In the 56 years since it was built, New York’s Electric Lady Studios has hosted such iconic musicians as Led Zeppelin (who recorded parts of Houses Of The Holy there), David Bowie (Young Americans), Taylor Swift (the Taylor’s Version editions of Fearless, Folklore, and Red); Patti Smith (Horses), Stevie Wonder (Talking Book), Kiss (Destroyer and Asylum), Frank Ocean (Blond), Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga (Love For Sale), and on and on and on.
Even Prince, who had his own studio at the time, Paisley Park Studios, used it when recording his album Graffiti Bridge.
But now and forever it shall be known as the place that Jimi built.
Well, not physically, of course;
Jimi Hendrix had other things for his fingers to do. But Electric Lady Studios was the brainchild of the legendary guitarist, singer, and songwriter.
How it all came to be is the subject of the documentary Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision, which is now available, alongside music Hendrix recorded in his studio, as a 3CD/1BD or 5LP/1BD boxed set of the same name (a digital edition of just the music is also available).
Though for fans of the man — and, more importantly, a certain era of his music — the doc is the least important part of this box.
In 1968, Jimi Hendrix and his manager Michael Jeffery bought what had been the site of The Generation, a defunct club in New York City’s Greenwich Village that’s not far from Washington Square Park. With help from audio engineer Eddie Kramer, who had worked with Hendrix on such albums as Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold As Love, and Electric Ladyland — as well as many of NYC’s fine construction workers — they converted the club into one of the best recording studios around.
Which is what you see in the documentary Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision, an enlightening and, more importantly, entertaining look at how the studio literally got built. Because building a recording studio ain’t easy, either physically or financially.
As entertaining…
as this documentary may be, though, it’s still a documentary. And like most documentaries, it’s not something you’ll watch more than once.
What you might do more than once — well, assuming you like the music Hendrix made at the end of his life — is enjoy some of the tunes they’ve included in the Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision boxed set, most of which have not been commercially (and legally) available in these forms before.
For starters, the Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision boxed set has 39 tracks Jimi recorded in the finished studio with original Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and Band Of Gypsys bassist Billy Cox, all but one of which are making their debut in this collection.
These include an alternate mix of “Ezy Ryder,” as well as multiple alternate versions of “Astro Man,” “Freedom,” “Night Bird Flying,” and “Dolly Dagger,” all of which appeared, in different forms, on the posthumously released First Rays Of The New Rising Sun, which was an attempt to assemble the album Hendrix was working on when he died in 1970.
Of course,
if you’ve ever listened to a similar collection of alternate takes — like, say, the ones in the reissues of Led Zeppelin’s Houses Of The Holy, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid , or, more appropriately, Jimi’s own Electric Ladyland: Deluxe Edition 50th Anniversary Box Set — you know they’re usually mixed bags at best. And Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision is no exception. For every track you might consider listening to again, there are three or four that are only interesting once.
Though with more than three dozen in the Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision boxed set, there’s more than enough to make a short but solid mixed tape or playlist or whatever people call it these days.
Then there’s the new 5.1 surround sound mix of First Rays Of The New Rising Sun, as well as surround sound mixes of “Pali Gap” from the soundtrack to the movie Rainbow Bridge, “Lover Man” from The Jimi Hendrix Experience boxed set, and “Valleys Of Neptune” from the posthumous compilation of the same name.
Though, again, if you’ve heard surround sound mixes of albums that are not by Pink Floyd or some other prog rock band with artsy aspirations — again, I direct you to Black Sabbath’s Paranoid — you’ll find the 5.1 surround sound version of First Rays Of The New Rising Sun is something you’ll listen to once in a while, but it won’t replace the stereo version you know and love.
And, of course, appreciation of all the music in the Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision boxed set is contingent on how much you like the music Hendrix made at the end of his life, with Mitchell and Cox as opposed to Mitchell and Experience bassist Noel Redding or Cox and Band Of Gypsys drummer Buddy Miles.
Still, for fans of the man himself,
and the music he was working on when he died, the Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision boxed set is collectively an interesting look at that music and the place he built to make it.
SCORE: 8.0/10
