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November 28, 2014 8:04 AM

Hendrix's Are You Experienced? Backwards. That's all. But it works. tsuj netsiL.
posted by flapjax at midnite (35 comments total)

Nice find.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:20 AM on November 28, 2014

You and I have a different definition of works.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:22 AM on November 28, 2014

Very nice.
posted by threeants at 8:36 AM on November 28, 2014

I can't be the only former dumbass stoner who played everything backwards on my Technics turntable in the 70s.
posted by sidereal at 8:37 AM on November 28, 2014 [5 favorites]

It was already backwards.
posted by chococat at 8:41 AM on November 28, 2014 [5 favorites]

It was already backwards.

yah but why doesn't it also reverse up and down? o.O
posted by sidereal at 8:49 AM on November 28, 2014 [10 favorites]

I don't have very sophisticated ears, so to me everything but the voice sounds remarkably unchanged. Which I'm going to guess is due to the electronic nature of most of the instrument, which I think of as having a more symmetric attack-decay curve than things you hit or pluck to make sound.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:52 AM on November 28, 2014

He sounds a bit Geordie.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 8:57 AM on November 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

I was expecting to hear something about Satan or maybe drinking Ovaltine...
posted by njohnson23 at 9:10 AM on November 28, 2014 [3 favorites]

It might work but what does it DO?
posted by salishsea at 9:10 AM on November 28, 2014

That's actually pretty awesome
posted by Benny Andajetz at 9:13 AM on November 28, 2014

I've used Audacity to do this myself and I find the solo just endlessly fascinating. Lots of people did the backward guitar thing back then but Jimi just did it better by a long shot.
posted by wabbittwax at 9:14 AM on November 28, 2014

Also, obligatorily:

Not necessarily stoned, but beautiful.
posted by wabbittwax at 9:16 AM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:28 AM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

His vocal sounds like the couple downstairs having orgasmic experience at two in the morning.
posted by bukvich at 9:29 AM on November 28, 2014

> It might work but what does it DO?

I think what it does is it undoes whatever the original did. But don't listen to it twice, or you'll be too undone, and will have to listen to the original to re-do what the second backwards listening undid, so you can get back to the perfect balance of being neither done nor undone.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:30 AM on November 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

Sounds remarkably similar to playing it forward (except the vocals, of course).
posted by rocket88 at 9:30 AM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Sounds remarkably similar to playing it forward (except the vocals, of course).

I think the "What do I take home from this.." point is that the solo is(was) backward. Listening to this is like hearing a newly uncovered Hendrix solo.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:35 AM on November 28, 2014 [5 favorites]

Not necessarily beautiful, but mutated!

(Someone reverse THAT version.)
posted by SansPoint at 9:54 AM on November 28, 2014 [7 favorites]

The reverse Hendrix is awesome.

SansPoint - gotta love the 80s graphics in that video.
posted by marienbad at 9:59 AM on November 28, 2014

I was waiting for the Devo version to pop up, thanks. I don't think Devo is allowed to release it in a better version, the Hendrix family objected to it pretty strongly for obvious reasons, though they didn't have the rights to stop it when Devo first released it.
posted by Catblack at 10:06 AM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

If you think THAT'S backwards...
posted by randomkeystrike at 10:30 AM on November 28, 2014

It really needs some of those amusing misheard lyric subtitles.

Another piece that was originally created by the artist reversing a working motif but sounds just as good if you reverse it again, is Eno's An Ending (Ascent), which could be retitled A Start (Going Down).

And one final memory from the Devonian Mental Archive Of Backwards Music: the local radio station of my youth had a competition where the DJ played a short segment of a current hit backwards for eager punters to phone in and identify. It went a bit wrong with David Essex's Oh What A Circus, because circus is practically an audio palindrome. (tt was also susceptible to nerdy schoolkids who could rig their tape recorders to go backwards - or at different speeds, which is how I learned to say the beginning of The Lone Ranger by Quantum Jump for another phone-in competition.)

I amassed quite a collection of really bad promo albums by this method. Let me say that, mister lawman, the DJs didn't mind...
posted by Devonian at 10:39 AM on November 28, 2014

And that just feels like spinning plates.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 10:42 AM on November 28, 2014

Very cool. But why is Hendrix singing in Swedish?
posted by the sobsister at 11:46 AM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

I didn't realize until now when I heard the last seconds of the backwards version, that Noel Redding's bass track is only played backwards, while the drums and guitar both have at least one forward and one backward track. This could be why the bass track feels very strangely mixed compared to most of their other songs, and provides only a background low end with just a tiny bit of barely distinguishable upper neck noodling every now and then. If Noel's backward bass track was more prominent in this song, as usually it would be to provide the superstructure that supports Hendrix while firmly rooted in foundation of Mitch Mitchell's drums, it would probably have been too disruptive to make the whole thing work.

I could be wrong, but that's what my ears seem to be telling me.
posted by chambers at 12:13 PM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

I think what it does is it undoes whatever the original did.

it does - i cut my hair, sold my minivan, ditched my threads, got a suit and a haircut, got a job as an accountant and moved to the burbs
posted by pyramid termite at 12:52 PM on November 28, 2014 [8 favorites]

So let me get this straight: This is Hendrix playing a proper left-handed guitar strung normally but he's standing on his head and crossing his arms?
posted by etc. at 1:01 PM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

So let me get this straight: This is Hendrix playing a proper left-handed guitar strung normally but he's standing on his head and crossing his arms?

I'm pretty sure Chas Chandler just booked studio time in the Black Lodge.
posted by chambers at 1:40 PM on November 28, 2014

Woah - that Devo one is like - what if you mashed up Kraftwork and Ramones.
posted by symbioid at 2:11 PM on November 28, 2014

I will not listen just.
posted by clvrmnky at 2:37 PM on November 28, 2014

yah but why doesn't it also reverse up and down? o.O

?umop episdn
posted by Chitownfats at 2:45 PM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Are You Experienced? as sung by Genesis P-Orridge's 6-year old daughter, Caresse
posted by jonp72 at 4:42 PM on November 28, 2014

I palindrome I
posted by threecheesetrees at 9:48 PM on November 28, 2014

Listen to the backwards guitar solo played live by Eric Johnson during the Experience Hendrix tour.
posted by Enron Hubbard at 10:01 PM on November 30, 2014