Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland (Thirty Three and a Third series)

The 33 1/3 series is hugely varied in the quality of the writing and the subject matter. John Perry's is among the best as he is thoughtful, informative and sensitive in his account and assessment of Hendix's achievement. You come away from reading this feeling that you have been communicating with a like-minded person whose appraisal is objective, yet warm and understanding. Readers with musical and guitar knowledge will be advantaged as Perry often includes the musician's perspective on the songs and on the guitar parts. Perry also provides contextualizing information such as Jimi's sense of himself as a black artist in those turbulent times. Unless you are already a Hendrix expert, and even then, you will find plenty in this book to fascinate and enjoy. Perry's prose is workmanlike but expressive and the personal experiences which seem de rigueur for this series, are illuminating and authentic. A must for Hendrix fans.

fantastic review of the album,but what's even better is the authors story of hendrix himself and the rock scene at the time.i've read many hendrix books over the years and this one had a lot of information I had never known before.

This book is a more enjoyable read for musicians, as it offers many specific technical aspects of Jimi's playing. Although I disagree with some points, this is still a pretty good book if you want to dig deeper into how EL was received at that time. The writer had the unique opportunity to see Jimi in Europe early on in Jimi's career. He was able to take his knowledge and that of Jimi's contemporaries in order to shape this book.

John Perry nails it with observations that are insightful and astute. He writes about the realities of making and recording music in the 60s, and the way the methodology and technology of the time affected the creative process. And he points out the ways Hendrix successfully ignored conventional wisdom to produce his magmum opus, Electric Ladyland.

There was lots of tape holding book together. Low price made it still worth the purchase, though

Good look into Jimi's life at the time of recording Electric Ladyland. Good walk through the tracks.

great little book, i love the series the books have

Very interesting, as usual for the 33 1/3 series. Found out many details about the record and Jimi I did not know about.

This is a jem of a book. It is short at only 132 pages,including credits. That isn't a criticism; quite the opposite. Just as the best Hendrix is sharp, to the point, and memorable, so to is this book. I would agree with one of the other reviewers that for none guitarists it could become a little tedious. I am a guitarist however, far too young to have ever seen Hendrix live, and now old enough to see more of the man than some of the god worship of him sometimes does. Yes, he was a genius; yes he was the greatest musician ever to pick up an electric guitar; and no, no one since has equalled his achievements. But he was actually a man with faults to - (some of the live recordings that the Hendrix estate have managed to remove have moments where his solos go on much, much too long, twiddling away, or just producing astonishing guitar sounds from out of thin air because he can, without it actually doing anything. Perry suggests that Electric Ladyland is the greatest guitar album in the history of rock - an assertion that is difficult to 'prove', but one that anyone who knows much about electric rock will understand is probably true. However what I really liked was Perry's memories of having seen Hendrix in a small club in Bristol in early 1967, where he was so close to the stage he could almost strum the guitar. As he points out this was before the age of mass marketing, promo videos and satuation advertising on radio of an artist's new record. He went to see him because he'd been on Ready Steady Go and played the guitar with his teeth. What a lucky chap he was - he got to see THE absolute magician with a six string so close he could touch him! Following on from that he quotes extensively from Mick Farren who as Perry points out comes as close as anyone I've ever read to describing just how awesome Hendrix live was. If you're into guitars and or Hendrix, well worth buying.

This book offers the rare pleasure of reading music criticism by somebody who actually knows how an electric guitar is played. The description of how to create and use guitar feedback on pages 56 and 57 is as clear a piece of writing as you could hope for. Whether you're well into Hendrix or just becoming acquainted with his work, this book delvers an enjoyable and insightful track by track analysis of the album, while also placing it within the overall arc of Jimi's career.

Fascinating. Stuffed with interesting and relevant detail, plenty of nerdish and obsessive information told with enthusiasm and style, leavened with a sharp, slightly cynical approach. Perry is a skilled rock guitarist himself, and it shows in chapters analysing fingering and tuning track by track. This was well over my head, but never boring. The analysis of Hendrix's music is admiring and affectionate. A splendid read.

A good read with some interesting personal perspective about Jimi Hendrix's first appearances in England. He introduces some new texture to some well known stories and fleshes out some detail and context around the recording of Hendrix's music. I'd like to see this corroborated, not because they ring false but because over time, a lot of people have said a lot of things. A worthwhile addition to the library of any serious student of Jimi Hendrix.

Jimi Hendrix after 30 years from his death is still revered as a guitar hero and innovator in the way the instrument was played and recorded (based on many recent polls), and Electric Ladyland was a major benchmark in his too short studio recording career in letting him stretch out and play compared with his prior 2 LPs and hit singles. That this book is written by a guitar afficionado should thus come as no surprise, and the author was clearly influenced by Hendrix at an early age having seen him live in the UK and in his own subsequent career as a guitarist. The content (especially on the individual tracks and their recording) is very guitar playing orientated, explaining a lot of chords, tuning and playing techiques that made Hendrix sound so different and while a fascinating insight into exactly how unique Hendix was in his playing, I suspect it will potentially drag with many non-musicians (of which I am one) though as a lifetime Hendrix afficionado I must admit I found it all fascinating. The book also picks up on many side issues that help one understand Hendrix and his times better esp. his position as a black American and his initial and subsequent treatment by US rock writers, and later in the heated anti Vietnam war and US domestic race riots happening at that time managed to remain politically indifferent. A captivating book especially for Hendrix fans and in the end piece that speculates that Hendrix at the time of his death shortly afterwards had already delivered his best recorded work.