Quintessential5 Out Of 5 Stars
I usually try not to give 5 star reviews to best of packages, but "Experience Hendrix" does everything right. Let us also face a dubious reality; Jimi Hendrix has been repackaged and reissued as much as, if not more than, The Doors, The Beatles or any other great artist to have ceased to be. How many versions of "Hey Joe" do you need, after all? However, with 20 songs from 5 albums, extensive liner notes, a lot of great pictures, "Experience Hendrix" beats any other single disc Hendrix anthology out there. It's also given a loving remaster, with the squeals of Hendrix guitars and the phase-crazy production in all its experimental glory.
All the songs you'd expect would be here ("Foxy Lady," "Purple Haze" and - even though I could go the rest of my life without hearing it again - the Woodstock version of "Star Spangled banner"), along with chocks of Hendrix incredible work. The delicate "Little Wing" always gets my juices going, "All Along The Watchtower" is one of those rare moments where an artist completely claims another writer's iconic work (Dylan) and the not as frequently heard songs from the uncompleted "First Rays of The New Rising Sun" show what Hendrix was imagining his future to be like. This is classic stuff, and issued in a classy set.
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