Are You Experienced

from the LP Are You Experienced, Reprise Records, 1967



Man…it’s hard to choose words that adequately encompass the way Hendrix shaped and bent (and ultimately made love to) everything human beings understood, and will ever understand, about the electric guitar. This particular number capped The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s debut album, and frankly, it still utterly floors me every time I listen to it! Though not the first inclusion of a backward-tracked guitar part, I would argue no one had/has ever done it more creatively or proficiently before or since; Mitch Mitchell flawlessly segues in and out of the backwards guitar syncopation with his drumming, generating a seamless rhythmic whole. “If you can just get your mind together, then come on across to me; we'll hold hands and then we'll watch the sunrise, from the bottom of the sea…” The imagery Jimi uses really paints kaleidoscopic and acid-drenched scenes which whisk you along quickly to another state of mind; and he offers some warning, “…but first, are you ex-perienced?” asked with a hesitance which implies you might want to prepare yourself for a real trip. Mr. Hendrix had been experienced; in fact, he passed the acid test with flying colors, and when he declares, “…let me, prove it, to you…” look-the-fuck-OUT people---this dude isn’t bluffing! He peels off a smoking guitar solo, the musical equivalent of a hit of DMT exploding in your cortex, backwards guitar always hovering and phasing about, twisting your psyche with dizzying result. He finally comes back down for a landing, shown the way by a singular piano note incessantly pounding the clarion call, imploring and reassuring us, “Trumpets and violins I can hear in distance, I think they're calling our names; maybe now you can't hear them, but you will, huh-huh, if you just, take hold of my hand…” His vocal delivery is so convincing you nearly feel his gigantic hand on your shoulders, pushing you gently off that cliff, but you know he won’t let go of you. Seriously, there was nothing like him before, there hasn’t been since, and in my estimation there probably never will be again. “Have you ever been experienced? Not necessarily stoned, but…” probably so…