Fire (Jimi Hendrix song)

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"Fire"
Single by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
from the album Are You Experienced
A-side "Let Me Light Your Fire" (Fire)
B-side "Burning Of The Midnight Lamp"
Released LP May 12, 1967 (UK)
stereo single April 1969
Format vinyl record (7") & LP
Genre Psychedelic rock, acid rock, hard rock
Length 2:47
Label Track Records, Polydor (LP & single); Reprise (LP only)
Writer(s) Jimi Hendrix
Producer Chas Chandler
The Jimi Hendrix Experience singles chronology
"Crosstown Traffic"
(1968)
"Let Me Light Your Fire"
(1969)
"Stepping Stone"
(1970)

"Fire" is a song written and originally recorded by Jimi Hendrix and released on the 1967 Are You Experienced album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

[edit] History

The 1967 USA Reprise stereo remix of "Fire" was also subsequently released as a stereo single in 1969, outside of USA & Canada under the title "Let Me Light Your Fire." One of Hendrix's most played efforts, the track has been included on a number of greatest hits collections, including Jimi Hendrix: The Ultimate Experience. 'The Experience' frequently opened live concerts with this song.

Despite its sexual overtones, the song had an innocuous origin, stemming from a cold New Years Eve in Folkestone, England after a gig. Noel Redding, bass player for The Jimi Hendrix Experience invited Jimi and Cathy as guests at his mother's house. Jimi asked her if he could stand next to her fireplace to warm himself, she agreed, but her Great Dane was in the way, hence the line, "Aw, move over, Rover, and let Jimi take over..." ("Electric Gypsy").[1]

Originally, the album version of the song contained a very short and simple solo, but through several live performances, Hendrix expanded it[citation needed]. "Fire" was later covered by many artists, such as Alice Cooper; a Top Forty version of the song was released by the pop group Five By Five in 1968. It was used in TV commercials for the 1993 Chevrolet Camaro and the 1999 Pontiac Sunfire, and in 2007 for a commercial for Verizon's V-Cast. The main riff is also featured in the song "Dj Play My Song" by Jully Black on her album "Revival"

One of the most notable bands to cover the song is Red Hot Chili Peppers, who started playing it regularly from early beginnings, around March 1983. They recorded their version during the Freaky Styley sessions; the song was left off the album but released as a B-Side on a few of the band's singles. When the band's original guitarist Hillel Slovak died in 1988, the recording of "Fire" was added as a tribute to Mother's Milk, released in 1989.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Record Collector issue 330 (2006) page 96
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