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Tracklisting & More Information
History
On the 25th October 1968, the musical comet that was Jimi Hendrix was burning at its brightest & this album was released to an eager public. It was hard to believe that it had been just two years since Jimi debuted on Polydor with 'Hey Joe' as the music had evolved so much since those first recordings. This album [like everything after 'Hey Joe'] was issued on Track Records. Later 70s issues went back to the Polydor label imprint.
This first issue has a number of differences to even the second Track issue the following year. The sleeve is the UK variant [which Jimi actually disapproved of], featuring a group of naked women, rather than the band itself. I suppose someone in the UK offices thought that 'Electric Ladyland' deserved a cover featuring an imagined 'Ladyland'! Jimi himself had no control over this.
The differences between this and the later Track issue :-
Sleeve :-
The first thing you notice is that it has 'floating' laminate, rather than wraparound, meaning that there is always a small unlaminated section at the opening, top & bottom. Polydor issues were wraparound laminate, with no gap at the edge. Inside, there are more obvious differences.
The first, though seldom mentioned, is that the inside portrait & tracklisting are reversed compared to later issues, with Jimi to the right, rather than the left.
Once again, the inside has the floating laminate with the small gap at the edges.
The pictures of Noel & Mitch are larger than later issues.
The text for the tracklisting is centred and in blue print, with the Track logo to the centre, Polydor information & Ernest J. Day printing credit to the left, also in blue. The tracklisting itself also features a mixture of capitalised & lower case letters at the start of each word, with no apparent consistency, eg. 'Rainy day, dream away' but 'Still Raining, Still Dreaming'.
The Labels :-
These are the familiar silver printed black Track labels but they also have the catalogue number repeated in smaller inverted form in brackets above the main number on the left.
Designed for your stacking Autochanger deck, the vinyl has Side A backed with Side D & Side B backed with Side C, for an easy flip over to continue. This practice continued through later vinyl presses and even led to an erroneous track order on the first CD releases with the consequence that 'Still Raining' appeared before 'Rainy Day'!
This has finally been corrected on the Experience Hendrix CD release.
There is no suffix to 'Come On', 'Burning Of The Midnight Lamp' is prefixed by 'The' & 'Crosstown Traffic' appears as 'Cross Town Traffic'.
The Vinyl :-
Pressed onto 180gm heavyweight vinyl, this press features what has become known as 'The High-Dynamic Mix', although that's really down to the way the album was mastered.
The last character of the matrix information in the run off areas is corrected by hand, where the rest of the matrix information is stamped.
Sides B & D are banded, while sides A & C are not.
Condition
There is the usual amount of creasing & ring wear for this cover. We often hear stories of past owners folding the sleeve in their youth in an attempt to hide the somewhat embarrassing cover art from their parents(!), concealing the image of the naked ladies in favour of the shot of Jimi inside [perhaps something Jimi himself would have found amusing, if not favourable since he alledgedly wasn't the cover's biggest fan either!]
Thre is some paper loss & splitting to the spine, with all text legible & no writing. The sleeve grades VG- with colours still rich & vivid & the obvious green tinge to the outer that characterised the first printings.
The vinyl shows evidence of repeat play [& why not]. There are spindle marks, axial wear to the grooves, paper hairline scuffs & the odd light scratch. Upon playtesting, this sounds really good. There is some crackle evident at times, with very little burring or distortion, other than the sounds Jimi put there deliberately. This holds true from the beginning of the first side to the end of the last.
Sides B, C & D are graded VG with just Side A showing fairly heavy use, which despite not skipping, does result in some obtrusive background noise in the more quiet passages. The remaing three sides shows just light play and a great reproduction.
This is far from mint, but a truly 'mint' copy [if you can actually find one] would cost considerably more than this [four figures for instance] & you'd gain very little for your money.
Yes, it's been played. Yes, it has seen better days but this is still a very respectable copy of this rare first pressing at a seriously advantageous price, and an ideal play copy.
01. And The Gods Made Love
02. Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)
03. Crosstown Traffic
04. Voodoo Chile
05. Little Miss Strange
06. Long Hot Summer Night
07. Come On
08. Gipsy Eyes
09. The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp
10. Rainy Day, Dream Away
11. 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
12. Moon, Turn The Tides...Gently Gently Away
13. Still Raining, Still Dreaming
14. House Burning Down
15. All Along The Watchtower
16. Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
DOUBLE LP
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