It was a bio-pic fantasy. The scene: Outside a London venue where Jimi Hendrix is performing for the first time. Leaving the club, Pete Townshend encounters Jeff Beck, just arriving. Beck asks, “Is he that bad?” Townshend replies, “No, he’s that good!”

Springing from America’s R&B landscape, Jimi Hendrix was indeed that good; the real thing – something studious Brits only imagined and glimpsed in smatterings from records and rare visits by Muddy Waters and Big Bill Broonzy. Brought to England by manager/producer Chas Chandler (and former Animals bassist) on September 24, 1966, he assembled The Jimi Hendrix Experience with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, and immediately established his preeminence and sphere of influence. After he opened for Cream on October 1 at London Polytechnic, Clapton’s reaction was akin to his colleagues, saying, “He walked off and my life was never the same again.”

Shortly afterward, the world reached a similar consensus.

Are You Experienced? marked the sound of music changing. Its impact is still reverberating; rock guitar is perceived as pre- or post-Hendrix, begun with Experienced?. Recorded between October ’66 and April ’67 at London’s DeLane Lea (DLL, a facility for dubbing movie and television scores), CBS, and Olympic studios on four-track tape machines, it’s the debut of a sweepingly influential artist, a masterpiece commensurate with the Beatles’ Revolver, and an album for the ages. Released in Britain on May 12 on The Who’s Track label, it boasted a divergent program blending psychedelic, blues, R&B/funk, ballads, pop/rock, avant-garde, prototypical metal, and world music. An immediate critical and commercial success, it remains a milestone opus. Like early Beatles and Stones albums, U.K and U.S. versions differed with singles typically omitted in England.

Before Hendrix touched it, “Hey Joe” had been recorded by numerous L.A. rock bands including the Leaves, Standells, Surfaris, Music Machine, Byrds and Love, as well as folkie Tim Rose, and even Cher. But Hendrix didn’t just cover “Hey Joe” – he owned it, and it remains a telling example of his eclectic style. Sporting a slower tempo reminiscent of Rose’s version, its moody feel was conducive to his colorful lead/rhythm approach, epitomized in the intro phrase [A]. Note his blues allusions and mix of open sonorities and chord-melody fills. His solo [B] is singable and succinct; posing simple E-minor pentatonic/blues melody over the cycle-of-fifths progression: C-G-D-A-E.

In America, it was released August 23. The stunning opener, “Purple Haze” was Jimi’s second original composition and second U.K. hit single, where it was released in March ’67, backed with “51st Anniversary.” Begun at DLL in mid January, it was the first to feature Hendrix using the Octavia and heavy fuzz, necessitating specific mastering directions: “Deliberate distortion. Do not correct.” The tune is distinguished by a menacing tritone guitar-bass intro, fuzzed funk comping that exploited a jazz-inspired E7#9 altered chord (subsequently entered into the vernacular as the “Hendrix chord”), the solo’s Asian melodic references (reputedly played on a borrowed Telecaster), and psychedelic overtones in sonics and lyrics. During the first session with Eddie Kramer at Olympic, they adopted an unorthodox procedure for basic tracks – recording stereo drums with bass and rhythm guitar on remaining tracks, then mixing down and reducing to two. This left room for vocal and guitar overdubs, satisfying Chandler’s need for more tracks, fewer takes, and Jimi’s perfectionism. Guitar and vocals were tracked and printed with effects (fuzz, reverb, echo, etc) facilitating easier mixing. Kramer used close and distant miking for amps and (along with conventional microphones) experimented with Beyerdynamic M160 ribbon mics, typically avoided at high volume levels. Jimi re-recorded vocals and lead guitar and they added Redding’s background vocals, sped-up/panned Octavia licks in the coda, and ambient sounds including phrases played back through headphones, then miked.

“Manic Depression,” recorded March 29 at DLL then re-mixed at Olympic, found JHE transforming a lilting waltz into driving rock laced with feedback, a vital color in Jimi’s palette. Propelled by Mitchell’s jazz-inspired drumming, they developed powerful forward motion through driving parallel guitar/bass riffs. The solo, begun with vocal/guitar duetting, is one of Jimi’s most-aggressive and expressive blues-rock statements.

“Hey Joe” was the Experience’s maiden voyage. Billy Roberts’ reinterpreted folk number became a rock standard, and their leader’s signature song. It exemplified his chordal style and cleaner Strat timbres through Marshall stacks – played so loud only distant miking (approximately 12 feet) was considered viable by DLL engineers. It featured his soulful melodic blues solo and backing vocals by an English female vocal trio, the Breakaways. Henceforth, Chandler insisted Hendrix write original music, and he delivered “Stone Free.” Based on “Mr. Bad Luck,” from his Jimmy James period, the groove piece with minimal overdubs blended R&B/rock with counterculture themes. It’s Jeff Beck’s favorite Hendrix composition for its amalgam of Buddy Guy and Les Paul – a combination only Jimi could muster. The first single “Hey Joe”/“Stone Free,” released December 16 on Polydor, reached #6 in England in early ’67.

