from the LP Electric Ladyland, Polydor Records, 1968Jimi Hendrix would have turned 67 today, which is always easy for me to keep track of because he was born in the same month & year as my mom; quite frankly, that’s where the similarities between the two end. There will always be lively discussions about where Jimi may have taken his music over the decades which have followed his death, and I for one like to think he would have kept going farther and farther out, exploring the reaches of all genres and galaxies in his fearless manner; perhaps that is why I’ve always been intensely drawn to his more experimental pieces. Not since “Third Stone from the Sun” on his debut album had Jimi taken his listeners on such an extended and mind warping trip as this, charting the depths of some unknown planet’s ocean, replete with aquatic imagery, underwater- like processing & a rather aqueous guitar riff that feels as if the whole sea we are exploring was spiked with elephant tranquilizers; mad props to Mitch Mitchell’s incredibly tight drumming, especially considering all the slow-tempo breaks and pace changes during that extensive psychedelic interlude---I love me some Buddy Miles, but Mitchell’s jazzy insistence & exploratory edge has always felt like it was the preeminent match for Hendrix’s unrelenting musical obsession, to me anyways. Lyrically, Jimi paints a dour picture of the world here, embroiled in wars and wracked with pain, something he seems to consider a product of people’s own ambivalence and self-defeating attitudes; he offers us another way, back into the waters, “…not to die, but to be reborn, away from lands so battered and torn…” In an interview with Jane de Mendelssohn given in early ’69, Hendrix discusses his songwriting process, “…like, you might tell them (people) something kinda hard, but you don’t want to be a completely hard character in their minds and be known for all that, ‘cause there’s other sides of you…like for instance “1983…”, that’s something to keep your mind off what’s happening today, but not necessarily completely hiding away from it…I spend most of my time writing songs and so forth, not making too much contact with people, ‘cause they don’t know how to act…talking isn’t really my scene, playing is…” This epic voyage fully demonstrates Jimi’s mastery of the studio, but more than that, it reveals just how sensitive of a guy he was, alienated & misunderstood; having the blood of Cherokee, white, black, & Mexican ancestors coursing through his veins, Hendrix embodied the notion of one unified human race and walked a path more complex than most. He remains the ultimate messenger, may he rest in peace; “…well it's too bad, that our friends, can't be with us today…well it's too bad…”
