Instagram story viewer> @jimihendrixdecoded> Posts

Jimi Hendrix Decoded

@jimihendrixdecoded

11.3K

followers

12

following

Decoding the Music of Jimi Hendrix
A publication by @thelegendsofmusic
Business enquiries: @factusmediaworks

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Isolated Drum Track of Mitch Mitchell’s drum parts on the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Fire”

#Music #TheJimiHendrixExperience #MitchMitchell by @jimihendrixdecoded

10k

165

4 months ago

Isolated Vocal Track of Jimi Hendrix’s Vocal Parts on The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “The Wind Cries Mary”

#Music #TheJimiHendrixExperience #JimiHendrix by @jimihendrixdecoded

3k

27

4 months ago

Isolated Drum Track of Mitch Mitchell’s drum parts on the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “All Along The Watchtower”

One of the most overlooked aspects of “All Along the Watchtower” is Mitch Mitchell’s drumming who played a huge role in shifting the perspective of the instrument away from it being just a timekeeping device. Mitchell approached it like a Jazz musician. Rather than locking himself into a rigid groove, he constantly reacts to Jimi Hendrix’s guitar, treating every phrase as an opportunity for conversation rather than repetition. It’s this one singular element that gives “All Along the Watchtower” so much forward momentum.

What do you think of his drumming? Leave a comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

#Music #TheJimiHendrixExperience #MitchMitchell by @jimihendrixdecoded

6k

103

4 months ago

Isolated Drum Track of Mitch Mitchell’s drum parts on the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Little Wing”

“Jimi Hendrix needed a drummer who could keep up with his imagination, and Mitch Mitchell was one of the very few musicians on the planet capable of doing it. The reason I say that is simple. Most drummers would have struggled to keep up with Jimi. His songs were constantly changing direction without warning. What made Mitch so special was that he never sounded like he was following Jimi. He sounded like he was right there beside him, pushing the music forward every step of the way. The drums aren’t simply keeping time. They’re having a conversation with the guitar. Let’s also not forget what an important composer Mitch was. His contributions to songs like “Little Wing” and “Fire” helped make those songs what they are.”

Anuj @thelegendsofmusic

#Music #TheJimiHendrixExperience #MitchMitchell by @jimihendrixdecoded

20k

320

4 months ago

Jimi Hendrix performing “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” Live in Maui in 1970

On the 2nd of May, 1968 Jimi Hendrix was present at the Scene club in New York City with a group of about twenty people to jam with. Among those present were Traffic’s organist Steve Winwood, Jefferson Airplane’s bassist Jack Cassidy, and Jazz guitarist Larry Coryell. The song they recorded was the original Voodoo Chile and the success of the recording convinced Hendrix that he could take his innovation a step further and from that he created “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”. The next day Hendrix returned to the studio with Redding and Mitchell for the filming of a short documentary by ABC television. The crew had told the band: “Make it like you’re playing, boys”, and Hendrix simply told his bandmates: “Okay, let’s do this in E”.

While that TV footage is now lost to history, what they jammed led to the birth of “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”.

#Music #JimiHendrix by @jimihendrixdecoded

35k

234

5 months ago

The Jimi Hendrix Experience performing “The Wind Cries Mary” Live at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967

“The Wind Cries Mary” was inspired by an argument Jimi Hendrix had with his then girlfriend Kathy Mary Etchingham over her cooking. As the story goes, Jimi got into an argument with her about her cooking, which made her really angry and she left the apartment for a day. When she finally got back, Jimi greeted her by playing her a draft of a new composition he had written titled “The Wind Cries Mary”. Apart from Kathy nobody else was aware of this song he had written until he presented it to Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell during the recording sessions for “Are You Experienced”. During the recording sessions for the album, the band had just completed “Fire” and had about 20 mins to spare when he brought this song up. What’s remarkable is that he managed to record the song in the time gap they had. While the group did manage to record more takes of the song, what was released was the original take. ��#Music #TheJimiHendrixExperience by @jimihendrixdecoded

18k

213

5 months ago

Jimi Hendrix performing “Purple Haze” Live for West German Television Show Beat Club in 1967

In December of 1966, Jimi Hendrix was hanging out at the flat toying around with a riff that caught the attention of his manager Chas Chandler. He kept urging the guitarist to work on the song and turn it into a song and the song was finally written in the dressing room of a London club during the afternoon of December 26, 1966, before a gig. A couple of weeks later on the 11th of January, 1967 the Experience assembled at De Lane Lea Studios in London. Three takes were recorded and thanks to multi-track recording technology engineers could record and complete additional parts on the final master. Here’s what Chas Chandler had to say about the making of the song: “With ‘Purple Haze’, Hendrix and I were striving for a sound and just kept going back in [to the studio], two hours at a time, trying to achieve it. It wasn’t like we were there for days on end. We recorded it, and then Hendrix and I would be sitting at home saying, ‘Let’s try that.’ Then we would go in for an hour or two. That’s how it was in those days. However long it took to record one specific idea, that’s how long we would book. We kept going in and out.”

