Dig My Freak Flag
I would appear to have prevaricated in deciding about putting
this album into my Top Fifty, when it and Electric
Ladyland are absolute givens to join Are
You Experienced. Rather, I have prevaricated in keeping up with the Top
Fifty, soon [perhaps] to be swelled with the bulk of John Martyn’s albums which
are obvious givens too.
Aix Bold As Love
contains two of the most beautiful songs ever written, by anyone: Little Wing and Castles Made of Sand, the former as magnificent as it gets, with
the latter running it close and excelling in that psychedelic storytelling of
the time.
It’s tempting to want to articulate some mimetic description
of the guitar work, but why bother? Just listen. There are playful elaborations
as Hendrix explores more on this second album in his unassailable trinity of
iconic work, for example on EXP.
The album also contains the all-time great
anti-establishment anthem If 6 Was 9,
resonating as revolution in a teenager’s aural world at the time. It is such a
funky number with its aggressive base and guitar two-step, then there is that jazz
break with walking bass, a guitar that makes those unique noises, the line Point on Mr Businessman/You can’t dress like
me, then rolling drums and the close-to-mic voice of Jimi claiming triumphantly
So let me live my life the way I want to,
and the guitar squeals and wails in its sustained independence.
So many of these songs exemplify the genius of Hendrix [and
producer Chas Chandler – maybe more so him] in framing Jimi’s sound within such
short pop-burst timings. The album was completed in haste in 1967, the same
year as debut album Are You Experienced,
but it does not suffer for that expediency. The lengthy guitar jams are what we
all want to hear, but the songcraft and even pop sensibilities of many of the
songs on this album are what endear and endure. And when we arrive at
relatively lengthy songs like closer Bold
as Love at four minutes, the dramatic storytelling is augmented by the
contrast, and the sweet guitar solo leading to the distortion effects of its finish is
glorious.
No comments:
Post a Comment