Jimi Hendrix and the Making of Are You Experienced (The Vinyl Frontier series) - Softcover

Egan, Sean

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1556524714 ISBN 13: 9781556524714

Publisher: Chicago Review Press, 2002

Synopsis

The story of how the Jimi Hendrix Experience's first album, Are You Experienced, was made is even more astonishing than the record itself, and this book tells it all. With its finely crafted songwriting, breathtaking guitar playing, and the sheer power of the group, Are You Experienced was unlike anything heard before and paved the way for generations of rock to come. But rather than the result of a concentrated period of hard work, the album was recorded in short sessions between gigs, in radically different studios; moreover, Hendrix first showed most of the songs to the other band members on the day of recording, with no prior rehearsals. Here is the whole story, based on extensive interviews, along with accounts of all the album's influences-Jimi's love affair with Kathy Etchingham, the band's perennially penniless state, the gigs they had to perform to keep themselves afloat, and the growing awareness among British musicians that Jimi Hendrix was perhaps rock's greatest guitarist.

About this title

About the Author

Sean Egan is a freelance journalist specializing in music. In addition to composing a number of liner notes, he has written Star Sail, about The Verve, and Animal Tracks, about The Animals. He lives in London, England.

From Library Journal

Anyone who has ever watched VH-1's Behind the Music probably knows the basics of the Jimi Hendrix story. Accounts of this story usually involve a self-righteous, middle-aged British rock star (e.g., Pete Townshend or Paul McCartney) gushing about sitting in a pub when the mysterious American got on stage and blew him away. Here, liner-notes scribe and music biographer Egan narrows the focus to Are You Experienced, Hendrix's debut album with The Experience, and events leading up to the debut. Chronicling the band's rehearsal-free recording sessions and innovative studio experimentation, the book is less about interpersonal drama and more about how classic tracks like "Foxy Lady," "Purple Haze," and "Hey Joe" were committed to tape. Among those interviewed are studio gurus like George Chkiantz and Andrew Loog Oldham, as well as Hendrix's amp and fuzzbox alchemist buddies, Jim Marshall and Roger Mayer. Readers thus get a feel for the studio trivialities and how revolutionary Jimi's fuzzy guitar sound actually was. Unfortunately, Egan did not interview Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, who offers an account in Jimi Hendrix: Inside the Experience, which he coauthored with John A. Platt. Instead, he relies on Experience bassist Noel Redding and especially on Hendrix's ex-girlfriends, Kathy Etchingham and Linda Keith. An original contribution to the enormous body of Hendrix literature, this is recommended for all libraries.
Eric Hahn, Fargo, ND
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1556524714
• ISBN 13: 9781556524714
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192