Monday 15 December 2014

43.  Purple Haze. Jimi Hendrix Experience. Feb 1967.
'Purple Haze' was not only Jimi's first totally psychedelic single, it was a record that would change people's attitude to appreciating and playing rock n roll music in years to come. It was a record that sounded like nothing on earth.
'Purple Haze' was the blues of Robert Johnson played through the wah-wah and fuzz pedal technology of the 60's. It was a hellhound of a sound that snapped at Hendrix's heels as fiercely as it had dogging the King of The Delta Blues. The famous opening two chord riff for example, the interval of a tri-tone or flattened fifth was a musical device that had originally been condemned as 'diablo in musica' by the sinister Spanish Inquisition. Hendrix was obviously aware that he was playing 'the devil's music' on 'Purple Haze', a song that summoned up images of mythology, sex and science fiction. Nobody who heard it (especially those that played guitar) would ever be the same again. (Vox Magazine. 1991).

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