The Jimi Hendrix Experience "Electric Ladyland"   $7.93
Original List Price: $13.98 You Save: $6.05 (43%) Category: R&B Record Label: Experience Hendrix Release Date: 4/22/1997 Current sales rank: #732 "Electric Ladyland" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Bursting with ideas and energy, Jimi Hendrix's second album release of 1968 (following Axis: Bold as Love) was a double-LP set that showcased virtually everything the guitar genius had to offer: blistering blues ("Voodoo Chile"), galaxy-patrolling space jams ("1983... A Merman I Should Turn to Be"), psychedelic soul ("Crosstown Traffic"), and skyscraping rock ("Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"). In the midst of all this was even a hit song--Hendrix's remarkable reading of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," featuring a series of baton-passing guitar solos, all distinct and brilliant. Seemingly diffuse when first released; in hindsight, kaleidoscopically eclectic. --Billy Altman

The Jimi Hendrix Experience "The Jimi Hendrix Experience"   $45.40
Original List Price: $59.98 You Save: $14.58 (24%) Category: Box Sets Record Label: Experience Hendrix Release Date: 9/12/2000 Current sales rank: #7311 "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The arc of Jimi Hendrix's cometlike career is captured on the four-disc Jimi Hendrix Experience box set, which showcases the musician's mercurial brilliance and offers new angles from which to appraise his artistry. That the great guitarist's unreleased musings have been explored since his death three decades ago wouldn't seem to bode well for a multidisc collection such as this. But this retrospective boggles the mind merely by presenting how much Hendrix accomplished in a few short years and, in doing so, questioning what he would have achieved had he lived. --Steven Stolder

The Jimi Hendrix Experience "Are You Experienced"   $7.50
Original List Price: $13.98 You Save: $6.48 (46%) Category: Blues Record Label: Experience Hendrix Release Date: 4/22/1997 Current sales rank: #698 "Are You Experienced" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
As emblematic of its time as of its sorcerer-like creator, 1967's Are You Experienced unleashed Jimi Hendrix onto a world in the midst of such cultural and musical shakeups that it really didn't seem as "far out" as it actually was. It wasn't just Hendrix's virtuosic skill as a pure player that was so impressive; it was, even more, the range and scope of sheer sound that he coaxed, cajoled, and ripped out of his instrument. "Purple Haze," "Manic Depression," and "I Don't Live Today" filled ears with indelible sonic images, and songs like "Foxey Lady" and "Fire" pointed the way toward a new brand of rock-charged soul music. And how about a hand for drummer Mitch Mitchell? --Billy Altman