Blues (1966-1970)

If I'm honest, the only Hendrix album I've played as much since this anthology came out in 1994 is Electric Ladyland itself. It's nothing against Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, Band of Gypsys, or any other live set or anthology that you or I might be in a mood to champion. It's just that this one turned out to be so shrewd at playing to one of his great strengths—and the one strength that is perhaps most taken for granted about him. He played rings around his generation of guitar players—Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page—particularly when he retired into the sound on which he cut his teeth in the first place, playing all those hardscrabble dates and sessions with the Isley Brothers, King Curtis, and whatnot. He had a real affinity for blues and you don't need to look any further than this for the evidence. In fact, this is exactly the place you need to go. It roams at will through sessions crisscrossing his brief career, cherry-picking, sequencing as much by feel as anything, and somehow turning out a set nigh unto perfect. Whether it's nine more minutes of the epic "Voodoo Chile Blues," versions of his own first blues, "Red House," or live performance, there is some of everything here in this hour-long set. He is generally as loose-limbed as I've ever heard him and the sound is good from track to track. It's always a blues but otherwise the playing styles range wide, solo and with a band, usually on an electric but sometimes an acoustic guitar. Some instrumentals and many long instrumental passages. He plays around with the songs, their structures and thematics, he pushes at the borders with his playing. Lots of long songs here, seven of the 11 are six minutes plus, including a live version of "Hear My Train A Comin'" that's 12 minutes long. Blues wears notably well, an odd comfort in the background frequently worth turning up, lots of cool moods burnished up nice. I like it when he just spontaneously (seeming) starts singing along with the guitar notes as he plays them, emphasizing again how perfectly lyrical his playing was. He made a lot of this just seem so effortless, blah blah. You have heard it all before. But you really can hear just about everything that really counts about Hendrix here. Is this my favorite anthology ever? I'll have to think about that!