10 Perfect Hard Rock Albums Everyone Tried To Copy

As the Summer of Love started to really show its colors, the heaviest rock that you could possibly get was probably coming from a band like the Doors. The Flower Power movement may have been great, but that wasn't quite enough power to move something in your gut when you heard it. You needed something with a little more of an edge to it, and Jimi Hendrix practically forced you to pay attention the minute that Are You Experienced came out.

While this album exists in different versions in the US and UK, songs like Foxy Lady and Purple Haze give you a perfect taste of what Jimi has to offer, creating a psychedelic atmosphere while tearing his guitar to shreds through layers of distortion. For all of the experimentation here, it feels strange even calling this a hard rock album from skin to core, taking cues from the folksy side of Bob Dylan on The Wind Cries Mary to making one of the most hard edged R&B songs ever created on the track Manic Depression.

Jimi was always for letting his music do the talking though, and you can hear him practically trying to speak through his guitar on every lead break he takes, almost going through the sound barrier in some spots. Rock has come a long way since the '60s, but every guitar player that was born to solo is living in the shadow of Hendrix.