Remarkably rare double-sided 10" 45 RPM Emidisc acetate containing master recordings of four tracks from Are You Experienced, the debut studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Mastered by Brian Carroll at London’s IBC Studios in October 1966, the disc features labels to both sides marked in black felt tip, “The Jimi Hendrix Experience,” with track listing to each side annotated in blue ballpoint, “1. Are You Experience, 2. I Don’t Live Today” and “1. 3rd Stone from the Sun, 2. Remember.” Includes the original brown album sleeve. In very good to fine condition, with scratching to the vinyl and a small edge chip.
Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Tracks and a letter of provenance from Carroll, which reads, in part: “In the 60s and 70s I worked at IBC Studios in London and mastered the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s first 4 singles and their first album I cut for myself…a 10 inch disc at 45 rpm of four tracks from the master…The tracks are Are You Experienced, I Don’t Live Today, 3rd Stone from the Sun, Remember.”
Carroll adds a backstory to his experience with Hendrix: “On October 24th, 1966, my first job of the day was with Chas Chandler, bass player with the Animals who was booked into IBC Studios to cut a master of his new signing who recorded the track on the night before at De Lane Lea Studios. I was a twenty year old mod and when I saw the man with Chas I thought, ‘Here we go again.’
Working with wanna be rock stars was a current situation and standing before me was a complete hippy with the rock and roll dress style and my immediate thought was ‘another prat who’s playing the rock star game’…I put the tape on that I was soon to master, possibly one of ten people who so far had heard the track and suddenly I hear the intro.
When the vocals kicked in I turned to the man [who] I knew was a real rock star and said ‘Is this you?’ He said it was and asked if I liked it. How could I not like this track?…We did a bit of banter while the record was mastered and I never knew that this ‘hippy’ would go on to world domination. Chas and Jimi left with a couple acetates to listen to and the rest is history.”
