I was playing this song and my wife walked in.
“Who’s this?” she asked.
“The Jimi Hendrix Experience”
“Oh. Couldn’t he have got a better singer?”
I’ve never really bothered trying to get into Hendrix. Guitar heroics don’t generally interest me, and by the time I got into music the churning vitality of his stuff had got lost under layers of rock icon varnish. For instance: at school we had three options on a Sunday morning – a solemn early morning service for the actual believers, a later standard-issue service, and a secular ‘talk’ for the agnostics. At one of these talks, the trendiest of the three chaplains delivered a lecture – nay, a meditation – on Hendrix, culminating in playing “The Star Spangled Banner” over the school’s PA system. I was excruciatingly bored and embarassed by the whole thing.
At the same time, though, I was listening to music clearly inspired by “Voodoo Chile” – ‘baggy’ music had rediscovered the wah-wah, and Stone Roses guitarist John Squire’s own personal rerun of sixties pop was taking him deeper into Hendrix territory. So this single is oddly evocative of the turn of the 90s, stabs at flares and bowl cuts and trying to reconcile a love of the Happy Mondays with a puritan horror of drink and drugs. (The horror lost.) Which might go to show that music lives better when well meaning fans try to make it than when they try to teach you about it. Even so I never wanted to dig back into the sixties source material – partly because I was sixteen and affected not to care about old stuff, and partly because Hendrix’ gruff blues mumble is quite unattractive.
I’m glad this single reminds me of something, though – it grounds my response to it, stops it sounding quite so freakish in the context of this pop procession. Freakish in a good way – the strafing solos, the grinding pulse of the drums, the way the sound drops in and out like some alien radio broadcast, the aggression. And also in a less good way – after the dramatic band entrance and first verse its five minutes meander, and I can’t get much of an emotional toe-hold on it. Maybe that’s not surprising – this is a rock album track, plucked from its parent to serve as a rushed memorial. As a pop single – something it was hardly meant to be – it works best as yet another farewell to the sixties, and a slightly awkward intrusion of the musical stories unfolding outside the singles chart.
Score: 6
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I thought I’d commented on this.
It’s a funny thing, but although I know the track very well, I had no idea it was in the singles chart, let alone number one!
Maybe much of it is just down to the fact that they dressed better, but somehow I’ve always thought that the Jimi Hendrix Exprience, despite having become sort of guiding lights for an aesthetic where musicianship beats catchyness and the traditional conception of songcraft, were actually quiet good at the whole Pop thing, hit singles and everything. Their hits fit in nicely with the Mod Pop and Freakbeat of their era, which is something that can’t be said for a lot of other groups of their movement, from Jefferson Airplane to John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.
I *think* this might deserve a higher grade – great opnening line! – but it’s been a long time since I’ve heard it, and anyway most probably you’ll soon be at the mercy of much verbal abuse by googlers and non-googlers alike here, so I won’t grumble much.
“dressed better” – than the other bands they get grouped with, I meant.
Like I say, I don’t know much about Hendrix’ other stuff – this is the first thing I’ve listened to with any intensity.
As with most marks, I can only go on how much I’ve enjoyed the thing. I enjoy this in a different way from most things, certainly.
I’m amazed this was a #1 single. When I read references to Hendrix’s upcoming entry over the past couple of weeks, I assumed it would be “All Along the Watchtower,” since that was his only American Top 40 hit. That one at least seems like a single – or, perhaps more accurately, it gestures in the direction of being a single. “Voodoo Chile,” by contrast, seems utterly outside of and uninterested in the disciplines involved in making hit singles. As such, seeing it here is like seeing an ox at a dog show: it may be a perfectly fine beast, but it looks truly bizarre in its present company.
I agree with your take on the record’s strengths and weaknesses. For me, the best context to hear it was in “Withnail & I,” where its placement on the soundtrack in the scene where the two protagonists drove blindly through a wild night storm was a perfect visual and sonic expression of the chaotic historic moment that produced it. Plus, it was about four minutes shorter than the too-long record.
