Jimi Hendrix--Electric Ladyland

I finished Electric Ladyland by John Perry this afternoon. I must say, I was very impressed. In some ways his approach is more clinical than John Cavanagh's in The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, also from the 33 1/3 series. However, the detail only serves as evidence of his love for the material. He often says things like, "The first section of the solo (1:45-1:59) features...." (pg. 115) and refers us to a multitude of other songs and books we can look to for context. His pervasive specificity causes me to trust him, a trust which he borrows on near the end in order to attack certain views of Hendrix and the album in question. He may be right, but it devolves from an incredibly strong and objective work to mere opinion at that point. All the same, the first 120 pages (of 132) are so well written that we can forgive him that mistake.

I like the album, Electric Ladyland, less than I like The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, but I prefer the 33 1/3 on the former to the one on the latter. Sorry for that sentence formation, but I hope you follow me all the same. This one has all the affection displayed by Piper the book, but has more of a spirited discussion of the songs. Piper seemed deeply focused on the means of production, but Electric Ladyland covers all that without losing its focus on the songs themselves. The guitar is at the heart of Electric Ladyland (both album and book) and the instrumentals and music itself is of primary concern to the author, John Perry.

For example, in the wonderful "Track by Track" chapter, the longest discussion is about my favorite Hendrix song, (bar none) "All Along the Watchtower." Across 13 pages we read about Jimi's admiration for Dylan and Dylan's reciprocation of that feeling. "Dylan has talked more than once about his love of the Hendrix arrangement, his feeling that Hendrix's is the definitive version and his regret that Hendrix isn't around to cover his current songs" (110-111). As a fan of both Dylan and Hendrix, it was a warming section for me. But the story behind the music remains the story behind the music. The music is always front and center, and since Jimi was so much about the music, he just so happens to be dragged into the spotlight as well.

The "Track by Track" chapter had excellent balance, and it often took me the exact length of the song to read the given section. The rest of the book, covering topics like the album cover, a brief summary of Hendrix' rise to fame, and critical reaction to the album, were all interesting, but "Track by Track" was the real star. If one knows the basics about Hendrix (which I actually didn't) I think a reader could skip the rest of the book entirely and have a nice 50 pages or so. You would miss out on some cool writing, but it could be done.

On the whole, the book was excellent, and has restored my faith in the 33 1/3 series after the debacle of Meat is Murder by Joe Pernice. I plan to continue on from here.

But first, a few of my own words on the album: A very uneven thing. It's like Duck, Duck, Goose, only Mediocre, Mediocre, Brilliant. The standouts, for me, are "Crosstown Traffic," "Gypsy Eyes," "All Along the Watchtower," and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)." The next tier is "Voodoo Chile," "Rainy Day, Dream Away," "1983," and "House Burning Down." As far as I'm concerned, the other eight aren't worth mentioning. Strangely, the book didn't really change my opinions on any of the songs, but merely reinforced the ones I had (even though it was more positive than me about the album as a whole). At the moment I can't think of particularly clever things to say about them, so I would just recommend listening to those eight songs for certain, but not wasting time on the others.

"I remember the first time I saw you
The tears in your eyes were like they was tryin' to say
'Oh Little Boy, you know I could love you
But first I must make my getaway."--"Gypsy Eyes" (pg. 90)

Sincerely,
Spencer Miles Kimball