Music
Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” Smokes Out Stereo Soundscapes
You Can’t Help Getting Lost in the Fog
Few guitarists garner the distinction and respect that Jimi Hendrix has. Though he only released a few albums and died in his late twenties, his influence on rock guitar is often unparalleled.
If you drop the needle on Are You Experienced?, Hendrix’s debut album, you’ll find there’s no filler on the album.
Every track is a banger, weaving emotive rock’n’roll psychedelia on the sleeves of its fringe jackets.
However, the opening track, “Purple Haze,” explodes off the vinyl. Jimi’s most well-known track is on every greatest hits album and is played thirteen times daily on the radio.
What makes it so popular? What about it is so spellbinding?
Let’s dive in.
Walking Into the Haze
“Purple Haze” begins with a tritone, a clashing combination that’s often referred to as “The Devil’s Interval” for its unpleasant sound to the ears.
Just as we are coming to terms with the sound, we hear a growling guitar play a riff that comes up occasionally throughout the song. It is a miniature solo announcing the guitar will be front and foremost in this track, this album, and this band.
The solo riff stops, and the chords come in, chugging along with guitar sounds that are murky, growly, and even a bit angry.
This continues to build for thirty seconds until Hendrix quietly clears his throat. In my headphones, it almost sounds like he’s coming from behind you to approach the microphone to sing. This shifts what we’re supposed to listen to, going from the guitar that proclaimed its arrival to now Jimi’s voice.
You don’t realize it, but Hendrix is training you here, so he can run you rampant with confusion later in the track.
Hendrix’s Voice
When Hendrix sings, his voice comes only out of the right speaker. It has a ton of reverb echo to it, but it still never reaches the other ear. Instead, we continue to hear the guitar out of both speakers.
What’s the purpose of this?
Jimi continues pulling us into a drug-like haze, where everything feels echo-y, dark, and different. What we expect: the balanced vocal audio from both speakers doesn’t happen.
Instead, Hendrix’s voice seems so far away. We’re grasping for something: more presence, maybe some meaning, but the lyrics are a slip N slide:
“Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just don’t seem the same
Actin’ funny but I don’t know why
‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky”
We see strong drug undertones here, including a creative way to say that he’s high by “kiss[ing] the sky.” It makes sense why he would wish to hide direct drug references when other artists that chose not to would be taken off the media circuit and later left to fester in discount record bins.
By wrapping it up in plausible deniability, we still get the essence of what Hendrix is talking about through the lyrics: heavy drug use. And that feeling is compounded by what we’re hearing in the music.
The Trip Intensifies
A minute in, we hear Jimi screaming, “Help me!” while we hear vague indecipherable mutterings in our other ear. The guitar floats from ear to ear at this point, almost like a revolving door.
We’re caught up in the energy of Hendrix’s voice and the raw passion of the guitar. The mutterings still continue out of the left ear while Jimi mumbles in our right. The guitar gets louder and louder, like a rocket ship taking off into the stratosphere.
We’ve been wrapped into the haze, we’ve taken the drug, and Jimi’s leading us now. We don’t know where we’re going, but Jimi’s trained us to expect the unexpected.
Then, it climaxes. Out of both ears, we hear Jimi “ooh” and “ahh.” This feels satisfying because it’s the first time (and only time) in the song we have balanced vocals out of both ears.
But after this breakdown, we are brought back to the original vocal balance of his voice coming out of one speaker. We chug through one more verse before the song breaks down around us.
The trippy-ness increases with multiple voices muttering “purple haze” while Hendrix uses audio guitar pedal enhancements to make his weapon of choice sound other-worldly.
This high pitch floating guitar makes menacing runs to surround us as the hard-to-make-out vocals fill out the ranks. Hendrix has done it. We are lost to the haze.
But just as we are, it starts to fade away. Like a drug, the feelings are fleeting, and we are left to piece together what we heard.
And What Did We Hear?
Hendrix does an expert job of capturing a drug-like experience in less than three minutes. Instead of the Velvet Underground’s “Heroin,” where Lou Reed tells the story with painful distortion, Jimi does it by beckoning us inward into his stereo soundscape.
Once we’ve entered, it’s up to him to tell us when we can go.
When we take a drug, we don’t get to choose when it ends.
In the same way, when we listen to “Purple Haze,” we don’t have control anymore.
Jimi Hendrix does.
Thankfully, he’s kind. He plays with our senses and gives us a good trip.
But we know deep down…
He could have chosen differently.
I’m Bill. I write about spirituality, self-help, advice, and mental health, and I’m listening to 1001 Must-Hear Albums Before You Die in a year and documenting it on Youtube.
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