- Audio CD (26 July 1999)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: Original recording remastered
- Label: Universal / Island
- ASIN: B000002P5W
- Other Editions: Audio CD | Audio Cassette | MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 41,596 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Product details |
Track Listings
| 1. EXP - Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding, Chas Chandler, Eddie Kramer |
| 2. Up From The Skies |
| 3. Spanish Castle Magic |
| 4. Wait Until Tomorrow |
| 5. Ain't No Telling |
| 6. Little Wing |
| 7. If 6 Was 9 |
| 8. You Got Me Floatin' |
| 9. Castles Made Of Sand - Chas Chandler, Jimi Hendrix Experience |
| 10. She's So Fine |
| 11. One Rainy Wish |
| 12. Little Miss Lover |
| 13. Bold As Love |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Axis: Bold As Love, Hendrix's second album, doesn't resonate through rock history the way its gatecrashing predecessor, Are You Experienced? did. In places, it almost seems as if Hendrix is cruising, albeit sublimely. Yet it's nonetheless a vital album, containing some of rock's most molten milestones. There's the fluid psychedelia of "Castles in The Sand", the viciously funky "Little Miss Lover" and the so-beautiful-it-hurts "Little Wing." Hendrix really hits altitude with "If 6 Was 9", where he waves his "freak flag high" over a tidal wave of guitar and a cacophonous army of Moroccan flutes--and "Bold As Love", based around Hendrix's typically far-fetched hankering for the axis of the planet to be tilted, thereby transforming life on earth. It works up into a head-melting frenzy of distorted guitar, a precursor to the staggeringly expansive leap forward he would take with 1968's Electric Ladyland. Hendrix dreamed the impossible and achieved it on his guitar. --David Stubbs
Review
In 1967 if you had a record contract it probably called for at least two albums!a year. Following the psychedelic depth charge of the Experience's Are You Experienced? Jimi Hendrix along with band and producer/manager Chas Chandler headed back into the studio for more far out fun. This time Jimi had had a little more time to craft his own material and it shows. Axis!is Hendrix's coming-of-age-in-songwriting album.
While criticisms are often levelled at Chandler for his no-nonsense approach to getting a take from the band (he eventually quit over his exasperation at Hendrix's endless perfectionism, fuelled by large quantities of dope) he still allowed the band to push the boundaries of the time. While hardly approaching George Martin's collage and laboratory approach that the Beatles benefited from on Sgt Pepper, the second album from the Experience still bristles with new sonic wonders.
Opening novelty track, 'EXP' uses varispeeded tape effects, guitar whammy bars approximating the sound of UFOs and more, while 'You've Got Me Floating' and 'Castles Made Of Sand' utilise the signature backwards guitar that a whole generation were to copy. Even more remarkable when you consider that most solos were first takes. Final track 'Bold As Love ' uses the first flowerings of phasing to make Jimi's strat sound more like a whole orchestra on its trick ending.
But probably more important was the development of the aforementioned writing skills. Forced by Chandler to produce concise three/four minute mini-epics, Hendrix easily rose to the challenge turning in some of his loveliest lyrics ('One Rainy Wish', 'Little Wing') wrapped in his most gorgeous ballads. 'Little Wing' shows just how tasteful a player he could be as well. And that's the beauty of Axis! For every proto metal psych rocker like 'If 6 Was 9' or 'Spanish Castle Magic' there's a wry, funky little tale like 'Wait Until Tomorrow' or mystical musing like 'Bold As Love'. While Hendrix would next go on to produce his masterpiece in technique and innovation on his next album, Axis Bold As Love stands as his peak in crafting pop rock perfection. --Chris Jones
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Unfairly consigned to the history books as the follow-up to "Are You Experienced?" and little else, "Axis: Bold as Love" is actually an eclectic and electrifying album. It shows Jimi and his Experience consolidating upon the sonic battery of their first outing, and delving back to Jimi's days on the chitlin' circuit in the USA, playing tough soul to tough crowds.
Jimi's endearingly silly sci-fi preoccupations are to the fore on the ridiculous "EXP" and jazzy "Up From the Skies", and the aforementioned soul excursions are best represented on the funky "Little Miss Lover". Bassist Noel Redding gets his own number on the dated-but-enjoyable "She's So Fine", but there's no stealing Jimi's thunder on material which ranges from the beautiful "Little Wing" and "Castles Made of Sand" to the hard, hard rock of "Spanish Castle Magic".