Some years ago I bought a Hendrix A & B sides compilation on CD mainly because I had never owned anything by Hendrix and thought it long overdue I should (and even though I was persuaded as a child that it was ‘just noise’ by my parents because my neighbour used to play it at full volume). I was suprised at the bass heavy distorted sound coming out of my speakers (an mp3 won’t do it justice) which seemed to distance it somewhat from other 60s artists I had heard on CD. I suspect there is no time when VC would have sounded less out of place as Hendrix & co. seem to be on a trip that no one else was (or were willing to take). The sounds he conjured (strangled) out of his guitar were unique and in many ways have never been equalled and I’m sure others who are more eloquent than I can describe it better. Suffice to say I was impressed but as great a musician and performer as he was he wasn’t always a great songwriter (he probably didn’t need to be). VC in particular is so uniquely Hendrix it probably couldn’t be performed by any other artist and make sense. Personally I love what he did and this would therefore lead me to award it a slightly higher mark but as a pop song (which as Tom rightly points out it was never meant to be) I can see it has its limitations.
It’s worth pointing out that – as far as I can tell – this VC is the song that appears on its album as “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”. Whether that’s more or less far out I wouldn’t yet know!
The non “Slight Return” version is much spacier and slower, it’s a cooking, brooding jam recorded in the studio when a camera crew came in to get some footage of the Experience making their album. It really is a stunning track, starts with the sound of people idly chatting, then Hendrix sings the opening line and the band just plop down into a comfortable groove, which slowly builds like a tsunami. I think Steve Winwood is on organ as well. The Slight Return is great for the big surges of guitar, but the other version is an order of magnitude better I reckon.
But the single deserves at least a 7, who else was doing this at the time? I hate guitar histrionics as well, the difference with Hendrix is that the music just spilled out of him, rather than being inserted into an instrumental break for pose value.
I LOVE GUITAR HISTRIONICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
other folx definitely doing the ‘what if we made our guitars sound like AWESOME JET FIGHTERS PLUS TIGERS PLUS RACE CARS OMG LOL VRRRRRROOOOMGRROOAAAAAAAAAR’ at the time albeit not as well/as ‘pop’ even as hendrix, who of those late 60s titans seemed the most the singles act to me – all his albums sound like a collection of singles plus a couple of b-sides plus obv filler (i mean this as a compliment btw), even the most ‘albumy’ one (electric ladyland from whence this sprung) seems to be very hodge-podge ‘here’s some new stuff and some old stuff and some stuff we had lying around’. love love love this track – hendrix maybe at least as strong a root of getting off on NOIZE as the velvets, and decidedly more upfront about ‘gawd this is FUN’. you can trace prince + funkadelic + sonic youth + my bloody valentine + god knows some heavy metal (and maybe some madchester though i don’t really hear that tom – that alley’s more page maybe?) from him and you can trace chitlin circuit + swinging london + (maybe too much at times) dylan to him = i got nothing bad to say about him. i definitely prefer his BACDAFUCUP songs to his dylan takes and proto-‘wonderful tonight’ ballads (though i love his BACDAFUCUP dylan take, ‘all along the watchtower’ (i’d give it a 9), helps to have dylan handling the dylan part), of his straight blues numbers this is my fave (it’s the most ridiculous in every way), i’d give it an 8, ‘crosstown traffic’ would get like 10 squared times infinity or something. spining on something from the ‘woodstock’ thread where mod said he prefer’s hippie’s positism to punk’s negativity, i think i prefer punk when it’s heart on the sleeve hopeful or idealistic/in love at least, and i definitely prefer hippie when it’s bad trips and negativity (or at least defeated and downcast) – stuff definitely resonates, especially lately (read= past five years).
It just says a hell of a lot when a psychadelic blues jam was the best selling single in the country. Happy days.
Blount gets it.
10 out of 10 out of fucking 10.
I wasn’t ever a great fan of Hendrix, nor of musical pyrotechnics – as a master of guitar playing give me Richard Thompson any time – but Hendrix had a certain something. I wouldn’t give this 10 but it’s worth an 8 – simply for the sheer cheek of getting something like this, which belongs in a smoky basement at three in the morning, to the top of the singles charts. NOt as good as All Along The WatchtowerPurple Haze but the experience of listening to it just now, through cans at full volume, is as freaky an experience as I’ve had since I was at Uni!
One of my favorite quotes about music ever is by Hendrix – “Rock is so much fun. That’s what it’s all about – filling up the chest cavities and empty kneecaps and elbows.” I feel – I can’t really pinpoint every moment – that this song is almost a history of recorded music all by itself, blues and rock and pop and even post-war jazz all thrown together; it soars and smiles and slams and surprises…it marks the ending of a time and yet opens the door to the 70s before it goes…to me this is a 10 (obviously!)…
This is my favourite Hendrix track. I can’t stand the widdling on Star Spangled Banner, but for the most part I really enjoy all the tracks on the greatest hits compilation. This one in particular sounds wild and furious and COOL. Jimi snarling away “I said I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time, I’ll give it right back to you one of these days…” like he’s singing down a tube. Magic stuff. I would give this a 9.
