Is This Custom Card Experienced? Has It Ever Been Experienced?

If you're a fan of a certain guitar legend from the 1960s and you've read the title of this blog post, I think you might have an idea about the contents of the custom card I'm going to share below.

If not, here are some hints:

• The band consisted of a lead guitarist, a drummer, and a bassist
• The lead guitarist's formal first name was James
• They sung about haziness that was purple and a lady who was foxy.

Alright, I guess that's enough clues. Here's the custom card:

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It's the Jimi Hendrix Experience!

Back in 2020, I created a couple of custom cards featuring Jimi Hendrix. But I wanted to give a nod to the entire band, too. The trick was choosing a card template to work with.

I'm not sure if there's ever been another three-man rock band out there with a member who stood out as the headliner more than the Jimi Hendrix Experience. And that's not taking anything away from Noel Redding or Mitch Mitchell. It's just that the other guy was Jimi Hendrix.

So I didn't want to use a standard three-person card template that featured all three members equally. It took a little while for me to figure it out, but eventually the "league leader" cards from 1970 and 1971 Topps came to mind. They'd be perfect, because the league leader got top billing, in a larger frame, while the second- and third-place men were beneath, in smaller frames. I liked the black borders of 1971 better than the grays of 1970, so I went with that one. An easier choice was replacing the baseball team names with the instruments each band member played.

As for the images, I think the blue sky and clouds in the background work nicely. And do you believe those hairstyles? I mean, Noel Redding . . . that's impressive, sir.

As for The Experience, they were only together for three years (1966 through 1969). The group recorded three albums in that time: Are You Experienced in 1967, Axis: Bold As Love in 1968, and Electric Ladyland, later that same year. All three albums went Platinum or multi-Platinum. "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze", "All Along the Watchtower", "Foxy Lady". So many hits in just a couple of years. Pretty cool.

But that's just a small part of Mr. Hendrix's story. If you're a fan of rock, blues, metal, and funk, and never listened to the music he released with the Band of Gypsys (Billy Cox on bass and Buddy Miles on drums), you're doing yourself a great disservice. Search for live versions of songs like "Power of Soul", "Message of Love", "Machine Gun", "Izabella", and "Who Knows". The songs are heavier and harder. More raw. They almost make The Experience albums feel like pop music in comparison.

There's also an album out there called Jimi By Himself, which consists of some quiet home recordings and improvisations Hendrix did. Also worth a listen.

In any case, I'm happy with the way this custom came out. Maybe I'll create a variation for the Band of Gypsys, featuring Hendrix, Cox, and Miles on the 1970 gray-border design.

Any Hendrix fans out there? Band of Gypsys fans?

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading.