Electric Ladyland comes Alive at 50

Yes it is the 50th anniversary of Jimi's masterpiece "Electric Ladyland" officialy, which was release on October 16th, 1968 but it is well worth the extended wait for the 50th Anniversary deluxe edition due out November 9th, this deluxe packaging includes lots of extra treats for all the die hard Jimi fans out there. We'll start with the basic information on this superb package of material for instance the album was originally recorded in July and December of 1967, and then completed with the rest of the album sessions in January and April of 1968, it was also recorded in multiple studios some of the tracks were recorded at Olympic in England and then the Record Plant and Mayfare in New York City. We also can't forget to thank the Jimi Hendrix estate for putting together such a fine package in what looks to be a coffee table book but is not, it is a hardcover book with over 50 pages of unseen pictures and liner notes and tucked away in this hard covered bound book are the 3-cds and 1 blu-ray dvd the first two are tucked in little pouches in the front in cardboard sleeves to replicate like an actual vinyl lp and the third is in the back of the book in the same type of packaging as the first two and then the dvd is packaged the same way as the three cds, there are just so many interesting things between all The book features the original artwork that Jimi had wanted on the album which is Jimi with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell sitting in central park in NYC in front of the Alice in wonderland statue this photo was taken by Linda Eastman who would later become Linda McCartney...yes that one folks Sir Paul's wife was quite the photographer in her day and took many of photos of some of the biggest rock stars we now know of in rock music history.

We start off the package with the original album remastered by Eddie Kramer in 5.1 stereo Surround sound which I must say listening to this you're not going to get a much better sound than this, you'll feel as though you're in the studio with Jimi while listening along you can hear every note and vocal with such clarity like never before. I will say out of all the tracks that there can't just be one that's better than the other in this remastering Job by Kramer. Now this deluxe album is also being released as 180-gram vinyl edition which will be available on November 9th as well, but the remastering on the original album was done a little bit differently than the cd version as it was remastered by Bernie Grundman, he prepared a direct analog to disc remastering processing to perserve the authenticity of the music, which as someone who loves vinyl will really get a treat as it will have the warm sound that vinyl should have and not that perfect sound compressed down for a cd.

The second disc has what all of us die hard Jimi fanatics want to hear and that's the demos and some sessions of the music we all love on the final product, and we also get to hear some songs that were originally supposed to appear on the album, but never made the cut otherwise I would assume this would have been a 3-lp set back in the day when it was originally released in 1968. Disc 2 is simply titled "V: At Last…The Beginning: The Making of Electric Ladyland: The Early Takes", now don't get too excited because you will not just get demos and alternate takes of what's on the basic album which is what this writer likes, not to mention there are plenty of alternate takes of all the material out there on the unauthorized releases floating around the internet, some of our basic tracks involved in this second disc are "1983...A Merman I Should Turn To Be" opens the disc with a demo version with Jimi bouncing between his electric and acoustic guitar and laying down the vocals with a real melodic guitar solo which should have stayed in for the finished product, but then at the end of the disc we hear a backing track with Jimi and Mitch Mitchell on cymbals and drums throughout this versio. We get a glimpse of what Jimi was working on during these sessions as well like "Angel" which would appear four years later on "The Cry Of LOve" album but all in all this one has no backing orchestration or anything it's just Jimi and his guitar and quite honestly this is how the track should have been. Cherokee Mist is another tidbit that never made an official release until earlier this year on the "Both Sides of The Sky" album but the difference is this one is a toally stripped down acoustic jam with Jimi, would have liked to see what he would have done to complete this one as it has a real potential sound clearly he was working on this one for quite sometime and could either finish it to his likings or just decided to throw it away basically. Hear My Train A COmin' was always a song in a good portion of the live concert sets but apparently never made it to the studio and this particular version is just a small tiny sample on the acoustic of what he could have done with it. "Voodoo Chile" as we know is a great Jam piece on the actual album and this demo version is the same only just with Jimi by himself. Gypsy Eyes is the song you're thinking of but the interesting thing is Jimi had a different set of lyrics and a different sound all together vs what we hear in the final product too bad he couldn't have put both versions together he was such an innovative guy that he could have probably done that had he had some more time to do so. "Somewhere" has a completely different style than we are used to hearing this reminds me of a really old style blues track with a really bluesy harmonica and Jimi singing through a megaphone to make his voice sound further away from the microphone. The song that dominates a good portion of the demos is "Long Hot Summer Night" we have demo versions 1, 3, and 4 so we get to hear how nice of a voice Jimi really had in singing it's rumoured that Jimi didn't like his voice on his recordings but when it came to ballads, he had a prominent soulful voice and these demo version are all work in progress tracks on the acoustic with alternate lyrics throughout them. Snowballs At My Window is less than a minute long but it's something Jimi was having fun with and as we know he liked to record all his thoughts and ideas on tape this is a fast little pop type of ditty that would have fit somewhere on the album had he continued with it as this album is an ecclectic compilation of all musical genres meaning we have soul, R & B, Rock, Blues as I said it a little of everything combined together. My Friend a basic blues track that would appear later after Hendrix's death on many compilation albums of his Rainbow Bridge soundtrack is one of many it would appear on so this rough demo and vocal version gives you insight to where he was going with it towards the final take. "At Last The Beginning" is the demo of "And The Gods Made Love" what is so interesting about the opening of Electric Ladyland" and the previous album "Axis Bold As Love" is that Jimi used his creative mind and did such innovative things with "Exp" and "And The Gods Made Love" where as yes they are only little tidbits of guitar and drum sounds sped up or slowed down along with all other types of studio noises that's where Jimi's mind was while making those kind of tracks and who knows Frank Zappa was doing things like this at the time and maybe influenced Jimi in some way to do these things. Angel Caterina (1983) obviously a working title for 1983...A Merman I should Turn To Be this is a more polished piece of work and further along with where they are at the top and the end of the disc. Little Miss Strange is just a interesting piece this instrumental version is a little faster then what we normally hear on the actual album and you can see that it's a light bouncy type of track that we get to hear Noel Redding cut loose on the vocals and give Jimi a break. We go back to the dominated song in this demo and alternate versions disc which is Long Hot Summer Night (Take 1), an interesting take for the fact that instead of the regular guitar riff opening to this soulful piece we open with a bass guitar riff and have a piano playing throughout which in the final take we know of the piano is there but it's really buried in the mix where as here it's very prominent, we move on to the next track which is still Long Hot Summer Night but this is Take 14 which is very similar to the first take difference is we've picked up the tempo on this backing track before adding vocals. Rainy Day Dream Away is just an extended jam compared to the regular album version just no lyrics. Rainy Day Shuffle just goes to prove that Jimi was all over the board musically this is a phenominal and brilliant jazz improvisation for Jimi.

