Maps of Music

Electric Ladyland (1968)

Where the lyrics of Electric Ladyland take you, and where it was really made.

The album was almost released under a wrong title, "Electric Landlady", because a studio technician misnamed it in the final stages of production.

Key places

Recorded at Olympic Studios (1968)

Recording site Olympic Studios — The album's recording began at several studios in the United States and the UK in 1967 and early 1968. Olympic Studios in London is one of the British studios where the band recorded. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recording resumes at the Record Plant (1968)

Recording site The Record Plant — Recording resumed on 18 April 1968 at the newly opened Record Plant Studios in New York City. Chas Chandler produced the sessions with engineers Eddie Kramer and Gary Kellgren. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Electric Ladyland: third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience
• Double album released in October 1968
• Only Experience album with production solely credited to Hendrix
• The band's most commercially successful release and its only number one album
• Released by Reprise Records in the US on October 16, 1968, and by Track Records in the UK nine days later
• Includes an electric version of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower", which became the Experience's best-selling single
• The Watchtower single reached number six in the UK and number 20 in the US
• Confounded critics on release; later viewed as one of Hendrix's best works

Background

• Recording began at several studios in the US and UK between July 1967 and January 1968
• Recording resumed on 18 April 1968 at the newly opened Record Plant Studios in New York City
• Chas Chandler produced; engineers were Eddie Kramer and Gary Kellgren
• Chandler grew frustrated with Hendrix's perfectionism and demands for repeated takes
• Hendrix let friends and guests join sessions, making the control room chaotic
• Chandler severed his professional relationship with Hendrix during the project
• Noel Redding formed his own band, Fat Mattress, in mid-1968 and found his Experience commitments hard to meet
• Hendrix played many of the bass parts as a result

Recording

• Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell recorded over 50 takes of "Gypsy Eyes" over three sessions
• Hendrix sang backing vocals himself on the title track and "Long Hot Summer Night"
• Jack Casady played bass and Steve Winwood played organ on the 15-minute blues jam "Voodoo Chile"
• Kramer used backmasking, chorus, echo and flanging
• The double LP was the only Experience album mixed entirely in stereo

Cover

• Hendrix asked Reprise for a colour photo by Linda Eastman, but the company largely ignored his instructions
• Reprise used a blurred red and yellow photo of Hendrix's head taken by Karl Ferris
• Track Records used a David Montgomery photo of nineteen nude women in front of a black background

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Artist

Formation

• Born James Marshall Hendrix in Seattle on November 27, 1942; began playing guitar at age 15 in 1958.
• Enlisted in the US Army in 1961 and was discharged in 1962; then played on the Chitlin' Circuit with bands in Tennessee and Nashville.
• Moved to England in late 1966 after Chas Chandler of the Animals became his manager, and formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Members

• The Jimi Hendrix Experience consisted of Hendrix on guitar and vocals, bassist Noel Redding, and drummer Mitch Mitchell.
• Hendrix later worked with Billy Cox in the Band of Gypsys and the Cry of Love tour lineup.

Career

• The Experience achieved three UK top-ten hits in 1967: "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze", and "The Wind Cries Mary".
• Hendrix became famous in the US after his performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.
• Electric Ladyland (1968) was his most successful album and his only US Billboard 200 number-one album.
• He headlined the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970.
• He died in London in September 1970 at age 27 from barbiturate-related asphyxia.
• Hendrix is ranked by Rolling Stone as the greatest guitarist of all time and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 as part of the Experience.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Melody Maker called it "mixed-up and muddled", with the exception of "All Along the Watchtower", which the magazine called a masterpiece
• Tony Glover of Rolling Stone (1968) said Hendrix's original songs sometimes sound unstructured
• Glover was somewhat disappointed by the "heavy handed guitar" on "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)"
• Glover appreciated the "energy flow" unifying the songs and described Hendrix as "amazing"
• Robert Christgau in Stereo Review regarded the album as an explosive showcase of rock's "most important recent innovation"
• Christgau called the production "the best job of stereo for its own sake I know"

Reappraisal

• John Perry described it as "one of the greatest double-albums in Rock"
• Michael Heatley wrote that "most critics agree" it was "the fullest realization of Jimi's far-reaching ambitions"
• Guitar World editor Noe Goldwasser called it his greatest work
• Peter Doggett argued it is very likely the greatest rock album of all time
• Classic Rock ranked it number 10 on its 100 Greatest Rock Albums Ever list
• Q named it one of the 100 greatest albums in 2003

Records

• Reached number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs chart by mid-November 1968 and spent two weeks there
• Peaked at number 6 on the UK chart and spent 12 weeks on the British charts
• Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999
• Ranked number 32 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums in 2000
• Ranked 54th in the 2003 edition of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and 53rd in the 2020 edition

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Hendrix was insecure about his voice and often recorded his vocals hidden behind studio screens
• The cover was banned by several record dealers as "pornographic", while others sold it with the gatefold cover turned inside out or in a brown wrapper
• Late in production a studio technician misnamed the album "Electric Landlady", and Hendrix caught the error in time
• Hendrix sang all the backing vocals himself on "Long Hot Summer Night"

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

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