Hits" when I was in eight grade. I've heard some of these songs (probably) hundreds of times.
Great album. Probably one of the best ever. Tough to beat Jimi's guitar and overall sound. Will never get old.
Classic rimed hi-jinx, I would almost rate the drum track 5 stars alone
Bloody marvellous
el mejor guitarrista de la historia
funky funky album. Hadn't really heard any of these except Purple Haze and Fire. Just an incredible talent.
Sublime.
Che goduria, sono tornato indietro a quando avevo 15 anni.
Una obra maestra. Hendrix estaba en la cima
Hendrix was really a shooting star. Just so much gold here with that special aspect of a consistent sound while also having variety in the songs
Ah Jimi
When I was young i got a free copy of a live version of this album on CD from the newspaper. A brilliant album that put music into a different trajectory. 5 stars.
Duh
5 stars for wind cries mary
Never listened to it the full way through before; it has a incredibly contemporary sound, and still feels very fresh and prescient. Hendrix's guitar work is still clearly the standout here, but it's a surprise and a delight to hear the complexity in even the more simple songs. A+ and more than deserving of it's place along the historical continuum.
Getting back to the ones I missed, Jimi rules! This album is special since, of the 493 albums in his discography, this is actually one of the two or three original albums! It goes without saying that his guitar playing was pure magic. What really validates this is the accolades he got from really good guitar players of the day - like Clapton. They all wanted to see what Jimi was up to. The Who covered Hey Joe on their 1989 tour. Ok Pete had lost 80% of his hearing by then but still: Townsend playing a Hendrix song on a Clapton designed guitar - Fucking orgasmic! While everyone knows Jimi, the drumming is quite good also. eg on Manic Depression. Since I'm late getting to this one I'm not sure which version of the album you were given. I spun my vinyl which is the American version with Purple Haze. I think the European version did not have this. Hey Joe, Purple Haze, Foxy Lady. How is that not a 5? Might be a 4 if Purp Haze was not on the LP. OK, Are You Experienced sounds dated+. I remember thinking that tune was dated in the 70s. But the LP's still a 5.
Of course. Paul Mike at the creek
AMAZING
Good stuff. Foundational album for any guitar player. There's always something new to notice. Decades later, it still sounds original
Top tier Hendrix. Some of the songwriting is still mindblowing.
Große Gitarre endlich habe ich den Zugang dazu gefunden
Monumentales Gitarren-Album. Auch zwischen den „Hits“
Great album by one of the greats of all time!
Where modern electric guitar began.
Some of the best guitar work you will ever hear. It's really as simple as that. Hendrix's best album was this debut and it's about as perfect as a 60's rock album gets. It's thrilling, memorable and to this day still through and through so much fun to listen to.
Amazing guitar from Jimi here
A masterpiece. Love every note.
FIRE
One of the greats at his best. A relaxing, rocking joy to listen to.
Very good album. Go listen to it right now.
Come on man.... One of the greatest debuts of all time. How can this be anything but 5 🌟
Best rock album ever
What. An. Album. Amazing guitar work, awesome bluesy rhythms and vocals, but also sounding ahead of its time. It's a real shame that Hendrix died as young as he did. (I kinda cheated with listening to this one, using tracks form both the UK and US releases. It would've been wrong to miss out on Red House, Hey Joe or The Wind Cries Mary.)
fantastic show of technical ability and groovy songwriting. iconic for a reason.
