Voodoo Chile
Encyclopedia
"Voodoo Chile" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix
and recorded in 1968, closing Side 1 of The Jimi Hendrix Experience
album Electric Ladyland
. The song is Hendrix's longest studio recording and features additional musicians in what has been described as a "studio jam". "Voodoo Chile" is based on earlier blues songs and became the basis for Hendrix's "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
", "one of Jimi Hendrix's best-known and influential songs".
, made up of a medley of verses based on Waters' songs, including "Rollin' Stone
", "Still a Fool", and "Rollin' and Tumblin'
". In April 1968, Hendrix recorded a number of solo demos in a New York hotel, including an early "Voodoo Chile", which "he'd been refining privately for some months". It used elements of "Catfish Blues" with new lyrics by Hendrix and included a vocal and guitar unison line.
"Voodoo Chile" has been called "virtually a chronological guided tour of blues styles" ranging from early Delta blues, through the electric blues of Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker
, to the more sophisticated style of B.B. King, and the "cosmic blurt" of John Coltrane
. Lyrically, the song is "part of a long, long line of supernatural brag songs". Hendrix's song opens with:
"Hoochie Coochie Man
", the Muddy Waters/Willie Dixon
blues classic, opens:
In later verses, Hendrix gave them an individual twist with his references to 'the outskirts of infinity' and 'Jupiter's sulphur mines'".
, Jack Casady
, and Larry Coryell
. Hendrix proceeded to record "Voodoo Chile" with Mitch Mitchell
(drums), Winwood (organ), and Casady (bass) (Coryell was invited to play, but declined, feeling that the music did not need him). A number of hangers-on were also present, who provided the ambient crowd noise.
Steve Winwood recalled "There were no chord sheets, no nothing. He [Hendrix] just started playing. It was a one-take job, with him singing and playing at the same time. He just had such mastery of the instrument and he knew what he was and knew his abilities". Engineer Eddie Kramer
saw it differently: "The idea that these jam sessions were informal is something that I completely disagree with. They may have seemed casual to the outside observer, but Jimi plotted and planned out nearly all of them. He'd reason that if he had his songs together, if he really wanted to pull out what he heard in his head, he needed the right people ... and that's what he did".
Recording began about 7.30 a.m. and three takes were recorded. During the first take, Hendrix showed the others the song while the recording equipment was adjusted. During the second take, Hendrix broke a string (these two takes were later edited together and released as "Voodoo Chile Blues" on the posthumous Hendrix compilation album Blues). The third take provided the master that was used on Electric Ladyland.
"Voodoo Chile" opens with a series of hammer-on
notes, similar to Albert Collins
' intro to his "Collins Shuffle". Hendrix played through a Fender Bassman
head, providing a "very warm" amp sound with his guitar tuned down a whole tone. Although Hendrix "remains the focal point throughout 'Voodoo Chile'", the other musicians make contributions, taking it beyond the blues. Winwood "created a very English, hornpipe-like dance that was very Traffic-like", with Mitchell deftly responding to changes in direction and Casady "laying down the groove."
Hendrix wanted to create the atmosphere of a informal club jam, but "the noise level generated by those who had observed the session was not sufficient". So ambient crowd sounds were recorded from 9.00 a.m. to 9.45 a.m. and added to the track. Hendrix and Eddie Kramer later mixed the track, adding tape delay and other treatments.
returned to the studio for the filming of a short documentary. Rather than repeat what had been recorded the day before, they improvised on "Voodoo Chile", using some of the imagery and guitar lines. As Redding recalled: "We learned that song in the studio ... They had the cameras rolling on us as we played it". The song became "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", one of Hendrix's signature songs, and has been covered by numerous artists. Both songs were released on the Electric Ladyland album.
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
and recorded in 1968, closing Side 1 of The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience were an English-American psychedelic rock band that formed in London in October 1966. Comprising eponymous singer-songwriter and guitarist Jimi Hendrix, bassist and backing vocalist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, the band was active until June 1969, in which...
album Electric Ladyland
Electric Ladyland
Electric Ladyland is the third and final album of new material by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in October 1968 on Reprise Records, catalogue 2RS 6307. It is the only Hendrix studio album professionally produced under his supervision. It topped the Billboard 200 album chart for two weeks in...
. The song is Hendrix's longest studio recording and features additional musicians in what has been described as a "studio jam". "Voodoo Chile" is based on earlier blues songs and became the basis for Hendrix's "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
"Voodoo Child " is the closing track on Electric Ladyland, the third and final album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The song is known for its wah-wah-heavy guitar work. It is #101 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest songs of all time....
", "one of Jimi Hendrix's best-known and influential songs".
Background
"Voodoo Chile" evolved from "Catfish Blues", a song which Hendrix performed regularly during 1967 and early 1968. "Catfish Blues" was an homage to Muddy WatersMuddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
, made up of a medley of verses based on Waters' songs, including "Rollin' Stone
Rollin' Stone
"Rollin' Stone" is a blues song recorded by Muddy Waters in 1950. It is Waters' interpretation of "Catfish Blues", a traditional blues that dates back to 1920s Mississippi...
", "Still a Fool", and "Rollin' and Tumblin'
Rollin' and Tumblin'
"Rollin' and Tumblin" is a blues song that has been recorded hundreds of times by various artists. Considered as a traditional, it has been recorded with different lyrics and titles...
