Have You Ever Been: Jimi Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland” Expanded to Deluxe Box for 50th Anniversary
Have you ever been to Electric Ladyland? You’ll have another opportunity on November 9, when Experience Hendrix and Legacy Recordings celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s classic album as a generously expanded 3-CD/1-BD or 6-LP/1-BD box set featuring never-before-released session recordings and a Blu-ray featuring a documentary as well as stereo and surround mixes of the original album.
First released in October 1968, was the third and final album of new material by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the only one of the band’s albums produced by Hendrix himself. A sprawling psychedelic double-album, it touched on all aspects of Hendrix’s musical personality, from heavy rock to blues, soul and funk. Hendrix’s majestic cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” (his only Top 40 hit!) joined his own trippy, heavy originals, including both “Voodoo Chile” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” as well as “Crosstown Traffic” and “Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland).” The U.S. edition on Reprise Records topped the charts for two weeks, and the U.K. Track Records release was almost as successful there, where it reached No. 6 on the album chart.
This 50th anniversary edition has the original album, newly remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes, on the first CD. The second disc, Electric Ladyland: The Early Takes, presents 20 previously unreleased demos and studio outtakes from this period of Hendrix’s all-too-short but happily prolific career. The third CD premieres The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live At the Hollywood Bowl 9/14/68, part of Experience Hendrix’s Dagger Records “official bootleg” series. The never-before-released live soundboard recording captures the band at its frenzied height just weeks before Electric Ladyland hit stores. Finally, a Blu-ray disc has the full-length version of the 1997 documentary film At Last… The Beginning: The Making of Electric Ladyland plus a new 5.1 surround mix of the original album by Hendrix’s original engineer Eddie Kramer, as well as the original stereo mixes in uncompressed 24-bit/96kz high resolution audio. The vinyl edition presents the identical audio tracks on six LPs, and also includes the Blu-ray.
Electric Ladyland: Deluxe Edition includes a full color, 48-page book including Jimi’s handwritten lyrics, poem and instructions to his record label, as well as rare, never-before-published photos shot by Eddie Kramer from the recording sessions. The box’s art harkens back to Hendrix’s original vision for the album cover, featuring the future Linda McCartney’s photograph of the Experience and children at the Alice in Wonderland statue in New York’s Central Park.
This lavish tribute to The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s final statement is due on November 9 from Legacy Recordings and Experience Hendrix! You’ll find pre-order links and the complete track listing below!
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Electric Ladyland: 50th Anniversary Edition (Track 613008/9 (U.K.)/Reprise CR 1107 (U.S.), 1968 – reissued Legacy/Experience Hendrix, 2018)
3CD/1BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
6LP/1BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
CD 1/LP 1-2 – Electric Ladyland: The Original Album (Newly Remastered)
- … And the Gods Made Love
- Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)
- Crosstown Traffic
- Voodoo Chile
- Little Miss Strange
- Long Hot Summer Night
- Come On (Part I)
- Gypsy Eyes
- Burning of the Midnight Lamp
- Rainy Day, Dream Away
- 1983….(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
- Moon, Turn the Tides….Gently Gently Away
- Still Raining, Still Dreaming
- House Burning Down
- All Along the Watchtower
- Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
CD 2/LP 3-4 – Electric Ladyland: The Early Takes
- 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
- Voodoo Chile
- Cherokee Mist
- Hear My Train A Comin’
- Angel
- Gypsy Eyes
- Somewhere
- Long Hot Summer Night [Demo 1]
- Long Hot Summer Night [Demo 3]
- Long Hot Summer Night [Demo 4]
- Snowballs At My Window
- My Friend
- At Last…The Beginning
- Angel Caterina (1983)
- Little Miss Strange
- Long Hot Summer Night [Take 1]
- Long Hot Summer Night [Take 14]
- Rainy Day, Dream Away
- Rainy Day Shuffle
- 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
CD 3/LP 5-6 – Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live At The Hollywood Bowl 9/14/68
- Introduction
- Are You Experienced
- Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
- Red House
- Foxey Lady
- Fire
- Hey Joe
- Sunshine of Your Love
- I Won’t Live Today
- Little Wing
- Star Spangled Banner
- Purple Haze
Blu-ray
- At Last… The Beginning: The Making of Electric Ladyland documentary
- Electric Ladyland Uncompressed LPCM Stereo 24b/96k
- Electric Ladyland Uncompressed LPCM 5.1 Surround 24b/96k
- Electric Ladyland DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround 24b/96k
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14 thoughts on “Have You Ever Been: Jimi Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland” Expanded to Deluxe Box for 50th Anniversary”
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The Dagger Records concerts have typically been audience recordings and some of them quite poor. Any ideas on how this one sounds?
