Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix Experience (1968), № 38 in The Lead-In’s 100 greatest albums. Hendrix produces himself for the first time. The fifteen-minute 'Voodoo Chile' was tracked at 8 AM with Steve Winwood on organ. Side D ends with 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)', fifty-two years on still the most-imitated guitar tone.
Jimi Hendrix's third and final studio album, a double LP recorded across nine months at New York's Record Plant with the Experience plus guest collaborators. The album that pushed Hendrix's vocabulary to its maximum.
Hendrix's third and final completed studio album. A double LP across 16 tracks. The album that included 'All Along the Watchtower' and 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)', two of the most-cited tracks in his catalog.
Hendrix had released Are You Experienced in May 1967 and Axis: Bold as Love in December 1967. By March 1968 he was already recording the third album at the new Record Plant in New York. The sessions extended across nine months. Hendrix had taken full producer credit; Chas Chandler, his original producer, had been pushed out due to creative disagreements.
The album extends the Experience's three-piece format into a more elaborate sound, additional musicians (Steve Winwood, Jack Casady, Buddy Miles, others) appear on multiple tracks; Hendrix overdubs additional guitars; the production is denser and more layered than the previous two albums.
The album's 16 tracks include 'Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland),' 'Crosstown Traffic,' 'Voodoo Chile' (the 15-minute album version with Steve Winwood), 'Little Miss Strange,' 'Long Hot Summer Night,' 'Come On (Part 1),' 'Gypsy Eyes,' 'Burning of the Midnight Lamp,' '1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be),' 'Moon, Turn the Tides,' 'Still Raining, Still Dreaming,' 'House Burning Down,' 'All Along the Watchtower' (Dylan cover), 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return).'
Electric Ladyland belongs at number thirty-eight because it is the album on which Hendrix produced the maximalist version of his musical vocabulary. The album reached #1 on Billboard 200; the Dylan cover 'All Along the Watchtower' became Hendrix's only top-20 US single.
Original 1968 UK pressing on Track Records, catalog 613 008/9, a stereo gatefold double LP with the David Montgomery '19 nudes' cover commissioned by Track. The album was mixed entirely in stereo, so there is no genuine UK mono issue. The US Reprise release (2RS 6307) used an entirely different Karl Ferris cover, the nudes sleeve was never issued in the US. The true UK first pressing has white text on the gatefold; the all-blue-text variant came later.
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