Electric Ladyland [Original recording remastered]

What else is there to say about this album, easily one of the top ten all time great rock records. Are You Experienced is another top ten effort, too, and you should listen to and absorb the earlier album before you try this set.

Electric Ladyland is a sprawling, brilliant display of song-writing, guitar and studio wizardry and features five of Jimi's all time greatest numbers: Burning of the Midnight Lamp, Gypsy Eyes, Voodoo Chile, Crosstown Traffic and All Along the Watchtower, easily the best ever Dylan cover.

It also includes a bit of filler - Little Miss Strange and Come On, for example - but that somehow makes the rest of the album even better.

Rainy Day Dream Away, 1983 and Moon Turn the Tides, which made up the original Side Three of the LPs, are quite unlike anything else Jimi did and are part of what makes this album so special. They're jazzy, experimental, spooky, beautiful and timeless.

This was the only album over which Jim had total artistic control, with the curious exception of the cover: both his US and British record companies ignored his wishes, and he hated the `naked cover' in particular.

Unless you're really in need of looking at slightly distorted women, avoid the double disc set, which was the first issued CD version of this album and featured the 'naked' cover.

Not only was the sound pretty average and full of hiss and noise, but the way the CDs were laid out, sides one and four of the original LPs were put on one CD, and sides two and three on the other! This brilliant strategy mucked up Jimi's careful running order and resulted in `Still Raining, Still Dreaming' appearing before the track which preceded it.

This issue of the album is the one to get.

While credited to the Jimi Hendrix Experience, this is as much Jimi with the "friends and passengers" he credits on the inner sleeve as anything.

The other thing this album is, undeniably and ecstatically, is a masterpiece. From the Stratocaster-as-flushing-toilet opener "...and the Gods Made Love", to the closing firepower of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", arguably the most incendiary rock performance ever committed to tape, this album uses its seventy minutes frighteningly well.

It would be untrue to say that this album was a tightly-structured programme of impeccably-planned music, but that really wasn't the point, as Hendrix had proved himself a master of that artform with producer Chas Chandler on the first two Experience records. Chandler having left, Hendrix was free to fill his record with deeply soulful recastings of blues-standards (the fifteen-minute "Voodoo Chile"), psychedelic symphonies ("1983 (a Merman I Should Turn to Be)"), and laid-back jazz musings (the two-sided blow that is "Rainy Day Dream Away" and "Still Raining, Still Dreaming").

Taken as a whole, this album covers as much ground as any record you care to name. As well as demonstrating once again that Hendrix was a master songwriter and performer, it features his finest cover version, in the form of Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower". Not to mince words, this is as good as rock music gets. Your collection has a gaping hole in it if you do not own "Electric Ladyland".

The third album from The Jimi Hendrix Experience was released in 1968 and, more than 40 years on, justifiably finds its place in most people's top ten greatest rock albums of all time.

However the fame/notoriety of EL doesn't really do it justice: to realise just how ground-breaking and innovative this project was, how revolutionary in concept and execution, you need to listen to it against other music from the period. Hendrix re-defined what could be done with the electric guitar and his excellent song-writing, experimentation with sound and uniquely creative lyrics offer a rewarding experience to anyone interested in the evolution of modern music.

The original 2-disk album had 16 tracks of varying length (of course on the vinyl - the only format available until the 1980s - this meant four `sides' of music). The running order chosen by Jimi and put out on release was:

Side 1
1. And the Gods Made Love
2. Have you ever been to Electric Ladyland?
3. Cross Town Traffic
4. Voodoo Chile (the long, bluesy version)

Side 2
1. Little Miss Strange (composed by Noel Redding)
2. Long Hot Summer Night
3. Come on (let the good times roll)
4. Gypsy Eyes
5. Burning of the Midnight Lamp

Side 3
1. Rainy Day, Dream Away
2. 1983: A Merman I should turn to be...
3. Moon, turn the Tides

Side 4
1. Still Raining, still Dreaming
2. House Burning Down
3. All along the Watchtower (Jimi's seminal and definitive version of Bob Dylan's original song)
4. Voodoo Chile slight return (the 5-minute full-on version with that famous intro)

Now, this album contains everything: first-class electric blues (`Voodoo Chile'); experimental soundscape (`And the Gods...', `Moon turn the Tides'); gospel-derived/choral-driven ballads (`Long Hot Summer Night', `Burning of the Midnight Lamp'); crisply executed danceable rock (`Cross Town Traffic', `Come On', `Gypsy Eyes'); extended, spaced-out experiment in psychedelia (`1983...' listen to Pink Floyd's `Echoes' from 1971 and speculate where the inspiration came from); the powerful and mind-expanding (`VCSL'); a first-class hit single in an unusual minor key inspiring a shiver-down-the-spine feel (`All along the Watchtower').

Hendrix was a virtuoso musician and a visionary, never afraid to experiment with the new. Here on EL, in one timeless project, you have it all. His guitar style, frequently imitated, has never really been equalled: he was a one-off, a fountain of creativity cut off in his prime.

Now you have several versions of EL to choose from. The main choice is between:

1. The original 2-disc set from Polydor with sides 1&4 on one disc and 2&3 on the other, as with the 1968 vinyl release (however because of the CD format you'll hear sides 1&4 run together, then 2&3 on the second disc which doesn't work so well when listening to the whole work). This version has the original nude cover art, which you might feel worth having if you care for authenticity (though of course it's not the astounding 24" x 12" size of the vinyl cover)

2. The `Authorised Hendrix Family Edition' with its tell-tale yellow and purple rectangular sticker, which claims to be `digitally remastered' but it's hard to tell the difference in sound quality - in fact to these ears, there is virtually no difference. Here you get the whole album on one disk with the correct 1-2-3-4 running order as originally intended, plus a DVD of questionable value titled `An Inside Look' and a few photos of the trio relaxing. You'll likely pay a bit more for this version, as the royalties go to the extended family (all three of the JHE are now deceased, Mitchell as recently as 2008, and Jimi had no known children to inherit anything). Following the legal decision on royalties a few years ago, this is the only version you can legally buy 'new' in the USA

3. Or you can download it, track by track

So, take your pick. But regardless of which version you choose, if you care about the history of rock music and want the classic and the best in your collection, you should buy `Electric Ladyland.'