MoeFOH's Album of the Week... Week #18

[MoeFOH]

MoeFOH's Album of the Week 🎶

Same as the movie thread, each week we're going to spotlight an album... be it a classic, new release, hidden gem, or outright turd... and open it for discussion: i.e. post up your favourite tracks, clips, lyrics, experiences if you saw live, etc... or dive deeper and give us a critique on why you think it's great, overrated, or a complete train wreck... And finally score it for us...  

All contributors go into a monthly prize draw for a 3-cigar sampler! 

PM me with suggestions if there's an album you want to nominate for next week's discussion. 

 

Week #18: Are You Experienced

Wiki says:

Are You Experienced is the debut studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Released in 1967, the LP was an immediate critical and commercial success, and it is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. The album features Jimi Hendrix's innovative approach to songwriting and electric guitar playing which soon established a new direction in psychedelic and hard rock music.

After struggling to earn a living on the R&B circuit as a backing guitarist, Hendrix signed a management and production contract in 1966 with former Animals member Chas Chandler and ex-Animals manager Michael Jeffery. Chandler brought Hendrix to London and recruited members for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, a band designed to showcase the guitarist's talents. In late October, after having been rejected by Decca Records, the Experience signed with Track, a new label formed by the Who's managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. Are You Experienced and its preceding singles were recorded over a five-month period from late October 1966 through early April 1967. The album was completed in 16 recording sessions at three London locations, including De Lane Lea Studios, CBS Studios, and Olympic Studios.

Released in the UK on May 12, 1967, Are You Experienced spent 33 weeks on the charts, peaking at number two. The album was issued in the US on August 23 by Reprise Records, where it reached number five on the US Billboard Top LPs, remaining on the chart for 106 weeks, 27 of those in the Top 40. 

Over to you...

Who's a fan? How highly do you rate this album?

Thoughts, memories, experiences, favourite tracks...? 

Post em up!

Score it out of 10!

[MoeFOH]

 

[Ford2112]

That album is chock full of goodies. Jimi changed the world . 10/10

[Ken Gargett]

fairly much a landmark album. 

when i studied in london, i ended up with a corner room where i stayed. it looked down over Hendrix's old apartment (thankfully not where he died). you could see into it quite clearly and it had a wavy piano keyboard design on the carpet. 

but an amazing guitarist. 

one of my favourite rock star stories, which seems to have enough support to suggest it was not just an urban myth but who knows, is how two wannabee mafia hoods kidnapped him for a couple of days before letting him go, allegedly under threat of a beating if they did not. jimi was so high at the time he had no idea he'd even been kidnapped. 

[GaryK 54]

This album is a total 10/10 for me. Groundbreaking. One can only imagine the catalogue of music he would have generated had he lived longer  

Clapton tells the story of when he first heard Hendrix play. Cream was playing at the London Polytechnic and invited Hendrix to join them on stage to jam. Hendrix started playing Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Killing Floor’. After hearing about 10 bars, Clapton was so shocked at the level of talent, he left the stage. His only remark… “is he really that f***ing good”. No faint praise from a man considered to be a guitar God at the time. 

Edited July 19, 2022 by GaryK 54
Incomplete post.

[BlueRidgeFly]

Hendrix, and this album--awesome. 10/10!

Watching that performance of Foxy Lady is startling even now. I can't imagine the feeling hearing this back then for the first time (I would have been one year old, wasn't listening). No one was playing guitar like that. Phenomenal.

[La_Tigre]

9/10 get experienced!

[M1B]

10/10
I also can't listen to Foxy Lady and not think of this scene from Wayne's World.

Sent from my SM-G996U1 using Tapatalk
 

[JohnS]

Like Achilles, the great soldier from Homer's Iliad, Jimi Hendrix's 'light' shone brightly in his life for a very short time. He changed the way a guitar could be played via amplification (i.e. controlled feedback, lighter gauge strings, bending and trilling, combining melodic lead and rhythm playing at the same time, completely unique barre chording etc.). His legacy will be with us forever! 

I think this album brought in the next phase of pop/rock music for the late 60s.

[Doctorossi]

I can't disagree with the general sentiment here. 10/10.

[joeypots]

Can’t underestimate Hendrix.  Are You Experienced is released in May of ’67 and a month later he plays The Monterrey Pop Festival.  Less than 4 years later he was gone. AYE is epic but my listening to Hendrix was mostly from best of, live performances, Electric Ladyland and Band of Gypsies. The best comment I ever heard about Hendrix was from a Neil Young interview. “Nobody is even in the same building as that guy."

[bassistheplace]

10/10 He changed all the rules on the electric guitar

[Chibearsv]

My roommate in Boulder was the biggest Hendrix fan I've ever met and even though I'd heard plenty of the songs off this album on the radio, he was my introducer to the album itself.  He played this and Electric Ladyland all the time.  An apartment reeking of hash, transient friends sleeping on the floor, and Are You Experienced played constantly.  10/10 typical Boulder experience.  Wouldn't trade that time for anything.

[Hemclas]

10!

and just added it to my music library 😀