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Purple Haze

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For other meanings of Purple Haze, see Purple Haze (disambiguation).
"Purple Haze"
Song
B-side"51st Anniversary"

"Purple Haze" is a song written in 1966 and recorded in 1967 by The Jimi Hendrix Experience and released as a single (Hendrix's second) in both the United Kingdom and the United States. It appeared on their 1967 album Are You Experienced. "Purple Haze" has become one of the "archetypical psychedelic drug songs of the sixties".[3]

Reportedly, the song came into being after the band's producer Chas Chandler heard him playing the riff backstage and suggested that he write lyrics to go with it. There is some dispute about the lyrics: supposedly written in the dressing room of the Upper Cut Club on Boxing Day, 1966, Chandler claims that the lyrics were never cut in any way (though he admits that this was done on general principle with Hendrix's lyrics), while Hendrix stated that the original song contained much more text.[4] Hendrix himself denied the drug relation of the song claiming it to be merely another love song. He said that the line "What ever it is, that girl put a spell on me" is the key line to the lyrics.[5]

The single was released in the UK (as Track 604001) on 17 March 1967; it entered the charts at #39 and peaked at number three, spending 14 weeks in the chart.[6] It was released in the US (as Reprise 0597) on 19 June 1967, where it peaked at #65, spending only 8 weeks in the chart.[7]

In March 2005, Q magazine ranked "Purple Haze" at number one in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.[8] Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at #17 in their "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[9] Australian music TV channel MAX placed "Purple Haze" at #17 on their 2008 countdown Rock Songs: Top 100.[citation needed]

Lyrics

"I dream a lot and I put a lot of my dreams down as songs," Hendrix said in a 1969 interview with the New Musical Express, "I wrote one called 'First Around the Corner' and another called 'The Purple Haze', which was all about a dream I had that I was walking under the sea."[10] The term "purple haze" has been used to refer to LSD, due to the form sold by Sandoz, called Delysid, which came in purple capsules. The phrase itself appears in print as early as 1861, in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, chapter 54: "There was the red sun, on the low level of the shore, in a purple haze, fast deepening into black..." Although, Hendrix himself stated that the song was partially in reference to a sci-fi story.[which?]

Common mondegreen

A common misheard lyric in the song is "excuse me while I kiss this guy". The actual line is "excuse me while I kiss the sky". In fact, it has even been documented that Jimi Hendrix himself perpetrated this mondegreen by actually using it as a joke while singing "Purple Haze" live in concert,[11] particularly at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. In Cheech & Chong's film Nice Dreams, the line is parodied as "excuse me while I kiss this fly".

Music

The song is known for its use of the "Hendrix chord" (dominant 7 # 9) played as the first chord after the introduction. This chord structure was often used in jazz by artists such as Horace Silver in the early 1960s, but was not used in rock on a regular basis. The intro itself is notable for its prominent use of the distinctive tritone interval, also used commonly by jazz musicians. It is sounded when Hendrix plays an E7 #9 (low to high: E, G#, B, D, G) on the guitar while the bass plays a B flat(and its octave);[12] such a "dissonant" interval was unusual in popular music of the time.[citation needed] The guitar solo is played through an Octavia,[13] an effects pedal that increases notes by one octave. The effect was developed by Roger Mayer, an acoustical and electronics engineer, and Mayer claims he made it in cooperation with Jimi Hendrix.[14] A dubbed guitar part using the Octavia can also be heard during the outro.[citation needed]

Covers of and references to Purple Haze

Bill Cosby used "Purple Haze" as the basis for title track of his album Hooray for the Salvation Army Band, although Hendrix does not receive a songwriting credit on the label. Johhny Jones & the King Casuals covered "Purple Haze" in 1968. Hendrix was a member of The King Casuals prior to his solo career. A pop version by Dion reached #72 in Canada in February 1969. In 1973, in National Lampoon's Lemmings, a parody of Woodstock, John Belushi's Joe Cocker parody "Lonely at the Bottom" refers to the late 1960s as "days of Purple Haze and freon". In the 1979 film Apocalypse Now, the character Lance deploys a purple smoke grenade on the boat and sings the song, while on LSD.

In Cheech & Chong's film Nice Dreams, released in 1981 by Columbia Pictures, when the protagonists are in a mental institution, a black patient dressed like Jimi Hendrix (played by Michael Winslow) sings a parody version of "Purple Haze" (Sample lyric: "'Scuse me while I eat this fly"). A live recording of the song is featured in the opening credits of the 1983 comedy-drama film of the same name. Near the end of the Huey Lewis and the News 1984 song "I Want a New Drug", the famous Intro to "Purple Haze" can be heard as the music fades out. Los Angeles art rock band The Fibonaccis recorded a discordant avant-garde cover of "Purple Haze" in 1984, releasing a psychedelic music video for the song the same year. San Francisco string quartet Kronos Quartet play "Purple Haze" live regularly; the song is included on their album Kronos Quartet (1986) and on the music DVD In Accord (2000).[15][16]

