Electric Ladyland is the third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in October 1968. A double album, it was the only record from the Experience with production solely credited to Hendrix. The band's most commercially successful release and its only number one album, it was released by Reprise Records in the United States on October 16, 1968, and by Track Records in the UK nine days later. By mid-November, it had reached number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, spending two weeks there. In the UK it peaked at number 6, where it spent 12 weeks on the British charts.
Electric Ladyland includes a cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower", which became the Experience's best-selling single, reaching number six in the UK and number 20 in the United States. Although the album confounded critics upon its release, it has since been viewed as one of Hendrix's best works and one of the greatest albums of all time, being featured on various "greatest albums" lists, including Q's 2003 list of the 100 greatest albums and various editions of Rolling Stones list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", on which it was ranked 53rd in the 2020 iteration.
Recording and production
The Experience began recording Electric Ladyland at several studios in the United States and UK between July 1967 and January 1968. Recording resumed on April 18, 1968, at the newly opened Record Plant Studios in New York City, with Chas Chandler as producer and engineers Eddie Kramer and Gary Kellgren.: Recording began with Chandler and Kramer; : Kellgren.
Hendrix was famous for his studio perfectionism; he and drummer Mitch Mitchell recorded over 50 takes of "Gypsy Eyes" over three sessions. Hendrix was insecure about his voice and often recorded his vocals hidden behind studio screens. He sang backing vocals himself on the title track and on "Long Hot Summer Night".Electric Ladyland, MCAD 10895, 1993, liner notes. As recording progressed, Chandler became frustrated with Hendrix's perfectionism and his demands for repeated takes.
Hendrix allowed friends and guests to join them in the studio, which contributed to a chaotic and crowded environment in the control room and led Chandler to sever his professional relationship with Hendrix. Bassist Noel Redding recalled: "There were tons of people in the studio; you couldn't move. It was a party, not a session."
Redding, who had formed his own band in mid-1968, Fat Mattress, found it increasingly difficult to fulfill his commitments with the Experience, so Hendrix played many of the bass parts. The album's cover states that it was "produced and directed by Jimi Hendrix", which disturbed Chandler since he produced some of the songs. The double LP was the only Experience album mixed entirely in stereo.
Hendrix experimented with other combinations of musicians, including Jefferson Airplane's Jack Casady and Traffic's Steve Winwood, who played bass and organ, respectively, on the 15-minute slow-blues jam "Voodoo Chile". In March 1968, he was joined onstage at the Scene Club in New York by Jim Morrison of the Doors and in early April, Hendrix appeared at an impromptu jam with B.B. King, Al Kooper, and Elvin Bishop.
Music According to music critic Jim DeRogatis, Electric Ladyland is "a sprawling exploration of the studio as a place to create what [Hendrix] called 'sound paintings.'" According to music journalist David Stubbs, Electric Ladyland is "undoubtedly a rock album, albeit rock on the point of evolving into something else." Uncut magazine's John Robinson said that its music reconciles the psychedelic pop of Hendrix's earlier recordings with the aggressive funk he would explore on his 1970 album Band of Gypsys. During its recording, Kramer experimented with innovative studio techniques such as backmasking, chorus effect, echo, and flanging, which AllMusic's Cub Koda said recontextualized Hendrix's psychedelic and funk sounds on the album.
Electric Ladyland is a cross-section of Hendrix's wide range of musical talent. It includes examples of several genres and styles of music: the psychedelic "Burning of the Midnight Lamp", a UK single the previous summer (1967), the extended blues jam "Voodoo Chile", the New Orleans-style R&B of Earl King's "Come On", the epic studio production of "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)", the social commentary of "House Burning Down", and the sixties-era British pop of Noel Redding's "Little Miss Strange". The album also features an electric reworking of the Bob Dylan song "All Along the Watchtower", which has been highly acclaimed by critics as well as by Dylan himself,Dimery, Robert. 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, , p.136 and also "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", a staple of both radio and guitar repertoire. Rolling Stone Holly George-Warren praised "Crosstown Traffic" for its hard rock guitar riff.
"All Along the Watchtower" became the band's top-selling single and their only US top 40 hit, peaking at number 20; it reached number five in the UK.: "All Along the Watchtower" was Hendrix's only US top 40 hit single; : "All Along the Watchtower" was Hendrix's highest-selling single; : peak UK chart position for Hendrix's cover of "All Along the Watchtower"; : peak US chart position for Hendrix's cover of "All Along the Watchtower". The album also included one of Hendrix's most prominent uses of a wah-wah pedal, on "Burning of the Midnight Lamp", which reached number 18 in the UK charts.: peak UK chart position for "Burning of the Midnight Lamp"; : "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" was Hendrix's first recorded song to feature the use of a wah-wah pedal.
Cover Hendrix had written to Reprise describing what he wanted for the cover art, but was largely ignored. He expressly asked for a color photo by Linda Eastman (later known as Linda McCartney following her marriage with Paul McCartney) of the group sitting with children on the sculpture of Alice in Wonderland in Central Park, and drew a picture of it for reference.Electric Ladyland. Experience Hendrix/MCA 11600, 1997, liner notes. The company instead used a blurred red and yellow photo of his head while performing at Saville Theatre, taken by Karl Ferris.
