James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942… Read Full Bio ↴James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music".

Born in Seattle, Washington, Hendrix began playing guitar at the age of 15. In 1961, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and trained as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division; he was granted an honorable discharge the following year. Soon afterward, he moved to Clarksville, Tennessee, and began playing gigs on the Chitlin' Circuit, earning a place in the Isley Brothers' backing band and later with Little Richard, with whom he continued to work through mid-1965. He then played with Curtis Knight and the Squires before moving to England in late 1966 after being discovered by Linda Keith, who in turn interested bassist Chas Chandler of the Animals in becoming his first manager. Within months, Hendrix had earned three UK top ten hits with the Jimi Hendrix Experience: "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze", and "The Wind Cries Mary". He achieved fame in the U.S. after his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and in 1968 his third and final studio album, Electric Ladyland, reached number one in the U.S.; it was Hendrix's most commercially successful release and his first and only number one album. The world's highest-paid performer, he headlined the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, before his accidental death from barbiturate-related asphyxia on September 18, 1970, at the age of 27.

Hendrix was inspired musically by American rock and roll and electric blues. He favored overdriven amplifiers with high volume and gain, and was instrumental in utilizing the previously undesirable sounds caused by guitar amplifier feedback. He helped to popularize the use of a wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock, and was the first artist to use stereophonic phasing effects in music recordings. Holly George-Warren of Rolling Stone commented: "Hendrix pioneered the use of the instrument as an electronic sound source. Players before him had experimented with feedback and distortion, but Hendrix turned those effects and others into a controlled, fluid vocabulary every bit as personal as the blues with which he began."

Hendrix was the recipient of several music awards during his lifetime and posthumously. In 1967, readers of Melody Maker voted him the Pop Musician of the Year, and in 1968, Rolling Stone declared him the Performer of the Year. Disc and Music Echo honored him with the World Top Musician of 1969 and in 1970, Guitar Player named him the Rock Guitarist of the Year. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. Rolling Stone ranked the band's three studio albums, Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland, among the 100 greatest albums of all time, and they ranked Hendrix as the greatest guitarist and the sixth greatest artist of all time.

1983
Jimi Hendrix Lyrics

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Hurrah I awake from yesterday
Alive but the war is here to stay
So my love catherina and me
Decide to take our last walk
Through the noise to the sea
Not to die but to be re-born
Away from a life so battered and torn
Forever

Oh say can you see its really such a mess
Every inch of earth is a fighting nest
Giant pencil and lip-stick tube shaped things
Continue to rain and cause screaming pain
And the arctic stains
From silver blue to bloody red
As our feet find the sand
And the sea is strait ahead
Strait ahead
Well its too bad
That our friends
Cant be with us today
Well thats too bad
"The machine
That we built
Would never save us"
Thats what they say
(Thats why they aint coming with us today)
And they also said
"Its impossible for man
To live and breath underwater
Forever" was their main complaint
(Yeah)
And they also threw this in my face:
They said
Anyway
You know good well
It would be beyond the will of God
And the grace of the King
(Grace of the King yeah yeah)

So my darling and I
Make love in the sand
To salute the last moment
Ever on dry land
Our machine has done its work
Played its part well
Without a scratch on our bodies
And we bid it farewell

Starfish and giant foams
Greet us with a smile
Before our heads go under
We take a last look
At the killing noise

Of the out of style
The out of style, out of style

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Jimi Hendrix's "1983" are a poignant reflection of the turbulent times in which the song was written. The song was written during the height of the Cold War and the Vietnam War, which is evident in its themes of destruction, war, and the futility of violence. The opening lines, "Hurrah I awake from yesterday / Alive but the war is here to stay," set the tone for the song, which describes a world torn apart by conflict.

The second stanza describes the devastation wrought by war, with images of "Giant pencil and lip-stick tube shaped things" raining down and causing "screaming pain." The sea, which represents hope and rebirth, is the destination of the singer and his lover as they seek to escape the violence and start anew. The third stanza reflects the nihilistic views of some people during that time, who believed that technology had reached its limit and could not save humanity from self-destruction. The idea of living underwater forever, which the singer and his lover toy with, is seen as both impossible and beyond the will of God.

The final stanza of the song is a bittersweet moment of love and sacrifice. The singer and his lover make love on the beach, knowing that they will soon be submerged in the sea forever. They bid farewell to their machine, which has kept them safe, and look at the "killing noise" of the world one last time. The song then ends, leaving the listener to ponder the solemn question: is there any hope for humanity to avoid destruction?

1983Jimi Hendrix Lyrics

Devin Kennedy

on Spanish Castle Magic (alternate take)

1983
Jimi Hendrix Lyrics