Published on Nov 24, 2001
Gather ’round, children, while I tell you a horror story. This
one isn’t for the squeamish. It’s about a nice little album – and
the nastiness that can occur when songs are overplayed.
Back in the ’80s, when I really got into classic rock, I
discovered Jimi Hendrix thanks to a video that was shot for “Are
You Experienced”. I’m sure I had heard his music before, but this
was the first time I put things together and thought about Hendrix
the musician. Not long afterwards, I ran out and bought a vinyl
copy of
Are You Experienced, Hendrix’s 1967 debut. This is the
format I’m reviewing from today; I’m well aware that MCA has
re-released this album with bonus tracks. (Sometimes, I wonder why
people can’t leave things the way they were meant to be – it would
be like tacking on a happy ending to
Gone With The Wind.)
This album opened the door for Hendrix and his mixture of funk
and rock, bridging the gap between the two (not to mention becoming
one of the first black superstar rock musicians) and doing things
with a guitar that no one ever dreamed about trying. Listen to the
backwards-style playing on the title track, and try to imagine how
he accomplished this kind of a sound. To this day, “Are You
Experienced” is my favorite Hendrix song.
Now, I promised you a horror story, and I’m about to deliver. It
has gotten to the point that if I hear “Purple Haze,” “Hey Joe,”
“Fire” or “Foxey Lady” one more time on the radio, I’m going to be
violently ill. Same goes for “All Along The Watchtower,” but that’s
another album. Granted, Hendrix didn’t release a lot of material
while he was alive (the bulk of Hendrix’s discography – and it gets
pretty shady at times – was released after his death in 1970). But
radio has latched onto these particular tracks and played them
until the source material looks like so much vinyl pizza. Four
words:
give them a rest. How bad is the situation? Even hearing
these songs in the context of
Are You Experienced was occasionally tough to get through,
just because I’ve heard them almost every day of my adult life.
The thing is that
Are You Experienced is more than just these four particular
songs – and, in the context of the album proper, one does tend to
hear how they’re supposed to fit in with the big picture. This
album allowed a few different things to happen in the context of
rock – even while the psychedelic age was, aah, “mushrooming”.
First, it gave jazz a chance to be heard in a more mainstream
format and allowed rock fans to appreciate it. Listen to “Third
Stone From The Sun” and understand what I mean. Second, it allowed
Hendrix to develop his guitar chops while creating groundbreaking
music. Granted, Hendrix was still coming into his own in regards to
his playing, and his greatest achievements in six-string innovation
still lay ahead. But tracks like “Manic Depression,” “I Don’t Live
Today” and “Are You Experienced” all offered Hendrix the chance to
show people there was more to the guitar than they had been led to
believe at that point.
Yet
Are You Experienced has suffered harm because of the
overplay of the hits. From the original track lineup, we’re talking
about over a third of the disc that is spinning on some radio
station in the United States at any given time. And while I hate to
admit it, the stale feeling one gets of hearing “Fire” for the ten
thousandth time does take its toll on the songs which make up the
rest of the disc. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s still very enjoyable
as an album, and remains one record I go to when I just need to
blow out the pipes in my head and kick back for a while. But maybe
if we hadn’t been given the chance to over-experience some of these
tracks,
Are You Experienced would be near the top of the list of
discs to worship. As it is now, it’s a bit tired at times, but
still well worth discovering, especially for someone approaching
Hendrix at length for the first time.