May 12, 1967.

Studio album.

According to "Revisiting Jimi Hendrix's debut masterclass, 'Are You Experienced'" by Starky Arun, Jimi Hendrix’s debut album Are You Experienced was an instant hit. It was released in May 1967, only 3 years before the singers untimely death, with Jimi Hendrix on guitar and vocals, Noel Redding on bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums.

In 1967, “rock music changed forever, and the catalyst of this change was none other than Jimi Hendrix, with his breakthrough album Are You Experienced.” A young innovator lost to the perils of addiction, having died at age 27 in 1970 of a drug overdose, his creative breakaway efforts can be heard clearly on his first album, noted primarily by the lyrics and guitar of songs like “Purple Haze” and “Manic Depression”. Known today as an essential American guitarist pioneer, Jimi Hendrix came from being completely unknown, referenced in Far Out as having “struggled to make a living as a backing guitarist on the rhythm and blues circuit.” Few artists had as big of an impact on music as Jimi Hendrix, and this has been echoed throughout history since the world came to and finally celebrated the innovative sounds once seen as “hellish,” as David Kirby described it in 2010. Along with his performances, Jimi’s music was electrifying and invigorating, and the release of his first album is an event very difficult to capture in words. As Far Out magazine told it, the album “spent a mammoth thirty-three weeks on the charts and peaked at number two. It was kept off the top spot by none other than the Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” When Are You Experienced was released, not only was it a huge success, according to Starky, but “it is regarded as one of the best debut albums of all time.” Unfortunately, Hendrix died at a very young age, but according to Spencer Bright, Hendrix’s work is now very influential to many people around the world. 

The American premiere of Are You Experienced? featured “Purple Haze” as the intro track, and a vast dissertation would be needed to fully grasp how imaginative and intuitive those nearly 3 minutes of sound are. However, the first track for this specific American premiere differs from the original UK release on May 12th, 1967, which had an 11-song tracklist and began with the track “Fire” instead. "Purple Haze" begins with the infamous “devil’s interval”, 2 tritone bars followed by the most unique combination of blues scales with rock, funk, and jazz elements anyone had ever heard up until that point. This type of blues integration into rock, with heavy moving drums that have a little bit of a lazy swing, and with elements of psychedelia woven perfectly into the mix, are what separated Hendrix from the rest. These elements include the lackadaisical and nearly drunken blues riffs on his electric guitar, almost forming a groany sound that is infectiously trance-like. 

The title track is the closing song. Right when this song begins, there is a rhythm of Hendrix strumming the guitar strings, but the strings are on mute, so pitches cannot be heard. Then, before he gets to the chorus during the parts, “But first, are you experienced”, (0:42) and “So, are you experienced”, (1:20), not only are those phrases spoken, but there is only the accompanying sound of the muted strings. Every other time this line is heard, you can hear the muted guitars. The sound of the ruffled strings stands out because usually there might be a small part of a song where you hear the muted strings, as a kind of special effect, but not throughout the entire song as a central feature. 

Questions for Classroom Discussion

1. Considering all the songs on the album, do you think "Are You Experienced" represents it well enough to have the album named for it? Why or why not? 

2. According to Jimi Hendrix, “Are You Experienced” was commonly interpreted as a question of whether a person has experienced drugs. It could also be interpreted in other ways, for instance, as a matter of being experienced in or familiar with sex. When considering the music on this album, how do you interpret the meaning of the term “experienced”? 

3. What makes Are You Experienced a truly American album? Does it compare in any way to Hendrix’s famous performance of the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock ‘69? 

4. Why do you think Hendrix decided to name an album after a song, or vice versa?

5. Out of all the songs in the album, why do you think “Purple Haze” stands out above the rest, or do you think another song better represents the album as a whole? 

Bibliography/Further Reading

Primary Sources

Alterman, Lorraine. "Talent: Jimi Hendrix Experience is Exciting Experience." Billboard 79, no. 37 (September 16, 1967): 22.

Blashill, Pat, et al. "Are You Experienced?: The Jimi Hendrix Experience." Rolling Stone 937 (Dec 11, 2003): 96. 

Bright, Spencer. "The Ongoing Experience of Jimi Hendrix." Los Angeles Times (January 11, 1991): P10.

Kirby, David. "Before He Was Experienced: A Biography Looks at the Early Days of Jimi Hendrix." New York Times (October 17, 2010): A13. 

Smith, Tierney. "Jimi Hendrix Book Review: 'Jimi Hendrix and the Making of Are You Experienced' by Sean Egan." Goldmine 29, no. 6 (2003): 15. 

Secondary Sources

Bruce, Russel. "You Are Experienced: Jimi Hendrix, A Lyric Poet of the Era of Post-Industrial Capitalism." National Grid (June 2010): 43-8.

Epstien, Dan. "Jimi Hendrix 'Are You Experienced:' Ten Things You Didn't Know." Rolling Stone (May 12, 2017).

Ferrucci, Patrick. "Are You Experienced?" Journalism Studies 19, no. 16 (2018).