". In April 1968, Hendrix recorded a number of solo demos in a New York hotel, including an early "Voodoo Chile", which "he'd been refining privately for some months". It used elements of "Catfish Blues" with new lyrics by Hendrix and included a vocal and guitar unison line.
"Voodoo Chile" has been called "virtually a chronological guided tour of blues styles" ranging from early Delta blues, through the electric blues of Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
, to the more sophisticated style of B.B. King, and the "cosmic blurt" of John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
. Lyrically, the song is "part of a long, long line of supernatural brag songs". Hendrix's song opens with:
- Well the night I was born, Lord I swear the moon turned a fire red (2X)
- Well, my poor mother cried out, 'Lord, the gypsy was right', an' I see'd her fell down right dead ...
"Hoochie Coochie Man
Hoochie Coochie Man
"Hoochie Coochie Man" is a blues standard written by Willie Dixon and first performed by Muddy Waters in 1954 . The song was a major hit upon its release, reaching #8 on Billboard magazine's Black Singles chart...
", the Muddy Waters/Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon
William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...
blues classic, opens:
- The gypsy woman told my mother, before I was born
- 'You got a boy child comin', goin' be a son of a gun' ...
In later verses, Hendrix gave them an individual twist with his references to 'the outskirts of infinity' and 'Jupiter's sulphur mines'".
Recording
During the Electric Ladyland recording sessions at the Record Plant, Hendrix and the band often explored the New York City club scene and frequently jammed with the performers. After one such jam at the nearby Scene Club, Hendrix brought a group of twenty or so back to the studio, including Steve WinwoodSteve Winwood
Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...
, Jack Casady
Jack Casady
Jack Casady , is an American musician considered one of the foremost bass guitarists of the rock music era and best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane. First playing as a lead guitarist with the Washington D.C...
, and Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist.-Biography:Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby...
. Hendrix proceeded to record "Voodoo Chile" with Mitch Mitchell
Mitch Mitchell
John Ronald "Mitch" Mitchell was an English drummer, best known for his work in The Jimi Hendrix Experience.-Early life and the Jimi Hendrix Experience:...
(drums), Winwood (organ), and Casady (bass) (Coryell was invited to play, but declined, feeling that the music did not need him). A number of hangers-on were also present, who provided the ambient crowd noise.
Steve Winwood recalled "There were no chord sheets, no nothing. He [Hendrix] just started playing. It was a one-take job, with him singing and playing at the same time. He just had such mastery of the instrument and he knew what he was and knew his abilities". Engineer Eddie Kramer
Eddie Kramer
Edwin H. Kramer is an audio engineer and producer who has worked with, among others, Led Zeppelin, Triumph, Kiss , Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Spooky Tooth, Peter Frampton, Curtis Mayfield, Santana, Anthrax, Carly Simon, Loudness, and Robin Trower.-1960s:Eddie...
saw it differently: "The idea that these jam sessions were informal is something that I completely disagree with. They may have seemed casual to the outside observer, but Jimi plotted and planned out nearly all of them. He'd reason that if he had his songs together, if he really wanted to pull out what he heard in his head, he needed the right people ... and that's what he did".
Recording began about 7.30 a.m. and three takes were recorded. During the first take, Hendrix showed the others the song while the recording equipment was adjusted. During the second take, Hendrix broke a string (these two takes were later edited together and released as "Voodoo Chile Blues" on the posthumous Hendrix compilation album Blues). The third take provided the master that was used on Electric Ladyland.
"Voodoo Chile" opens with a series of hammer-on
Hammer-on
Hammer-on is a stringed instrument playing technique performed by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. This technique is the opposite of the pull-off...
notes, similar to Albert Collins
Albert Collins
Albert Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the US, Europe, Japan and Australia...
' intro to his "Collins Shuffle". Hendrix played through a Fender Bassman
Fender Bassman
The Fender Bassman was a bass amplifier introduced by Fender in 1952. Although it was originally designed for bass guitars, it was frequently used for normal electric guitar in rock and roll, blues, and country bands.-History:...
head, providing a "very warm" amp sound with his guitar tuned down a whole tone. Although Hendrix "remains the focal point throughout 'Voodoo Chile'", the other musicians make contributions, taking it beyond the blues. Winwood "created a very English, hornpipe-like dance that was very Traffic-like", with Mitchell deftly responding to changes in direction and Casady "laying down the groove."
Hendrix wanted to create the atmosphere of a informal club jam, but "the noise level generated by those who had observed the session was not sufficient". So ambient crowd sounds were recorded from 9.00 a.m. to 9.45 a.m. and added to the track. Hendrix and Eddie Kramer later mixed the track, adding tape delay and other treatments.
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
The day after recording "Voodoo Chile", Hendrix with Mitchell and Noel ReddingNoel Redding
Noel Redding was an English rock and roll guitarist best known as the bassist for The Jimi Hendrix Experience.-Biography:...
returned to the studio for the filming of a short documentary. Rather than repeat what had been recorded the day before, they improvised on "Voodoo Chile", using some of the imagery and guitar lines. As Redding recalled: "We learned that song in the studio ... They had the cameras rolling on us as we played it". The song became "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", one of Hendrix's signature songs, and has been covered by numerous artists. Both songs were released on the Electric Ladyland album.