THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE: ARE YOU EXPERIENCED

My wife bought me the US LP reissue of this album recently, and the first thing to pop into my head while listening to it was just how damn groovy "Love Or Confusion" is. 60's psychedelic rock at its coolest. I could go-go dance with some hybrid bohemian meets Twiggy woman to this tune. I can dig it! Why didn't I hear this song on the FM stations growin' up?

As far as the rest of this classic is concerned, over half of these tunes are radio staples, or at least quite well known. "Purple Haze" remains the quintessential bad-trip song with the history's most famous musical misquote "S'cuse me while I kiss this guy", and "Foxey Lady" never gets old to me with its bluesy raunch. "3rd Stone From The Sun" was one of rocks' earlier experimental numbers, which reminds me of riding around in space on a surfboard. Incidentally, the Silver Surfer debuted in Marvel Comics around the same time as this song's creation, so I think of the protagonist in Jimi's song as the Silver Surfer's drug-riddled bro who just digs gettin' high and doesn't care about earthly affairs. There's also "Fire", which many people claim was the final catalyst to burn down Woodstock 1999 (as opposed to the actual pricey and poorly designed conditions of the event), and was of course played by the man himself during the original Woodstock (the one that matters).

I could go on about most of these numbers, with "I Don't Live Today" being the only average track concerning the LP version which I'm reviewing, although the song does jam out pretty good as it goes along.

One aspect I find cool about this album is that it does the psychedelia so well without trippy keyboards & organs. It's bluesy rock with freakout guitar effects tossed in here and there and tons of killer soloing. I always dug Jimi's voice too. With a lot of singers going for a wispier flower power delivery at the time, Jimi sounded like a stone cold baddass. Not a great technical singer, but an utterly distinct voice that added to the music. Hands down one of the most important rock albums ever.