Blount’s comment easily the most persuasive so far, but keep ’em coming!
(re. the ‘cheek’ of getting this to the top of the charts – dude died! High price to pay for cheek!
There wasn’t anything like “Grandad” by Clive Dunn near the top of the charts either, and I’m not boosting that mark.)
In actuality that chart was a remarkably good one – a few questionable records (Des O’Connor at 30, Gerry Monroe at 33) but nothing screamingly naff.
At work, we have a used books/CDs/DVDs “dump” for stuff even charity shops would turn their noses up at – in the case of the CDs, they’re usually newspaper freebies in card sleeves. Aware that Voodoo Chile was coming up, I grabbed a Hendrix comp CD that someone had added to the dump recently, since I don’t actually own anything by him on CD; I have one vinyl LP of his Radio 1 sessions and some stuff on cassette that is probably in storage somewhere. Nonetheless, I have heard quite a lot of Hendrix stuff over the years (and seen plenty of film of him performing live too); I just wanted to refamiliarise myself with “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” in time for Tom’s post.
It was only when I got the CD home that I realised these Hendrix tunes were live recordings from a Royal Albert Hall concert. Still, “Voodoo Chile” sounded not unlike the studio version and any number of other live versions I’ve heard. This reminded me just how much the mystique of Hendrix has been devalued by the cottage industry that was set up after his death to make publicly available every last note of his playing that was captured on tape. (Said mystique had already been given a knock during my second year at Uni, when I shared a flat with a guitarist who demonstrated how easy it was to replicate Hendrix’s playing.)
I’m displaying my prejudices here, I know: my answer to ‘where does a record end?’ is “with the record”. I’m sure that plenty of less talented musicians would suffer in much the same way if they were given the Hendrix treatment. But with Jimi in particular, it seems to me that without a certain level of mystery surrounding the “how” and “why” of his studio recordings, he is nothing.
The amount of ill-informed bullshit accumulating on this thread is astounding.
Frank Marino could “replicate” Hendrix and so could Robin Trower. But they weren’t Hendrix, hadn’t lived his life and so couldn’t play AS he did.
jeff the first hendrix i owned was a live album and (to me at the time) (=late 70s) it seemed just murky and baffling — so i didn’t get him for years (now that i know a lot more abt improv, and guitar-noize generally, i’d love to revisit that LP but i sold it decades ago) (ie haha basic point: PLAY THE RECORD LOUD — i was much too considerate of my student neighbours to do any such thing!)
for years i knew this song as “voodoo chilli” on the assumption that it was somehow about a country in south america — proof if proof be need be that a. i don’t listen very closely to the words in songs, and b. i am an idiot
Gil Evans live at the Royal Festival Hall in Feb ’78 was one of the greatest gigs I have ever been to; the show climaxed with “Voodoo Chile” arranged as a feature for fuzz-electro-tuba (Bob Stewart).
Gil also got it, even though I agree with CSM that on his Hendrix album he would have been better using Archie Shepp as soloist and not used guitars at all.
Hendrix himself wasn’t very confident abt his singing abilities, but for me the fragility and uncertainty in his voice helps to undercut and complicate the monolithic macho virtuosity of his gtr playin’ (which I love).
I can’t think of a HEAVIER sounding song that has reached number one; ten out of ten, fer sure
Marcello, it seems to me that your point is one of the problems underpinning the Hendrix myth, and partially what Tom hints about above with his appeal to Baggy (or Baggy’s appeal to him). I knew guitarists who could note for note replicate Hendrix but were frankly fuzzy and boring because they weren’t Hendrix. This question of what is in the music apart from the notes (and perhaps even the situational context) is a vexing one, but one i agree with you on. It is also the reason why I despise 90% of live Jazz, slavishly imitating, rather than where the excitement in the original recording relied on the tension of improvisation. Again not a big Hendrix fan, but the occasions I do listen to him, there is that “first time something has been played” feel about it (which the bootlegs can sometime dispell, or put in a more workmanlike context).
I guess what Jeff is saying is that to what extent does out knowledge of Hendrix (good and bad) influence our listening as much as Hendrix’s life distinguishes his playing. The hard nosed scientist in me would say that’s all there is, but the cloth eared aesthete that rules my passions disagrees.