Track Records used its art department, which produced a cover image by photographer David Montgomery, who also shot the inside cover portrait of Hendrix, depicting nineteen nude women lounging in front of a black background.Electric Ladyland. Track Records 613 010, 1968, cover photo. Hendrix expressed initial displeasure and surprise with this "naked lady" cover (but later told Rolling Stone magazine that he "dug it anyway"),Epstein, Dan (2018). Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Electric Ladyland’: 10 Things You Didn’t Know. Rolling Stone Magazine much as he was displeased with the Axis: Bold as Love cover, which he found disrespectful. The cover was banned by several record dealers as "pornographic", while others sold it with the gatefold cover turned inside out, or in a brown wrapper.
This cover design later inspired the official video of the 1993 song "Sweet Harmony" produced by British band The Beloved, in which the lead singer Jon Marsh sang sitting nude, among a number of nude-posing women.
The album was also issued in two parts in the UK, with different cover art.
In France and the Benelux countries, Hendrix's recordings were released by Barclay Records, and Electric Ladyland featured a front cover photograph by Alain Dister, and inner sleeve photographs by Jean-Pierre Leloir and Donald Silverstein.
Release and reception
Electric Ladyland was released in the US on October 16, 1968. It was a "hit psychedelic album", Richie Unterberger later wrote,Jacqueline Edmondson Ph.D. (ed.) Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories that Shaped our Culture. ABC-CLIO, 2013. p. 548. and by mid-November, it had reached number one in the US, spending two weeks atop the pop charts.; : peak chart position. The double LP was the Experience's most commercially successful release and Hendrix's only number-one album. In the UK, it peaked at number six and charted for 12 weeks.
Electric Ladyland confounded contemporary critics; reviewers praised some of its songs but felt the album lacked structure and sounded too dense. Melody Maker called it "mixed-up and muddled", with the exception of "All Along the Watchtower", which the magazine called a masterpiece. Reviewing for Rolling Stone in 1968, Tony Glover said Hendrix's original songs sometimes sound unstructured and was somewhat disappointed by the "heavy handed guitar" on "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" and the science-fiction conclusion to "House Burning Down". Ultimately, Glover appreciated the "energy flow" unifying the songs and described Hendrix as "amazing", adding that Electric Ladyland serves as "an extended look into Hendrix's head, and mostly it seems to have some pretty good things in it (who among us is totally free of mental garbage?)". Robert Christgau was more enthusiastic in Stereo Review, regarding it as an explosive showcase of rock's "most important recent innovation"—the "heavy" guitar aesthetic—and "an integrated work-in-itself in more ways than one". He found the production exceptional—"the best job of stereo for its own sake I know"—and was surprisingly impressed by the quality of the lyrics. While most guitarists in rock believed improvisation to be a straightforward endeavor, Christgau said "Hendrix achieves unique effects, effects you'll never get from Kenny Burrell", citing "Voodoo Chile" as an example. He later named Electric Ladyland the fifth-best album of 1968 in his ballot for Jazz & Pop magazine's critics poll.
Reappraisal The 2018 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition received universal acclaim, earning a Metacritic score of 97 based on seven critic reviews. Record Collector called it "a fine celebration of Hendrix's most kaleidoscopically-realised endeavour", while other reviewers highlighted the restored original cover photo and the added early demos, outtakes, and 1968 Hollywood Bowl concert recording.
Over time, Electric Ladylands critical standing improved significantly, with author and musicologist John Perry describing it as "one of the greatest double-albums in Rock." According to author Michael Heatley, "most critics agree" that the album was "the fullest realization of Jimi's far-reaching ambitions"; Guitar World editor Noe Goldwasser called it his greatest work.; The record was also deemed an essential hard rock album in Tom Larson's 2004 book History of Rock and Roll, and Clash reviewer Robin Murray viewed it as a "true classic of the psychedelic rock era". In a retrospective review for Blender, Christgau wrote that it was the definitive work of psychedelic music, describing the record as "an aural utopia that accommodates both ingrained conflict and sweet, vague spiritual yearnings, held together by a master musician". In Charlotte Greig's opinion, much like Are You Experienced, Electric Ladyland was "groundbreaking, introducing audiences to a style of psychedelic rock rooted in the blues". The Washington Post critic Geoffrey Himes names it an exemplary release of the progressive soul development from 1968 to 1973. Author Amy Wallace called the album a "classic of acid rock."
Electric Ladyland has been featured on many greatest album lists, including a number 10 ranking on Classic Rock magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Rock Albums Ever, and number 37 on The Times 100 Best Albums of All Time. Music journalist and author Peter Doggett argued that it is very likely the greatest rock album of all time because of its exceptional concept, artful melodies, experimentation, and skilled musicianship, which he felt remains unparalleled by any other rock artist. The album was included in "A Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981).