The GTN

Throwback: Electric Ladyland

Classic U.S. double album with the original line-up featuring Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell.

I was listening to this in the ride the other day to work, during lunch, and back home. For those who don’t know much about Jimi, this was his band, The Experience 3rd album and last with original line-up. This was the 1st he produced himself, with total supervision. He did round-the-clock sessions at the Record Plant in New York. Jimi would leave the Record Plant to jam at a club nearby, the Scene, and "Voodoo Chile" – 15 minutes of live in-the-studio blues exploration was born. Steve Winwood played on organ and Jefferson Airplane's Jack Casady on bass brought it home. It was a double-album with an original all-nude cover of women (19 nudes in front of a black background taken by Photographer David Montgomery) that was changed with his face for the U.S. release in 1968. It was during this period that his Producer Bryan "Chas" Chandler and Bassman Noel Redding quit, citing the numerous “hangers-on,” impromptu invited session guests, and the multiple takes of every song. Other than production, this also left Jimi the task of playing bass, much like The Beatles had to do during the White Album sessions when Paul McCartney took to sitting in on drums when Ringo was absent. In 2003, Rolling Stone declared it the 54th Greatest Album of all time. As for “All Along The Watchtower,” Bob Dylan didn’t know why Jimi didn’t record more of his songs “…because they were all his.”