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.

Voodoo Chile Blues
Jimi Hendrix Lyrics

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I'm a voodoo chile
Lord I'm a voodoo chile
Yeah
I'm not sayin'

The night I was born
Lord, the moon turned a fire red
I said the night I was born

The moon turned a fire red

My poor mother cried
She said, "The gypsy was right"
And I she fell right dead
Right on the floor there
Hey

And I said fly on

Fly on because I'm a voodoo chile, baby
Voodoo chile

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Jimi Hendrix's song "Voodoo Chile Blues" depict the singer as a mystical, almost otherworldly figure - a "voodoo chile" who was born under the auspicious sign of the moon turning a fiery red. The song is clearly autobiographical and builds on Hendrix's public image as a trailblazing guitar player and performer, imbuing it with a sense of the supernatural.

The opening verse speaks to a kind of prophecy, with the singer's mother being forewarned of his unique destiny by a gypsy. This leads into the central refrain of the song - "Fly on because I'm a voodoo chile, baby", which seems to suggest that the singer is unstoppable, and able to transcend the ordinary limitations of human existence. Overall, the lyrics to "Voodoo Chile Blues" suggest a kind of mystical power imbued in the singer, and that he is able to channel this power through his music.

Line by Line Meaning

I'm a voodoo chile
I am a person with a deep connection to African supernatural traditions.

Lord I'm a voodoo chile
I am a person of great power and influence within the voodoo culture.

Yeah
Affirming my identity as a voodoo chile.

I'm not sayin'
I don't want to reveal too much about myself or my intentions.

The night I was born
Refers to the circumstances of my birth.

Lord, the moon turned a fire red
The supernatural forces that surround my birth were so intense that they affected the environment.

I said the night I was born
Reiterating the circumstances of my birth.

My poor mother cried
My birth was a traumatic event for my mother.

She said, "The gypsy was right"
My mother had consulted a gypsy who had predicted something significant about my birth.

And I she fell right dead
The shock of my birth was fatal for my mother.

Right on the floor there
Describing the scene of my mother's death.