Source: - Jimi Hendrix: Sessions by John McDermott

#Music #JimiHendrix by @jimihendrixdecoded

9k

73

5 months ago

Jimi Hendrix performing Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor” Live on the 18th of June, 1967 at the Monterey International Pop Festival in Monterey, California

The Art of A Cover Song

There’s something beautiful about an artist taking an established song and making it their own. Most people think of a cover as a tribute. A respectful nod. Play the chords the same way, follow the structure, preserve what made it work. Keep it familiar so the listener feels safe. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not where things get interesting. Because the covers that actually stay with you don’t behave like that. They treat the original as a starting point, not a boundary. A great cover begins with understanding. Not just the lyrics or the melody, but the intent behind them. What was the song trying to say? What was it holding back? What direction did it not take? That’s where the real opportunity sits. And then comes the decision that separates everything. Do you protect the song… or do you reinterpret it? The artists who matter choose the second. They don’t just play the song. They reframe it. When Jimi Hendrix took on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor,” he he drove it into overdrive and reshaped it into a electric blues statement that felt ahead of its time. Jimi provided the song with elements that were faster, sharper, and more volatile. On The Experice’s version the rhythm tightens and the guitar stops sitting inside the groove, and starts tearing through it. What was once controlled now became unpredictable and that shift displays something Hendrix understood better than most musicians. If you’re going to cover a song, you need to bring something the original never asked for. Because a great cover doesn’t just remind you of where a song came from. It forces you to confront what else it could become.

His version of “Killing Floor” isn’t just a reinterpretation. It’s a stress test. He stretches the song to its limits, injecting it with a kind of urgency that feels almost dangerous. The blues is still there, but it’s been electrified, destabilized, pushed into territory that didn’t exist when it was first written.

#Music #JimiHendrix by @jimihendrixdecoded

12k

123

7 months ago

Noel Redding 📸 by Ed Caraeff during a concert by the Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Ackerman Union Ballroom, UCLA, Los Angeles on the 13th of Feb, 1968

“Little Miss Strange” is one of those fascinating moments in the Jimi Hendrix Experience catalogue where Hendrix steps back and lets his bassist, Noel Redding, take the creative lead. Written and sung by Redding, the song appears on Electric Ladyland, an album otherwise dominated by Hendrix’s genius, and yet it stands out precisely because it doesn’t try to compete with him. It’s a brief detour into British psychedelia filtered through Redding’s melodic sensibilities, revealing a different voice inside the Experience. Redding’s writing here feels closer to The Who or Cream than to Hendrix’s cosmic blues. It’s a concise, hook-driven track, almost whimsical in tone, but executed with tight musicianship. Beneath its singalong surface lies a layer of genuine character, a reflection of Redding’s roots in the British beat scene before joining Hendrix. He brings structure where Hendrix brought chaos, melody where Jimi chased abstraction.

Musically, “Little Miss Strange” thrives on contrast. The guitar lines still shimmer with Hendrix’s touch, but the rhythm section lock into a bright, punchy groove that feels distinctly English. It’s a track that proves Redding wasn’t just a sideman; he was a songwriter with his own sense of identity, capable of crafting a pop-psychedelic gem that could hold its own among Hendrix’s sprawling soundscapes. What makes “Little Miss Strange” important isn’t just that Noel wrote it it’s that Hendrix let him. It’s a reminder that even in a band driven by one of music’s most dominant creative forces, collaboration still mattered. Redding’s contribution humanized the Experience, grounding the wild experimentation in melody and structure. For a brief, brilliant moment, Electric Ladyland wasn’t just Hendrix’s vision, it was a shared experiment. And “Little Miss Strange” remains Noel Redding’s signature fingerprint on rock history: eccentric, melodic, and quietly defiant in a universe built around a star.

