summer album of the week 08/15/09
jimi hendrix experience: are you experienced? (released august 1967)
Even though the United States didn’t issue Are You Experienced? until three months after it had conquered England, Jimi Hendrix’s debut album was a gold mine (or maybe land mine) filled with pop accessibility, lyrical psychedelia, sly but soulful singing and a guitar voice like no other. Though different from the British version issued in May, America’s edition of Are You Experienced? emphasized pop efficiency and a scholarly blues sensibility. Today’s CD editions merge the two cross-continental versions to make Are You Experienced? something of a greatest hits album. Purple Haze, Manic Depression, The Wind Cries Mary, Third Stone from the Sun, Foxy Lady, Red House, Stone Free, Hey Joe and the mind blowing title tune? All on a debut album? That still seems insane.
I am a native Kentuckian and freelance journalist who has been writing about contemporary music for the Lexington Herald-Leader since 1980. I have not a lick of honest musical talent myself, just a pair of appreciative ears for jazz, folk, blues, bluegrass, Americana, soul, Celtic, Cajun, chamber, worldbeat, nearly every form of rock 'n' roll imaginable and, when pressed, the occasional tango and polka.