A little more on Jimi Hendrix “Electric Ladyland.”

The previous reissue came out in 2008, released by Geffen/Universal.  It was a 2 disc set, the original 2-LP set on one CD and an 87 minute documentary, “At Last The Beginning: The Making of Electric Ladyland” on DVD plus a 36 page booklet.

The 2010 reissue comes from Sony.  Again, a 2 disc set, the original 2-LP set on one CD and a twelve minute “mini-documentary” on DVD plus a 36 page booklet.

Comparing the booklets from the 2 releases, 32 of the 36 pages are identical.  The 2010 takes away two pages about the documentary it doesn’t have but adds a two page spread not of the original of the original UK album cover (20 topless women posing with a couple of pictures of Hendrix) but an alternate shot from the same session.

In terms of the sound, both the 2008 and 2010 versions contain the exact same credits for the remastering and on first listen, these sound identical.

So Sony may be a bunch of idiots for misspelling their own artist’s name but I’m a bigger idiot for forking out HK$125 for this inferior reissue.

It’s still a fucking great album that belongs in every music collection. This was the last studio album that Hendrix would complete before his death and represents a quantum leap over his first two albums in terms of both conception and execution.  It’s quite sad to ponder that if this was just his third album, how much further might he have gone had he not died at the age of 27?

If you don’t have it and feel like buying atoms instead of bytes, check the used CD shops, maybe you can find the Geffen/Universal one cheap.

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