Electric Ladyland

In June of that year, they played at the Monterey Pop Festival in California, which was a real breakout concert for him.

He released Electric Ladyland in 1968, which would be his third and final studio album during his lifetime.

And another big hallmark was his famous Woodstock performance in 1969.

He tragically died in 1970, as we all know, part of the 27 Club, so to speak.

nonetheless.

Okay, so my number four is from 1968.

It is Electric Ladyland, and I have that at three and a half stars.

And I am entirely aware that this is considered his masterpiece and I can see your reaction, Will, but I am going to slightly sheepishly admit that I really disagree with that.

My most, and you know, I'm not, I'm not going to go Pearl Jam because I actually had several records I listened to.

I think far and away Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix.

I started playing guitar when I was 15 and pretty quickly that became my favorite album and it maintained that position through the rest of my teens and into my twenties.

And so.

Yeah.

And it progressed from first album to Electric Ladyland, this album that we're going to listen to, Bold as Love, and Band of Gypsies.

Electric Ladyland.

Electric

Ladyland, yeah.

And the heavier ones...

What a privilege to hear one of the world's great rock guitarists come and do this for us on a Thursday night.

I've been working on one from Electric Ladyland.

In 1968, Jimi Hendrix released All Along the Watchtower.

This was the definitive version of Bob Dylan's famous song, and it was released in America as a promotional single on this date ahead of the album Electric Ladyland.

Hit number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

That was his highest charting US single.

And so then I was going around listening to ...

And I remember listening to What's Going On in full, um, and thinking, "God, that's incredible." And then I remember listening to Electric Ladyland, the Hendrix album.

I remember thinking, "God, that is in- that's incre- " So I immediately went out and bought What's Going On and Electric Ladyland, and then I bought all of the ... loads of Marvin Gaye albums, all the Hendrix albums, 'cause obviously with the Hendrix albums, there's so few of them.

And All Along the w- the All on the Watchtower, if you have no context for that, if you, if you're not sort of prepared for that song in any way, because I guess it must have been on the soundtrack of films that I'd watched maybe.

Mm.

not the one with all the ladies sitting on the bench.

No, that's Electric Ladyland.

It's the

one where he's kind of like got a sort of cloak and he's got his arms over the other guys in the band.

You either bought... let's say, okay, let's use the Jimi Hendrix example, recognizable guitarist.

You either went and bought Electric Ladyland, the album, and you could listen to it, or you could either, back in the 1960s, go and watch him perform, or you could buy a recording of one of those shows, right? So it was all really kind of siloed into very small, discrete places.

But of course, now, because that is so recognizable, it is what built Jimi Hendrix into what Jimi Hendrix is, or part of it.

um that can sort of be imitated in a very well even if it's only 90 correct or recognizable that's still so much more than um was possible before and at scale and so the argument is that if you're if you're an artist and you have a recognizability element to your work and that you know like okay there was a big example like jimi hendrix or adele or whatever But every artist, every band, every musician, that's their secret sauce, isn't it? That's what they bring to music and in recording.

So number seven for me is going even further back in time than my last pick.

And it's Electric Ladyland by the Jimi Hendrix Experience from 1968.

And yeah, this is the third and final studio album from Jimi Hendrix.

And yeah, it's got this great combination of short, catchy rock songs that break up the long jamming sequences of the album.

It just seems like a paradox to me because it's a very sort of sprawling, loose kind of organic album.

And to know that he was such a perfectionist, I didn't really think that would be the case.

But it's a classic, has its place in rock history, Electric Ladyland.

Very nice.

Almost, yeah, just a lot of hot colors, some reds and yellows.

Actually, at a glance, it just kind of reminds me of the colors from Electric Ladyland from Hendrix.

Yeah.

So,