Red House was always one of my favorite Hendrix tracks. It's a real classic work compared to his experimental, acid rock, psychedelic jazz influenced, whatever you wanna call it style. The 12 bar blues arrangement, and the angry-in-love lyrical content are very traditionally blues based, and to the average Hendrix appreciator, classic sounds like this one allow you to unveil a bit of his versatility. Listen to this song, and watch this song. Try to get lost in the structure of this thing, watch that orange line float across the sharp contrasts of light and shade. Seriously get lost in that image below this. Watch how sudden the bursts of energy are, the flares of amplification. Just as important are the points where he drops the sound out, and the lightning speed with which he does it. Remember that music is just as much about the absence of sound as the sound itself. Pay attention to how the composition not only sounds but looks, especially considering this particular live version is 3 times as long as any of the 5 different studio released cuts of this song. This track really stands as a testament to his undeniably supreme prowess as a live improvisational performer. This is still fairly early in Hendrix's career, before he got really fucked up on heroin and speed and began to play so fast that sometimes, he trips on his own momentum, failing to land a hammer note here and there. On this track he uses restraint, he has an unbelievable amount of patients in building the crescendo on this thing. Look for the symmetry in certain scale progressions, feel the way the melody cascades up and down, how it moves like the ocean tides.
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