Songs Musings

Happy Wednesday and welcome to another installment of my weekly feature, in which I take a deeper dive into songs I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered to date. I guess today I’m bending my rules a bit. While this is the first post dedicated to my pick, I included it in various previous posts: Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It’s one of my all-time favorite Hendrix songs, which poses the question what took me so long to write this post – well, better late than never!

Voodoo Child (Slight Return) was the final track on Electric Ladyland, the third and final studio album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, which came out in October 1968. The song also was released as a ingle in the UK in September 1970, one week after Hendrix’s death, becoming his only no. 1 hit. Confusingly, it appeared under the name Voodoo Chile, another song that originally was on Electric Ladyland and became the basis for Voodoo Child (Slight Return).

The Jimi Hendrix Experience was Hendrix’s first band. In addition to Hendrix (vocals, guitar, piano, percussion, electric harpsichord, bass), the trio included Noel Redding (bass, backing vocals) and Mitch Mitchell (drums, percussion, backing vocals). The group was put together by Hendrix’s manager Chas Chandler in the fall of 1966 after the guitarist had relocated from New York to London. The last performance of the original line-up was in late June 1969, about six weeks prior to Woodstock.

At Woodstock, Hendrix announced his new group as Band of Gypsys. Apart from him and Mitchell, it featured Billy Cox (bass), Larry Lee (rhythm guitar, vocals), Juma Sultan (percussion) and Jerry Velez (congas). Hendrix subsequently recorded one more album, Band of Gypsys, which included him, Cox and Buddy Miles (drums, vocals). The live album was released in March 1970, six months prior to Hendrix’s death. Back to Voodoo Child (Slight Return)! Here’s a live version recorded in July 197o on Maui, Hawaii. Confusingly billed as The Jimi Hendrix Experience, it featured the Band of Gypsys line-up.

As previously noted, Voodoo Child (Slight Return) originated from Voodoo Chile, which had been recorded the previous day during a jam Hendrix did with Steve Winwood (organ), Jack Casady (bass) and Mitch Mitchell (drums). Voodoo Chile, in turn, evolved from Catfish Blues, an homage to Muddy Waters Hendrix frequently performed in 1967 and early 1968 by putting together a medley of verses based on Waters’ songs, including Rollin’ Stone, Still a Fool and Rollin’ and Tumblin’.

The next day, Hendrix, Redding and Mitchell returned to the studio for the filming of a short documentary by ABC Television. “We learned that song in the studio,” Redding explained. “They had the cameras rolling on us as we played it.” Added Hendrix: “Someone was filming when we started doing [Voodoo Child]. We did that about three times because they wanted to film us in the studio, to make us—’Make it look like you’re recording, boys’—one of them scenes, you know, so, ‘OK, let’s play this in E, a-one, a-two, a-three’, and then we went into ‘Voodoo Child'”

Rolling Stone ranked Voodoo Child (Slight Return) at no. 102 in the magazine’s original 2004 list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. “It’s just the greatest piece of electric guitar work ever recorded,” said renowned guitarist Joe Satriani. “In fact, the whole song could be considered the holy grail of guitar expression and technique. It is a beacon of humanity.”

Voodoo Child (Slight Return) has been covered by numerous other artists, including instrumental versions by Phil Upchurch (1969) and The Gil Evans Orchestra (1974) and vocal renditions by Stevie Ray Vaughan (1984), Earth, Wind & Fire (2004) and Popa Chubby (2006). Here’s Stevie Ray Vaughan’s killer rendition from his May 1984 sophomore album with Double Trouble, Couldn’t Stand the Weather.

Following are some additional insights from Songfacts:

This was one of several standout wah-wah popularized songs, alongside Cream’s “White Room” and Isaac Hayes’ “Theme from ‘Shaft’.” Hendrix was considered a master of the wah-wah pedal, and this track earned him the #1 spot on Guitar World’s greatest wah solos of all time list in 2015.

“Voodoo Child” was the last song Hendrix performed live. On September 6, 1970, which was 12 days before his death, he played it at a concert in Germany.

The legendary jazz artist Miles Davis admits being influenced by this song when he made his album Bitches Brew in 1969. One of the songs on that album is called “Miles Runs His Voodoo Down.”

On the Live at Fillmore East version, Jimi says: “This is the Black Panthers’ national anthem.”

In 2012, “Voodoo Child” was voted the best guitar riff in rock and roll history by readers of MusicRadar. The website wrote: “From its wah-wah into the rhythm parts and the astonishing solo, this is still regarded by many as the high watermark of electric guitar expression.” Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child o’ Mine” came second in the poll and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” third.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; SecondHandSongs; YouTube