Axis: Bold As Love

Axis: Bold as Love is the second studio album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Under pressure from their record company to follow-up the successful debut of their May 1967 album Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love was released on Track Records in the UK in December 1967. It reached #5 in the UK and later, #3 in the US.

The album was recorded to fulfill the band’s contract, which stated that they must produce two albums in 1967. Even so, it was not released in the USA until 1968 due to fears that it might have disturbed the sales of the first album. Bassist Noel Redding has noted that this was his favourite of three Experience albums. He plays eight string bass on some tracks.

Just before the album’s completion, Hendrix left the master tapes of side 1 in a taxi. They were never found again, and thus the A-side had to be mixed again quickly.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 82 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Many of the album’s songs were composed with studio recording techniques in mind and as a result were rarely performed live. Only ‘Spanish Castle Magic’ and ‘Little Wing’ were performed regularly. The lyrics of “Spanish Castle Magic” were inspired by ‘The Spanish Castle’, a dance hall in what is now Des Moines, Washington near Seattle where Hendrix jammed with local rock groups during his high school years. On ‘Little Wing’ Hendrix plays his guitar through a Leslie speaker (a revolving speaker which creates a wavering effect, that is typically used with electric organs) for the first time.