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... (A Merman I ShouldTurn
Jimi Hendrix Lyrics
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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
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
Jimi Hendrix’s song “1983” reflects upon the chaos of war and how it has ravaged the planet. The song serves as a commentary on society as a whole, and how the world is being destroyed by guns, bombs, and violence. The lyrics speak of the looming sense of doom and the destruction caused by human beings. The song is an ode to the desire to escape from the noise of the “fighting nest” that has become the world. Hendrix and his love, Catherina, decide to take one final walk to the sea where they will not die but be reborn, away from a life battered and torn. The song’s final stanza takes place at the sea where Jimi and his love make love in the sand to salute the last moment ever on dry land. They bid farewell to their machine and take a last look at the killing noise of the out of style war.
The lyrics of “1983” are thought-provoking and deep. The song is a metaphor for the chaos, turmoil, and destruction that was happening in the world at the time, with Vietnam War raging, and America and Russia locked in a nuclear arms race. The words paint a vivid picture of the horrors of war, with pencil and lipstick-shaped bombs raining down, creating screaming pain and leaving arctic stains – from silver blue to bloody red. The song’s message is powerful, with implications for today’s increasingly chaotic global landscape.
Line by Line Meaning
Hurrah I awake from yesterday
I am happy to be alive and starting a new day.
Alive but the war is here to stay
I may be alive, but the war is still ongoing and affecting everything around me.
So my love catherina and me
My partner Catherina and I
Decide to take our last walk
We are deciding to take our final walk.
Through the noise to the sea
We are walking past the chaos and towards the calm of the sea.
Not to die but to be re-born
We are not ending our lives, but rather starting anew with a fresh perspective.
Away from a life so battered and torn
We're getting away from a life that has been rough and full of damage.
Oh say can you see its really such a mess
Everything around us is in disarray, an absolute mess.
Every inch of earth is a fighting nest
There is conflict everywhere, everything feels like it's a battlefield.
Giant pencil and lip-stick tube shaped things
Descriptions of bombs that are phallic-shaped and appear like lipstick tubes.
Continue to rain and cause screaming pain
Bombs are continuing to fall and causing immense pain and suffering.
And the arctic stains
The bombs have created stains that go from a silvery-blue color to a deep red, resembling the Arctic landscape.
From silver blue to bloody red
Describing the colors of the stains left by the bombs.
As our feet find the sand
As we walk towards the sea, we start walking on the sandy beach.
And the sea is strait ahead
We can see the sea directly in front of us.
Well its too bad
Unfortunately
That our friends cant be with us today
Our friends can not join us today.
Well thats too bad
What a shame.
"The machine That we built Would never save us"
Referring to the idea that humans create machines to protect and help us but ultimately they will not save us in times of war.
Thats what they say (Thats why they aint coming with us today)
This is what our friends said, which is why they are not joining us.
And they also said
Our friends also stated.
"Its impossible for man To live and breath underwater Forever" was their main complaint (Yeah)
Our friends complained that it was impossible for humans to live and breathe underwater permanently.
And they also threw this in my face:
Our friends also added this.
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)
Indicating that living underwater forever would be impossible as it would defy the will of God and be contrary to the grace of the King.
So my darling and I
My partner and I
Make love in the sand
We had sex on the beach.
To salute the last moment Ever on dry land
It is the last time that we're having sex on the beach as we're about to enter the ocean.
Our machine has done its work Played its part well Without a scratch on our bodies And we bid it farewell
Referring to the machine that was supposed to help us survive underwater that has kept us safe on dry land thus far, we say goodbye to it now that it's completed its role safely.
Starfish and giant foams
We see starfishes and large waves as we stand by the beach.
Greet us with a smile
We are happy and welcomed by the sights of nature.
Before our heads go under
Before we submerge ourselves in the water.
We take a last look At the killing noise Of the out of style The out of style, out of style
As we look back, we see the destruction and noise of the ongoing war that we are leaving behind. We describe it as out of style, which can express our disgust for it being unnecessary and outdated.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JIMI HENDRIX
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Devin Kennedy
on Spanish Castle Magic (alternate take)
Is this really the alternete take