Background
"Voodoo Chile" evolved from "Catfish Blues", a song which Hendrix performed regularly during 1967 and early 1968. "Catfish Blues" was a homage to Muddy Waters, made up of a medley of verses based on Waters' songs, including "Rollin' Stone", "Still a Fool", and "Rollin' and Tumblin'". In April 1968, Hendrix recorded a number of solo demos in a New York hotel, including an early "Voodoo Chile", which "he'd been refining privately for some months". It used elements of "Catfish Blues" with new lyrics by Hendrix and included a vocal and guitar unison line.
"Voodoo Chile" has been called "virtually a chronological guided tour of blues styles" ranging from early Delta blues, through the electric blues of Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, to the more sophisticated style of B.B. King, and the "cosmic blurt" of John Coltrane. Lyrically, the song is "part of a long, long line of supernatural brag songs". Hendrix's song opens with:
- Well the night I was born, Lord I swear the moon turned a fire red (2X)
- Well, my poor mother cried out, 'Lord, the gypsy was right', an' I see'd her fell down right dead ...
"Hoochie Coochie Man", the Muddy Waters/Willie Dixon blues classic, opens:
- The gypsy woman told my mother, before I was born
- 'You got a boy child comin', goin' be a son of a gun' ...
In later verses, Hendrix "gives them an individual twist with his references to 'the outskirts of infinity' and 'Jupiter's sulfur mines'".
Read more about this topic: Voodoo Chile
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)