Jimi Hendrix – Bold As Love

After seeing the clip of a younger Jimi Hendrix with Jr. Walker and the All-Stars, I had to post something by him since it’s been a while. His playing and writing still blows me away. Hendrix had a flow through his songs. Is this one very commercial on the surface? No, but it IS because of the way he arranged his songs. His songs draw you in with that flowing sound. I first really found Hendrix when I was 11 or 12. Later on, when I started to play guitar and bass… no, I couldn’t do his solos (still can’t!), but I took some of his movements to the bass.

His guitar playing was off the charts and identifiable like a fingerprint. He slid a lot while playing, and after him, many guitar players picked that up as well. This song closed out his album Axis: Bold As Love, released at the end of 1967. Six months after his debut album, Are You Experienced. The biggest difference between the two albums can be heard. It was Hendrix realizing that the studio itself was an instrument, and learning how to play it or work it. I also read where his songwriting was catching up with his guitar playing, which fits.

The basic track was cut live by them, with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell locking into a loose groove. Hendrix kept the structure simple at first until the end, when it exploded. His voice was very intimate and more confident than on the first album. You could tell from this album that he wanted his lyrics more exposed.

The verses move gently with Noel Redding’s bass and Mitch Mitchell’s drumming, keeping everything fluid rather than forced. The album Axis: Bold As Love peaked at #3 on the Billboard Album Chart and #5 in the UK in 1967-1968.

Bold As Love

Anger!He smiles, towering in shiny metallic purple armorQueen jealousy, envy waits behind himHer fiery green gown sneers at the grassy ground

Blue are the life-giving waters taken for grantedThey quietly understandOnce happy turquoise armies lay opposite readyBut wonder why the fight is on

But they’re all bold as loveYes, they’re all bold as loveYeah, they’re all bold as loveJust ask the axis

My red is so confident, he flashes trophies of warAnd ribbons of euphoriaOrange is young, full of daringBut very unsteady for the first go round

My yellow, in this case, is not so mellowIn fact, I’m trying to say it’s frightened like meAnd all these emotions of mine keep holding me fromGiving my life to a rainbow like you, but I’m

Yeah, I’m bold as love, yeah-yeahWell, I’m bold, bold as loveHear me talking, girlI’m bold as loveJust ask the axis

He knows everythingYeah-yeah-yeah

Yeah

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

38 thoughts on “Jimi Hendrix – Bold As Love”

  1. I don’t recall this song but I have a couple close friends that are big Hendrix fans. Dating back to when we were teens. So odds are very good I have heard it. Listening just now and the way you describe it reinforces that strong Jazz impression I get from a lot of his music. It has that certain unscripted and experimental feel. But all the while he’s in complete control. Awesome.

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  3. Pingback: Jimi Hendrix – Bold As Love – MobsterTiger

  4. This album came out just in time to get for my sister for Christmas 1967. The phasing and the channel-switching of the guitar don’t distract from the playing. That solo starts in my left ear, moves to the center, drifts a few times, then I realized the chording behind him wasn’t a second guitar track, but harpsichord – also credited to Hendrix.

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    1. The idea of hearing this real time still amazes me…and what it must have sounded like o you and your sister. I love listening to him with headphones. I just told Randy…it’s like he was landing a giant plane but keeps it on the runway and on time.

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  6. Great choice, Max as I always love listening to this song.  Hendrix used color imagery and metaphors to describe the emotional states of love.  He tells you to “just ask the axis” which he considers to be his stabilizing center that lets him navigate the different forms of love.

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  8. never heard this one before, it’s pretty good. He was a good songwriter and the less he tried to showcase how good he was with guitar all the time, the more his real talents shone through like on ‘The Wind Cries Mary’. Yet another example of the ‘what would he have gone on to do if he’d even lived another decade?”

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  9. Great example of Jimi’s flowing guitar-playing. I recall reading previously he literally had a guitar around his shoulder all day long when he was at home. Perhaps, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it appears he constantly was working on his craft – and it showed!

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  10. Hendrix for some reason for me at times he was always hit and miss, loved Dolly Dagger, his moment at Woodstock not so much, I remember an early instrumental Beginnings that blew me away…and of course when I first heard the words ‘standing next to a mountain’ I was, um, may have been enjoying something that may have been inspired by George Carlin….the guy had a way with a guitar that many have tried to copy (Randy California) but the size of his hands on the neck of that strat, was unqiue

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    1. As a guitar player you will get what I’m saying Warren…I love his sliding riffs…from The Wind Cries Mary to this song… and Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) probably is one of my favorite riffs.
      I don’t like every song he has done…no…but he had a way of drawing me in.

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  15. Truly one of the greatest all time albums–not just classic rock, but of all genres. Did you know he wrote most of his songs on the bass? He wanted that second lead bass that was innovative in rock at the time. It really gave them a bold heavy sound that Hendrix filled and refined with his ethereal, mystical grooves and walloping riffs.

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  16. I still have that vinyl album. I did Woodshed Hendrix in 1968 and learned a few of his tunes, which our band did, but it ruined my hearing. Imagine standing in front of a double-stack Fender Showman amp turned up to 11, and your distortion box is smoking; that’s how we played Hendrix.

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      1. Thanks to Fender and Kustom, I now wear an expensive hearing aid in each ear, but I can now hear the music I play in our church band, and thats a good thing. I thought about suing Fender, but all those dudes are dead and gone. My own fault, stupid teenager.

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