Jimi Hendrix

Jimi moved deeper into the galaxy with Axis, his second deathblow aimed squarely at "straights" and "suits." There are no bad Hendrix songs; the only problem is when you think of how he might have felt had he seen how his spirit is exploited and how many "suits" know his music by heart today (all of them). Hendrix couldn't have wanted that.

"I wanna know about the new mother earth/ I wanna hear and see everything," announced
Jimi Hendrix on "Up From the Skies," the mission statement of Axis: Bold As Love, his
second album with his band the Experience. Hendrix's delicate touch on the wah-wah
pedal (a recent invention in 1968) glides and teases airily, drawing the ear into an album
that wanted to take you higher, past gravity or limits of any kind. The late bassist... More >

True believers praise the spaced-out lightness of his second album, released just half a year after Are You Experienced? But since Hendrix immediately heavied up again, figure they're kidding themselves--half the songs are forgettable as songs if fine as recordings, and there's even some pro forma guitar. Not much, though, and to hear Mitchell going wild on tracks even briefer than the debut's is to nudge Keith Moon over on his free-style drumming pedestal. (Grade - ***)