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Rating: How to classify Jimi Hendrix? Apart from as "Supreme Genius Of Rock Music," is he a bluesman? A rocker? Something else? Well, therein lies the essence of Hendrix: his defiance of genres; and it is precisely in this album, his third and last studio work, that his personality is reflected.
In fact, while both his debut "Are You Experienced?" and the following "Axis: Bold As Love" are influenced by target audiences, namely the radio playability of the tracks, and the record label's demands, in this album Hendrix, having now risen to the role of universally recognized musical genius, can give free rein to his creativity, which had always been somewhat constrained.
1968: Hendrix goes through a period of crisis, unable to transpose his immense creativity into something concrete due to immense pressures from his record label and his manager. Hendrix changes manager, locks himself away in New York's "Electric Lady Studios" and, with the Experience, gives birth to his definitive masterpiece: "Electric Ladyland".
The album opens with a track reminiscent of Broadway music, "...And The Gods Made Love", the psychedelic "Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)", and "Crosstown Traffic", one of the singles from the album, the track closest to rock 'n' roll on the entire album, with its frantic rhythm and lyrics harking back to the classic "Hot Rods" of the '50s. It continues with the magnificent "Voodoo Chile", the last frontier between blues and contamination: the work (because calling it a song is limiting) lasts 15 minutes and benefits from the collaboration of Jack Casady on bass and Steve Winwood on Hammond organ, which in long sections supplants the guitar in executing grand solos.
Then there is "Little Miss Strange", a track penned by Noel Redding and sung by the author himself; Hendrix returns as the "master of the house" in "Long Hot Summer Night", with Al Kooper on piano, and "Come On (Let The Good Times Roll)", a song that in its 4 minutes contains three frantic guitar solos. The next "Gypsy Eyes" is dedicated by the guitarist to his mother, who died when he was eleven years old, and was created with over seventy overdubs, of which Hendrix was still not satisfied. "Burning Of The Midnight Lamp" is the lightest track on the album and was also a single, while in the next song, "Rainy Day, Dream Away", which has a follow-up in "Still Rainin', Still Dreamin'", contamination returns, here openly jazzy, with the help of Buddy Miles, future drummer of the "Band Of Gypsys" and others like Mike Finnigan, Larry Faucette, and Freddie Smith.
Here comes the great masterpiece of the album: continuing on the path of contamination, Hendrix creates a masterpiece such as "1983: A Merman I Should Turn To Be", the most psychedelic track of Hendrix's entire production together with "Third Stone From The Sun", which gradually dissolves into "Moon, Turn The Tides", in which Chris Wood appears playing the flute.
After these two tracks comes the already mentioned "Still Rainin', Still Dreamin'", which revisits the theme of "Rainy Day", followed by "House Burning Down", a song with a driving rhythm and epic chorus, which closes with the collapse of the mentioned house imitated by Hendrix's guitar, a "trick" he would later use at Woodstock to mimic the bombings in Vietnam during his famous version of the American national anthem.
The album closes with its two most famous tracks: "All Along The Watchtower", a cover of Bob Dylan (my favorite song) and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", a nearly six-minute guitar showcase interrupted by brief delirious verses.
In conclusion, an epochal album that lays bare Hendrix's true soul: that creativity that eludes every scheme, tending only to create masterpieces in music.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Have You Ever Been (to Electric Ladyland) (02:11)
Have you ever been (have you ever been) to Electric
Ladyland?
The magic carpet waits, for you.
So don't you be late
Oh, (I wanna show you), the different emotions
(I wanna run to) the sounds and motions
Electric woman waits for you and me
So it's time we take a ride,
we can cast all of your hang-ups over
the seaside.
While we fly right over the love filled sea
Look up ahead, I see the loveland, soon you'll understand.
Make love, make love, make love, make love.
