Axis: Bold as Love

Axis: Bold as Love
Studio album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Released	1 December 1967 (UK) 15 January 1968 (US)
Recorded	May-June, October 1967, Olympic Studios, London, England
Genre	Psychedelic rock, hard rock, blues-rock, psychedelic soul, funk rock, acid rock
Length	38:49
Label	Track, Reprise, MCA
Producer	Chas Chandler
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Rolling Stone link
The Jimi Hendrix Experience chronology
Are You Experienced (1967) Axis: Bold as Love (1967) Electric Ladyland (1968)

Axis: Bold as Love is the second album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Under pressure from their record company to follow-up the successful debut of their May 1967 album Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love was released in the UK in December 1967. It reached #5 in the UK and later, #3 in the US. The album was recorded under a pressure from recording deal according to which the group had to deliver two albums in 1967. However it was released in the US not until 1968 because it was thought it may disturb the unexpected sales of the first album.^[1] Bassist Noel Redding has noted that this was his favorite of three Experience albums. He plays eight string bass on many tracks.^[1]. At the time when the album was almost finished Hendrix forgot the master tapes of A-side in a taxi. They were never found again and thus the A-side had to be mixed again quickly.^[1]

Contents 1 Songs 2 Album cover 3 Track listing 3.1 Side one 3.2 Side two 4 Covers 5 Personnel 6 External links 7 References

Songs

Many of the album's songs were composed with studio recording techniques in mind and as a result, were rarely performed live. Only "Spanish Castle Magic" and "Little Wing" were performed regularly.^[1] The lyrics of "Spanish Castle Magic" were inspired by The Spanish Castle, a dance hall in what is now Des Moines, Washington near Seattle where Hendrix jammed with local rock groups during his high school years. Hendrix plays his guitar through a Leslie speaker for the first time, an amplifier that is typically used with electric organs. Because of a simultaneous distortion effect, the resulting sound does not resemble that of an organ. During later recordings and live performances, Hendrix used a "Univibe" effects pedal to simulate the Leslie sound without using a real speaker. The intro track begins with a few notes from "Stone Free" and then features a conversation between Mitchell and Hendrix about UFOs. A person mentioned, Paul Carusoe, is a harmonica player who plays on the track "My Friend" from the album, First Rays of the New Rising Sun. "Up From the Skies" features Mitchell playing with brushes. The song is about a space creature who has visited the earth thousands of years in the past, and returns to the present to see how it has changed. "Wait Until Tomorrow" is a pop-song with a R&B guitar riff with Mitchell and Redding singing backing vocals. The fourth track, "Ain't No Telling", is a rock song with a complex structure despite its short length. "Little Wing" is the Indian name of Hendrix's guardian angel (like "Waterfall", that is mentioned in the song "May this Be Love" on the debut album).^[1] "If 6 Was 9", the last song on the A-side, is the album's longest track and arguably the most psychedelic; Hendrix plays a small Indian flute and Chas Chandler and Graham Nash use their feet during the outro to make some stomping. The song features prominently on the soundtrack for the 1969 counterculture film, Easy Rider. "You Got Me Floatin'", a typical rock song featuring a backwards played guitar, opens the second side of the album. The following track, "Castles Made of Sand", is a "dylanesque" ballad also making use of a backwards guitar solo. During the song, Hendrix tells three different stories about disappointments or failures. "She's so Fine", Redding's contribution to the album as a composer, features Redding on lead vocals with help from Mitchell. "One Rainy Wish" begins as a ballad but develops a rock feel during the chorus that is in a different time signature than the verses. The title track, "Bold as Love", is often considered to be the first pop recording to feature a stereo flanging effect.^[1] The effect can be heard during the outro of the track. The Beatles had notably used a mono flanging effect some time earlier on the Magical Mystery Tour album and EP.^[2] The song "Little Miss Lover" was the first to feature a percussive muted wahwah effect (with the fretboard hand "killing" notes) - a technique that was later adopted by many guitarists.^[3] "Little Miss Lover" is also notable for being a predecessor of Funk-rock. The album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Album cover

Hendrix was somewhat disappointed with the album's cover art. Although he appreciated the symbolic design, he had requested cover art that showcased his "Indian" heritage. The British art designers who created the cover assumed that he meant India the South Asian country, not the Native American race, and thus created cover art that depicts Hendrix and his Experience bandmates as the Vedic deities Durga and Vishnu. The album's cover is inspired by traditional Hindu representations of the revelation of Krishna's universal form to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita.

