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Rating: With a very brief but explosive career in the world of rock, Jimi Hendrix must be placed among the inspirational figures of the psychedelic scene of those years. He had many traits: the revolutionary innovations he gradually introduced to music, the unmatched guitar virtuosity, the pyrotechnic shows, the irresistible erotic-lysergic impulses emanated on stage during live performances, his warm, deep, black blues voice.
From adolescence, he felt a connection to music genres like blues and rock&roll, which led him to work his way up around America, accompanying more or less famous musicians, until in 1966 he met former Animals member Chas Chandler who brought him to London, where this black guitarist immediately managed to capture attention. He formed his own band, a classic guitar-bass (Noel Redding) - drums (Mitch Mitchell) ensemble, which took on a historic and legendary name: "Experience." They released a series of essential singles for understanding and approaching psychedelic rock.
In this first 1967 album, Hendrix combines all '60s trends, rock-blues-pop-soul, adding abundant strokes of psychedelic color diluted by his revolutionary guitar art, partly inspired by English masters (Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend), but pushed beyond limits by an unorthodox technique that abuses feedback and distortion, achieving an unimaginable and shocking sound impact for the time. With this debut, one of the most formidable in rock, we are drawn for the first time into a psychedelic scene in its most carnal, visceral, and incandescent interpretation.
Immediate, revolutionary music, made up of pulsating acidic veins and piercing guitar outbursts, of a pure psychedelic frenzy emanating from "Purple Haze," "Foxy Lady," "Manic Depression," enriched by the distorted blues of "Red House" or "Hey Joe," the sci-fi experiments in "Third Stone from the Sun," only softened by the more ecstatic tones of "The Wind Cries Mary."
This album was just the first act of a rapidly evolving career but already achieved, with some of Hendrix's most important pieces and a second-place position on the UK charts, behind the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper.
Conclusions? Perhaps some might criticize Hendrix's lack of approach to more extended lysergic compositions, to a less direct mantra, akin to other "acid" groups of the time (the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane with After Bathing at Baxter's, the Pink Floyd, and the Velvet Underground across the ocean), but be sure of one thing: if this Genius had lived a bit longer, he surely would have given us many more emotions, and considering his adaptability to various genres, he would have undoubtedly become the greatest, not just as a guitarist. Unfortunately, his "fast" living took him too soon from a world he felt was his, but from which he tried to escape.
Rumor has it that before his death he had decided to join ELP, I don't even dare to think about how many masterpieces they could have gifted us together. Just try to imagine the magnitude of the loss of Jimi for the history of music, or put on "Hey Joe" and travel together with your beloved Jimi.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Hey Joe (00:00)
1st verse (Oo-backing vocals on each line)
Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand?
Hey Joe, I said where you goin' with that gun in your hand?
Alright. I'm goin down to shoot my old lady,
you know I caught her messin' 'round with another man.
Yeah,! I'm goin' down to shoot my old lady,
you know I caught her messin' 'round with another man.
Huh! And that ain't too cool.
2nd verse (Ah. -backing vocal on each line)
Uh, hey Joe, I heard you shot your woman down,
you shot her down.
Uh, hey Joe, I heard you shot you old lady down,
you shot her down to the ground. Yeah!
Yes, I did, I shot her,
you know I caught her messin' 'round,
messin' 'round town.
Uh, yes I did, I shot her
you know I caught my old lady messin' 'round town.
And I gave her the gun and I shot her!
Alright
(Ah! Hey Joe)
Shoot her one more time again, baby!
(Oo)
Yeah.
(Hey Joe!)
Ah, dig it!
(Hey)
Ah! Ah!
(Joe where you gonna go?)
Oh, alright.
3rd verse
Hey Joe, said now,
(Hey)
uh, where you gonna run to now, where you gonna run to?
Yeah.
(where you gonna go?)
Hey Joe, I said,
(Hey)
where you goin' to run
to now, where you, where you gonna go?