“Love or Confusion,” a paean to psychedelic delirium, began with basic tracks at CBS on December 13 and reduced at Olympic on April 4, where Jimi overdubbed vocals and lead guitar. The latter included numerous counter-line fills, droning modality (Mixolydian G-F chords), a wealth of groundbreaking Hendrix ingredients – toggle-switch flicking, fuzzed octaves, feedback, whammy-bar flourishes – and a vaguely Asian/blues-inflected solo that is a mini-composition.

The promise made by “Purple Haze” was fulfilled with “Foxey Lady,” JHE’s third U.S. single. Appropriately, Hendrix seasons a thematic F#m7 main riff with occasional ad-lib inclusion of the closely-related “Hendrix chord,” F#7#9. His blues-based solo, rich in distortion, string bends and ostinato figures, reflects the minor tonality with its emphasis on F#m pentatonic melody. He enlarges the sound with the modal addition of G# in measures 3 and 6, momentarily generating an F#m hexatonic scale – an ear-catching aspect of his improvisation.

“May This Be Love” was recorded during a productive eight-hour session on April 3 (at Olympic) that also saw “Highway Chile.” Jimi’s gentle love ballad, with its major-mode sweetness, complemented the bluesy hard rock, funk grooves, and psychedelia on Experienced?. It featured rare slide-guitar effects (drenched in echo) and smooth rolling Steve Cropper-inspired accompaniment evoking “waterfall” imagery, contrasted by heavier funk rhythms in the bridge. Jimi’s lyrical solo, heavily panned for a quasi backward effect with subtle embellishments and pastoral feel acts as an instrumental extension of the innocent, almost sentimental, story line and is one of his most-memorable melodic moments.

“I Don’t Live Today” was psychedelic hard rock dedicated to Native Americans and other oppressed groups. Scheduling forced JHE to return to DLL for basics on February 20, though the vocal was recorded later at Olympic. Known for its darker libretto suggesting a Goth precursor, it was animated by a tribal rhythm groove with ubiquitous feedback, sported a sitar-like solo with vibrato decorations (backed by fuzzed octaves), and utilized a manual wah effect pre-dating the pedal (which he acquired after July ’67). Noteworthy is Jimi’s deceptive two-bar funk intro that immediately veers into heavy guitar-bass verse riffs.

“The Wind Cries Mary,” another ballad standing in stark contrast to Jimi’s progressive experimentation and aggression, merged Curtis Mayfield R&B chording and Bob Dylan poetic influences. The basic track was recorded in one take (without rehearsals) to which Hendrix added guitar overdubs, all accomplished in 20 minutes at DLL. On the recommendation of Brian Jones and Bill Wyman, Chandler took JHE to Olympic, where Polydor established credit for future dates. There, in post-production in early February, “Mary” became the first to feature Hendrix’s thoughtful overdubbing to create an intricate five-guitar composite. Released in May ’of 67, it was his third single, backed by “Highway Chile” in the U.K.), “Purple Haze” in the U.S.

Capturing the basic track to “Fire” required seven takes at DLL; modern funk/rock infused with sexual innuendo, it was a concert favorite, drawing on Jimi’s chitlin-circuit background; advancing the genre from James Brown roots to anticipate the post-’60s R&B of Sly Stone, Parliament, and Prince. JHE re-worked “Fire” at Olympic in early February, re-recorded drum and guitar parts, and doubling Redding’s bass for heavier low-end. The piece featured parallel guitar-bass riffs and Mitchell’s hyperkinetic drumming. Jimi’s structured solos were doubled (one with Octavia), functioning more as thematic instrumental interludes than free improvisation.

The promise made by “Purple Haze” was fulfilled with “Foxey Lady,” JHE’s third U.S. single. Appropriately, Hendrix seasons a thematic F#m7 main riff with occasional ad-lib inclusion of the closely-related “Hendrix chord,” F#7#9. His blues-based solo, rich in distortion, string bends and ostinato figures, reflects the minor tonality with its emphasis on F#m pentatonic melody. He enlarges the sound with the modal addition of G# in measures 3 and 6, momentarily generating an F#m hexatonic scale – an ear-catching aspect of his improvisation.

