The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Bold as Love Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		5.0

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Bold as Love Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 12, 2025

Considering the profound influence Jimi Hendrix had on rock in general and rock guitar in particular, it's almost gobsmacking to realize he released "only" three studio albums under his own name in his brief career. Are You Experienced? hasn't yet seen the Blu-ray audio light of day (it does look like a Blu Spec2 CD came out, for what that's worth), but years ago Sony Music released The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland in a really nice deluxe edition, though it looks like a more "standard edition" is being released simultaneously with this pretty amazing four CD / one audio Blu-ray release of Axis: Bold is Love and various accompanying tracks.

The album's track list can be seen in the first screenshot I've uploaded to accompany the review. sScreenshot 10 shows the menu that appears at boot up. Other information on the minimal video element of this release is offered in the video section below.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Bold as Love Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This is another audio Blu-ray with a basically static menu offering a reproduction of the original album art in an AVC encoded 1.78:1 presentation. As can be seen by parsing through screenshots 2 through 9, the track titles do change as the album plays. I tend not to officially score video on releases like this, hence the lack of a number above.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Bold as Love Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Axis: Bold as Love features Dolby Atmos, LPCM Stereo and Mono options, and Hendrix fans are going to have a blast listening to all three. At least two iconic names give all three mixes the imprimatur of authority. The original 1967 stereo and mono mixes were remastered by the venerable Bernie Grundman, and original engineer Eddie Kramer along with Chandler Harrold handled the new Atmos mix. The surround mix has a ton of amazing immersion beginning with the hilarious opening, which could almost be from a Mothers of Invention album from that same general era. The opening "narration" (?) and/or "interview" (??) descends into mad dissonant sound effects which cartwheel around the listener, probably appropriately psychedelically. There are panning effects similar to that opener EXP in If 6 Was 9, and even in the very closing guitar(s) fade in Castles Made of Sand, where sounds ping pong back and forth and waft around and over the listener. There's actually some of the best verticality in the album in Castles Made of Sand, especially with regard to Jimi's vocals. Other tunes like Up From the Skies offer clear discrete channelization of vocals, perhaps a bit oddly in this case the front right channel for a while until some "answers" in overdubs start emanating from the left front channel. The Atmos mix offers some really appealing separation of individual instruments that give new spaciousness to the listening experience, as in the glockenspiel in Little Wing, which is placed rearward in the Atmos version.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Bold as Love Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This is another set where one fan's "main feature" may be another fan's "supplemental content", but one way or the other the non Blu-ray discs in the set offer the following really incredible amount of material:

CD 1: Original Stereo Mix

• 1. EXP
• 2. Up From The Skies
• 3. Spanish Castle Magic
• 4. Wait Until Tomorrow
• 5. Ain't No Telling
• 6. Little Wing
• 7. If 6 Was 9
• 8. You Got Me Floatin'
• 9. Castles Made Of Sand
• 10. She's So Fine
• 11. One Rainy Wish
• 12. Little Miss Lover
• 13. Bold As Love

CD 2: Original Mono Mix

• 1. EXP
• 2. Up From The Skies
• 3. Spanish Castle Magic
• 4. Wait Until Tomorrow
• 5. Ain't No Telling
• 6. Little Wing
• 7. If 6 Was 9
• 8. You Got Me Floatin'
• 9. Castles Made Of Sand
• 10. She's So Fine
• 11. One Rainy Wish
• 12. Little Miss Lover
• 13. Bold As Love

CD 3:

• 1. Mr. Bad Luck [Take 6]
• 2. She's So Fine [Take 4]
• 3. Burning Of The Midnight Lamp [Take 30]
• 4. The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice [Paramount Studios]
• 5. Burning Of The Midnight Lamp [Instrumental]
• 6. The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice [Instrumental]
• 7. Stone Free/Up From The Skies [Demo]
• 8. Up From The Skies [Take 2]
• 9. Ain't No Telling [Demo]
• 10. Ain't No Telling [Take 12]
• 11. Little Miss Lover [Demo]
• 12. One Rainy Wish [Take 1]
• 13. You Got Me Floatin' [Take 1]
• 14. Untitled Guitar Experiment
• 15. Bold As Love [Take 19]
• 16. Castles Made Of Sand [Take 16]
• 17. Wait Until Tomorrow [Take 2]
• 18. Spanish Castle Magic [Take 2]
• 19. Little Wing [Take 2]
• 20. Untitled Instrumental #1 [Take 3]
• 21. Burning Of The Midnight Lamp [Original Mono Mix]
• 22. The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice [Original Mono Mix]

CD 4:

• 1. Little Miss Lover [Alternate Version]
• 2. Spanish Castle Magic [Take 4]
• 3. Wait Until Tomorrow [Take 14]
• 4. Castles Made Of Sand [Backwards Guitar]
• 5. One Rainy Wish [Alternate Version]
• 6. Untitled Instrumental #2 [Take 1]
• 7. Burning Of The Midnight Lamp [Dee Time]
• 8. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [Sweden 9/5/67]
• 9. Fire [Sweden 9/5/67]
• 10. The Wind Cries Mary [Sweden 9/5/67]
• 11. Foxey Lady [Sweden 9/5/67]
• 12. Hey Joe [Sweden 9/5/67]
• 13. I Don't Live Today [Sweden 9/5/67]
• 14. Burning of The Midnight Lamp [Sweden 9/5/67]
• 15. Purple Haze [Sweden 9/5/67]
• 16. Burning Of The Midnight Lamp [Top Of The Pops]
• 17. Purple Haze [Hoepla]
• 18. Foxey Lady [Hoepla]

Additionally, the Hendrix Estate has packaged this release rather beautifully, if in one case absolutely frustratingly. A gorgeous die cut O ring type slip cover measures approximately 8 1/4" wide by 8" high by 3/4" deep. That encloses a tan slipbox with some colored pencil drawings. The slipbox then encloses "the goods", an oversized four panel cardboard sleeve that unfolds to reveal four pockets in each section labelled for the four CDs. So where's the Blu-ray? That's the frustrating part, and in my estimation Sony and the Hendrix Estate made a small but significant error. They've packaged the Blu-ray disc in its own mini-LP sleeve which (in my copy at least) was shoved in behind the first CD in that CD's pocket. It took me forever to figure out where it was, and even worse, in my copy the mini LP sleeve had been pushed as far over to the right as it would go, and getting it out was quite a challenge. I'd recommend just keeping the Blu-ray in its sleeve "outside" the pocket in the folded cardboard sleeve. Also in the foldout cardboard sleeve is a really gorgeous and detailed softcover book with some fanatastic writing, a slew of photographs and track by track breakdowns of everything offered.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Bold as Love Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I kinda sorta joked in my closing comments of my recent The Who: Who Are You Blu-ray review that I might be revisiting my "rule breaking" decision a couple of years ago to name a genre, in this case audio Blu-ray, to the prime position of my Top 10 list rather than an individual title, and this release certainly may encourage me to do just that, unless I end up listing it as an individual release. Hendrix fans should be over the moon with both the audio Blu-ray presentation and all the attendant other audio and swag. Highly recommended.