Before I had my own stereo, I saved up my allowance for a Walkman, and for probably a year or so I had only one tape: "Are You Experienced?" In fact it was a dubbed copy of my dad's tape, and the blank tape I used was so much longer than the album that there were over 15 minutes of silence at the end on each side. I probably used twice as many batteries just fast-forwarding so I could start it all over again. I don't know how many times I listened to it. Now, this is a rock album, more so than any other Hendrix album, but to me it will always be a headphone album. The hazes, confusions, depressions, waterfalls, sunsets, itching desires, jacks, clowns, the wind, it all sounds like inner space to me. The emotions touched on are all over the map and they are all raw: whether Hendrix is serenading his waterfall/rainbow, or lamenting that he can't tell the difference between love and confusion, he is always wearing his heart on his sleeve. Obviously this album will always be heralded mostly for Jimi's guitar work, but his singing is just as impressive, in my opinion. He is the greatest singer ever not to be that good of a singer, taking his limited voice to heights of expression that Bob Dylan could only dream of. And he's a poet too; check the laments of the curious alien sampling Earth for the first time on "Third Stone From the Sun", or the ethereal word-painting of "The Wind Cries Mary". And, yes, the guitar is jaw-droppingly awesome throughout. There's not a ton of shredding on "Are You Experienced," but the delayed blips and bloops of "May This Be Love", the reversed pick scrapes of the title track, the dreamy melodies of "Third Stone from the Sun" and the wah-wah/whammy meltdown at the end of "I Don't Live Today" say more with a few notes (they might not even *be* notes) than any other guitarist could say with hundreds. "Are You Experienced" is the greatest rock album ever recorded.
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