Axis: Bold as Love

Untitled

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.

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. 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 of the album 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). "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. 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. 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. "Little Miss Lover" is also notable for being a predecessor of Funk-rock.

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, 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 in 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.

Credits

• Jimi Hendrix – guitar, vocals, bass, glockenspiel, piano, flute, voice of "Mr. Paul Caruso" on "EXP"
• Mitch Mitchell – drums, 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