CONCEPT
For as much as Billy Corgan has played up the influences of other musicians from Ozzy Osbourne to Stevie Nicks, until I really sat down with Jimi Hendrix I didn’t realize to what extent the Pumpkins borrowed from his playbook.
Most of the songs on this album, but concentrating them together and in a deliberate order can’t not have an effect. This is particularly telling in Hendrix’ explicit preference for albums, and this was one of a number of similarities I discovered between his work and Led Zeppelin’s. For example, listening to much of his work together renders the blues influences very explicit; some of these albums could almost be marketed as electric blues. A more encompassing and implicatory comparison, however, going back to the Pumpkins, is that even this earlier, less-concept driven work suggests sounds as a landscape, that is, a three-dimensional space. Each position is unique, has its own possibilities and opportunities, and the objective of the song or instrument is to attain that space.
Both Hendrix and the Pumpkins (and others, notably, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin for example) exploit the formal structure of the song for accessibility, but the “studio” emphasis, that is, exploiting possibilities not available in live performance is just one of the physical manifestations of this perception, and it has huge consequences for the album, the style, and the performance of the music itself.
Another, related aspect, is the non-correspondence between, say roughness and volume and subject matter. I don’t say opposition: a ballad can be a ballad. But in establishing the emotional content of these songs within an open question of how those emotions are displayed (the lilting riff that fades away under purred words: “The wind screams Mary,” for example) Hendrix gives these emotions a complexity and a tension otherwise lacking.
These points are all generalization that can be extended across his work, and in many cases more conspicuously in later albums. But they still seem to germinate with Are You Experienced?
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And then there’s the thing itself.
Purple Haze, which may or may not be about drugs depending on who you quote and from when (I personally, am inclined to think it is about drugs, as well as Jimi’s dreams and science fiction novels… why the Hell not?), sounds like a clock when it begins. The sad lost lovey words a half of the reason this album is more “grounded” than the others even though it’s flirting with outer space.
Manic Depression… giving to the Smashing Pumpkins playbook. Isn’t this utterly Quiet to Purple Haze‘s Cherub Rock.
The comparison breaks down for Hey Joe, or maybe not. Many critics believed that Today was the heart of the album, emotionally speaking. It was one of the first songs written and its conception was certainly one of the more dramatic stories. Most of this could be safely said of Hey Joe.
An interesting counterargument: Hey Joe doesn’t even appear on the British version of Are You Experienced?, which was released prior to the U.S. version.
My response: it’s irrelevant. I’m not suggesting some cosmic connection between these two bands/individuals. Clearly one is explicitly antecedent to the other (actually, Billy was four when Hendrix died, so two-way influence is effectively out of the question), and if he was influenced would probably have been influenced by the U.S. version alone. But I’m not arguing for or against influence… in the context that both Corgan and Hendrix have expressed in words and musical choice a “geographic,” almost “tactile” understanding of sound, what geography do these common choices imply? Purple Haze and Cherub Rock are hard-rocking songs that rock in unexpected ways, with onomotopoetic riffs, an interplay of dissonance and harmony, and dreamy transcendental lyrics. Manic Depression and Quiet push these extremes even further… we’re, in a sense, graduating from the foothills to the big rocks and overhangs. Every inch is work. When we crest the top, we find Hey Joe and Today, a beautiful, challenging, and amazingly complex vista:
The bluesy riffs and Jimmy’s voice tilting a full sauce. The first words, “hey Joe, where you goin’ with that gun in your hand?” The acoustic work and light snare, a step away from the angry snarls of the last two songs. And my favorite, the hush soft gospel backing “ooooh,” and “ahhhh,” almost like a ghost or some strange wind effect. And of course, the guitar solos.
The next three songs were common between the British and American version, and May this be Love is particularly gorgeous, but I’ve already gone on for a very long time about Hey Joe.
The Wind Cries Mary which was released in the U.K. as a single and not included on the British version of the album never made such sizeable waves in the U.S., though today it is one of Hendrix’es most recognizeable songs. It’s one of the most suggestive lyrical arguments for a Jimi’s versatile understanding of music… the language is very poetic, no only in a metrical or ornate sense, but in the sense that this could almost be a free-standing poem (just as many of his songs could easily be free standing instrumentals).
The craziest thing about Fire is that for all its sexual bravado, it has very little to do with sex.
Third Stone from the Sun is probably most indicative of the psychadelic direction Hendrix would take his music on the next two albums, voice distortions sounding like they might come from little green ment, and feedback loops suggesting (who knows how; space is a vacuum) colliding asteroids. It was present on both the U.S. and U.K. versions. It is fun to listen to.
Next comes Foxy Lady, which came first on the British version. It replaces Purple Haze which was not released on the album in the U.K., having been already released there as a single. In addition to being one of the sexiest songs I can imagine, it serves the same weird function in the shape of the album as does Purple Haze. Imagine; your rocking world consists of Buddy Holly up to the Beatles’ effervescent experiments of the late sixties. You put on this records. Rapid guitar twangs, distortion downdraft… “foxy.”
Are You Experienced? is, and must necessarily be, the last song. For as epic proggy as it is, there’s something funky there to in the almost-slap chords. Is this beginning of the Clinton/P-Funk strand? Weirdly enough, the repeated piano note also evokes the Swans. Another question/thought:
“Have you ever been experienced? Not necessarily stoned, but… beautiful,” is as ambiguous as “foxy” is sexy.
What do we think it means?
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Let’s take a look at what we missed by being American:
Instead of Hey Joe, we would’ve gotten Red House. It’s a great blues song. Jimi’s voice is in fine form, and the guitar sonds like great waves of metallic river water sloshing back and forth. But I do not believe it is as extraordinary as Hey Joe… it does not open up the same vistas, either sonically or lyrically, nor does it capitalize as effectively on the tension that has built through the first two songs.
Then we would get Can You See Me? is fun, and basically does the same job as Love or Confusion. The real tragedy is that Love or Confusion follows on the U.K. version, depriving the listener of May this be Love, which is absolutely unique on this album in its delicacy and simplicity (ie. one can find delicacy and simplicity elsewhere on the album, but not together).
The last U.K./U.S. swap is Remember for Foxy Lady and Foxy Lady for Purple Haze That is, there is no Purple Haze kicking off the U.K. release, and there is no Remember near the wrap-up on the U.S. Release. Of all the substitutions, this is the only one I prefer on the U.K. version. Though I don’t think it’s worth losing Purple Haze, Remember is a welcome break from the intensity of Third Stone and Are You Experienced? and the Brits had already had Haze as a single.
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Finally, let’s take a look at the so-called contemporaneous “bonus” tracks included in the rerelease of Are You Experienced?
Simply put, they all rock, but I also think they are right to have been left off the album. It has nothing to do with the subject matter (Highway Chile is relatively serious) but compared to, say, Foxy Lady they lack the intensity, or are even a little (dare I say?) frivolous. Which doesn’t mean they’re not great songs, and 51st Anniversary is outstanding (joints and groove and all). They a class apart, however, from most of Are You Experienced? Suitable as solid single B-sides.
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All in all, I was familiar with most of the songs on this album before I purchased it. Having read, however, about the man himself, and heard the songs in several alternate intended orders, I am able to appreciate the extent of invention. This is music that is wildly experimental and yet soulful. And while I personally prefer the more nuanced textures (songs less distinct) that followed in Axis: Bold as Love and especially Electric Ladyland, the actual songs never get better than they are here.
In short, this is about as good as it gets.
END OF POST.