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.
Once I Had I Woman
Jimi Hendrix Lyrics
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Lord knows she was good to me in every way
Yes, I had a woman
A real woman
Lord, she gave me lovin' both night and day
My sun shine
Whoo hoo
For my woman
Its going to take me one more day
If it takes me
She went way down in Dallas
Way down in Texas land
Lord she had me wrapped around her wrist and around her finger baby
Like a ring wrapped around a finger of a severed hand
I'm lookin' for my Dallas honey bee
Who can you be
Who can you be
Oooh hoo hoo help me
Help me look for her
Oh yeah
In Jimi Hendrix's song "Once I Had a Woman," the singer sings about his former relationship with a woman who was kind to him in every way. He reminisces about how she gave him love day and night, and how he depended on her for his happiness. However, she has now left him and gone to Dallas, leaving him searching for her and wondering who she can be.
The lyrics of this song are significant for several reasons. First, they demonstrate Hendrix's ability to blend different musical styles and genres, such as blues, rock, and funk, in a way that is both innovative and captivating. The song's funky rhythm and bluesy guitar riffs are classic Hendrix, and the raw emotion in his vocals make the lyrics all the more poignant. Second, the song deals with themes of love, loss, and dependency that were common in Hendrix's music. He often sang about the complexities of relationships and the ways in which they can both lift us up and tear us down. Finally, the song reflects the cultural and social context of the time in which it was written, as it was composed during the height of the civil rights movement and the ongoing struggle for racial equality in the United States.
Line by Line Meaning
Lord, I had a woman
I used to have a woman in my life
Lord knows she was good to me in every way
She was an amazing woman, who treated me well in every way possible
Yes, I had a woman
I did, in fact, have a woman
A real woman
She was a genuine and authentic woman, who was not fake
Lord, she gave me lovin' both night and day
She showed her love for me, by caring for me both day and night
My sun shine
She was the light of my life, and made everything brighter
Whoo hoo
An expression of joy, happiness and excitement
For my woman
I would do anything for her, because of how much she meant to me
Or else or else
If I do not find her or replace her, I will face unfortunate consequences
Its going to take me one more day
I need more time to either find her or come to terms with her loss
If it takes me
I will go to any length to get her back or find someone like her
She went way down in Dallas
She is now in Dallas, far from my reach
Way down in Texas land
She is in the vast land of Texas, and I am far away
Lord she had me wrapped around her wrist and around her finger baby
She had complete control over me and I was totally enamoured by her
Like a ring wrapped around a finger of a severed hand
My affection and love for her was so intense and consuming, that it felt like a part of me was missing without her
I'm lookin' for my Dallas honey bee
I am searching for my love in Dallas
Who can you be
I am curious to know who this person is that I am looking for
Oooh hoo hoo help me
I am pleading for help in finding her
Help me look for her
Assist me in searching for the love of my life
Oh yeah
An optimistic, positive exclamation
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