Purple Haze

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For other meanings of Purple Haze, see Purple Haze (disambiguation).

"Purple Haze"

Single by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
from the album Are You Experienced?
Released	17 March 1967 (UK) 16 August 1967 (US)
Format	vinyl record (7")
Recorded	11 January 1967
Genre	Rock
Length	2:50
Label	Track Records
Producer(s)	Chas Chandler
Chart positions
#3 (UK) #65 (US)
The Jimi Hendrix Experience singles chronology
"Hey Joe" (1966)	"Purple Haze" (1967)	"The Wind Cries Mary" (1967)

"Purple Haze" is a song recorded in 1967 by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, released as a single in both the United Kingdom and the United States. It also appeared on the US release of their 1967 album Are You Experienced?.

Purple Haze is often cited as one of Jimi Hendrix's greatest songs, and first international hit. For many, it is his signature work. Purple Haze became Hendrix' second single after his manager Chas Chandler heard him playing the riff backstage and quickly arranged for him to record and release the song.

The single peaked at number three in the UK but only number 65 in the US, where it was released in August 1967, three months after "Are You Experienced?" and five months after the UK single. In March 2005, Q magazine ranked "Purple Haze" at number one in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at No. 17 in their "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

The song is believed to refer to Hendrix's experiences with a similarly-named batch of LSD produced in 1966 by Owsley Stanley. (In a 1967 BBC session, Hendrix recorded a cover version of the Beatles' "Day Tripper" in which he shouts, "Oh, Owsley, can you hear me now?" during the climactic guitar solo.) However, in interviews Hendrix would disclaim any association with the drug, asserting that the song was drawn from a dream he had where he was walking under the ocean, surrounded by a purple haze. At another point, Hendrix said he took the phrase "purple haze" from Night of Light, a science fiction novel written by Philip José Farmer that he was reading at the time. (However, the phrase appearing in Farmer's book is "purplish haze" [1].) Hendrix claimed that the song was about love, explaining that the line "whatever it is, that girl put a spell on me" was the key to the meaning of lyrics.

The song is distinctive for the flattened fifth interval which appears in the intro. The guitar plays Bb octaves while the bass plays E octaves. Such dissonance was unusual in popular music of the time.

(The song's lyric "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" has been widely misheard as "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy." However, in some live performances, as a joke, Hendrix clearly and unmistakably sang "Scuse me, while I kiss that guy." One of these appears on the album "Voodoo Child : The Jimi Hendrix Collection [Disc 2].")

[edit] "Purple Haze" in other media

Due to its popularity and recognition factor, "Purple Haze" has been covered by a variety of other artists, from Ozzy Osbourne to the Kronos Quartet to Québécoise artist Carole Laure, and has also been featured in many films, television shows, and commercials. Some of the more notable and/or unusual appropriations of the song over the years include:

A Pepsi TV commercial (first broadcast during the 2004 Super Bowl) in which the young Jimi Hendrix is shown purchasing a soda from a Pepsi vending machine. As he opens the bottle, his eye is drawn to an electric guitar in a nearby pawn shop, and the famous opening riff of the song begins to play. He then glances at a Coca-Cola machine located across the street in front of an accordion store, and the opening riff is played again, this time on an accordion. The commercial subsequently cuts to the caption: "Whew! That was close!"

The film Awakenings, in which a doctor uses the song to revive a catatonic patient.

Comedian Wayne Federman's traveling routine, in which he plays "Purple Haze" on an electric ukelele.

East Carolina University football games, where the song is traditionally broadcast over the stadium speakers as the team enters the field.

[edit] Trivia

The lyric "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" can be seen painted on the wall inside one of the girls' restrooms at Hendrix's alma mater Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington. The school also sells T-shirts printed with the words "purple haze".

The song was originally slated to be titled "Purple Haze, Jesus Saves". It was later renamed after the Experience made its first studio recording of the track.

Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante, reportedly used this song as the basis for his solo on the popular 2006 single Dani California.

Video game score composer Nobuo Uematsu has acknowledged that the introduction of his famous composition One Winged Angel, featured in the game Final Fantasy VII, was influenced by the opening measures of "Purple Haze". ^[1]

In an episode of the Simpsons, Homer says, "Now excuse me while I kiss the sky."

American comedian Wayne Federman plays a version of "Purple Haze" on his electric ukulele (through a Marshall amplifier). The clip is shown on Comedy Central.

In March 2005, Q magazine placed "Purple Haze" at number one in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at No. 17 in their "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".