A new expanded box set focusing on The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s second studio, Axis: Bold as Love, will be released on November 7. Bold as Love: The Axis: Bold as Love Sessions will be available as a five-LP/one-Blue-ray package or a four-CD/one-Blu-ray set.
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The Bold as Love box set, which can be pre-ordered now, features the 13-track album’s original stereo and mono mixes, well as a newly created Dolby Atmos mix. The collection also boasts 40 additional tracks, including alternative versions, unreleased studio takes, demos, live performances, and television appearances from around the same time period that the album was record.
Among the 40 bonus tracks are 28 that have never been released before. One of those previously unheard tracks, a 1967 demo combining the early Hendrix Experience song “Stone Free” with the Axis: Bold as Love tune “Up from the Skies,” has been made available as an advance digital single from the box set. A companion music video, featuring various archival clips of Jimi Hendrix, has debuted on the late guitar legend’s YouTube channel.
The Bold as Love box set was co-produced by original Hendrix engineer Eddie Kramer; Jimi’s sister, Experience Hendrix LLC CEO Janie Hendrix; and Experience Hendrix executive John McDermott. Kramer and engineer Chandler Harrod created the Dolby Atmos mix of Axis: Bold as Love.
More About Axis: Bold as Love
The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s debut album, Are You Experienced, was released in May 1967 in the U.K. and three months later in the U.S. Axis: Bold as Love followed in December 1967 and January 1968, respectively.
Axis: Bold as Love was produced by the Experience’s manager, former Animals bassist Chas Chandler. Chandler, Hendrix, and Kramer were responsible for the original mixes.
“Burning of the Midnight Lamp” was released as a non-album single in the U.K. in August 1967 just prior to Axis: Bold as Love’s arrival. It peaked at No. 18. Only one track was released as a single from the album in the U.S., “Up from the Skies,” which reached No. 82 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Axis: Bold as Love features several tunes that have become enduring favorites, including “Spanish Castle Magic,” “Little Wing,” “If 6 Was 9,” and “Castles Made of Sand.”
The song “You Got Me Floatin’” features backing vocals by Graham Nash and two members of The Move—Trevor Burton and Roy Wood.
Axis: Bold as Love peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and No. 5 in the U.K. It went on to be certified platinum by the RIAA for sales of 1 million copies in the States.
More About the Bold as Love Box Set
Among the many rare bonus tracks in the Bold as Love box set are instrumental versions of “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” and its B-side, “The Stars That Play with Laughing Sam’s Dice.”
The collection also features alternate takes of nearly every song on Axis: Bold as Love, and of the non-album rarity “Mr. Bad Luck.” There are also several untitled instrumentals from the sessions. Other bonus tracks include performances by the Experience on the U.K. TV shows Top of the Pops and Dee Time, and the Dutch television program Hoepla. In addition, eight songs from a September 1967 concert in Stockholm, Sweden, are featured.
The box set also features comprehensive liner notes by McDermott and acclaimed rock journalist David Fricke.
Reflecting on the music her brother created, Janie Hendrix said, “Jimi was fearless in his artistic expression. Each song, each lyrical composition was and is an invitation for those listening to be free to feel. His music was an unapologetic statement of how he perceived the world and all the emotions it evoked. Bold as Love is the creative embodiment of those feelings. The Bold as Love set masterfully reintroduces the beauty of Jimi’s musical depth, highlighting a significant segment of not just his career, but his life.”
The box set also features interesting cover art, a colorful dragon drawn by Jimi when he was five years old. Janie Hendrix picked the image for the cover.
“I thought it was perfect for this project,” she explained. “It’s a colorful dragon that depicts exactly what the song ‘Bold as Love’ is talking about—the empowerment of each color of the rainbow. I don’t believe there could be a better reflection of the message in the song.”
Bold as Love Box Set CD Track List:
CD One: Axis: Bold as Love (Original Stereo Mix)
- “EXP”
- “Up from the Skies”
- “Spanish Castle Magic”
- “Wait Until Tomorrow”
- “Ain’t No Telling”
- “Little Wing”
- “If 6 Was 9”
- “You Got Me Floatin’”
- “Castles Made of Sand”
- “She’s So Fine”
- “One Rainy Wish”
- “Little Miss Lover”
- “Bold as Love”
CD Two: Axis: Bold as Love (Original Mono Mix)
- “EXP”
- “Up from the Skies”
- “Spanish Castle Magic”
- “Wait Until Tomorrow”
- “Ain’t No Telling”
- “Little Wing”
- “If 6 Was 9”
- “You Got Me Floatin’”
- “Castles Made of Sand”
- “She’s So Fine”
- “One Rainy Wish”
- “Little Miss Lover”
- “Bold as Love”
CD Three
- “Mr. Bad Luck” [Take 6]*
- “She’s So Fine” [Take 4]*
- “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” [Take 30]*
- “The Stars That Play with Laughing Sam’s Dice” [Paramount Studios]*
- “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” [Instrumental]*
- “The Stars That Play with Laughing Sam’s Dice” [Instrumental]*
- “Stone Free/Up from the Skies” [Demo]*
- “Up from the Skies” [Take 2]*
- “Ain’t No Telling” [Demo]*
- “Ain’t No Telling” [Take 12]*
- “Little Miss Lover” [Demo]*
- “One Rainy Wish” [Take 1]*
- “You Got Me Floatin’” [Take 1]*
- “Untitled Guitar Experiment”*
- “Bold as Love” [Take 19]*
- “Castles Made of Sand” [Take 16]*
- “Wait Until Tomorrow” [Take 2]*
- “Spanish Castle Magic” [Take 2]*
- “Little Wing” [Take 2]*
- “Untitled Instrumental #1” [Take 3]*
- “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” [Original Mono Mix]
- “The Stars That Play with Laughing Sam’s Dice” [Original Mono Mix]
CD Four
- “Little Miss Lover” [Alternate Version]*
- “Spanish Castle Magic” [Take 4]*
- “Wait Until Tomorrow” [Take 14]*
- “Castles Made of Sand” [Backwards Guitar]*
- “One Rainy Wish” [Alternate Version]*
- “Untitled Instrumental #2” [Take 1]*
- “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” [Dee Time]
- “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” [Live in Sweden]
- “Fire” [Live in Sweden]
- “The Wind Cries Mary” [Live in Sweden]
- “Foxey Lady” [Live in Sweden]
- “Hey Joe” [Live in Sweden]
- “I Don’t Live Today” [Live in Sweden]
- “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” [Live in Sweden]
- “Purple Haze” [Live in Sweden]
- “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” [Top of the Pops]
- “Purple Haze” [Hoepla]*
- “Foxey Lady” [Hoepla]*
Blu-Ray Disc
-2025 Dolby ATMOS Mix: Axis: Bold as Love
-1967 Original Stereo Mix: Axis: Bold as Love [24bit/96KHz Uncompressed Audio]
-1967 Original Monaural Mix: Axis: Bold as Love [24bit/96KHz Uncompressed Audio]
* = previously unreleased.
(Photo by Ivan Keeman/Redferns)
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