“Third Stone From the Sun” embodied Jimi’s large-scale classical ambitions, sci-fi interests and remains his greatest instrumental. It began as a demo and was reattempted at DLL on January 11 then assembled with new material at Olympic. Influenced by George Stewart’s novel Earth Abides, it presents a sprawling, complicated mix evoking an apocalyptic storyline (extraterrestrials obliterating humankind and its surf music) in a lengthy (nearly seven minutes) sectional piece filled with extravagantly diverse sonic tangents. Notable are the main theme’s Wes Montgomery octaves, hints of flamenco, Coltrane-inspired modality, free-jazz atonality in the “freak-out” section (3:06) and otherworldly sound effects (musique concrete, speed-altered processed dialog conjuring alien dialog) highlighted in the chaotic development by feedback phrases with whammy-bar manipulations emulating sirens, shrieks, explosions, revving motors, and industrial factory sounds. These are preceded by a tranquil intro, theme statements, and a brief episode of blues-guitar improvisation over a rock groove (1:26). Frank Zappa maintained Hendrix should collaborate with a musically literate partner capable of writing and preserving his ideas in notation; guaranteeing they would have permanence at conception and could be rendered by instruments other than electric guitar. Jimi never chose that route, relying instead on intuition and Chandler and Kramer to realize his ends. Nevertheless, this magnum opus and similar JHE innovations subsequently inspired progressive and jazz-rock musicians; engendering elaborations by Miles Davis, Tony Williams, Gil Evans, and Jaco Pastorius as well as blues/rock descendants Robin Trower and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

“Foxey Lady” reflected Chas’ displeasure with the sound at DLL. He opted for CBS’ acoustics to record “Foxey Lady” and backing tracks for “Love or Confusion” and “Can You See Me” on December 13. “Foxey” is an early example of distant-miking loud guitar amps (with a Neumann U-67 condenser mic). On December 15 JHE completed the tracks and recorded “Red House.” Financial disagreements forced JHE’s return to DLL on December 21, where they recorded alternate “Red House” takes and crafted “Remember,” a hybrid soul/rock song; both were later reworked at Olympic, where, on February 8, Jimi and Mitchell added overdubs to “Foxey Lady” and Redding’s new doubled bass line, an attempt to strengthen low-end. The track is remembered for Jimi’s unusual intro of volume-swelled string noise and mounting feedback, and his punchy theme riff that intermingles F#m7 and F#7#9 sonorities. His solo has strong blues-rock implications and illustrates use of modally-tinged pentatonic melody.

“Are You Experienced?” explored the fantasy land of tape manipulation. Basics were recorded April 3 at Olympic, some sections played backward and reduced the next day, making way for Jimi’s vocals, piano notes, and backward/forward guitar overdubs. Jimi became adept at backwards recording. He practiced at home with his own tape recorder and “played in” his parts in real time, anticipating the timing and phraseology of reversed attack/decay envelopes in his licks, instead of exploiting tape loops as originally planned. The practice was taken further than Revolver in these dramatic soundscapes, the rock equivalent of impressionism – music so uncategorizable it could only be described in countercultural terms as psychedelic; in the truest sense, mind-altering. Drones and pedal-point ostinatos suggested Indian music in an unprecedented synthesis of world, electronic, and rock sounds while Jimi’s muted string scrapes as deliberate percussion figures presaged Van Halen’s metallic “neat noises” (“Atomic Punk”).

Are You Experienced? offered an array of novel sounds produced by Jimi’s hands, amps, and processors, and reintroduced the Fender Stratocaster into modern rock implementation. After Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Ventures, and Dick Dale, interest in Fenders declined during the British Invasion, superseded by Gretsch, Rickenbacker, Gibson, and Epiphone guitars. Though the Beatles used Strats in ’65 (Harrison’s solo in “You’re Gonna Lose That Girl”), they were unseen studio instruments. Like Clapton resurrecting the Les Paul on Bluesbreakers, Hendrix reimagined the Strat’s potential; initially resetting its relevance on pre-CBS rosewood-board models. These righties were flipped (vibrato bar and controls on the opposite side) and restrung left-handed with Fender 10-38 sets. He played various incarnations and colors but expressed an early preference for white finishes during his stint with the Isley Brothers (March ’64). Presaging metal and hard-rock predilections, Jimi played very loud using Marshall stacks, with controls maxed, in the studio, and became the company’s greatest ambassador, showcased on Marshall’s ’67 catalog. His first order, delivered October 11 of ’66, included three 100-watt Super Lead heads and four 4×12 cabinets. He also used Fender Twin-Reverb amps for recording. Jimi’s effects included a Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face and Roger Mayer Octavia (acquired December ’66). He later added King Vox-Wah and Uni-Vibe pedals.

Wolf Marshall is the founder and original Editor-In-Chief of GuitarOne magazine. A respected author and columnist, he has been influential in contemporary music education since the early 1980s. His latest book is Jazz Guitar Course: Mastering the Jazz Language. Others include 101 Must-Know Rock Licks, B.B. King: the Definitive Collection, and Best of Jazz Guitar. A list credits can be found at wolfmarshall.com.

This article originally appeared in VG’s September 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.