“Are You Experienced?” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967) In 1967 there were older people, authority figures even, who were contemptuously dismissive of music like this, regarding it as cacophonous nonsense. They refused to listen, refused to engage. They were wrong. The worst (and best) thing about the Silent Majority was their silence. They merely produced within the psyches of young music lovers a visceral commitment to never close their ears to the next generation of musical creativity. Please pass the baton, kids. Listening back, “Are You Experienced?” is clearly one of the best albums in the history of recorded music, almost entirely due to the artistic genius and virtuosity of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix is, as demonstrated on this album, one of the top four or five electric guitarists of all time. He did many things with the instrument that had never been done before and he did one or two things that will likely never be done again. Hendrix had a sublime sense of what it takes to fill a measure with guitar sounds, utilizing only two other musicians on this record, and with only slight dependence on them to boot. His flawless and deft leaps from the lower strings to ballistic highs, and skillful weaving of effects (listen especially to the interludes in “Third Rock from the Sun”). His guitar arrangements were capable of generating multiple layers through harmonics, feedback, fuzz, phase, wah, echo, backmasking (“Are You Experienced?”!), and the sustain of previously played notes. None of it is random or accidental. My mom was wrong. This is not “noise”. It is symphonic. His fret work was nearly unsurpassed in his day, leaving the gluttonous listener yearning for just one more lead passage in each song. But the mature listener will recognize the mastery of restraint. A snippet of his own lyric expresses it well: “Feeling, sweet feeling drops from my Fender's fingers”. And feeling plays off of dynamic variation. Feeling is not bombast. It knows when to back off. Hendrix’s voice is not stellar, requiring reverb and sometimes other effects, but he uses vibrato sparingly and effectively, always suitably passionate. He carries the lyric with impact, but never gets in the way of the music. Now the recording is flawed by some of the unnecessary weaknesses peculiar to the late 1960s: excessive separation and isolation in the mix, gimmicky left/right alterations & reversals (“May This Be Love” is silly in this regard), and a “hollow” studio sound. Also, Mitch Mitchell’s drum performance frequently drops tempo on fills. But these are quibbles. Jimi Hendrix more than compensates with his potency and adroitness. No dull moments here. “Are You Experienced?” Is rock and roll history. It still moves today. 5/5
Scuse me while I kiss this guy. Awesome.
Easiest rating ever.
Very solid album.
Turns out every music critic and 50+ years of pop culture were right. 5 stars.
If you don't like this album, you are in fact not experienced
Funky
A stone-cold classic. Those first notes of purple haze. The main riff - I still remember how awesome it felt to play that main riff on guitar the first time. So many great tracks. Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell are great, but Jimi soars above it all. He's one of the greatest guitarists of all time and he made it look effortless. I need extra stars for this one because 5 stars doesn't cut it.
There's not much to say about this album that hasn't already been said. I've loved it from the moment I heard it decades ago. Every track is great whether or not your listening to the US or UK version of the album. It's another masterpiece!
Would I dare rate this less than a 5? Nah, but I can understand if others think a 4 is enough. His guitar work is pretty amazing sometimes, and other times it gets lost in the equally as impressive percussion and bass work (e.g., Fire). Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding are damn good too. I think you need to listen to the lesser known tracks (e.g., Third Stone from the Sun) to truly appreciate the greatness of his guitar playing ability. If you paid more attention to the popular tracks, you might be fooled into thinking "yeah, he's pretty good" and not more than that. Then again, that's probably if you came in knowing how good he was and said "prove it". With a more clean slate, you should be blown away by the whole "experience" - lyrics, singing, guitar, bass, drums.
Hendrix. The master. I have so many of his albums so trying to do this with any criticism is not easy. So, I tried something different and listened to the tracks in the order of the UK release. One complaint I can have with these songs that way is the lack of “Purple Haze,” which is rectified in the US release. The only other one is that the tracks don’t… flow into each other as much as they do on the US release. But that just may be because of how I am used to hearing it. So many of these songs were never done live. By the time he became big, he was not interested in these tracks anymore but that’s what the audience wanted to hear. I wonder how he would have felt about bands playing entire albums live. He probably would have been bored with it.
Amazing debut album! Can’t just credit the amazing guitar work, it’s also the memorable musical themes, lyrics, rhythms and multi layers that make this so outstanding. Also got to credit Mitch Mitchell’s phenomenal drumming! I can just set this album on repeat and listen again and again and again.
Undeniably revolutionary. Such blistering talent. Sometimes a bit noisy for my taste but who am I to argue.
Perfect.
Crazy talented dude, a must listen for music enthusiasts
are you experienced es un álbum increíble que toda persona debería escuchar al menos una vez aunque no sea fanática de la música psicodélica. cada canción es mejor que la anterior y la mezcla de instrumentos muy bien tocados acompañados por la voz increíble de hendrix hacen de cada canción algo maravilloso. se merece las 5 estrellas sin dudarlo.
Jimi Hendrix's impact on the genre cannot be overstated. With his virtuosic playing, his onstage persona, and his experimentalism, he is the archetype for the rockstar. His debut opens with the career defining Purple Haze with its punchy opening riff and eastern influenced solo. Hendrix was not educated in music and this gave him the freedom to try things that others would not. Not every experiment was successful, and his lyrics often leave a lot to be desired, but his successes and innovation put him in the top tier of musicians and songwriters.
Classic
Awesome
only knew a few of these songs, was great
What an experience!
Also alle Studioalben von Hendrix in dieser Liste. Völlig ok, kann man nicht genug hören.
A downright extraordinary album. Jimi was insanely creative and talented, it's incredible!!
Purple haze - one of my favourite songs. This is a great album