#Music #TheJimiHendrixExperience #NoelRedding by @jimihendrixdecoded

6k

42

10 months ago

The Jimi Hendrix Experience 📸 by Linda Eastman (Later Linda McCartney) at the the sculpture of Alice in Wonderland in Central Park

When it came time to creating the album cover for “Electric Ladyland”, Jimi had something specific in mind and wrote a letter to the label executives at Reprise Records, which had gone largely ignored. He had requested for a photograph of the Experience sitting with children on the sculpture of Alice in Wonderland in Central Park, and drew a picture for reference. However, the executives were keen to cash in on the ongoing psychdelic album covers trend and instead used a blurred red and yellow photo of his head while performing at the Saville Theatre, taken by Karl Ferris. More than five decades later when the album was reissued and expanded upon for its 50th Anniversary, Hendrix’s original vision was brought to life and the photograph was used as the album cover.

#Music #JimiHendrix by @jimihendrixdecoded

2k

5

a year ago

Jimi Hendrix pictured performing “Machine Gun” Live on the 31st of August, 1970

“Machine Gun” has got the makings of a Rock ’N’ Roll Masterpiece and a lyrical theme that has the capability of educating the audience on an important subject, which is the Vietnam War. Out of all the songs that were written on the subject, this one deserves special praise because of the music that’s based around a jam. During a performance at a show in Berkeley, California, Hendrix introduced the song saying: “I’d like to dedicate this song to soldiers fighting in Berkeley—you know what soldiers I’m talking about—and oh yeah, the soldiers fighting in Vietnam too ... and dedicate [it] to other people that might be fighting wars too, but within themselves, not facing up to the realities.”⁣
⁣
His guitar virtuosity that’s featured in the twelve minute song is often hailed as his greatest piece of work and I can’t disagree with that. The manner in, which he’s played long guitar solos and percussive riffs that’s combined with controlled feedback proves why he’s one of the best guitarists out there. Not only that, but it’s also worth noting that he’s used this feedback to simulate the sounds of a battlefield, such as helicopters, dropping bombs, explosions, machine guns, and the screams and cries of those wounded or grieving. Although a proper studio recording was never realized, several other live & bootleg recordings exist.⁣
⁣
“Machine Gun” actually draws heavily on Hendrix’s Jazz influences as his capability to improvise has often been compared to jazz saxophonists John Coltrane & Miles Davis’s styles of improvisation. It was actually Miles Davis who noted this connection as he once said: “Jimi liked what I had done with Kind of Blue and some other stuff and wanted to add more jazz elements to what he was doing. He liked the way Coltrane played with all those sheets of sound, and played his guitar in a similar way”. ⁣
⁣
What do you think of the song? Leave a comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts!⁣
⁣
#Music #RockNRoll #JimiHendrix by @jimihendrixdecoded

73k

846

a year ago

Jimi Hendrix pictured by Gered Mankowitz

Dissecting “Voodoo Chile” by Jimi Hendrix:

This song right here is one of the most under appreciated songs in Hendrix’s discography. In 1968 when Jimi Hendrix released “Electric Ladyland” as a record, it caused havoc on all fronts in the music scene as the songs featured were so revolutionary it changed the listener’s understanding of music forever. However, no one ever talks about the original version of “Voodoo Chile”. If you really want to appreciate him for the genius that he is, then I’d highly recommend giving this version of the song a listen as it gives you his origins as a musician. When you strip Hendrix of all the flashy gimmicks and exaggerated tricks he is known for, you’ll find a person who’s a student of the Blues.

For this song, he took inspiration from the Chicago Blues master Muddy Waters and his song “Catfish Blues”, as his influence can be felt all over the song. Originally, Hendrix’s aim was to pay homage to Muddy with the music and the verses, but a critic named Charles Murray has noted that the song is viewed as a chronological guided tour of various styles of the Blues that were explored over the years. He describes “Voodoo Chile” as “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. The song begins with a series of hammer-on notes that is similar to Albert Collins’ intro to his “Collins Shuffle”.

From a lyrical standpoint, the song can be viewed as a brag song as it opens with: “Well the night I was born, Lord I swear the moon turned a fire red, Well, my poor mother cried out, ‘Lord, the gypsy was right’, an’ I see’d her fell down right dead”. This stands in similarity to Muddy Waters “Hoochie Coochie Man”, which begins with the line: “The gypsy woman told my mother before I was born, ‘You got a boy child comin’, goin’ be a son of a gun”.

What do you think of the song? Leave a comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

#Music #RockNRoll #JimiHendrix by @jimihendrixdecoded

2k

16

a year ago