Track Listing

1. And The Gods Made Love
2. Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)
3. Crosstown traffic
4. Voodoo Chile
5. Little miss strange
6. Long hot summer night
7. Come on (let the good times roll)
8. Gypsy eyes
9. Burning of the midnight lamp
10. Rainy day dream away
11. 1983 (a merman I should turn to be)
12. Moon turn the tides...gently gently away
13. Still raining, still dreaming
14. House burning down
15. All along the watchtower
16. Voodoo Child (slight return)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #949 in Music
• Released on: 1999-07-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .24 pounds
• Running time: 75 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
If it's true that songwriters have a vision in their head of what their dream album would be, Electric Ladyland was the project Jimi Hendrix hoped would be as close to perfection as possible. No longer content with the rush-recorded psychedelic pop-rock of Experienced and Axis, Ladyland was an exploration of what could be achieved with time, money and experience. Jimi's soul roots from his session days shine through for the first time with the laid-back groove of the title track and the doo-woppy "Long Hot Summer Night" showing a vocal style reminiscent of Curtis Mayfield. It's hard to pick a standout piece as the quality of the album is so high, but the four-part dream segue of "Rainy Day", "1983", "Moon Turn the Tides" and "Still Raining" is a monumental piece of early prog rock continuing the acid-soaked ideal of extraterrestrials, love, peace and war that he started earlier on with "Third Stone from the Sun". However, it's not all spectacular drawn-out blues jams and sublime soundscapes, Electric Ladyland managed to produce Jimi's only UK No. 1 single, "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" plus the timeless classics "Crosstown Traffic" and "All Along the Watchtower" making it arguably the best studio album the Experience produced in their brief career together.--David Trueman

CD Description
On ELECTRIC LADYLAND Jimi Hendrix stretched and experimented in the studio, going beyond the power-trio format on what would be his last studio album with the Experience. ELECTRICLADYLAND was revolutionary in its scope and execution. Using New York City's Record Plant as a gateway to free expression, Hendrix traversed an abstract landscape containing compositions as weird and wonderful as "...And The Gods Made Love" and "1983...(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)".
Simultaneously looking forwards and backwards, Hendrix mixed in a song reminiscent of his time on the chitlin' circuit (Earl King's "Come On [Part 1]"), a Bob Dylan favourite ("All Along The Watchtower"), and one of his snappiest singles ("CrosstownTraffic"). Although Hendrix produced and wrote most of thismasterpiece, others weighed in with their own contributions. Noel Redding penned "Little Miss Strange", and other guests such as Al Kooper and Buddy Miles showed up to play. Traffic's Steve Winwood and Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane also made cameos, appearing on this classic album's spiritual centre, "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)".

Customer Reviews

Jimi's Masterpiece - Ten Stars
What else is there to say about this album, easily one of the top ten all time great rock records. Are You Experienced is another top ten effort, too, and you should listen to and absorb the earlier album before you try this set.

Electric Ladyland is a sprawling, brilliant display of song-writing, guitar and studio wizardry and features five of Jimi's all time greatest numbers: Burning of the Midnight Lamp, Gypsy Eyes, Voodoo Chile, Crosstown Traffic and All Along the Watchtower, easily the best ever Dylan cover.

It also includes a bit of filler - Little Miss Strange and Come On, for example - but that somehow makes the rest of the album even better.

Rainy Day Dream Away, 1983 and Moon Turn the Tides, which made up the original Side Three of the LPs, are quite unlike anything else Jimi did and are part of what makes this album so special. They're jazzy, experimental, spooky, beautiful and timeless.

This was the only album over which Jim had total artistic control, with the curious exception of the cover: both his US and British record companies ignored his wishes, and he hated the `naked cover' in particular.

Unless you're really in need of looking at slightly distorted women, avoid the double disc set, which was the first issued CD version of this album and featured the 'naked' cover.

Not only was the sound pretty average and full of hiss and noise, but the way the CDs were laid out, sides one and four of the original LPs were put on one CD, and sides two and three on the other! This brilliant strategy mucked up Jimi's careful running order and resulted in `Still Raining, Still Dreaming' appearing before the track which preceded it.

This issue of the album is the one to get.

The bluesiest record Hendrix released ... in his lifetime
This is almost certainly Jimi Hendrix's best record. It is also - apart from the excellent posthumous 'The Blues' - his bluesiest record.

Hendrix was in essense a blues guitarist. Hence this and 'The Blues' are the two Hendrix records to buy if you only buy two. For the rest, we can quibble.

Had he lived ... where would he have gone? Who knows?

Have you ever been?
While credited to the Jimi Hendrix Experience, this is as much Jimi with the "friends and passengers" he credits on the inner sleeve as anything.

The other thing this album is, undeniably and ecstatically, is a masterpiece. From the Stratocaster-as-flushing-toilet opener "...and the Gods Made Love", to the closing firepower of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", arguably the most incendiary rock performance ever committed to tape, this album uses its seventy minutes frighteningly well.

It would be untrue to say that this album was a tightly-structured programme of impeccably-planned music, but that really wasn't the point, as Hendrix had proved himself a master of that artform with producer Chas Chandler on the first two Experience records. Chandler having left, Hendrix was free to fill his record with deeply soulful recastings of blues-standards (the fifteen-minute "Voodoo Chile"), psychedelic symphonies ("1983 (a Merman I Should Turn to Be)"), and laid-back jazz musings (the two-sided blow that is "Rainy Day Dream Away" and "Still Raining, Still Dreaming").

Taken as a whole, this album covers as much ground as any record you care to name. As well as demonstrating once again that Hendrix was a master songwriter and performer, it features his finest cover version, in the form of Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower". Not to mince words, this is as good as rock music gets. Your collection has a gaping hole in it if you do not own "Electric Ladyland".