Placed within the Hendrix canon, this album is as unique and vital as all the rest, paving the way for the Experience's finest hour, "Electric Ladyland". This, then, remains our only snapshot of the Experience together as a cohesive whole, enthused by their first taste of real success, and working as a tight and efficient studio-based unit. More importantly, though, this is a superb record, and one every rock fan should have in their collection.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
one day i woke and discovered that axis was the best hendrix album.I got fed up with the riff based songs on 'are you experienced'. Most of that album seems really commercial to me,it does not work as whole album but a collection of songs where as axis is cohesive as whole. It opens with a jarring insrumental ipersonationg a flying saucer and seques into 'up from the skies'. It is great song that predicts global warming decades before anyone else. It has superb jazz feel.Next is 'spanish castle magic' with great lyrics and a rocker of amazing frenzy. One song follows another till we reach the masterpiece 'little wing'.The opening by even hendrix standard is superb as well as a great love song . If six was nine is three songs in one and ends with an inredible freak out ending with not guitar but flutes. The energy is maintained on the hard and poppy 'you got me floating'. the song is an amazing feel good song which makes the next song feel so unusal on this album.'castles made of sand' makes you come down to earth with three stories of ironies of life. Noel redding song is another piece which grounds the album. the remaining songs lift it up again particularly 'bold as love' which is one of the great hendrix tracks.What makes this album so special among hendrix albums is that no singles were released. I think it is the greatest hendrix album. buy it.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I bought this album in the christmas. And i immediately fell in love with it. I am a dedicated Hendrix fan, even at the ripe old age of 16 and if you are a boy of my age do not write off this music as 'stuff my dad listens to' because in fact you will find that this is some of the best music of the last century. If you are a guitarist like me, you will admire this playing. This album has some of the best riffs of the time, even though they are not too well known, Spanish Castle Magic, one of the best on the album, could be passed as a modern retro-rocker tune. It has enormous power. 'you got me floatin' ' is another of those brilliant riffs that you, guitarist or not will long to play. this album is a striking and frightening cosmic display of awesome composition that cannot afford to be missed by any age or era of people.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Axis Bold As Love
Before I get started with this review it's worth mentioning an interesting mastering quirk with Axis Bold As Love on CD. Read more
Published 4 months ago by XBBX
mind expanding 60's guitar psychedlia
After having left this cd on the shelf for some time, unplayed for quite a while, I got an urge to put it on the other day and I wasn't disappointed, blown away more like it. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mr. Robert Marsland
Hendrix's second studio album showcases his first-class songwriting
`Axis Bold as Love' with its distinctively bright trippy-hippy Hindu cosmology-themed cover art was the second album from the `Experience', recorded later the same year as their... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Dr. Trang
Killer Guitar
Jimis solo at the end of Bold As Love earns this album 5 stars as far as Im concerned. I have never heard anyone equal its searing majestic beauty. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Feedback68
OK but dodgy stereo
I suppose I'm just used to my old mono LP, but I was surprised to hear how different this stereo recording is. Read more
Published 19 months ago by 70s Guy
The Best Hendrix Experience Album
It's hard to comprehend that Jimi Hendrix only released three studio albums in his lifetime, all with Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding as the JH Experience. Read more
Published on 15 Dec 2009 by Chris M.
over rated!!!
axis is a massively dissapointing album overall compared to are you experienced. starts brilliantly with EXP and never recovers, spanish castle magic is decent, the rest are only... Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2009 by casio smith
Classic Hendrix
This classic 2nd studio album from The Jimi Hendrix Experience has stood the test of time -it still sounds as good today as it did when it was released. Excellent.
Published on 5 Mar 2009 by Alistair. S. Praties
An under-rated classic
It could be that this was my first introduction to Hendrix, but I maintain to this day it is the best of the 'Jimi Hendrix Experience' studio albums. Read more
Published on 20 Sep 2008 by Shaolin_monkey
Jimi's Thee Greatest!
What can anyone really say about Jimi Hendrix that hasnt already been said?
So i'm not gonna bore you with a cornucopia of superlatives or eulogies that would be ssssssso so... Read more
So i'm not gonna bore you with a cornucopia of superlatives or eulogies that would be ssssssso so... Read more
Published on 10 April 2008 by Rush K. Shukla
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
