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Axis: Bold As Love | 
| Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Label: Universal / Island
Category: Music
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £6.98
You Save: £2.01 (22%)
New (52) Used (12) Collectible (1) from £3.97
Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 3052
Media: Audio CD
Running Time: 39
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 11601
UPC: 008811160128
EAN: 0000881116012
ASIN: B000002P5W
Release Date: July 26, 1999
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | EXP | | • | Up From The Skies | | • | Spanish Castle Magic | | • | Wait Until Tomorrow | | • | Ain't No Telling | | • | Little Wing | | • | If 6 Was 9 | | • | You Got Me Floatin' | | • | Castles Made Of Sand | | • | She's So Fine | | • | One Rainy Wish | | • | Little Miss Lover | | • | Bold As Love |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Axis: Bold As Love, Hendrix's second album, doesn't resonate through rock history the way its gatecrashing predecessor, Are You Experienced? did. In places, it almost seems as if Hendrix is cruising, albeit sublimely. Yet it's nonetheless a vital album, containing some of rock's most molten milestones. There's the fluid psychedelia of "Castles in The Sand", the viciously funky "Little Miss Lover" and the so-beautiful-it-hurts "Little Wing." Hendrix really hits altitude with "If 6 Was 9", where he waves his "freak flag high" over a tidal wave of guitar and a cacophonous army of Moroccan flutes--and "Bold As Love", based around Hendrix's typically far-fetched hankering for the axis of the planet to be tilted, thereby transforming life on earth. It works up into a head-melting frenzy of distorted guitar, a precursor to the staggeringly expansive leap forward he would take with 1968's Electric Ladyland. Hendrix dreamed the impossible and achieved it on his guitar. --David Stubbs
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
An under-rated classic September 20, 2008
It could be that this was my first introduction to Hendrix, but I maintain to this day it is the best of the 'Jimi Hendrix Experience' studio albums. I say this for a great number of reasons.
First of all, lets assume you've never heard an 'Experience' album before, and want to dip your toe in the water. This album is a great place to start, as it eases you in with a nice gentle, yet sublimely funky number, before it crushes your head with Spanish Castle Magic. The album is like a gentle roller coaster ride of funky rocky highs, and gentle mellow dips, with an ease of access missing from the other two studio albums.
So that gets you into it, and opens your mind to the possibility of exploring Hendrix further. At this point you may be drawn to purchasing 'Are You Experienced' and 'Electric Ladyland'. However, you're going to be torn between two extremes; the former is hard, fast and in your face, and the latter segues into many experimental meanderings.
I found myself reeling away from those two, a bit stunned, back to this album, and finding solace in the 'inbetweenness', in which you have both hard paced tracks of the first, and the beginnings of experimentation of the third. That is by no means a bad thing though - in fact, to the contrary you come to the conclusion that while Hendrix can maintain the hard innovative edge, he can also provide enough structure and control to make a tight album that still sounds fresh and original.
Over the years I have also found it is a very layered album. Different stereo systems and even different headphones have revealed nuances I have not been able to detect previously. As a result of this, I have come back to this album again and again. I have owned it on tape, vinyl, CD and now MP3. I wish the same could be said of the other two.
So, in summary, this is both the best album for newcomers, and also, in my opinion, his best album.
Jimi's Thee Greatest! April 10, 2008
What can anyone really say about Jimi Hendrix that hasnt already been said?
So i'm not gonna bore you with a cornucopia of superlatives or eulogies that would be ssssssso so deja vu, but i will say two things anyway.
1) I have the original gatefold vinyl copy of this wonderful second album i bought from a local 2# hand record store in Reading that no longer exists and i paid 3 for it!!! And i aint selling!
2) There are guitar players and then there is Jimi Hendrix. Whether it be The Experience, Band Of Gypsies or any other ensemble to grace his name he was and continues to be the most creative, colourful and bewildering guitarist/singer/composer and force ever. And 40 yrs on theres still no one that can touch him.
We miss you so much.