Based on what’s on YouTube, this has potential to be pretty rough! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LDSzQ05MoM
BTW, the email I just got from Legacy says the Hollywood Bowl show will come from a “recently unearthed soundboard recording,” which heightens my interest considerably!
Lotsa padding. How about a straight issue of the 5.1 mix?
According to Rolling Stone: “The live disc, Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live at the Hollywood Bowl 9/14/68, features a recently discovered two-track soundboard recording….”
I have a bootleg with over an hour of sessions for All Along The Watchtower and Come On, Pt. 1 and it’s fascinating listening. It may be significant that they didn’t include ANY of that material on the “early takes” disc, i.e. possibly holding them for a future re-re-re-reissue. Even so, this set does sound potentially worthwhile. Do you know if they’re giving you download codes with the vinyl package?
And we also have the bootleg of the full Voodoo Chile session with Steve Winwood ….no sign of that either AND many rumours that the session was videoed. So looks like the usual lightweight release from Experience Hendrix….compare and contrast to the Dylan bootleg series
Any word if there will be a more moderately priced version without a book or bluray? It is all well and good that the record companies think that the consumers who are interested in this have stacks of cash sitting around the house, what about the “regular” person?
Coming next year from Experience Hendrix: Hear That Train? It’s Finally Here. An exclusive vinyl release featuring the very best versions of the song Hendrix couldn’t stop recording, and featuring a previously unheard rendition played on a different guitar than the other versions.
Just kidding, but it’s amusing that Experience Hendrix can’t stop releasing this particular song on its many studio Hendrix compendia, good as it is.
I am glad you brought this up. I did not even realize that another version of Hear My Train A Comin’ was on this reissue. I am frankly sick of that song, and “Lover Man”, and “Killing Floor”. They seem t be on every release!
Still, I will probably get this reissue.
I actually like “Hear My Train A Comin'” very much and the various demo and studio recordings released through the years (7 by my count) are largely different from each other in key ways, but you’d think that pool had been drained by now.
I never get tired of “Hear My Train,” “Maching Gun,” or “Voodoo Child (slight return)” on any live release but it sure seems unnecessary to always have “Fire,” “Foxey Lady,” and/or “Purple Haze” included. So many Hendrix live discs are composites from different shows anyway, so it’s a shame they couldn’t find more non-perennial songs to include here instead. I’ll pick this up and enjoy it for what it is, but always hope for more next time.
This is awesome. When 5.1 surround music was first becoming “a thing”, this album would have been in my top 5 of albums I’d like to see given the 5.1 treatment. What makes it even better is that they didn’t add a lot of crap that most fans don’t want or need (rings, marbles, posters, scarves, etc.) to justify charging more than $100. Even more importantly they had the wisdom to have a vinyl package and a disc package instead of making we poor schmucks have to buy both (when many of us don’t even own a turntable).
Best re-issue of the year!!!!
Will be a version that does not include a book or the bluray, just a straight 3 CD set?
I noticed the copies on Authenic Hendrix Music Today website are numbered to 350. Are the copies sold on Amazon.com numbered?