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Jimi Hendrix Week: Hendrix's 11 greatest tracks

The songs you must hear

The MusicRadar Team, Thu 23 Oct 2008, 11:39 am UTC

Jimi Hendrix

Are these Hendrix's best 11 tracks?

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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.

Do you agree?


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"


Wait Until Tomorrow

This is Jimi showing the world once again that a mental guitar part and a complicated vocal aren't mutually exclusive. Jimi gets mucked around by the indecisive Dolly Mae, then unceremoniously shot by her protective father. Bummer, dude. One 'expert' dismissed it as a "disposable… comedy number", accusing the Experience of indulgence. What tosh! Humourlessness is a critical cul-de-sac, but Jimi's sense of fun will be forever boundless.
Watch! An impressive cover by John Mayer.

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User comments (3)

  • experienceadvertising

    Avatar for experienceadvertising

    Tue 28 Oct 2008, 6:50 pm UTC

    I mean your leaving killer tunes like:
    - Machine Gun, Stop, Valleys of Neptune, Belly Button WIndow, Drifting, Straight Ahead, Freedom, Rainy Day, etc...

    Mark as inappropriate

  • artm

    Avatar for artm

    Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:37 am UTC

    I would nominate the instrumental "Pali Gap" from Rainbow Bridge. It's a wonderful example of extended soloing that *goes somewhere* and *means something* rather than just the mere finger twiddling you get with lesser mortals!
    Then again - what about "House Burning Down"? The ultimate fiery guitar for me (though admittedly it never seems to make the lists).
    The solo on "Machine Gun" (Band Of Gypsies) is often rated as the best ever by anyone...
    And finally (where do you stop?) - that slow and beautifully weird instrumental jam at the end of Woodstock gets me every time ("Villanova Junction").
    Oh my...

    Mark as inappropriate

  • thepoopmaker

    Avatar for thepoopmaker

    Thu 23 Oct 2008, 5:22 pm UTC

    THEYRE PRETTY MUCH RIGHT BUT I WOULD ALSO PUT IN HEY JOE

    Mark as inappropriate

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