Disc three is a real treat for all of us live concert collectors of Jimi's although in this box collection this is a release from the subsidiary of Sony Legacy which is Dagger Records who release as they like to call them the official bootleg series and this delectable tidbit is a fine piece of the Experience archives LIve at the Hollywood Bowl September 14, 1968 one month and two days exactly performed with new material from this masterpiece of an album called Electric Ladyland, which in those days artists really didn't give you a peak of their new material coming out much to any at all but in Jimi's case he most likely wanted to see the crowds reactions to the new material and try it out, but the only new track the audience got was Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) now Jimi admits at the end he was somewhat out of tune but he really picked up the pieces as we'll put it and got through it the show in general is a stellar performance featuring Are You Experienced, Red House, Foxy Lady, Fire, Hey Joe, an obscure version of Sunshine Of Your Love which was performed by Jimi but not in many sets so that was treat number two for that particular crowd, along with I don't live Today, Little Wing, The Star Spangled Banner not sure how long he did this before his famous Woodstock performance of our national anthem, not quite as polished as Woodstock's but nevertheless a superb version and let's not forget that Jimi really never did his material the same way twice on stage he liked to keep it fresh and new even for himself every night, we close out the set with none other than Purple Haze, which is always great to hear live cause again it's never done the same way twice. The most intriguing thing about Hendrix's live shows is that they were always a high energy performance no matter how exhausted he might have been he still gave you his best and all in every performance.

The Blu-Ray DvD is a previously released documentry on the making of Electric Ladyland simply entitled "At Last The Beginning the Making of Electric Ladyland featuring all the music you hear in this documentry in 5.1 surround sound plus if you've never seen this documentry you'll get lots of insight on what was going on with Jimi during the time the album was being recorded, you'll also get to see interviews with members of the band who are no longer with us like Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding, Buddy Miles, and then people also like Steve Winwood of Traffic and many many more, this package is money well spent and enjoyable investment for the person who's very invested in the Hendrix collecting stand point and you'll be listening to this more than one time for sure. Once you hear this version of the original album and then all the bonus material you'll never want to play your older versions of this ever again.

The one thing I would have done differently had I been the person working on this project is I would have gone into the vaults and found all the demos and alternate takes of this majestic material for our listening pleasure, and made it 4 cds and the dvd as well, that would have been the only change I would have done and I would have put the Hollywood Bowl concert in this deluxe edition but I would have gone to look and see how many of these songs Hendrix had actually performed out in his sets live and add those to one of the cds of bonus material, for instance there is out there a live version of Come On part 1 and it's so well recieved by the audience when you hear it, but we didn't get those extra things and that's okay maybe down the road the estate can come up with a part 2 to this set it's always a thought for the future.