Electric Lady

It's an album that does not need introduction.  It's a double album of some of the best music of it's time and of present day.  There is no bad track on it.  It is an album that after so many listen's I can find something new each time I play it.  It's on my bucket list to find the Track Record (shown above) for my collection.  I have a later pressing that still fetches for a good penny.  It's an album that Patti Smith points out "is an album I will buy every time I go on tour I will find another copy to add to my collection."  She supposedly has like 100 copies or something.  Upon hearing it for the first time I personally could not get it off my turntable, CD, and cassette for about six months.  I put it in my top five dessert island albums.  

Electric Ladyland is a monster of an album.  A monster for many reasons.  It's an album that is has great diverse of songs.  There is Blues, Psychedelic, Gospel, Experimental, a hat tip to Bob Dylan and Earl King, a song so strong that even today is still played by some of the greatest.  When a certain Stevie Ray Vaughan version is playing on the radio, I'm sure Hendrix is bowing to him for an incredible reading of his song.  To me the last two songs (depending what edition you get) are some of the best closing pieces of music. The two are 1983... (A Mermaid I Should Turn To Be) and Moon Turn The Tides... Gently, Gently Away.  

It's an album no matter how you look at it is a classic.  You might see the All Along The Watchtower, his only chart success, or Voodoo Child (Slight Return) as the hits or even Crosstown Traffic as the selling points of the album.  You might even see the "live in studio" Voodoo Chile as his greatest in studio performance like I do.  I mean that song is fifteen minutes of awesomeness.  I played the grooves out of that songs as a teenager.  The reason I put the live in the studio in quotes because it was except for the clapping and conversation after the song was over.  It was Jimi in his little studio trickery to record the people in studio during playback and during a great signature Hendrix solo.  He also had some great guests on the tune too Jack Cassidy of Jefferson Airplane and Steve Winwood from Traffic on Organ.  It was like a jam session dream come true.  If you can dig it out, their is DVD of the making of the album that really leads to more stores and more insight of the album that makes it a classic among myself and so many others.  

It's one of the very few albums I have in my collection that I have all the formats of it.  I got the Reprise CD, as well as the all the later re-issues on CD.  I also have the Reprise cassette and LP and also a rare Polydor LP version that I got for next to nothing from some generous person on Ebay which in the now famous nude cover.  The picture is pixelated below.  I honestly think I wore the tape out and maybe the Reprise LP.  It's an easy top ten album for me.  

Hendrix's albums up to that point were building and building and Electric Ladyland was the big giant prize of all the effort that he did.  He had grand ideas and you see it in this diverse double album set.  It;s an album that not only for myself but countless others introduced Hendrix's listeners to other kinds of music that was stuck in his head.  It is and was one of the greatest double albums in Rock and pointed the finger at people like the Beatles, The Who and Rolling Stones and anybody else to try to match or make something better on four sides of vinyl.  

Many turn back the clock moments for this album.  I felt like I should have been first in line for this.  If I was I would be broke, buying a handful to give to my music friends.  If I had a radio show, this album would be on heavy, heavy rotation.  There are many moods of this album too.  That is maybe why it's so damn good.  Speaking of mood, Hendrix mood about singing was insecure so much that he hid behind studio screens. He really was not in the mood to sing.  Fifty takes of Gypsy Eyes?  Wow! 

While writing this post I played the album and yet again, I found a few things that I have never heard before.  It really is a rich tapestry of sound and album I go and listen to when I need inspiration.  It's an album that to this day wow's the repeated listener as well as the new listener.  I really wish, like I always wish to have that time machine and go back fifty years and hear the buzz people were saying about this.  If you ever want to know why I have this passion for music it's more then likely this album.  It starts good music conversation wherever you go.  I have the cover art from the American release on a shirt and it sure starts some talk.  Talk all you want, it's an original in it's truest form and also explains how Jimi Hendrix is a genius.  The proof is right here.  He will always be talked about forever.