“Businessmen, they drink my wine”: Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland Album

This brief discussion (with part of its title extracted from the lyrics of “All Along the Watchtower”) provides music business contexts related to the third Jimi Hendrix Experience album, Electric Ladyland (1968), the guitarist’s first and only double album issued during his lifetime. The article refers to crucial advances in multitrack recording technology transforming the industry and coinciding with the recording of Electric Ladyland, the impact of the album’s packaging, and the commercial rise of the double-album format, as well as referencing the effect of opaque management on Hendrix’s career. The album’s release also intersected with the recording industry’s mass-market shift from mono to stereo releases, increased cassette consumption, and the rise of career-making stereo FM radio outlets.