In general, my wife doesn't enjoy listening to Jimi Hendrix, so I listen only rarely. This may change, however,as my seven year old has started to play some Hendrix tunes on the guitar. As a supportive Dad, I went to break out the Hendrix on the stereo the other day. In particular, I wanted to be able to play him Purple Haze and Stone Free (these are the first two Hendrix tunes he's working on). Imagine my surprise when I found that neither of these was on "Are You Experienced?", "Axis: Bold as Love" or "Electric Ladyland."
But I was even more confused when I looked on line and found that "Are You Experienced?" should include both Purple Haze and Stone Free.
Anyway, it turns out that my CD was the digital version of the original album issued in the UK (and everywhere else in the world other than North America). When the album was later released in the North America, they included some extra tracks that had been previously released singles - including Purple Haze and Stone Free - and dropped a couple of other tracks. Of course, subsequent digital releases in both the US and the UK have added all the missing tracks back on. But the order of the tracks is still quite different. As a result, there now appear to be four or five different versions of "Are You Experienced?" each with a different list of tracks. And that's all without thinking about various levels of remastering.
All of this raises the important question of which releases are the best ones to own. Right now, though, I'm worried that I'll just end up buying everything for fear of missing something valuable. I started today by buying a recent North American version, so I could have the extra tracks. I think it's also been remastered - which may or may not be a good thing.
Chad
