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Purple Haze is a song recorded in 1967 by The
Jimi Hendrix Experience, released as a single
in both the United Kingdom and the United
States. It also appeared on the US release of
their 1967 album Are You Experienced?.
Purple Haze is often cited as one of Jimi
Hendrix's greatest songs, and first
international hit. For many, it is his
signature work. Purple Haze became Hendrix'
second single after his manager Chas Chandler
heard him playing the riff backstage and
quickly arranged for him to record and
release the song.
The single peaked at number three in the UK
but only number 65 in the US, where it was
released in June 1967, a month after "Are You
Experienced?" and three months after the UK
single. In March 2005, Q magazine ranked
"Purple Haze" at number one in its list of
the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The Rolling
Stone magazine placed the song at No. 17 in
their "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
The song is believed to refer to Hendrix's
experiences with a similarly-named batch of
LSD produced injello 1966 by Owsley Stanley.
(In a 1967 BBC session, Hendrix recorded a
cover version of the Beatles' "Day Tripper"
in which he shouts, "Oh, Owsley, can you hear
me now?" during the climactic guitar solo.)
Others believed that the song's name was
derived from a strain of marijuana, called
"purple haze." However, in interviews Hendrix
would disclaim any association with
recreational drug use, asserting that the
song was drawn from a dream he had where he
was walking under the ocean, surrounded by a
purple haze. At another point, Hendrix said
he took the phrase "purple haze" from Night
of Light, a science fiction novel written by
Philip José Farmer that he was reading at
the time. (However, the phrase appearing in
Farmer's book is "purplish haze" [1].)
Hendrix claimed that the song was about love,
explaining that the line "whatever it is,
that girl put a spell on me" was the key to
the meaning of lyrics.
The song is distinctive for the flattened
fifth interval which appears in the intro.
The guitar plays Bb octaves while the bass
plays E octaves. Such dissonance was unusual
in popular music of the time. Dubbed guitar
track played through octavia, a gadget that
transfers notes one octave higher, can be
heard during the outro.
(The song's lyric 'Scuse me while I kiss the
sky has been widely misheard as 'Scuse me
while I kiss this guy. However, in some live
performances, as a joke, Hendrix clearly and
unmistakably sang 'Scuse me, while I kiss
that guy. One of these appears on the album
Voodoo Child : The Jimi Hendrix Collection
[Disc 2]. and the box set The Jimi Hendrix
Experience.
"Purple Haze" has been covered by a variety
of other artists, from Ozzy Osbourne to the
Kronos Quartet to Québécoise artist Carole
Laure, and has also been featured in many
films, television shows, and commercials.
Some of the more notable and/or unusual
appropriations of the song over the years
Zakk Wylde (born Jeffrey Phillip Wiedlandt on
January 14, 1967 in Bayonne, New Jersey) is a
lead guitarist, pianist, singer and
songwriter, best known for his role as
founder of Black Label Society and guitarist
for Ozzy Osbourne. Wylde was lead guitarist
and vocalist in Pride & Glory, who released
one self-titled album in 1994 before
disbanding. As a solo artist he released the
critically acclaimed Book of Shadows in 1996.
Wylde's playing is characterised by his
liberal use of pinch harmonics and the
pentatonic scale.
Ozzy Osbourne (born John Michael Osbourne,
December 3, 1948 in Aston, Birmingham,
England) is the lead vocalist of the
pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath and
the star of the reality show, The Osbournes.
In addition to lead vocals with Black
Sabbath, Osbourne also plays the harmonica
and synthesizer.
As a solo artist, Osbourne has sold over 27
million albums in the US, and 50 million
worldwide.[citation needed] Two of his
albums, Blizzard of Ozz (1980) and No More
Tears (1991), are certified
quadruple-platinum, for sales of over 4
million copies in the US.
Tags : ozzy osbourne zakk wylde puprle haze cover rare pinch harmonics cool jimi hendrix black label society |
