MusicRadar

To close MusicRadar's Jimi Hendrix Week, we asked our expert writers and contributors for their ultimate Hendrix moment, giving you Hendrix's 11 greatest ever tracks.

Did we get it right? What did we miss? Post your comments below, but in the meantime, make the ultimate Jimi playlist for your iPod by dragging and dropping these 11 killer cuts...

Hendrix's 11 greatest tracks

Bold As Love

The beautiful closing title track on Axis: Bold As Love sees Jimi paint a lyrical rainbow across his most effortlessly pretty rhythm guitar performance. A loose groove blasts off into a psychedelic sunset after the second chorus at 1:50, before a false ending gives way to a key change and a heavily phased coda. Little Wing is often cited as the best example of Jimi in mellow mode; this is better.
Fact! Hendrix referred to George Chkiantz and Eddie Kramer's stereo phasing technique as the sound he had been "hearing in his dreams".

by Chris Vinnicombe, MusicRadar

The Wind Cries Mary

The Experience's third single was written after a spat with his then-girlfriend Kathy (Mary) Etchingham about her cooking: fitting then, that this make-up song is so tasteful, containing all the ingredients that elevated Hendrix so far above his psychedelic peers.
And it's all about that solo. The most beautiful playing in his entire discography, it blends doublestops, rhythm and lead, major and minor harmony and spacious, lyrical phrasing with breathtaking dynamic range… the way he targets the chords alone shows what a master Hendrix was.
Fact! "We were recording the B-side of Purple Haze and there was 20 minutes left in the studio," recalled Chas Chandler. "It was recorded, including five guitar overdubs, in the 20 minutes." What a genius.
Watch! Jimi live in Stockholm, in 1967.

by Owen Bailey, Guitarist magazine

Spanish Castle Magic

Jimi's often thought of as this wild showman, pranging his vibrato bar and setting fire to his Strat. People don't often talk about the great riffs he wrote. For me, Spanish Castle Magic is one of them. I love the way it combines single string riffing with that nasty sounding C#m7 using the top two open strings. It's a subtle thing, but these subtleties are often what make the great players stand out from the rest.
Watch! Spanish Castle Magic at Woodstock

by Stephen Lawson, Total Guitar magazine

"Hear My Train A Comin' contains some of the best blues guitar ever committed to record"

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