Are You Experienced?

[Rumblefish]

55 years ago May 12 , AYE released. I was 16 and it blew my mind and still does.Jimi's lyrics were amazing. His rhythm guitar style revolutionary. His sonic ideas in the studio and live were freaky cool and beautiful.Remember that AYE and Axis Bold As Love were both recorded from the same concept in the same sessions. ABL has poetry.

 

[wire-n-wood]

Nice. I grew up knowing the name of Jimi Hendrix as an ever-present icon before I could even name one of his songs. He's come to signify the organic mastery of the electric guitar. Now I listen to his albums, and even if I can't play like that, I want to be as "at ease" with the instrument.

 

[MrTAteMyBalls]

One of the "classic" icons that I still actually listen to. Somehow the music always feels fresh and creative. I can barely stand to hear most of the major classic bands anymore, but the Beatles and Hendrix are still in regular rotation after discovering both around age 15 in 1995.

 

[Rumblefish]

Nice. I grew up knowing the name of Jimi Hendrix as an ever-present icon before I could even name one of his songs. He's come to signify the organic mastery of the electric guitar. Now I listen to his albums, and even if I can't play like that, I want to be as "at ease" with the instrument.

Your statement makes sense. His sense of rhythm was absurdly good.

 

[DGDGBD]

One of my alltime favorite albums. I just a toddler when it came out, but must have blown a lot of minds at the time.

 

[atemporal]

IIRC JH started on the big band circuit in the US and I imagine that teaches you to be very on-it with rhythm and time keeping. No surprise he quickly out-grew that scene, partly due to his individuality attracting too much attention from the front men, but orchestral/large group playing can be a steep learning curve if you're not 7th violin etc and so have nowhere to hide.

 

[GenoVox]

Completely groundbreaking album... then & now

 

[sahhas]

yeah, a pretty amazing debut, he was revolutionary-his songs, guitar playing and singing i thought were all great!
actually sort of rediscovered him, had taken a break for a while , but have been listening to him more again....sort of w/ new ears...it's good stuff!!! weird to think he'd be 80 this year if still alive!!!

 

[Boddah]

Jimi represents total artistic freedom, a completely fearless performer.
To think he did it all in such a short space of time is truly astonishing.
He had it all, writing, technical ability , stage craft, style and absolute conviction.
Sadly there will never be an other of his calibre,
Peace.

 

[wombat66]

55 years ago May 12 , AYE released. I was 16 and it blew my mind and still does.Jimi's lyrics were amazing. His rhythm guitar style revolutionary. His sonic ideas in the studio and live were freaky cool and beautiful.Remember that AYE and Axis Bold As Love were both recorded from the same concept in the same sessions. ABL has poetry.

Only the English version (with a different track lineup and different cover, no Hey Joe, Purple Haze or Wind Cries Mary) of Are You Experienced was released in May 1967, it wasn't released in the USA until the end of August.

I was 13 years old at the time, taking art classes with my friend Marco at the De Young Museum in SF from one of the guys running the light show at the Avalon Ballroom and he had gotten a copy of the English release of AYE. There were a couple of select head shop/record stores in the Haight Ashbury that imported and sold a few English records but they were still rare and hard to come by. Marco's older hippie sister had an early copy of the English release of Fresh Cream (months before it's American release) which we brought to art class sort of like show and tell. So anyway we listened to AYE and Fresh Cream over and over in art class a couple of weeks before The Jimi Hendrix Experience made it's American debut at Monterey Pop, before Purple Haze was on the radio, and before Cream arrived. We knew this was special (and for a few weeks we kinda felt we were a little ahead of the curve so to speak) but I do remember being surprised a little later at how huge these records became because they seemed like such an underground hippie thing at the beginning.

I'm still good friends with Marco and we occasionally reminisce ...an amazing time for new music in general... Surrealistic Pillow was huge in SF and the local scene was hitting it's zenith (and we tried to see as much as free-range kids our age could), Sgt Peppers was about to come out, Light My Fire was on the AM radio starting to go mega etc...

but Jimi Hendrix and Are You Experienced are still my favorite things from that spring/summer of '67.

 

[sahhas]

i remember the first time i saw a copy of the english release, the tracks were:

1.	"Foxy Lady"	3:10
2.	"Manic Depression"	3:31
3.	"Red House"	3:45
4.	"Can You See Me"	2:35
5.	"Love or Confusion"	3:05
6.	"I Don't Live Today"	3:48

Side two

No.	Title	Length
1.	"May This Be Love"	2:55
2.	"Fire"	2:30
3.	"3rd Stone from the Sun"	6:30
4.	"Remember"	2:43
5.	"Are You Experienced"	4:02

i thought it was a bit weird, and didn't really understand why it was different that the US version, which i had a copy of on cassette!!!!

 

[jpastras]

My favorite album of all time. I started playing guitar when I was 11, and by 12 my Dad could tell I was really into it. He took me down to the local Turtles, and said, "If you seriously want to play guitar, you need three records." He bought me LZII, Disraeli Gears, and Are You Experienced.

I loved those first two records, but AYE reconfifgured my mind. I'd listen to it on headphones and it would transport me to a completely different state of consciousness. "Love or Confusion" into "I Don't Live Today" was the absolute high point.

As far as I'm concerned, Hendrix is a deity.

 

[Ozone Baby]

The album (the US version) is perfect IMO.

I think "May This Be Love" is the most underrated song in Jimi's catalogue.

 

[theanthonyv]

Your statement makes sense. His sense of rhythm was absurdly good.

For sure. Those isolated guitar tracks of his rhythm playing from the Axis album are mind-blowing, particularly ‘Wait Until Tomorrow’. I had a guy lecture me in YouTube comments once that John Mayer’s version was far better because ‘he did so much more with the song’…

uh… wtf?

 

[theanthonyv]

i remember the first time i saw a copy of the english release, the tracks were:

1.	"Foxy Lady"	3:10
2.	"Manic Depression"	3:31
3.	"Red House"	3:45
4.	"Can You See Me"	2:35
5.	"Love or Confusion"	3:05
6.	"I Don't Live Today"	3:48

Side two

No.	Title	Length
1.	"May This Be Love"	2:55
2.	"Fire"	2:30
3.	"3rd Stone from the Sun"	6:30
4.	"Remember"	2:43
5.	"Are You Experienced"	4:02

i thought it was a bit weird, and didn't really understand why it was different that the US version, which i had a copy of on cassette!!!!

The guitar tone on the opening riff of ‘Remember’ could very well be the greatest one in the history of guitar. It’s absolutely incredible.

 

[dazar]

The album (the US version) is perfect IMO.

I think "May This Be Love" is the most underrated song in Jimi's catalogue.

The solo at the end is absolutely beautiful.

 

[theanthonyv]

Very simply, AYE is the reason I started playing guitar. This many years later, I’m yet to discover anything that approaches Jimi’s total vision and mastery. He turned guitar into an abstract art form.

 

[ddog]

Oh to being a kid back in those days,certainly the experience...jeff beck is another as well thats so natural with a strat

 

[Trebor Renkluaf]

Well I am.

 

[dazar]

In addition to JH's obvious brilliance, I enjoy both as "JH Experience" albums as Jimi, Noel and Mitch are really gelling with another. Mitch's contributions are critical, and while Noel Redding is sometimes overlooked, those are (for the most part) his bass lines on both albums, and he was certainly a huge part of the Experience's live sound.