(I wanna show you)
The angels will spread their wings, spread their wings
(I wanna show you)
Good and evil lay side by side while electric love penetrates
the sky
(I wanna show you)
Lord, Lord I wanna show you
(I wanna show you)
Hmm, hmmm, hmmm
(I wanna show you)
Show you
(I wanna show you)
03 Crosstown Traffic (02:27)
You jump in front of my car when you, you know all time
90 miles an hour girl, is the speed I drive
You tell me it's alright. you don't mind a little pain.
you say you just want me to take you for a drive!
you're just like
(crosstown traffic!) so hard to get through to you
(Crosstown traffic) I don't need to run over you
(Crosstown traffic) all you do is slow me down!
and I'm trying to get on the other side of town
I'm not the only soul who's
accused of hit and run
tire tracks all across your back, I can, I can see you had your fun.
but uh darling, can't you see my signals turn from green to red
and with you, I can see a traffic jam straight up ahead
you're just like
(crosstown traffic) so hard to get through to you
(Crosstown traffic) I don't need to run over you!
(Crosstown traffic) all you do is slow me down
and I've got better things on the other side of town
yeah girl
(Crosstown traffic, yeah)
Look out, Look out,
Look out, Baby, Comin' through
(Crosstown traffic, yeah) yeah girl now
(Crosstown traffic, Look out) Look out, look out, Baby
(Crosstown traffic, yeah, Look out)
What's that in the street?
06 Long Hot Summer Night (03:28)
Show us a long
Long, long hot summer night
As far as my eyes could see
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Well my heart was way down
Cold cold winter stone
Well my darlin' where can you be
Where can you be baby
Where can you be
There were three sugar cane walls
And two candy cane windows
But the silliest move welted all those inside
Well everybody's on fire, but its
A snowin' in a cold blizzard
Where are you in this a hot cold summer?
Where are you in this a hot cold summer?
Where are you in this a hot cold summer?
God, god, god
Around about this time the telephone
Blew its horn across the room
Scared little Annie
Clean out of her mind
Out of her mind
And grabbed little Annie from the sink just in time
And the telephone just keeps on screamin'
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
"Hello," said my shaky voice
"Well, how you doing"
I started to stutter
Ah, ah, can't you tell that I'm doin' fine
Can't you tell I'm doin' fine
It was my baby talkin'
Way down across the border
She says "I'm goin' to hurry to ya, I've been a fool
And I'm tired of cryin'"
Ah, ah
Yeah
I said a long
Long, hot summer night
As far as my eyes could see
As far as my eyes
I could feel the heat comin' on
As my baby's gettin' closer
I'm so glad my baby's comin' to rescue me
So glad my baby's comin' to rescue me
My baby's comin' to rescue me
Rescue
Rescue
07 Come On (Let the Good Times Roll) (04:10)
People talkin' but they just don't know,
What's in my heart, and why I love you so.
I love you baby like a miner loves gold.
Come on sugar, let the good times roll. hey!
So many people live in make believe,
They keep a lot a going up their sleeves.
But my love baby is no kind that folds.
Come On Baby, let the good times roll.
(Let the good times roll).
ah baby, come on and let daddy fill your soul.
baby, let the good times roll.
hey!
A love is nice if it's understood
It's even nicer when you're feelin' good
You got me flippin' like flag on a pole
Come on sugar, let the good times roll
Hey! Yeah! Let the good times roll!
feel me baby! Come on, good times roll!
come on and let me fill your soul,
hey, let the good times roll
08 Gypsy Eyes (03:44)
Well I realize that I've been hypnotized,
I love your gypsy eyes
I love your gypsy eyes
Alright!
Hey!
Gypsy.
Way up in my tree I'm sitting by my fire
Wond'rin' where in this world might you be
And knowin' all the time you're still roamin' in the country side
Do you still think about me?
Oh my gypsy.
Well I walked right on to your rebel roadside
The one that rambles on for a million miles
Yes I walk down this road searchin' for your love and ah my soul too
But when I find ya I ain't gonna let go.
I remember the first time I saw you
The tears in your eyes look like they're tryin' to say
Oh little boy you know I could love you
But first I must make my get away
Two strange men fightin' to the death over me today
I'll try to meet cha by the old highway.
Hey!
Well I realize that I've been hypnotized, I love your gypsy eyes
I love your gypsy eyes
I love your gypsy eyes
I love your gypsy eyes
Alright!
