Electric Ladyland (Deluxe Edition)

by

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Edit

It's been almost forty years since Jimi Hendrix's untimely death. As part of a reissue program, Experience Hendrix has reissued deluxe editions of his classic studio albums. For this longtime fan, ELECTRIC LADYLAND from 1968 is the ultimate Hendrix album. It's the album where he most fully untilized the studio to create his most enduring album.

There's not much to add to everything that's been written about this album, so I'll limit my comments to what's new with this 2010 edition:

The CD: The sticker on the shrink wrap says "Digitally Remastered," but I'm not sure there is a difference between this and my 1997 reissue. I'm not saying the sound isn't great; I'm just saying I don't notice a difference. [Note: my guess is they are simply playing fast and loose with the wording. After all, it IS digitally remastered; it's just not NEWLY remastered.Both releases were remastered by Eddie Kramer and George Marino.] This reissue contains all 16 original tracks--no bonus material. Running time - 75:27

The Booklet: Thirty-six pages. Lot's of great photos, including an alternate image (which Jimi hated!)from the UK cover photo session. An essay by Derek Taylor. Six pages of Jimi's original handwritten notes for the album. [Everything from the 1997 reissue is included in this booklet with additional photos and some minimal changes in the original layout.]

The DVD: There are no complete songs. A very limited amount of concert footage and nothing filmed during the actual sessions. Mostly on camera interview with original sound engineer Eddie Kramer playing snippets of tracks from the album. Also includes on camera interviews with Chas Chandler, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding. At no time during the video does Jimi talk about the album. Overall, an interesting video, but won't bare repeated viewings. The inclusion of this short DVD is the major difference between this and the 1997 reissue. [The 2010 reissue also has a triple gatefold sleeve.] Running time - 12:15

If the bonus features aren't enough to sway you to pick up this new edition, the price makes it hard not to. However, if you already own the 1997 edition, ten bucks is a bit pricey for a 12-minute DVD.

First off, "Electic ladyland" was remastered for a 3rd time in 1997 and by the Estate of Jimi Hendrix, the brought in no other than the iconic Eddie Kramer (who was the original engineer and produced much of Jimi's original recordings)plus they said on the 1997 remasters to have used the original mix-down tracks, I mean why 13 years later do we all a sudden need a new re-master? Jimi has been "remastered" now so many times its a joke! The catalog first came out on CD in 1990 on reprise records and they sounded like shiet! Then they were very quickly re-mastered, actually within just months of their intitial release, they were deemed so horrible that they were quickly remastered and resold with just a small sticker on the box (they had CD's in long narrow boxes then) the sticker just said "remaster". This wasnt a true remaster but a quicky job using some system called "sonic solutions", a way to remove static and such from the songs, but thats about it, but still big improvment. Also to be noted, Electric ladyland was originally released as a 2 CD set, the remaster changes it to 1 CD. Then in 1993 when Alan Douglas moved to the MCA label, they were agian re-mastered and given new CD covers (dumb idea) they all looked liked the "Voodoo Soup" ill fated CD cover. Those were true remasters and said to use the original mater tapes. Then in 1997 Al and Janie Hendrix wins there lawsuit over Alan Douglass and all the CD's were once again remastered, just 2 stupid years later! The gimmick this time was they went back to the original mix down tracks and remastered from those plus as well as brought back the original artwork. Then now they move to sony/legacy and what do they do.....??? REMASTER the songs......get real!

Then after all that is said....

++ PLUS I can say this: VOODOO CHILD (Slight return) is STILL NOT remastered correctly!

I have this on the original Reprise records vinyl. Voodoo Child starts out with a "hum" or "buzz" in the background, prob from Jimi's amp and it starts out in the left speaker and comes into both speakers within 4 seconds, the buzz tho is heard until the song kicks in after the intro.

The song does NOT fade at all but sounds more like the tape running out. Now this song even had 1 more remaster (if you can believe that!) In 1985 reprise released "Kiss the Sky" a greatest hits and was the very first album to have remastered Jimi songs on it and I first noticed this botch back then, infact the song fades out early and is a few seconds shorter than the original mix put out in 1968. Let me hear it the way Jimi approved it in 1968 with all it's inperfections.

Im just sick of record companies making a huge splash over remastering, you listen to this and listen to the 1997 remaster......the diff is well......you cant tell. many have said these are the same 1997 remasters bogusily being resold as new, whereas some say they are new....whatever the case, its not justifying buying the new cd.....or with the crumy DVD promo film you get with it. Why didnt they throw in the 70 min DVD of the making of Electric ladyland? Na, they want you to buy that as well.