1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 103. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Axis: Bold as Love (1967)

 

Considering none of the tracks on here are ones that I recognise from the hits and Best of...s, this is an extremely strong album where Hendrix and co. massively raise their game in terms of songwriting and sound palette sophistication.

Although there are some tracks, like Spanish Castle Magic, that evoke the prior album of distortion and wall of heavy sound, others are more delicate and nuanced. Little Wing features glockenspiel elements, while She’s So Fine features bass player Noel Redding on lead vocals and is a more poppy sounding affair. I thought there was use of wah-wah pedal as well, but apparently Hendrix played through a rotating Leslie speaker (the characteristic of a Hammond organ), which took me down a rabbit hole looking at when various pedals and effects came about, because that plays a large part in the distinctive sounds of a particular era.

The Crybaby Wah-wah appears around now (late Sixties), but is more associated with the funk sound which I think we will reach soon. Boss’s distortion pedal appeared in 1971, and prior to this a lot of the fuzz/distortion sounds were created either by cranking up the amps, or doing physical things to either guitar or amp (Dave Davies of the Kinks, for example, slashing his amp cone with a razor blade to get the sound on You Really Got Me). Which tended to leave you stuck with that sound, rather than dial it in and out.

Which is to say that Hendrix’s playing here is more like that; not all pure fuzz like before, but a mix. A couple of tracks, notably Little Wing and One Rainy Wish, sound like they’re about to launch into a soaring guitar solo only to fade out, but the Experience may just be teasing us for Hendrix’s masterpiece guitar solo on the final track Bold as Love, itself a multi-faceted song that ends with a solo that make your air guitar fingers twitch with joy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dr Simon Reads... Appendix N. Part One: Poul Anderson

Image
Dr. Simon Reads Appendix N: Introduction This is a new series that will feature sporadically, in which I explore classic fantasy and science fiction works. You will either know what I mean by “Appendix N”, or you will have no clue. In the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide, Gary Gygax provided a large number of appendices, from random smells to reputed magical properties of herbs and gemstones. Appendix N was a bibliography of works that inspired him. Back in 1982 when I first got hold of this book, there were only a couple of items on there that I’d read, and only a few other authors that I’d even heard of. Many years later, after, much reading, I returned to Appendix N expecting to have added greatly to the works on there that I’d read; but actually, there were still very few. Many of the authors were obscure or out of print authors of, for want of a better expression, golden age pulp; the kind that feature in Amazing Stories and the like. Now, ...
Read more

An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 233: Too Many Metaphors Spoil The Clarity (Hebrews 1-5)

Hebrews 1-5 Too Many Metaphors Spoil The Clarity. Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version). In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology. For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP And now: Hebrews 1 “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?” I don’t think this is Paul’s work, it’s a lot more poetic than his previous writings (also, in Philemon, he referred to himself as “ aged ” which suggested to me we might not see much more from him). This is quite a nice bit of fiery writing concerning how the Son (no mention of either Christ or Jesus as yet) has been raised up to equal with God – “ whom he hath appointed hei...
Read more

Dr Simon Reads... BBC 500 Words (2013 Winners) - Children's Writing Contest

Dr Simon Reads… 500 Words - 2013 And so we reach 2013, the first year where I really started taking notice of the 500 Words competition. For more information on the 500 Words competition see my post on the 2017 awards; but in brief it’s a creative writing competition run by the BBC for children aged 5-13, who can any kind of story they like, as long as it is within 500 words. Three winners from each of the two age categories (5-9 and 10-13) get their stories read out by a famous actor in a live final, plus win a big stack of books. Since its inception in 2011 it’s grown massively with tens of thousands of entries each year. In each of these ruminations I look at the winning stories, and the celebrity reading, but I encourage you to also check out the other 44 finalists for each year; the writing on display is often breath-takingly good. Stone Age Steve and the Dragon by Christian Morton Bronze Winner Age 5-9 “ A long time ago in medieval times there was a boy called Steve, h...
Read more