Listen to this track by Trans-Atlantic amp-stacking power trio The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It’s “Bold As Love”, the almost-title track and closer to their 1967 album Axis: Bold As Love, their second.

A lot of casual music fans consider Hendrix to the best virtuoso rock guitarist that the world has ever seen. This is an arguable point, of course. But, if someone were to make that statement, they’d have some pretty solid ground to stand on.

His ability to blur the lines between rhythm and lead parts changed the way many players even thought about guitar playing. His effortless range that allowed him to touch upon the blues, jazz, folk, and pop guitar playing of the times, and to integrate them to the degree he did was revolutionary. His experiments with phasing and deliberate distortion are matched only by his keen melodic sense, with every lick serving as a second voice to his singing.

Even if his guitar skills were a huge aspect of Hendrix’s talent, and remain to be a major part of his contribution to how rock music is made today, his range as an artist went beyond it, and into other areas, even by the band’s second album. And what were those areas, exactly? Read more