What a great album from start to finish; truly beautiful music.

Mitch's drumming AMAZING. Noel also creates a great bass sound using 8 string bass. Apart from some tape hiss the album sound great although i heard the vinyl is superior?

Great artwork as well

mikek1 said:

I dig it too, as i am jamming Spanish Castle Magic right now.

My fave Jimi LP next to "B.O.G". Everything you could possibly want on a LP is in this. soul, funk, jazz, mellow, hard rock..it's all on here. Mitch's drumming is superior and Jimi even played keys and bass on some tracks ("If 6 Was 9" and "Spanish Castle"). "Little Miss Lover" is the shit. Jimi also had some real cool and pure Strat tones on here too.

This and Little Wing are my top two favs from Jimi.

i think it's a collection of brilliant songs, which in themselves are masterpieces, but as a united piece of music overall, i think it's just shy of a masterpiece...and that's not to knock the album, because i love it. i guess it's the difference between 'revolver' and 'sgt. pepper' or 'the bends' or 'ok computer'...all of these albums are fantastic, but some are discs that happen to contain great songs, and others are albums in which the parts create a fully realized whole. 'are you experienced' sounds fully realized to me, whether it was intended to be that way or not. 'axis' sounds like a collection of disparate ideas, which is not a weakness, but in my own opinion, keeps it a beat or two from "masterpiece" status...though if we're talking about SONGS that are masterpieces, there are more than a few on that album.

Obviously any of the first 3 albums are classic beyond compare !!!

Although this one was recorded and released a few months after the classic, Are You Experienced, Axis still stands as the Experience's most grooviest and unified work. But still, nobody can single out any of the three classics (AYE, Axis, and Lanyland) as the single best album Jimi ever laid down because all three are masterpeices. Axis is one of my favorite albums and it was certainly one of the first records that ever got me into rock music.

It's my favorite Jimi album. The band is just one cohesive unit on this album. I even dig "She's So Fine" and "Little Miss Strange".

Just think - "Little Wing" and "Castles Made of Sand" on one album...

"Little Miss Lover" is one of the funkiest songs I've ever heard.

JesseDezz said:

little miss strange isn't on this album.

I love the drum intro on'little miss lover'; Oasis STOLE this directly for fucking in the bushes.

mikek1 said:

Moi bad I meant "You Got Me Floatin" with those Beatlesque background vocals.

Jimi played bass on this record as well.

mikek1 said:

Tosh said:

jimi only played bass on 'bold as love' which was an overdub after noel was gone.
[Edited 10/29/06 9:52am]

Spanish Castle Magic is my favorite track.

I like it (Bold as Love) alot, but Electric Ladyland is the zenith of the his big three albums,

COMPUTERBLUE1984 said:

Definitely agree!

Don't forget that Prince sampled that "Little Miss Lover" intro.

"Are You Experienced?" just pips it for me, but it is still a bloody fantastic album. The 180gm vinyl mono re-issue sounds great too.

Axis' musical theme are hardly disparate, as someone claimed above. But yes, I do not consider Axis Hendrix's masterpiece. That would be Live At The Fillmore East with the Band of Gypsys, imo.

Anx said:

Very well said.

IMO, AYE? has a "fully realized" vibe because there was really nothing to compare it to.
On Axis he established the fact that he could write really good songs.
I think that Electric Ladyland combines the unique vision established on AYE? with the strong songwriting of Axis to create his true masterpiece.

To this day I still wonder, if he had lived, what the next studio album would've been like.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

I feel skeptical saying this but, I think if he would've lived a little bit longer, he would've made an album similar to Sly Stone's Riot...
[Edited 10/29/06 18:51pm]

jimi would never be funky in that kinda way...Sly was much more complex rhythmically and harmonically than Jimi..But surely he was leaning towards a more"groove based" IE:Blacker sound before he died..

Well, as I've posted before, Are You Experienced is my fave album by Jimi. BUT, as I've also posted before, Axis, to me, is his best album. I think this album caught Jimi at his most creative stage, being in an enviroment that was new to him and feeding of of this. Although it's missing the rage and anger from his debut, it's replaced with a more fully realized sound. All the beauty, funk and rock all blended in a style that was very well rounded and full of confidence. Electric Lady, sonic wise, was his best album. But Axis has Jimi at his most peaceful yet at the same time, his most focused. EL will probably get the nod as a masterpiece from most folks, but Axis is his best. Excellent question by the way.

mikek1 said:

One thing though; it's Jimi who plays the Hangstrom 8 string bass.

From "One Rainy Wish" and "Little Wing" to BONAFIDE funk with "Spanish Castle Magic" and Little Miss Lover" to his most grandoise song ever, the title track :"Bold As Love", yes, it's a masterpiece.

This used to be my favorite of the three Hendrix studio albums but now I tend to think that it's actually the weakest. It's certainly the most consistently melodic/poppy and has the most seamless flow but it lacks the edginess and the higher high points of the other two. Are You Experienced? rocks harder, is more innovative and has more "difficult" but more rewarding compositions like Love Or Confusion or Third Stone from the Sun (plus the title track is probably a contender for the greatest psychedelic song ever made, and the overall groove and sound of the song is almost identical when played backwards ). Electric Ladyland, likewise is more varied and has absolutely transcendent highs like the Rainy Day Dream sequence, Voodoo Child (both versions), All along the watchtower etc.

That being said though, I do think it's a masterpiece, I just think it's just the weakest of the Hendrix's three masterpieces.

theAudience said:

The unfinished on he left (Cry of Love or whichever version you have) has songs that were as good or better than what had come before, I think.

Freedom, Night Bird Flying, Angel, In From The Storm are some of his best songs. They have a bit more conventional sound/production, but the focus is more on music than trippy soundcapes.

He definitely wasn't done.

NDRU said:

I've got both. Cry of Love (vinyl) & First Rays of the New Rising Sun (CD)

It sounded like this collection of songs would have been closer to Axis than the concept driven Electric Ladyland.

And I agree that he was far from done.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

yeah, we've never heard the finished product, but I think you're right.

Of course, he never really created another album like Electric Ladyland. AYE is spiritually like it in the way you explained, but still a collection of short songs. But yes, Cry Of Love is more of a song collection than a revolution.

Jimi seemed to be going in much the same direction as the Beatles. Away from the psychedelic and towards regular music, just great regular music.

NDRU said:

Jimi had spoke often in 69-70 about adding horns to his sound. He also always sung the praises of Sly. I think he would have created a "new thang'. And then of course, there would have been no Ohio Players, no Parliament, no,...well, u get the picture. They would have had to do something else besides trying to fill the void Hendrix had left. And that damn near includes all of the early to mid 70's funk bands AND rock bands. Hendrix was THAT potent.

blackguitaristz said:

yes you're right. He said he wanted to go to music school and learn how to write music properly so he could compose string/horn sections and hire musicians to play on his records.

blackguitaristz said:

Jimi only played on one track 'bold as love'.

Doesn't kramar's book explain everything and who played what?

blackguitaristz said:

I can't imagine George Clinton as a follower rather than a leader, but you're right, he probably would have been if Jimi was still around--Sly too (running at full steam), for that matter