Photo Courtesy of Unsplash.
This article is co-written by Eli Christopher, Christian Hodgson (Boston University ’22), and Quinn Norton Smith (Yale University ’22).
This November 27th would have been Jimi Hendrix’s 78th birthday. Fifty years after his tragic and untimely death at the age of 27 in 1970, now seems like a fitting time to remember and praise who is commonly and, oh so appropriately dubbed the greatest guitarist of all time. Along with two of my friends, Christian (BU ‘22) and Quinn (Yale ‘22), I’d like to count down my top fifteen favorite Jimi Hendrix tracks, and break down my top five or six with some description as to why Jimi Hendrix is still without question the best to ever do it.
15. “Red House” – Are You Experienced (1967)
Eli says listen to this song after you finally quit that terrible job, and confidently strut to your significant other’s house not realizing that they will almost certainly leave you when you tell them because you DEFINITELY needed that job.
14. “Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)” – Electric Ladyland (1968)
Christian says listen to this song if you have access to a time machine that is restricted to Jimi Hendrix concerts.
13. “Bold as Love” – Axis: Bold as Love (1967)
Quinn says listen to this song when you’re chilling on the beach.
12. “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” – Electric Ladyland (1968)
Eli says listen to this song when the meteor inevitably breaks the atmosphere.
11. “May This Be Love” – Are You Experienced (1967)
Quinn says listen to this song because it’s one of those songs that plays at the end of a good movie. Play this in those perfect moments when everything comes together.
10. “Foxey Lady” – Are You Experienced (1967)
Christian says listen to this song when you see a woman no less than 10 years older than you do something that she thinks is sexy, and you don’t have the heart to tell her that it’s not gonna happen.
9. “1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)” – Electric Ladyland (1968)
Eli says listen to this song during one wacky day in Atlantis.
8. “Hear My Train A Comin’” – (1967)
Christian says listen to this song and there is no suggestion that he can give more succinctly than the title itself.
7. “Purple Haze” – Are You Experienced (1967)
Eli says listen to this song when you’re twelve years old at a Passover seder, and your parents let you try Manischewitz, but you’ve had a sip too many, and there’s no going back.
6. “Are You Experienced?” – Are You Experienced (1967)
Jimi Hendrix could play some crazy s**t. He was not your ordinary guitarist, and no, I’m not just talking about him being left handed. The man was like an honest to god wizard when he played his instrument. Perhaps his most famous magic trick on the guitar was actually being able to play it with his own teeth. If you have access to a guitar, I challenge you to try to play something with your teeth that doesn’t sound like you kicked a cat down a flight of stairs. The title track “Are You Experienced” is a fine testament to not only Hendrix’s extreme talent, but more so his freakish ability to perform in a way that nobody else could. In this song, he effectively proves this by playing the guitar backwards. Like musical time travel, Jimi Hendrix creates something equally unnatural and completely awesome.
Eli says listen to this song if you find yourself inverted in time, à la Tenet.
4 & 5 (Tie). “The Wind Cries Mary” & “Hey Joe” – Are You Experienced (1967)
Jimi Hendrix could make regular songs better than you. In a catalogue that was not only so utterly unique and original, it may be surprising that some of Hendrix’s best and most popular songs were actually rather accessible. And that is certainly not a knock. As most popular songs of not only Hendrix’s era but also the present one seem to follow similar lyrical themes like love or tragedy, Jimi Hendrix demonstrates a Beatles level mastery of both, while still bringing a trademark level of musical complexity and expert guitar work. “The Wind Cries Mary” and “Hey Joe” are excellent demonstrations that Hendrix is not only the master of psychedelic rock, but a master of the love song and the sad one, too.
Quinn says listen to this song when someone asks who Jimi Hendrix is.
3. “All Along the Watchtower” – Electric Ladyland (1968)
Jimi Hendrix could do your own song better than you. Some of you may be surprised to learn that the original version of this song was written and recorded by none other than Mr. Bob Dylan himself in 1967. Lyrically the same, “Watchtower” was written as a direct response to the war in Vietnam. However it was only the following year when Jimi Hendrix covered the song that it really took off. “Watchtower” is now one of Hendrix’s biggest and most iconic songs, and could perhaps have the largest cultural influence in his whole catalogue. And if that wasn’t enough, Bob Dylan himself happily admitted that he thought this was the way that song ought to be performed.
Eli says listen to this song if you’re stuck in Nam. Or on Mars.
2. “Voodoo Child” – Electric Ladyland (1968)
Jimi Hendrix rocked way harder than anyone before or since. “Voodoo Child” is probably the piece of music that leaves me the most astonished every time that I listen to it. I actually believe that Jimi Hendrix must have somehow managed to actually harness the power of thunder and lightning and put it into his guitar with some sort of forte flux capacitor. This one may be the truest testament to the fact that Jimi Hendrix was some sort of rock god. From no sound at all to “Voodoo child” is the real most important step taken by mankind in the late 1960s. Like a Genesis of biblical proportions: “In the beginning there was nothing, and then Hendrix said… ‘Let there be Voodoo Child.” Greatest intro riff of all time. I’m 100% certain Jimi Hendrix could lift Mjolnir.
Christian says listen to this song when you realize that yes, indeed, you are the coolest motherf**ker on the planet.
1. “Little Wing” – Axis: Bold as Love (1967)
Jimi Hendrix made perfection. “Little Wing” is a perfect song. It sounds pure and timeless, like Hendrix was doing some sort of cover of a medieval ballad performed on the lute or lyre. This is the type of song that makes me believe that every few hundred years, someone is actually born who was touched by God and designed to make music. When Mozart died, it was a 150 year countdown until the next one could be born, and only then was Hendrix given to the earth.
Hopefully I’m alive in 2120 to see the next one.
Eli says listen to this song if heaven is real, and you find yourself there.•
This was just great. Thank you Eli and friends