Track listing

All songs by Jimi Hendrix, except where noted.

Side one

1. "EXP" – 1:55
2. "Up from the Skies" – 2:55
3. "Spanish Castle Magic" – 3:00
4. "Wait Until Tomorrow" – 3:00
5. "Ain't No Telling" – 1:46
6. "Little Wing" – 2:24
7. "If 6 Was 9" – 5:32

Side two

1. "You Got Me Floatin'" – 2:45
2. "Castles Made of Sand" – 2:46
3. "She's So Fine" (Noel Redding) – 2:37
4. "One Rainy Wish" – 3:40
5. "Little Miss Lover" – 2:20
6. "Bold as Love" – 4:09

Covers

"Little Wing" has become one of Hendrix's best-known songs. It was covered three years after its initial release by Eric Clapton's short lived band, Derek and the Dominos. The song was also popularized as an instrumental rock song by Stevie Ray Vaughan. Kirk Hammett of Metallica covered the song on live performances, Skid Row released a live version of it on their EP B-Side Ourselves, and Sting included an adult contemporary rendition of the song on his ...Nothing Like the Sun album. Irish band The Corrs also recorded a cover of the song on their album Talk On Corners and on their Unplugged album. Another notable musician who has covered a song from Axis: Bold as Love is Brian May who covered "One Rainy Wish" on his Another World album. John Mayer covered "Wait Until Tomorrow" on Try! and "Bold as Love" on Continuum. Joan Osborn, of 'What if God was one of us' fame also covered "Bold as Love" on How Sweet It Is. The Pretenders also covered "Bold as Love" on the 1993 Hendrix tribute album Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix. The Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded a cover of "Little Miss Lover" for possible inclusion on their album Blood Sugar Sex Magik. It was later released as a B-side. They also released a live cover of "Castles Made of Sand" on the re-release of their album Mother's Milk. In the movie School of Rock, the band's director Jack Black gives the guitarist a copy of "Axis: Bold as Love". Phish has also covered some of Jimi's songs, including "Bold as Love", on live CDs and concerts. Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil covered "Wait Until Tomorrow" on their album Tropicalia 25.

Personnel

• Jimi Hendrix – guitar, vocals, bass, piano, flute, voice of "Mr. Paul Caruso" on "EXP"
• Mitch Mitchell – drums, glockenspiel on "Little Wing", backing vocals, "interviewer" on "EXP"
• Noel Redding – bass, backing vocals, foot stamping on "If 6 Was 9", lead vocals on "She's So Fine." (An eight string bass is used on several tracks.)
• Gary Leeds – foot stamping on "If 6 Was 9"
• Graham Nash – foot stamping on "If 6 Was 9"
• Michael Jeffery – foot stamping on "If 6 Was 9"
• Trevor Burton – back-up vocals on "You've Got Me Floatin'"
• Roy Wood – back-up vocals on "You've Got Me Floatin'"
• Chas Chandler – producer and foot stamping on "If 6 Was 9"
• Eddie Kramer – engineer
• Producer: Chas Chandler
• Engineers: Terry Brown, Eddie Kramer
• Recorded at: Olympic Studios, London, England.
• Remastering supervisors: Janie Hendrix, John McDermott
• Remastering: Joe Gastwirt, Eddie Kramer, George Marino
• Design: David King,
• Cover design: David King, Roger Law
• Inlay design: Petra Niemeier
• Photography: Karl Ferris, Gered Mankowitz, Linda McCartney
• Liner notes: Michael Fairchild
• Liner photography: David Sygall