The heavier thing is interesting cos I was surprised at how un-heavy it sounded – this not meant in a bad way: I was expecting it to plod more. I think my ears have been seduced by the modern compression techniques I hear so much about on ILM.
I’m going to add a ‘should have been a 10’ to the polls from now on, by the way. I fully expect p^nk s to tick it every time.
> I can’t think of a HEAVIER sounding song that has reached number one
WOT NO STILTSKIN
I suppose the advantage in my upside down upbringing is that I heard Sharrock and Bailey before I heard Hendrix, thus to my six-year-old ears “Voodoo Chile” getting to number one was like the first free jazz number one*, viz. good heavens other people like this as well! It’s not just me!
*another one of those coming up later…
Improv types are of course v. keen on Not Being Categorised As Jazz, and in the long term that has probably proved to be hugely advantageous.
Agreed. This is soooooo Jazz.
i have always (ph34r my contr4ri4nism) assumed that the miles-hendrix link-up — which was planned but obviously never got to happen — would have been in itself a bit disappointing (hendrix for once intimidated and trammelled; miles as usual manipulative and controlling — and the “hendrix-types” miles later used, except maybe on dark magnus and agharta, were on the whole skewed too much towards orchestraed muso-biz elements in rather than electric free-jazz-as-freedom-from-form)
what i do wonder is what the aftermath would have been — when they STOPPED working together; a jazz-accredited hendrix, w/o access to possible chart success and the lulu show, but on the avant-circuit alongside, oh, amm, would i think have lopped off some of his edges, but who knows? i’m not sure that hendrix himself had any presence in the 70s — his place was taken by an army of confused projections
still, the fact that something as unpredetermined as this poked up through into full-on pop had enormous consequences for mainstream rock, in that it allowed CASUAL NOISE to become part of the everyday non-virtuoso teen palette, not as momentary freak-out but as the ground itself
setting the stage for QUEEN hurrahI think the answer would have been Bill Laswell (the Herbie Hancock link that the Miles connection would have afforded). I can easily see Hendrix on CellulOid circa ’85 with Sly/Robbie, Brotz/Shannon, Lemmy/Pharaoh…
i hadn’t really thought the idea through to the 80s — an ulmer-hendrix duo wd have been awesome i think
Pete gets my point. Marcello (wrongly) extrapolated from one – admittedly not very useful – sentence.
Why write that sentence then?
Personally, I think Jimi is a great singer. The voice is as important as the guitar to me.
I’ve been waiting for this one to show up.
11 out of 10. More than that, really: it’s off the scale. But everyone who’s commented that it seems a little odd at the top of the pop charts is quite right. Voodoo Chile was out of place in the charts.
The reason it got to number one is because Hendrix had just died. End of story, in so many ways.
I can remember the first time we saw Hendrix on the TV like it was yesterday. No-one but no-one had ever dared look so outlandish. More to the point, NO-ONE but no-one had ever SOUNDED so outlandish. We rushed out and bought Are You Experienced the minute it came out. And we were stunned, as anyone with any sensitivity for the guitar would have been.
Hendrix didn’t just make bluesy jams – though some of his stuff might sound a little like that to today’s more experienced ears: he rewrote the book of what a guitar could do. He remains the most exceptional guitarist in the electric instrument’s history, technically and as a innovator, but what’s more important is what he did to the sound of rock recordings. Listening to that first album was like plugging into the music of the spheres, and it got better on succeeding recordings.
The opening bars of Voodoo Chile are still, to this day, among the most thrilling, physically exciting music I’ve ever heard. Maybe you had to be there, first time round, but this one kicks off an emotional disconnect without fail. So does Watchtower, come to that.
Sorry, but I think his voice is great too. You wouldn’t ask him to sing an opera, but one of the wonderful things about this ‘popular’ music we all love is that it allows people to sing in their natural voices.
Curiously, I wasn’t that familiar with the Electric Ladyland album that this came off until recently. I knew the singles, but by some quirk of finance I’d never heard all the album. I have to report that some twenty years after the event, I found tracks on there that were still thrilling. They really DID make ’em like they used to.
You’re right, Tom. Measure this as pure pop music, with ‘being number one’ as the arbiter of excellence, and 6 is about right. But there are better measures. Just ask a blues musician what he thinks.
Pop has never been pure; it’s an oxymoron (were it pure, no one sane would bother with it).
As pop music “Voodoo Chile” gets about 28 million out of 10. There are only two number ones in this list to which I would be prepared to give >10 (i.e. the equivalent of A++). This is the first of them.
