Are you experienced?

Ah, let me prove it to you
Trumpets and violins, I can hear in the distance
I think they’re calling our names
Maybe now you can’t hear them, but you will
If you just take hold of my hand
Ah! But are you experienced?
Have you ever been experienced?
Not necessarily stoned, but beautiful…

• songwriter: Jimi Hendrix
• performed by: The Jimi Hendrix Experience

MOI HAS always said that what was revolutionary then is mainstream now, from fashion to music, even lifestyle. But such is art.

Does art imitate life or life imitates art?

I’d say both statements are probably true so much so that every once in a while something comes up that will completely revolutionize the whole scene.

Take music; if some creative musicians did not dare to break tradition, popular music would not have evolved into what it is today.

What comes to mind to most people is that it was that band from Liverpool, England, more popularly known as the Beatles, that rocked the popular music genre from its wholesome almost boring form into the beginnings of what we know today as rock music.

Admittedly, the Beatles had a major contribution and influence in shaping popular music and culture but it was really a struggling “blues” influence guitar player that changed the shape and sound of that musical genre we know today as rock music.

More importantly, his music laid down the foundation of another musical genre known as rock and jazz fusion. In fact, his music is still the standard of jazz, rock fusion today.

Of course fusion music is a combination of different musical genres in this case jazz, rock and blues.

And we’re talking about Jimi Hendrix and his debut album, Are You Experienced?

From that free online encyclopedia a.k.a. the internet:

Are You Experienced is the debut studio album by English-American rock band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Released in 1967, the LP was an immediate critical and commercial success, and it is widely regarded as one of the greatest debuts in the history of rock music.

The album features Jimi Hendrix’s innovative approach to songwriting and electric guitar playing which soon established a new direction in psychedelic and hard rock music.

According to Hendrix biographer Harry Shapiro, the music on Are You Experienced incorporates a variety of music genres from rhythm and blues to free jazz; author Peter Doggett noted its “wide variety of styles” while journalist Chris Welch said “each track has a different personality.” 

Musicologist Gilbert Chase asserted that the album “marked a high peak in hard rock” and music critic Jim DeRogatis characterized the LP and its preceding singles as “raw, focused psychedelic rock.”

A contemporary review published in Newsweek in October 1967 identified the influence of soul music on the Experience and the album. In 1989, Hit Parader magazine ranked it No. 35 in a list of the top 100 heavy metal albums. In 2006, writer and archivist Rueben Jackson of the Smithsonian Institution wrote: “it’s still a landmark recording because it is of the rock, R&B, and blues…musical tradition. It altered the syntax of the music.. in a way I compare to, say, James Joyce‘s Ulysses.”

The first time moi listened to this album was in a friend’s house sometime late 1969 or was it early 1970.

It was most probably summer of 1970; she was from Maryknoll College now Miriam College and taking summer classes in San Agustin. We hang out a lot together, the usual stuff teenagers of the “hippie generation” do i.e. “grooving on psychedelic music” and getting stoned along the way.

Of course, we were both advocates of “make love not war” and we practiced what we preach. Oh I’m sure you get my drift; they don’t call the ‘70s the “summer of love” for nothing.

And we segue to Jimi Hendrix’s album Are You Experienced?” The one we were listening to is the UK version sent to her by a cousin who was studying in London. This, by the way, was the original debut album; the US version was a second edition.

To say that it blew our minds was an understatement and what an experience it was. The music, of course, and the rest of the afternoon.

From http://www.songfacts.com:

Included on the UK edition of Are You Experienced were two tracks that represented the music Hendrix had played in the US before the formation of the Experience: the blues track “Red House” and the rhythm and blues song “Remember.” The album’s psychedelic title track, which author Sean Egan described as impressionistic, featured the post-modern soundscapes of backwards guitar and drums that pre-date scratching by 10 years. 

Musicologist Ritchie Unterberger considers the lyrics to “I Don’t Live Today” to be more at home in a gothic rock setting than in psychedelia, however; he describes the music as being “played and sung with an ebullience that belies the darkness of the lyrics. The song’s tribal rhythms served as a platform for Hendrix’s innovative guitar feedback improvisations. Whereas “Fire” is a funk and soul hybrid driven by Mitchell’s drumming, “May This Be Love” and “The Wind Cries Mary” are soft ballads that demonstrate Hendrix’s ability to write thoughtful lyrics and subtle melodies. The influence of raga rock can be heard in his sitar-like guitar solo on “Love or Confusion.”

“Can You See Me” is an uptempo rocker that features Hendrix’s double tracked vocals and his use of a one-note bend in the style of Hank Marvin. Although “Hey Joe” is a folk song, and the only cover on the album, it would become one of Hendrix’s most requested tracks.

And the question still begs to be answered, Are You Experienced? (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)