(Joe!)
Well, dig it!
I'm goin' way down south, way down south,
(Hey)
way down south to Mexico way! Alright!
(Joe)
I'm goin' way down south,
(Hey, Joe)
way down where I can be free!
(where you gonna...)
Ain't no one gonna find me babe!
(...go?)
Ain't no hangman gonna,
(Hey, Joe)
he ain't gonna put a rope around me!
(Joe where you gonna..)
You better belive it right now!
(...go?)
I gotta go now!
Hey, hey, hey Joe,
(Hey Joe)
you better run on down!
(where you gonna...)
Goodbye everybody. Ow!
(...go?)
Hey, hey Joe, what'd I say,
(Hey.......................Joe)
run on down.
(where you gonna go?
06 Purple Haze (00:00)
Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just don't seem the same
Actin' funny, but I don't know why
'Scuse me while I kiss the sky
Purple Haze all around
Don't know if I'm comin' up or down
Am I happy or in misery?
What ever it is, that girl put a spell on me
Help me
Help me
Oh, no, no
Hammerin'
Talkin' 'bout heart 'n'...s-soul
I'm talkin' about hard stuff
If everbodys still around, fluff and ease, if
So far out my mind
Somethings happening, somethings happening
Ooo, ahhh
Ooo, {click} ahhh,
Ooo, ahhh
Ooo, ahhh, YEAH!
Purple haze all in my eyes, uhh
Don't know if its day or night
You got me blowin', blowin' my mind
Is it tomorrow, or just the end of time?
Ooo
Help me
Ahh, yea-yeah, purple haze, yeah
Oh, no, oh
Oh, help me
Tell me, baby, tell me
I can't go on like this
You're makin' me blow my mind...mama
n-no, nooo
No, its painful, baby
08 The Wind Cries Mary (00:00)
After all the jacks are in their boxes
And the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness standing on down the street
Footprints dressed in red
And the wind whispers Mary
A broom is drearily sweeping
Up the broken pieces of yesterday's life
Somewhere a queen is weeping
Somewhere a king has no wife
And the wind cries Mary
The traffic lights turn blue tomorrow
And shine the emptiness down on my bed
The tiny island sags downstream
'Cause the life that lived is dead
And the wind screams Mary
Will the wind ever remember
The names it has blown in the past
With its crutch, its old age, and its wisdom
It whispers no, this will be the last
And the wind cries Mary
11 Red House (00:00)
There's a Red House over yonder
That's where my baby stays
There's a Red House over yonder, baby
That's where my baby stays
Well, I ain't been home to see my baby
In ninety nine and one half days
'Bout time I see her
Wait a minute something's wrong here
The key won't unlock the door
Wait a minute something's wrong baby
Lord, have mercy, this key won't unlock this door
Something's goin' on here
I have a bad bad feeling
that my baby don't live here no more
That's all right, I still got my guitar
Look out now...
I might as well go on back down
Go back 'cross yonder over the hill
I might as well go back over yonder
way back over yonder 'cross the hill
That's where I came from
'Cause if my baby don't love me no more
I know her sister will
16 Fire (00:00)
Alright,
Dig this baby
You don't care for me
I don'-a care about that
You gotta new fool, ha!
I like it like that
I have only one burning desire
Let me stand next to your fire
Let me stand next to your fire (Repeat 4 times)
Listen here, baby
and stop acting so crazy
You say your momma ain't home,
it ain't my concern,
Just play with me and you won't get burned
I have only one itching desire
Let me stand next to your fire
Let me stand next to your fire (Repeat 4 times)
Oh! Move over, Rover
and let Jimi take over
Yeah, you know what I'm talking 'bout
Yeah, get on with it, baby
That's what I'm talking 'bout
Now dig this!
Ha!
Now listen, baby
You try to gimme your money
you better save it, babe
Save it for your rainy day
I have only one burning desire
Let me stand next to your fire
Let me stand next to your fire
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