![\"Jimi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Jimi-Hendrix-The-Jimi-Hendrix-Experience-Far-Out-Magazine-copy-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ Bent Rej<\/p>\n
November 12th, 2026 \u00b7 3:00am GMT <\/p>\n
The foundation of what would become the third and final album from the Jimi Hendrix Experience<\/a>, 1968\u2019s Electric Ladyland, was laid in London, but it would be completed at the famed Record Plant Studios in Midtown Manhattan, New York. <\/p>\n Even more intriguing, Electric Ladyland would be the studio\u2019s first project; housing one of the music industry\u2019s first 12-track recorders, then considered unusual, the space was a revelation for recording. At the helm was Gary Kellgren, a recording engineer known for his work across multiple studios in New York: he\u2019d worked on The Velvet Underground\u2019s \u2018Sunday Morning\u2019 and had a history with Frank Zappa. <\/p>\n Kellgren opened the Record Plant with Chris Stone, the more business-oriented of the two, and they agreed to build their space with an emphasis on comfort and creativity. It would be the perfect place for Hendrix and co<\/a> to call their second home, for a moment. From the album\u2019s beginnings at London\u2019s Olympic and Mayfair studios, however, Hendrix\u2019s perfectionism rarely waned. <\/p>\n This tendency had spanned from the earliest moments in his career and, on Electric Ladyland, was translated through multiple, agonising takes and a constant criticism of his own voice. He had himself and drummer Mitch Mitchell record \u2018Gypsy Eyes\u2019 over the course of over 50 takes, while he tasked himself with singing lead and backing vocals on the title track and \u2018Long Hot Summer Night.\u2019 Such precision got to his manager and producer, Chas Chandler, who grew increasingly frustrated. <\/p>\n Surely, it did not help that when Hendrix was not overthinking the minute details of their recording sessions, he turned a given studio space into a gathering of his friends and various guests. Tensions, then, could quickly dissolve into chaos. \u201cThere were tons of people in the studio; you couldn\u2019t move,\u201d bassist Noel Redding<\/a> once recalled. \u201cIt was a party, not a session\u201d. Things came to a peak when Chandler ended his professional relationship with Hendrix as a result. <\/p>\n \u2018Crosstown Traffic\u2019 was not a song intended to be a central point on the record, but when it was chosen as the final single, the song took on a life of its own. \u201cYou have the whole planned-out LP, and all of a sudden, they\u2019ll make \u2018Crosstown Traffic,\u2019 for instance, a single, and that\u2019s coming out of a whole other set,\u201d Hendrix once bemoaned. <\/p>\n Despite his own irritation with how the song was handled, it remains one of the Jimi Hendrix Experience\u2019s most compelling moments on record. Its lyrics dissect his frustrations with his partner, comparing her moods to the stop-and-go nature of a traffic jam. \u201cBut darling, can\u2019t you see my signals turn from green to red?\u201d he sings. <\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n One of \u2018Crosstown Traffic\u2019s pillars is the kazoo riff, mimicking the chaotic hum of congested traffic as it merges with his electric guitar<\/a>. The kazoo was, in fact, played by Hendrix himself, but the instrument was not a proper one: rather than find a traditional kazoo to play, he instead made one of his own, fashioned out of a comb and a piece of cellophane. In the album\u2019s liner notes, he is self-credited for playing \u201ccomb and paper\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cComb and paper\u201d was a more frequently used makeshift instrument than one may think: The Beatles utilised it on their song \u2018Lovely Rita\u2019<\/a>, played by both Paul McCartney and John Lennon, a year before \u2018Crosstown Traffic\u2019 was released, while Graham Nash later used comb and paper on his 1971 song \u2018Sleep Song.\u2019 One of\u00a0its earliest uses dates back to the 1920s, with Red McKenzie playing the \u2018instrument\u2019 in the jazz band Mound City Blue Blowers.\u00a0<\/p>\n The kazoo riff takes a keen ear to parse from Hendrix\u2019s guitar, yet it is essential for rounding out the psychedelic funk stylings that define \u2018Crosstown Traffic\u2019, making it a classic in itself. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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