I've been searchin' so long my feet have made me lose the battle
Down against the road my weary knees they got me
Off to the side I fall but I hear a sweet call
My gypsy eyes is comin' and I've been saved.
Oh I've been saved
That's why I love you uh
Said I love you
Hey!
Love you uh
Lord I love you
Hey!
09 Burning of the Midnight Lamp (03:40)
The morning is dead
And the day is too
There's nothing left here to greet me
But the velevet moon
All my loneliness
I have felt today
It's a little more than enough
To make a man throw himself away
And i continue
To burn the midnight lamp
Alone
Now the smiling portrait of you
Is stll hangin' on my frowning wall
It really doesn't really doesn't bother me too much at all
It's just the, uh, ever falling dust
That makes it so hard for me to see
That forgotten ear-ring laying on the floor
Facing coldly toward the door
And i continue
To burn the midnight lamp
All alone
Burn
Lonely lonely, yeah
Lonely lonely lonely
Loneliness is such a, drag
So here i sit to face
That same old fire place
Gettin' ready for the same old explosion
Goin' through my mind
And soon enough time will tell
About the circus and the wishing well
And someone who will buy and sell for me
Someone who will toll my bell
And i continue to burn the same ol' lamp
Alone
Darlin' do you hear me callin' you
So lonely
Lonely!
11 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) (13:46)
Hurrah i awake from yesterday
alive but the war is here to stay
so my love catherina and me
decide to take our last walk
through the noise to the sea
not to die but to be re-born
away from a life so battered and torn....
forever...
oh say can you see its really such a mess
every inch of earth is a fighting nest
giant pencil and lip-stick tube shaped things
continue to rain and cause screaming pain
and the arctic stains
from silver blue to bloody red
as our feet find the sand
and the sea is strait ahead..
strait ahead.....
well its too bad
that our friends
cant be with us today
well thats too bad
"the machine
that we built
would never save us"
thats what they say
(thats why they aint coming with us today)
and they also said
"its impossible for man
to live and breath underwater..
forever" was their main complaint
(yeah)
and they also threw this in my face:
they said
anyway
you know good well
it would be beyond the will of God
and the grace of the King
(grace of the King yeah yeah)
so my darling and I
make love in the sand
to salute the last moment
ever on dry land
our machine has done its work
played its part well
without a scratch on our bodies
and we bid it farewell
starfish and giant foams
greet us with a smile
before our heads go under
we take a last look
at the killing noise
of the out of style...
the out of style, out of style
13 Still Raining, Still Dreaming (04:26)
Rainy day, rain all day
Ain't no use in gettin' uptight
Just let it groove its own way
Let it drain your worries away yeah
Lay back and groove on a rainy day hey
Lay back and dream on a rainy day
Lay back and groove on a rainy day
Lay back
Oh yeah !
Lay back and groove on a rainy day
Lay back and groove on a rainy day
Lay back and dream on a rainy day
Lay back and groove on a rainy day
Lay back and dream on a rainy day
Lay back and, lay back, lay back, lay back and groove.
Ooh
Aaaah !
Lay back and groove on a rainy day
Lay back and groove on a rainy day
Lay back and groove on a rainy day
Lay back and groove on a rainy day
Lay back and dream on a rainy day.
Still rainin' still dreamin'
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Other reviews
By Mario
"Electric Ladyland" is the definitive testament of the genius.
"Voodoo Chile" lasts 15 minutes, with a robust organ that even surpasses the guitar.
By woodstock
Those notes seem to have been etched onto a tombstone by gods making love.
This magnificent art gallery is nothing but Psychedelia, a manifestation of the soul.
By TraumaCronico
Magic. Hendrix was magic, above all else.
Electric Ladyland could be considered Hendrix's Blonde on Blonde, the ultimate musical testament of a genius.
By claudio carpentieri
The prolonged sessions had the primary objective (successfully achieved!) of researching and ultimately recording a pretentious combination of psychedelia, blues, and a vigorous sonic expressiveness to seal it all.
Voodoo Chile as a delectable jam session that leaves Hendrix an infinite freedom of creation-expression through his gleaming Stratocaster, presenting himself as the Van Gogh of the seven notes.
