So why is Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
Are You Experienced is a Mount Rushmore album of the psychedelic rock era, and it’s the quintessential Jimi Hendrix album.
Here’s a great overview of the album by Richie Unterberger from All Music:
One of the most stunning debuts in rock history, and one of the definitive albums of the psychedelic era. On Are You Experienced?, Jimi Hendrix synthesized various elements of the cutting edge of 1967 rock into music that sounded both futuristic and rooted in the best traditions of rock, blues, pop, and soul. It was his mind-boggling guitar work, of course, that got most of the ink, building upon the experiments of British innovators like Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend to chart new sonic territories in feedback, distortion, and sheer volume. It wouldn’t have meant much, however, without his excellent material, whether psychedelic frenzy (“Foxey Lady,” “Manic Depression,” “Purple Haze”), instrumental freak-out jams (“Third Stone from the Sun”), blues (“Red House,” “Hey Joe”), or tender, poetic compositions (“The Wind Cries Mary”) that demonstrated the breadth of his songwriting talents.
When I was in junior high, I began leaning into “classic rock” both because its sound deeply appealed to me, but also as a way for me to carve out an identity that railed to some small extent against the prevailing hair metal and hard rock (some of which I came to very much dig and appreciate years later) that was popular with my contemporaries at the time.
In that bygone pre-Internet age, I was initially familiar with Jimi Hendrix by way of classic rock radio staples like “Purple Haze” and “Foxey Lady,” and then probably some other scattered bits of Hendrix lore: that he could outplay everyone on guitar in part by using his thumb on his left hand to construct chords, how he played “The Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock, and that he died young and became part of The 27 Club.
But when I finally got the opportunity to dig a little deeper, I started burning through Jimi’s material in a way that both blew my mind and felt like my “personal” Jimi Hendrix Experience, simply by way of my journey of discovery of music that couldn’t be accessed all that easily during that era – especially as a kid out on suburban Long Island.
“Fire” and “Stone Free” were my earliest fundamental Jimi Hendrix “discoveries” in that regard, and “Hey Joe” was an important later one.
I recall flipping out with glee when hearing the BBC announcer say over the opening notes of “Fire” on the Radio One album, “Here’s one of Jimi’s own, called ‘Fire’’…” and the studio album version on Are You Experienced is simply iconic. The guitar hook is so heavy, so punk rock, so rock and roll, and yet deeply groovy in the way that only Jimi could drop on us.
I also have to give Mitch Mitchell on drums massive credit here – he’s astonishingly good – and we’re able to get a read on this because “Fire” does that super rare thing of clearing out musical space for his drum work to cleanly be heard. That gives the song a primal and punk rock feel (though obviously we’re still in a pre-punk rock era here), and yet Jimi and Mitchell’s skills (and don’t forget Noel Redding holding it down on bass!) are so high level and refined that it takes this song to a special level indeed.
The lyrics too are deceptively simple. Let me stand next to your fire is so catchy, up there with The Doors’ debut album from the same year: come on baby, light my fire.
Lots of fires going on in 1967, the year of the so-called Summer of Love and all that.
“Stone Free” is one of my favorite songs from the psychedelic rock era – it’s trippy and groovy and absolutely rocks at the same time, while also boasting another super catchy chorus. I can’t tell you how many times in my life I got to got to got to get away! has played in my head.
The slow, bluesy and epic feeling “Hey Joe” shows off Jimi and team’s incredible range. This one transports me – via psychedelic time machine – to my college days in Binghamton, New York, where this one was a common song that would get jammed out on in the dorms. I may or may not have participated in a few of those jams, holding down the rhythm on my bass guitar.
“I Don’t Live Today” is a crushing and effective number, while “The Wind Cries Mary” is a dreamy, wonderful mid-tempo track (and yet another all-timer song to point out on Are You Experienced).
And “51st Anniversary” is an outstanding relative deep cut.
Pop culture stuff that has something to do with Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced
The classic rock song most often associated with the 1992 movie Wayne’s World is Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and with good reason. However, Garth’s (Dana Carvey) fantasy sequence with the lady of his desires early in the movie, which leverages “Foxey Lady,” is nothing short of brilliant. Also: hilarious!
Some stats & info about Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Psychedelic Rock, Blues Rock, Hard Rock, Album Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – #30
- All Music’s rating – 5 out of 5 stars
- When was Are You Experienced released? 1967
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #88 out of 1,000
Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Purple haze all in my brain.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.