Bought this album a while back. I think it's probably one of my favourite of Jimi's.

Burning of the Midnight Lamp and House Burning Down are both excellent.

His songwriting was at it's peak on this record.

MattyJam said:

A classic album DVD is available about the making of Electric Ladyland and it's one of the best. Im sure TA will have any info covered.

The DVD (from the VH-1 Classic Albums series) that mynameisnotsusan mentioned...



...gives a good insight into the recording of the album.


The Electric Ladyland section of a piece I did a while ago on some of Jimi's albums:



Electric Ladyland (October 1968)
Recording begins on 1/68 with All Along The Watchtower and the album is completed 8/68.

This is the record that Hendrix finally gets to take the reins as producer an attempt to create his 1st true concept record.
His solo flight as pilot, with a few instances of turbulence, was a successful voyage suffering no crash landing.

It's amazing that even with the success of the first 2 albums, he still cannot get the full cooperation of the record company as evidenced by them thwarting his request for specific things regarding the record's artwork and layout.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dear Sirs,
Here are the pictures we would like for you to use anywhere on the LP cover.
Preferably inside and back. Without the white frames around some of the B/W ones. And with most of them next (aside) to each other in different sizes and mixing the color prints at different points.

For instance:
Please use color picture with us and the kids on the statue for front or back cover - (outside cover) and the other back or front side, (outside cover) please use three good pictures of us. In B/W or color.



---
We would like to make an apologize for takeing so very long long to send this but we have been working very hard indeed doing shows and recording.
(...)
Please, if you can, find a nice place and lettering for the few words I wrote named "Letter to the room full of mirrors" on the L.P. cover.
The scetch on the other page is a rough idea of course ...



but please use the pictures and the words - any other drastic change from these directions would not be appropriate according to the music and our group's present stage - and the music is most important. And we have enough personal problems without haveing to worry about this simple yet effective layout. Thank you.

Jimi Hendrix
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The Record Plant's 12-track recorder allows The Masterpiece to be realized.



With the recording of the Electric Ladyland album, Hendrix turns the recording studio itself into an instrument.
This is the biggest and broadest sounding record of the 3.



"Some of the mix came out kind of muddy, not exactly muddy, but kind of bassy, because we didn't get a chance to do it completely till the end. We mixed it all and produced it and all this mess. But then when it was time for them to press it quite naturally they screwed up, 'cause they didn't know what we wanted. There's 3-D sound on there that's been used that you can't appreciate because like they didn't know how to cut it properly. They thought it was out of phase!"

~ Jimi Hendrix


The "Hendrixian Universe" lives.
While listening to ...And The Gods Made Love, you are transported to its very center, Electric Ladyland itself...

Have you ever been (have you ever been) to Electric Ladyland?
The magic carpet waits, for you. So don't you be late

Once again the main themes are apparent though not so easily categorized because of the seamless synthesis of styles within a single song.

Rock - Voodoo Child (Slight Return), All Along The Watchtower, Little Miss Strange
Jazz Rock - Rainy Day, Dream Away, Still Raining, Still Dreaming
Funk Rock - Crosstown Traffic, Long Hot Summer Night
Blues Rock - Come On, Voodoo Chile, Gypsy Eyes
Space Ballad - Have You Ever Been (To Elecric Ladyland)
Hendrixian Universe - ...And The Gods Made Love, , 1983..., Moon, Turn The Tides..., Burning Of The Midnight Lamp, House Burning Down

Quite a few tunes can fall into multiple categories.

The tunes groove better on this album.
Part of this can be attributed to the fact that Hendrix himself ends up laying many of the bass tracks (along with a few other instruments).



"There were some things where it was just faster to work just Jimi and myself. Some were cut guitar and drums, some just bass and drums, there was no set gauge for that."

~ Mitch Mitchell

When asked if Jimi playing drums and organ on record based on pics...