JIMI'S THEE GREATEST!
not the first but the best September 29, 2007
one day i woke and discovered that axis was the best hendrix album.I got fed up with the riff based songs on 'are you experienced'. Most of that album seems really commercial to me,it does not work as whole album but a collection of songs where as axis is cohesive as whole. It opens with a jarring insrumental ipersonationg a flying saucer and seques into 'up from the skies'. It is great song that predicts global warming decades before anyone else. It has superb jazz feel.Next is 'spanish castle magic' with great lyrics and a rocker of amazing frenzy. One song follows another till we reach the masterpiece 'little wing'.The opening by even hendrix standard is superb as well as a great love song . If six was nine is three songs in one and ends with an inredible freak out ending with not guitar but flutes. The energy is maintained on the hard and poppy 'you got me floating'. the song is an amazing feel good song which makes the next song feel so unusal on this album.'castles made of sand' makes you come down to earth with three stories of ironies of life. Noel redding song is another piece which grounds the album. the remaining songs lift it up again particularly 'bold as love' which is one of the great hendrix tracks.What makes this album so special among hendrix albums is that no singles were released. I think it is the greatest hendrix album. buy it.
Let me live my life the way I want to August 23, 2007
Intriguingly poised between the raw power of "Experienced" and the first two singles, and the sprawling, flawed masterpiece of "Ladyland", this album shows the Experience flexing their muscles and enjoying it. It produced no singles during Jimi's lifetime, other than the rather odd decision by Reprise in the USA to release Up From the Skies and One Rainy Wish (which barely grazed the Hot 100).
The stand-out tracks are Little Wing and If Six Was Nine, one of the many inspired selections for the Easy Rider soundtrack. There is real feeling in Castles Made of Sand, a song of broken dreams. However a strong aspect of many tracks is Jimi's sly sense of humour. How many people could write a song with such a dark theme as "Wait Until Tomorrow" and still leave you smiling?
The album includes Noel Redding's first Experience composition, She's So Fine - not up to Jimi's standard, musically or lyrically, but more memorable than many songs from other groups of the era.
It's not hard to detect the "influences" which were at work during recording sessions, but unlike many bands of the period the Experience don't allow this to dent the quality of their work. Not necessarily stoned, but beautiful.
Underpinning everything is the smooth, confident drumming of Mitch Mitchell. This album has enough quiet tracks for him to demonstrate his subtlety, and on Up From the Skies he even gets the chance to go back to his jazz roots.
As a transitional album, with less pyrotechnics than usual, this may be a surprise to many new listeners, but give it a try - it's well worth it.
Moo February 10, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The middle of the three Experience albums, 'Axis: Bold As Love' shows Hendrix at his most laid back. Whilst less well-regarded than their other two efforts ('Are You Experienced' and 'Elecric Ladyland') it is a sublime effort, with a wide range of styles that showed Hendrix growing both musically and lyrically.
The album kicks off with the unusual 'EXP', with drummer Mitch Mitchell posing as a radio presenter rudely interviewing Jimi posing as Paul Carusoe, an expert on alien life. Hendrix's guitar then takes over, and God only knows how he can make those noises. 'Up From The Skies' is the earlies use of a wah-wah pedal (I think - certainly Hendrix was the first to use it) and is a sublime classic that is far too often overlooked.
'Spanish Castle Magic' is a heavier song, showing Hendrix's range, and has some of best lyrics, too. 'Wait Until Tomorrow' bears the influence of soulsters like Curtis Mayfield, and 'Ain't No Telling' is the shortest song in the Hendrix canon (and there are many.)'Little Wing' is beautiful, a true classic, but the solo is far better live. 'If 6 Was 9' is the longest song on the album (over five minutes) and is so cool it's unbelievable.
'You Got Me Floatin'' is Hendrix cruising, but 'Castles Made Of Sand' is yet another classic. 'She's So Fine' is Noel Redding's contribution, sounds like Cream but it's better than Cream. 'One Rainy Wish' and 'Little Miss Lover' are good, and the closing 'Bold As Love' has one of the best guitar solos ever.
'Axis: Bold As Love' may take a few listens, but when it hits you, you realise that Hendrix's talent knew no bounds. The solos, the lyrics, the riffs, the mastery of effects pedals - he had it all and more. He really was the best ever.
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