Ozzy Ozbourne/Randy Rhoads Tribute: Guitar - Vocal Book

3.5 stars.

Imagine being the best at what you do. I don't mean within your department, or office, or factory, or clinic. I mean within your entire industry. Now imagine that industry to be global-reaching, vaster than all four of Earth's oceans put together. Sounds pretty freaking unbelievable, right?

Now consider achieving such an unfathomable goal in less time it takes to complete a single Presidential term or many college degrees. You'd think I were referencing fiction. Nope. Just the career arc of one James Marshall Hendrix, the 60's savant, guitar god and melody maestro we all knew as Jimi.

As classic and timeless as Jimi Hendrix remains today, it's oft-forgotten he accomplished so much in such little time, producing a fully-realized career we'll sadly never get to see pushed even further than the boundaries it had already stretched beyond imagination. Which is precisely what it took to attain such a feat: imagination. To say Hendrix had it in spades would be like saying the Bible was only moderately impactful. Each of his recordings were distinct, revolutionary, and yet just a glimpse into his overall genius.

There's no greater example of this than Jimi's third (and final) studio album with the band he grew famous with. Electric Ladyland by The Jimi Hendrix Experience represented a bridge to broader horizons, a natural progression to a career already full-speed ahead. Having already established their pop brilliance on their previous two records, the band had risen to such an echelon of stardom that they'd finally been granted complete creative control. No more pressure to produce a sure-fire hit single (though Ladyland has its share), no more assigned production team breathing down their neck to keep things timely and cost-effective.

In fact, as learned towards the beginning of John Perry's account of the record - yet another enjoyable submission to the 33 1/3 series - this was the first record 'produced and directed by Jimi Hendrix' (though one could learn this scrutinizing the album's liner notes too, I suppose). Suffice to say, it shows, exhibiting a perfect balance of pop majesty, studio wizardry, and avant-garde experimentation. In short, Electric Ladyland sounds like freedom.

And for the most part, Perry's take on the classic album justly posits such. The majority of the writer's account is spent going track-by-track (as many submissions to this series do), offering a nice blend of music theory and out-and-out fanboy appreciation. Perry shows restraint within both areas, never getting too thick into the weeds with technical jargon, while also never fawning to the point of embarrassment. If anything, it's exactly the structural balance I personally resonate to most when it comes to the 33 1/3 series as a whole.

But that's only part of the story. And for an artist such as Jimi Hendrix, a more complete story seems necessary. While his chapters on instrumentation and Jimi's proficiency as a live performer felt fully realized, Perry's introduction, background and aftermath felt underdeveloped, at times woefully - and repetitively - so. I'm not asking for an end product twice its current size more so than suggesting Perry borrow a page from Hendrix's own book on the perfecting of balance.

After all, when one achieves what Hendrix had, regardless of the amount of time it took in doing so, it deserves completion, full realization. Yes, this is an account of the record itself, but Electric Ladyland (the album) would not have been possible without the groundwork Jimi Hendrix had laid to attain the type of freedom necessary for such a record to flourish. Had John Perry imagined that himself, Electric Ladyland (the book) would've rivaled the classic record it celebrated.