Are You ExPOLLienced

Are there really 17 tracks on this album?

Combined Tracklisting for US & UK.

Utilized on most if not all CD editions.

I was also tempted to poll the US vs UK editions but this will have to do.

xp yep

LOL British edition leaves out "Purple Haze", "Hey Joe" AND "The Wind Cries Mary"!

Or rather, the US edition just sticks them on there, regardless.

Hendrix reportedly wanted to include 'Red House' in the US edition (11 first tracks of this poll) but the suits shut him down, because 'American audiences don't like the blues'.

Third Stone is the choice that makes the most sense. Mitch rules

I'm leaning that way but "Purple Haze" and "May This Be Love" are also strong contenders.

this has always been a really hard band and album for me to get into, but feel like it makes a little more sense to me lately because of the moment

the guitar stuff is impressive but I'm not that interested in it

Guitar stuff aside (if that's even possible here), I do think Are You Experienced is his best set of songs.

have always hated Purple Haze

going to go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe this isn't the poll for you

Lol

I might go for "May This Be Love" too.

became obssessed with love or confusion after the ballot poll, so went with that

This will be quite difficult.

Yeah, my first instinct was to go with 'Third Stone from the Sun' but having just listened to the whole thing again… I don't know if I can do this.

It may well be my single favourite 1967 LP.

I haven’t listened to this whole album in decades; I always go for Electric Ladyland or the Band of Gypsys material (live and studio). Will re-listen before voting, but in my head it’s either “Foxey Lady” or “Manic Depression”.

"Third Stone from the Sun" does totally rule.

Really I supposed I should just vote for this here: the finest of display names only

Suppose

"Are You Experienced?" is an amazing production. It would take some work even with current software to recreate what they did with tape speeds and reversing with a couple of 4 track tape decks.

Jimi might have tunes that exceed it, but for sonic trip, this is one of the most far out productions that lands on its feet from the era.

the guitar stuff is impressive but I'm not that interested in it

All that hard rock sure is impressive but I’m not really interested in riffs

the guitar stuff is impressive but I'm not that interested in it

All that hard rock sure is impressive but I’m not really interested in riffs

the guitar stuff is impressive but I'm not that interested in it

All that hard rock sure is impressive but I’m not really interested in riffs

Ah fuck

Dan S, how do you feel about this version?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dE65iTuG4Y

I (even) like this version: https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2014/04/11/dion-purple-haze/

makes me understand I just don't like purple haze, regardless of the interpretation

Would you like with effects?
Would you like it with The Lex?

Fair enough.

xp

That Dion cover is quite the reinterpretation. Anyway, it totally works.

I kind of like May This Be Love, The Wind Cries Mary, Hey Joe

and also maybe Are You Experienced

Axis is like twice as strong as this album

Love Axis but that's crazy talk.

the dion "purple haze" is so so good

my vote here is "the wind cries mary"

incomparable

Looking at the list, it is interesting considering how iconic an LP this is that Hendrix had really left most of this out of the live set lists as his career went on. 'Red House' might be the tune with the most carry over into gigs.

whispers / cries / screams

i'm gonna vote for "fire" because it's sick

manic depression's a frustrating mess...and the song i'm voting for

Wow, yes, "Fire", what a banger.

MM rules even more than usual on that one.

It's probably between Purple Haze, Manic Depression, and The Wind Cries Mary. Leaning towards Mary today, but I suspect I may quickly change my mind.

I do think the other 2 Experience albums are considerably stronger, but this is is still great.

voted "I Don't Live Today", cosmic isolation blues, voice & riff in angry synch, my favorite Jimi chorus, a song of experience, salvation is just a trip away

favorite track changes all the time. after many years and countless listens - love or confusion

The Wind Cries Mary

I feel like my answer changes all the time and will always change even if I live for a thousand years. feeling “foxy lady” at the moment, but who knows

Torn between 'Love or Confusion' and 'I Don't Live Today'.

The only Jimi I've ever really needed. "Manic Depression" still gets my #1 vote, as it did in our Jimi poll a few months back.

Went with Manic Depression but that was brutal.

can I get a version with less braggoddoccio

The sublime guitar intro to "Love or Confusion."

manic d is good but i’m not sold on the two note riff

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Fire. But I don't like the Experienced records nearly as much as Band of Gypsys or literally any live show from 1969/1970. He was a good songwriter, but I'd rather hear him improvise for...ever, than hear Hey Joe or any of the hits again, which I love. "Good songwriter" feels like a slight, but he's definitely not a great songwriter. I should revisit, not only for the songs but the production, which always struck me as cool but dated, like the third track on Younger Than Yesterday, that fucking stupid alien high pitched voice bit the Byrds inserted into an otherwise catchy pop song. I mean, then again, this is comparing--and I know this is a different record--the fantastic production of "Cross Town Traffic" with the superhuman playing on "Machine Gun."

I agree with you in theory, but having just revisited Band of Gypsys, I still can't get over how problematic Billy Cox and Buddy Miles's contributions tend to be (and I'm not just talking about the comically overambitious vocal work, although that is by far the worst offender). Hendrix undoubtedly had the right idea when he hired them on and I, too, am more taken with his improvisational skills than I am with his songwriting, but so much of the resulting material is painfully hypothetical, drowning in a sea of 'what ifs?' On balance, Are You Experienced is a 'safer' record when viewed from the vantage point of what was still in the offing at the time, but even if you replace it in the context of 1967 – not just any year for music, mind you – it pwns 99% of the competition (especially Sgt. fucking Pepper). More importantly, I don't have any serious reservations about a single one of its songs, all the more so if we stick to the original US edition (I agree with Hendrix that 'Red House' should've been included, though).

I don't either, I like the record. I don't think it comes close to Sgt. Pepper but it's obviously cream. And again I'm only mild on it knowing what he was capable of in another realm. I hear Cox/Miles complaints all the time I get it, certainly for the scatting, but I think their playing really serves Jimi through most of the record, especially all the way through Machine Gun. but I never minded the scatting that much. I get it though lol

Idk unlike sgt pepper, I don’t have to skip any bullshit on this album, even with all the bonus tracks.

This poll is cruelty of the highest order but I chose Highway Chile because that riff is so goddamn hot

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

woah that is unexpected.

possibly a crime, even

I didn't vote before the deadline! Add another vote for "Third Stone".

Good thing after much internal debate I voted for "Hey Joe."

glad you did

Hey Joe is fantastic

Highway Chili

(Slight Return)

In revisiting this album, I think I was most struck by the impression of someone not only pioneering a genre, but expanding on it in all the different ways that these individual songs do. I think this album does posit Hendrix as a great songwriter, whether or not he was able to keep proving that time and again over the few years he had left in this world.