One of the key tenets of geezaesthetics is that you can’t describe the rapture. I think this discussion interesting has a few attempts at trying to come to terms with this problem.
Marcello isn’t trying, just hinting that he feels this is the best it can get – which I have to admit makes me want to listen to it more.
Blount wrestles metaphorically to put the feeling into words, and is surprisingly successful: probably due to usage of the phrase “AWESOME JET FIGHTERS PLUS TIGERS PLUS RACE CARS OMG LOL VRRRRRROOOOMGRROOAAAAAAAAAR”. I think he might be right (his passion suggests it) but I am worried its not a club I can join.
Everyone one of Gamon’s sentences feels like a nail in the coffin (or a buff on the plaque) of this record.
Sorry you think that, Pete. I was trying to describe what it felt like at the time.
Forgive me if I failed. Feel free to listen to Marcello. He put it a lot more succinctly than me.
By the way, what’s a ‘buff on the plaque?’ Something to do with teeth?
A half arsed reference to the blue plaque outsid ethe house where Handel and Hendrix both lived in London – only awarded to dead, and culturally acceptible artists.
For me Voodoo Chile was always placed in an unfortunate position of me believing it was number one when I was born. Turns out this wa san error as it was number one when my sister was born so a lot of the time I spent trying to like it as a teenager was wasted – and probably would have been better spent listening to it when I was a bit more open to its charms.
Oh. And ‘geezaesthetics’. Wassat?
geezaesthetics
(mr pteeth shd have provided a link)
Tom (or anyone) – how long is the ‘(slight return)’ version that got to no1?
I Missed that geezaesthetics thing. I’ll get back to you.
Blue plaques are put up to attract tourists. They’re irrelevant.
I feel like I should be backpedalling here. Not quite sure what I did to upset Pete. Maybe I’ll give up writing for the day and play my guitar instead.
How long is it ?
Voodoo Chile : 15:05
VC ( slgith return ) : 5:14
I always loved the guitar-slingers and Hendrix was/is still one of the greatest. I was hooked at ” Are You Experienced ” and loved every album along the way for the mighty mighty guitar playing. He did revolutionize the instrument and although some of hi-jinx were all show ( setting the axe on fire & playing with his teeth ! ) and all the fancy clothes (( aka Band of Gypsies ) he was unique and his playing totally fantastic. He’s was the complete package.
I was looking up the length of time for VC and a hit I got said VC by Stevie Ray Vaughn & cover version by Jimi Hendrix ! And another nod to Hendrix’s leacy is the recent cover of ” Axis Bold AS Love ” on John Mayer’s latest CD.
I saw Hendrix live and ther are some old photo’s on this sight http://www.nashtheslash.com – go into the sight and click on ” Rock Photo’s ” and the Hendrix concert at The Coliseum is listed. There is also interseting history of The Rock PIle , a Toronto place where the early history of rock in Canada was written. Sorry I am nor savy enough to provide link. I’m just a ol’ old boy.
Blue plaque nerd corner:
HENDRIX, Jimi (1942-1970),
Guitarist and Songwriter, lived here 1968-1969.
23 Brook Street, Mayfair, W1
Westminster 1997
The only other thing I have to say about this song is that there are songs by certain musicians that seem…inevitable? As if they were waiting for a long time to some how get to it…they are fun and bear a lot of listening as well…I realize this is a subjective opinion but for me this is that song for Hendrix, and that may be one of the factors that took it to #1 – beyond his death…though if you think about it in that context, then it is a fitting memorial for him too – “if I don’t meet you in this world, I’ll meet you in the next one, and don’t be late”….
I don’t like guitar hystrionics, but for me Hendrix was better able to get away with this than some because he was able some of the time to make a fairly focussed single, and I’d count this among them. The only album of his I really know is Electric Ladyland, which my Dad had on a double CD with the naughty cover (since replaced). Maybe it’s because I was born so late, but this doesn’t actually sound hugely outlandish to me.
I’ve got to admit that he ranks among the acts whom I can’t now hear aside from the myth, but I’d probably give this about 6 myself – I think it’s a better than average record but I don’t really like it more than that.
Julio – just over 5 minutes, from memory.
spining on something from the ‘woodstock’ thread where mod said he prefer’s hippie’s positism to punk’s negativity
Eh? No, “mod” (as in Doctor Mod) didn’t say this, nor, as far as I can tell, did the mod[erator]. Doctor Mod was in Tulsa and [s]he wasn’t thinking about “positism.”