The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s iconic final album ‘Electric Ladyland’ is being reissued to mark its 50th anniversary on November 9.
The deluxe boxset – which is being released by Experience Hendrix, L.L.C. and Sony’s Legacy Recordings – edition of the late rock legend’s band’s 1968 masterpiece will feature demos, live recordings and even a documentary on the making of the album that included the classic tracks ‘Burning of the Midnight Lamp’ and ‘Gypsy Eyes’.
It also features a brand new crisp surround sound mix of the entire original album by Hendrix’s original engineer Eddie Kramer.
The latter – who engineered every Hendrix album made during his life, and produced or co-produced nearly all of his posthumous material – said: "I had always dreamed of mixing ‘Electric Ladyland’ in 5.1 surround sound.
"It always felt to me as the perfect vehicle for the kind of adventuresome stuff that Jimi and I were trying to do in 1968. The visceral thrill when we completed the first surround mix of ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return)’ was palpable. It was an overwhelming experience – pun intended. We viewed this song as the surround test and the moment I heard it I flashed back on those moments when Jimi and I were mixing the stereo album, laughing at our attempts to find that ‘elusive’ sound."
The artwork is a photograph shot by the late Linda Eastman (McCartney) – the former wife of Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney – of the band and children at the statue of Alice In Wonderland in New York’s Central Park, and was the ‘Purple Haze’ hitmaker’s own choice of imagery for the album’s cover image.
The shot was inside of the US version on Reprise Records in black and white, whilst the UK version of the album released by Track Records didn’t have the image at all – instead it featured an image of 19 naked women, which Hendrix famously hated.
Now fans will be able to see the colour version in all its glory on the boxset cover.
Last year, the original members of The Jimi Hendrix Experience group, drummer Mitch Mitchell and bass player Noel Redding, appeared on 1973’s ‘Hear My Train A Comin” for the posthumous LP ‘Both Sides Of The Sky’.
The band formed in Westminster, London, in September 1966, and were active until June 1969.
Hendrix chocked on his own vomit and died at the age of just 27 in September 1970, and was one of the first rock stars to join the famous cult 27 club.
Fans can purchase the boxset as either a 3CD/1 Blu-ray set or a 6LP/1 Blu-ray set from November 9.
Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Electric Ladyland 50th anniversary re-issue