External links

• Information about The Spanish Castle, a legendary Seattle area dance hall where Jimi Hendrix gave some of his earliest performances
• More information about The Spanish Castle and Jimi Hendrix's early days

References

This box:  •  • edit Jimi Hendrix

Bands The Jimi Hendrix Experience • Gypsy Sun and Rainbows • Band of Gypsys • The Cry of Love Related bands: The Dirty Mac • The Noel Redding Band • Ramatam • The Gypsy Sun Experience Personnel Noel Redding • Mitch Mitchell • Billy Cox • Buddy Miles • Larry Lee • Juma Sultan • Jerry Velez Discography Original releases Studio albums: Are You Experienced (1967) • Axis: Bold as Love (1967) • Electric Ladyland (1968) Live albums: Band of Gypsys (1970) Compilations: Smash Hits (1969) Posthumous releases Studio albums: The Cry of Love (1971) • Rainbow Bridge (1971) • War Heroes (1972) • Loose Ends (1973) • Crash Landing (1975) • Midnight Lightning (1975) • Nine to the Universe (1980) Live albums: Monterey International Pop Festival (1970) • "Experience": Original Soundtrack from the Feature Length Motion Picture (1971) • Isle of Wight (1971) • Hendrix in the West (1972) • More "Experience" (1972) • Soundtrack Recordings from the Film "Jimi Hendrix" (1973) • The Jimi Hendrix Concerts (1982) • Jimi Plays Monterey (1986) • Live at Winterland (1987) • (1994) • Live in Denmark (1995) • Live at the Oakland Coliseum (1998) • Woke up this Morning and Found Myself Dead (1998) • Live at the Fillmore East (1999) • Live at Clark University (1999) • Live at Woodstock (1999) • Live in Ottawa (2001) • Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight (2002) • Jimi Hendrix: Live at Berkeley (2003) • Stockholm Concert (2004) • Live at the Isle of Fehmarn (2005) • Live at Monterey (2007) Compilations and box sets: Jimi Hendrix (1972) • The Essential Jimi Hendrix (Vol. 1) (1978) • The Essential Jimi Hendrix (Vol. 2) (1979) • The Singles Album (1983) • Kiss the Sky (1984) • Johnny B. Goode (1986) • Band of Gypsys 2 (1986) • Radio One (1988) • (1990) • Sessions (1991) • Footlights (1991) • Stages (1991) • The Ultimate Experience (1993) • Bleeding Heart (1994) • Blues (1994) • Voodoo Soup (1995) • First Rays of the New Rising Sun (1997) • South Saturn Delta (1997) • BBC Sessions (1998) • Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix (1998) • The Jimi Hendrix Experience (2000) • Morning Symphony Ideas (2000) • Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection (2001) • The Summer of Love Sessions (2001) • The Baggy's Rehearsal Sessions (2002) • Astro Man (2003) • Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Jimi Hendrix (2003) • Axis Outtakes (2003) • Live in Copenhagen (2004) • Hear My Music (2004) • (2005) • Rainy Day Dream Away (2006) • Burning Desire (2006) • Jimi Hendrix His Greatest Hits (2006) Anticipated releases Black Gold Songs "All Along the Watchtower" • "Angel" • "Astroman" • "Bold as Love" • "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" • "Castles Made of Sand" • "Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)" • "Fire" • "Foxy Lady" • "Freedom" • "Gypsy Eyes" • "Hey Joe" • "I Don't Live Today" • "If 6 Was 9" • "Little Wing" • "Machine Gun" • "Manic Depression" • "My Friend" • "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" • "Purple Haze" • "Red House" • "Spanish Castle Magic" • "The Star-Spangled Banner" • "Stone Free" • "Third Stone from the Sun" • "Up from the Skies" • "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" • "Voodoo Chile" • "Wild Thing" • "The Wind Cries Mary" Related articles Early life of Jimi Hendrix • Electric Lady Studios • Jimi Hendrix's musical equipment • Management: Chas Chandler, Michael Jeffery Monika Dannemann • Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix