Axis: Bold as Love

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Axis: Bold as Love
Studio album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Released	1 December 1967 (UK) 15 January 1968 (US)
Recorded	May-June, October 1967, Olympic Studios, London, England
Genre	Blues rock, psychedelic rock, acid rock, hard rock
Length	38:49
Label	Track (mono & stereo) Barclay (stereo) Polydor (Europe - different stereo mix only, Overseas - stereo only) Reprise (mono & stereo) MCA (stereo CD & mono LP)
Producer	Chas Chandler
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Rolling Stone link
Jimi Hendrix chronology
Are You Experienced (1967) Axis: Bold as Love (1967) Smash Hits (1968)

Axis: Bold as Love is the second album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Under pressure from their record company to follow-up the successful debut of their May 1967 album Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love was released in the UK in December 1967. It reached #5 in the UK and later, #3 in the US.^[1]

The album was recorded to fulfill the band's contract, which stated that they must produce two albums in 1967. Even so, it was not released in the USA until 1968 due to fears that it may disturb the sales of the first album.^[2] Bassist Noel Redding has noted that this was his favourite of three Experience albums. He plays eight string bass on some tracks.^[2]

Just before the album's completion, Hendrix left the master tapes of side 1 in a taxi. They were never found again, and thus the A-side had to be mixed again quickly.^[2]

In 2003, the album was ranked number 82 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

[edit] Songs

Many of the album's songs were composed with studio recording techniques in mind and as a result were rarely performed live. Only 'Spanish Castle Magic' and 'Little Wing' were performed regularly.^[2] The lyrics of "Spanish Castle Magic" were inspired by 'The Spanish Castle', a dance hall in what is now Des Moines, Washington near Seattle where Hendrix jammed with local rock groups during his high school years.

On 'Little Wing' Hendrix plays his guitar through a Leslie speaker (a revolving speaker which creates a wavering effect, that is typically used with electric organs) for the first time. Hendrix's effects man Roger Mayer then invented the 'Univibe' effects pedal to simulate the Leslie sound for him ( the Uni-Vibe was made by Fumo Mieda an engineer of Shin-Ei company not Roger Mayer. Hendrix started using the Uni-Vibe in the summer of '69 just shortly after the release of the Uni-Vibe. Jimi Hendrix also used the obscure and elusive Jax Vibra Chorus - basically a Uni-Vibe with the addition of tremolo and full/slow repeat time selector - on various recordings.) The intro track, EXP, begins with a few notes from 'Stone Free' (although played one-half step down) and then features a conversation between Mitchell and Hendrix about UFOs, where Mitchell plays a radio host, and Hendrix plays an outerspace alien in the guise of a human named Mr. Paul Caruso, whose voice is gradually slowed down until he eventually takes off in his spaceship, much to the hosts consternation ("But-but-but", he splutters). Paul Caruso was actually a friend of Jimi's from his days in Greenwich Village; a harmonica player who plays on the track 'My Friend', recorded during the Electric Ladyland sessions and which can be found on the album 'First Rays of the New Rising Sun'. 'Up From the Skies' is a jazzy number featuring Mitchell playing with brushes. The song is about a Time traveller who has visited the earth thousands of years in the past, and returns to the present to "find the stars misplaced and the smell of a world, that has burned." 'Wait Until Tomorrow' is a pop-song with an R&B guitar riff with Mitchell and Redding singing backing vocals. The fourth track, 'Ain't No Telling', is a rock song with a complex structure despite its short length. 'Little Wing' is the Indian name of Hendrix's guardian angel. Jimi himself said that it was his impression of the Monterey Pop festival put into the form of a girl. 'If 6 Was 9', the last song on the A-side, is the album's longest track and arguably the most psychedelic; Hendrix plays an old recorder Eddie Kramer says he bought from a street vendor, not a flute and Gary Leeds (Walker Brothers) and Graham Nash use their feet during the outro to make some stomping. The song features prominently on the soundtrack for the 1969 counterculture film, 'Easy Rider'.

'You Got Me Floatin', a rock song opening with a swirling backwards played guitar (which is absent on the mysterious, differently mixed Polydor version of this LP (only available in stereo), which outside of France & UK was the only one available in Europe, opens the second side of the album. The following track, 'Castles Made of Sand', is a ballad also making use of a backwards guitar solo. During the song, Hendrix tells two different tragic stories, but the last one is of a miracle cure (as the dumb and crippled girl about to wheel herself over a cliff, on seeing a vision/spaceship/UFO? jumps up and says "Look a golden winged ship is coming my way". 'She's so Fine', Redding's contribution to the album as a composer, a very British Pop/Rock/Who influenced affair features Redding on lead vocals with help from Mitchell. 'One Rainy Wish' begins as a ballad but develops a rock feel during the chorus that is in a different time signature than the verses.

The title track, 'Bold as Love', is often considered to be the first pop recording to feature a stereo flanging effect.^[2] commonly known as 'Phasing'. The effect can be heard during the outro of the track. The most obvious and probably the one that most directly influenced Jimi to use it was the Small Faces Itchycoo Park. The Beatles had possibly used a mono flanging effect very slightly, if at all earlier than Jimi on the 'Magical Mystery Tour' album and EP.^[3] The song 'Little Miss Lover' was the first to feature a percussive muted wah-wah effect (with the fretboard hand "killing" notes) - a technique that was later adopted by many guitarists.^[4] 'Little Miss Lover' is also notable for being a predecessor of Funk-rock.^{[citation needed]} The album is included in the book '1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'.

[edit] Album cover

Hendrix was somewhat disappointed with the album's cover art. Although he appreciated the symbolic design, he had requested cover art that showcased his "Indian" heritage. The British art designers who created the cover assumed that he meant India the South Asian country, not the Native American people, and thus the album's cover has a photographed copy of a cheap, mass produced religious poster of the Hindu devotional painting known as 'Viraat Purushan-Vishnuroopam' showing the different forms of Vishnu with a small, superimposed painting of the group by Roger Law (from a photo portrait by Karl Ferris) blended in^[5]. In November a giant B&W blow up of the fantastic day-glo pink, orange & blue offset litho print over gold foil, Haphash/Osiris poster featuring Hendrix dressed as a Native American, wearing a feathered War Bonnet, was used as a background to his appearance on 'Hoepla', a controversial Dutch TV show. This poster, although produced later in London, and supposedly commissioned by Hendrix has text along the top to make it appear as if it was an original poster, advertising his (post Monterey) 1967 Fillmore concerts, this design was possibly what he had in mind. Original prints of this poster are probably all in collections and only later copies occasionally come up for sale at huge prices. The original Track UK issue came in a gatefold sleeve with a large B&W portrait photo of the group by Donald Silverstein spread over the inside and an orange sheet insert with overprinted lyrics in red, the allegedly high cost of this packaging was a topic of note in the music press. The USA issue had no insert and instead of the group photo inside, had the lyrics. In Europe, the Polydor issue had no lyrics and unfortunately stuck an inch wide white border round the inside portrait, spoiling its effect, while the French dispensed with the original cover entirely and put it in a dull single sleeve with a photo of the group taken from a recent French TV show on the front.

[edit] Track listing

The last recording by Jimi Hendrix to also have a dedicated mono mix, this was (only?) released in the UK & USA. Also released in stereo world wide. The Polydor release (at least in Europe) mysteriously had a different mix from that released in UK, France, USA & Rest of the World (Polydor). All songs by Jimi Hendrix, except where noted.

[edit] Side one

1. "EXP" – 1:55
2. "Up from the Skies" – 2:55
3. "Spanish Castle Magic" – 3:00
4. "Wait Until Tomorrow" – 3:00
5. "Ain't No Telling" – 1:46
6. "Little Wing" – 2:24
7. "If 6 Was 9" – 5:32

[edit] Side two

1. "You Got Me Floatin'" – 2:45
2. "Castles Made of Sand" – 2:46
3. "She's So Fine" (Noel Redding) – 2:37
4. "One Rainy Wish" – 3:40
5. "Little Miss Lover" – 2:20
6. "Bold as Love" – 4:09

[edit] Covers

'Little Wing' has become one of Hendrix's best-known songs. It was covered three years after its initial release by Eric Clapton's short lived band, Derek and the Dominos. The song was also popularized as an instrumental rock song by Stevie Ray Vaughan. Kirk Hammett of Metallica covered the song on live performances, Skid Row (not the original group of that name) released a live version of it on their EP B-Side Ourselves, and Sting included an adult contemporary rendition of the song on his '...Nothing Like the Sun' album. Irish band The Corrs also recorded a cover of the song on their album 'Talk On Corners' and on their 'Unplugged' album.

Another notable musician who has covered a song from 'Axis: Bold as Love' is Brian May who covered 'One Rainy Wish' on his 'Another World' album. John Mayer covered 'Wait Until Tomorrow' on 'Try!' and 'Bold as Love' on 'Continuum'. Joan Osborne, of 'What if God was one of us' fame also covered 'Bold as Love' on 'How Sweet It Is'. The Pretenders also covered 'Bold as Love' on the 1993 Hendrix tribute album 'Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix'.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded covers of 'Little Miss Lover' and 'Castles Made Of Sand' for possible inclusion on their album 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik'. They were later released as bonus tracks on the iTunes rerelease of the album. They also released a live cover of 'Castles Made of Sand' on 'Out In LA' and later the re-release of their album 'Mother's Milk'.

In the movie 'School of Rock', the band's director Dewey Finn, played by Jack Black, gives guitarist Zack a copy of 'Axis: Bold as Love'.

Phish has also covered some of Jimi's songs, including 'Bold as Love', on live CDs and concerts.

Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil covered 'Wait Until Tomorrow' on their album Tropicalia 25.

[edit] Personnel

• Jimi Hendrix – guitar, vocals, bass, piano, flute, voice of 'Mr. Paul Caruso' on 'EXP'
• Mitch Mitchell – drums, glockenspiel on 'Little Wing', backing vocals, "interviewer" on 'EXP'
• Noel Redding – bass, backing vocals, foot stamping on 'If 6 Was 9', lead vocals on 'She's So Fine'. (An eight string bass is used on several tracks.)
• Gary Leeds – foot stamping on 'If 6 Was 9'
• Graham Nash – foot stamping on 'If 6 Was 9'
• Michael Jeffery – foot stamping on 'If 6 Was 9'
• Trevor Burton – back-up vocals on 'You've Got Me Floatin
• Roy Wood – back-up vocals on 'You've Got Me Floatin
• Chas Chandler – producer and foot stamping on 'If 6 Was 9'
• Eddie Kramer – Chief engineer

• Engineers: George Chkiantz, Andy Johns and Terry Brown
• Recorded at: Olympic Studios, London, England.
• Cover design: David King, Roger Law, painted heads based on a Karl Ferris group portrait (front)
• Photography: Donald Silverstein (UK inner portrait)
• CD Remastering supervisors: Janie Hendrix, John McDermott
• CD Remastering: Joe Gastwirt, Eddie Kramer, George Marino
• CD Inlay design: Petra Niemeier
• CD Liner notes: Michael Fairchild
• CD Liner photography: David Sygall

[edit] External links

• Information about The Spanish Castle, a legendary Seattle area dance hall where Jimi Hendrix gave some of his earliest performances
• More information about The Spanish Castle and Jimi Hendrix's early days

[edit] References

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