"Not organ, but he did play harpsichord on Electric Ladyland, and he was pretty good on the piano. Drums he would play on demos, but not actually on a finished product. He sounded a bit like Stevie Wonder on drums."

~ Eddie Kramer
http://cgi1.usatoday.com/...script.htm


The sound of his guitar on Voodoo Chile is the best i've heard on any of the 3 records.
It's nice to get to hear him display his rhythm chops with someone to play off of for a change.
Recorded live in the studio (at least the band was), Stevie Winwood's organ gives him the chance to be a looser, responsive player and not have to carry the full load.

"Out in the corridor were all these musicians waiting to be given their chance to play. Jimi came out and said "Hi, come in." There were no chord sheets, no nothing. He just started playing. It was a one-take job, with him singing and playing at the same time."

~ Steve Winwood


Outside of the album's opening 4 tunes, the heart of this album starts with Burning of the Midnight Lamp and continues with the conceptually perfect Rainy Day, 1983, Moon Turn The Tides..., Still Raining dream sequence...



...sssssmmmmp...Yeah I see what you mean brother. Lay back and groove.


On tunes like Burning of the Midnight Lamp, Rainy Day, Dream Away, Still Raining, Still Dreaming and Voodoo Child (Slight Return) he certainly laid down the law on wah-wah guitar playing.

In true mystical psychedelic form this trip ends with the apologetic and eerily prophetic lines from Voodoo Child (Slight Return)...

I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time
I’ll give it right back to ya one of these days
I said I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time
I’ll give it right back one of these days
If I don’t meet you no more in this world
I’ll meet ya on the next one and don’t be late

Don’t be late

Quite fitting that this would be the last studio recording that he had complete control over.
However, I always felt that he was just getting started and had a few more surprises in store.

When asked in 2001 what he thought Hendrix would be doing now if he were alive...

"Here's my take: He'd probably be the president of his own record label. He'd be directing movies. He'd have absorbed some of the hip-hop dance techniques, sampling. Since he was such a maverick and leader and well ahead of his time, he would have been ahead of the curve before hip-hop even occured! Certainly jazz and fusion were part of his vocabulary, but classical music and hearing his own music performed by a large orchestra were also possibilities."

~ Eddie Kramer


Extra info on specific cuts:
. . . And The Gods Made Love
Jimi - Tympani

Have You Ever Been (To Elecric Ladyland)
Jimi - bass

Crosstown Traffic
Jimi - piano, kazoo (explanation on the kazoo can be found on the VH-1 Classic Albums DVD)

Little Miss Strange
Jimi - guitar solos
Noel - guitar, bass, acoustic guitar

Long Hot Summer Night
Jimi - bass

Gypsy Eyes
Jimi - bass

A song written about his Mother...



...Lucille (coincidentally, was my Mom's name also)

1983 . . . (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
Jimi - bass, percussion

House Burning Down
Jimi - bass (I knew that bassline was too funky)

Burning Of The Midnight Lamp
Jimi - harpsichord, mellotron

"Jimi was a musical sponge, and I often remember going up to his hotel room to deliver tapes and spying Bach, Handel and Mozart on the player. He got inspiration from the stuff."

~ Eddie Kramer

All Along The Watchtower
Jimi - bass
Dave Mason - acoustic guitar

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


tA

Tribal Disorder

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

Aud, good thing that u kept that piece. You have had to pull it out more than a few times, I know. I can see u being like "Damn,...here we go again. Where's that piece I did 2 years ago?"!

My recollection about Electric Ladyland (I was 20 at the time it came out) was that Jimi booked a lot of studio time and just let the tapes run while he and all the other musicians did a lot of "noodling around."

Yes, of course there were some real songs (and damn good ones too) but the thing that gave the album it's cohesive feel was how Jimi tied it all together with the noodled passages; like the Slight Return of Voodoo Chile and Rainy Day, Dream Away was a capture of some random jamming.

Brings back a lot of good memories just to think about it again. There was some fantastic wah wah pedal passages on that joint.

That was cool!