A version by the Art Ensemble of Chicago is featured on their album Ancient to the Future, which was released in 1987. The song "Purple Haze" is played in the movie Masters of the Universe from 1987 starring Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren. The band Winger performed a cover of the song on their self-titled debut album released by Atlantic Records in 1988. The song was featured in the 1988 action film Shakedown. A heavy version of the song has been performed live by Ozzy Osbourne at the Moscow Music Peace Festival, a one-time gathering of high-profile hard rock acts who put on a concert for the people in Moscow, Soviet Union on 12 and 13 August 1989 to promote world peace. This version is featured on the compilation album Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell, which was released in the same year. The Traveling Wilburys song "End of the Line", released in 1989, contains the lyrics "Maybe somewhere down the road a ways / You'll think of me and wonder where I am these days / Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays / Purple Haze".

Frank Zappa performs a parody version of the song on 1991 live album The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life, recorded in 1988. The Bobs recorded an a cappella version of "Purple Haze" in 1991.[17] A version of "Purple Haze" by Tangerine Dream is on the group's concert album 220 Volt Live, which was recorded live in USA in 1992. A version by The Cure is the first track on 1993 tribute album Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix. In the film Apollo 13, released in 1995, Jim Lovell's oldest daughter was playing "Purple Haze" before watching Apollo 13's live broadcast from space.

In an episode of My Wife and Kids, Michael Kyle shows his son and his friend his guitar skills by playing the song; he also lit the guitar on fire and played it with his tongue. A copy of the single was found in a CD player in one of Uday Hussein's luxury vehicles. In the 2006 song "Dimension" by the Australian band Wolfmother, they use the lyrics "Purple Haze is in the sky". The intro to "Purple Haze" can be heard during the guitar solo of the song "Dani California" a single by The Red Hot Chili Peppers released on May 1, 2006.

In 2007, the Buena Vista Social Club covered this song in the album Rhythms del Mundo Classics.

The piece One Winged Angel, from Final Fantasy VII by Nobuo Uematsu, is inspired by "Purple Haze" including its famous intro. A live version of the song (recorded at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, CA and not Woodstock, contrary to popular belief) appears alongside "The Wind Cries Mary" in the music video game Guitar Hero World Tour.

D.H. Peligro, ex-drummer of the Dead Kennedys, recently recorded a punk rock cover of "Purple Haze", which was nominated for a Grammy Award. Seattle band Eclipse Revolution covered "Purple Haze" live.

Brian May and his early band 1984 record "Purple Haze" on March 31, 1967 at Thames Television in Broom Lane Studios, Teddington, UK.

In the anime series Bamboo Blade the character Sayako Kuwahara stated that she wanted to play guitar after hearing the song.

On November 18, 2010 in Paris, France, Adam Lambert covered the song, as an encore, at a live performance at the Trabendo. Almost immediately, "purple haze" became an international twitter trend.

In 2011, the cello/bassoon duo Paradox recorded a cover of "Purple Haze" on their CD titled MiX-5: Premiere Recordings for Bassoon and Cello.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Acir rock". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-06-05.
  2. ^ Robert Walser, "Running with the Devil: power, gender, and madness in heavy metal music", ISBN 0819562602, p.9.
  3. ^ Shapiro, Harry (1995). Jimi Hendrix, Electric Gypsy. MacMillan. p. 148. ISBN 9780312130626. Purple haze is also known as a type of weed - figures, Jimi. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ Shapiro and Glebbeek, Jimi Hendrix, Electric Gypsy, 147.
  5. ^ Liner notes of 1993 CD reissue of the album
  6. ^ The Jimi Hendrix Experience in the UK Charts, The Official Charts.
  7. ^ Shapiro and Glebbeek, Jimi Hendrix, Electric Gypsy, 524-526.
  8. ^ "Rocklist.net...Q Magazine Lists". Rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  9. ^ "The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
  10. ^ Shapiro and Glebbeek, Jimi Hendrix, Electric Gypsy, 148.
  11. ^ "The Jimi Hendrix Story - 'scuze me while I kiss this guy!". Kissthisguy.com. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  12. ^ Rooksby, Rikky (2002). Riffs: How to Create and Play Great Guitar Riffs. p. 24. ISBN 0879307102.
  13. ^ Shapiro and Glebbeek, Jimi Hendrix, Electric Gypsy, 524.
  14. ^ "Octavia". Guitar Effects by Roger Mayer. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
  15. ^ Walsh, Michael (1986-11-17). "Once Upon A Time In America". Time. Retrieved 2009-01-24. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  16. ^ Wierzbicki, James (1990-01-29). "Kronos Quartet Audience Gets Ear-load Of Quality". Saint Louis Dispatch. Retrieved 2009-01-24. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  17. ^ "Sing the Songs Of". The Bobs. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
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