Джими Хендрикс: «Voodoo Chile» жазбасының тарихы

the 5:12 Jimi Hendrix Experience song
"Voodoo Chile" (/tʃ//aɪ//l/ CHAIL') is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded in 1968 for the third Jimi Hendrix Experience album Electric Ladyland. It is based on the Muddy Waters blues song "Rollin' Stone", but with original lyrics and music. At 15 minutes, it is Hendrix's longest studio recording and features additional musicians in what has been described as a studio jam. "Voodoo Chile" was recorded at the Record Plant in New York City, after a late night jam session with Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, organist Steve Winwood, and bassist Jack Casady. The song became the basis for "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", recorded by the Experience the next day and one of Hendrix's best known songs. "Chile" is a phonetic approximation of "child" without the "d". In the UK, "Voodoo Chile" was also used as the title of the 1970 single release of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", which has caused confusion regarding the two songs.

During the Electric Ladyland recording sessions at the Record Plant, Hendrix and the band often jammed with other performers at New York City clubs. After one such jam at the nearby Scene club on May 2, 1968, Organist Steve Winwood from Traffic, bassist Jack Casady from Jefferson Airplane, and jazz guitarist Larry Coryell were among those present. Although Coryell was invited to play, he declined and Hendrix proceeded to record "Voodoo Chile" with Mitchell, Winwood, and Casady. The remainder were on hand to provide the ambient crowd noise. Winwood recalled, "There were no chord sheets, no nothing. He [Hendrix] just started playing. It was a one take job, with him singing and playing at the same time. He just had such mastery of the instrument and he knew what he was and knew his abilities". Despite the appearance of spontaneity, engineer Eddie Kramer said that such sessions were not informal. "Jimi plotted and planned out nearly all of them. He'd reason that if he had his songs together, if he really wanted to pull out what he heard in his head, he needed the right people  and that's what he did". During the recording session, Hendrix is heard advising Winwood on his organ part. Recording began about 7:30 am and three takes were recorded, according to biographer John McDermott and Kramer. During the first take, Hendrix showed the others the song while the recording equipment was adjusted. During the second take, Hendrix broke a string (these two takes were later edited together and released as "Voodoo Chile Blues" on the posthumous Hendrix compilation album Blues). The third take provided the master that was used on Electric Ladyland. Music writer John Perry claims there were at least six takes recorded, but several were incomplete. "Voodoo Chile" opens with a series of hammer on notes, similar to Albert Collins' intro to his "Collins Shuffle". Hendrix played through a Fender Bassman top, providing a "very warm" amp sound with his guitar tuned down a whole tone. Although Hendrix's vocal and guitar are featured, the other musicians make contributions, taking it beyond the blues. McDermott describes Winwood's mid song organ part as "a very English, hornpipe like dance that was very Traffic like". However, Perry calls it a "modal, raga like phrase", which Hendrix responds to by "improvising a mixed blues/eastern scale". Mitchell anticipates changes in direction and Casady provides a pulsing, solid foundation. At fifteen minutes, it is Hendrix's longest studio recording. Hendrix wanted to create the atmosphere of an informal club jam, but the recording did not capture sufficient background noise. So the onlookers provided additional crowd sounds, which were recorded from 9:00 am to 9:45 am. Hendrix and Eddie Kramer later mixed the track, adding tape delay and other treatments. Although many live recordings of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" have been issued, only the three takes of the original studio jam, "Voodoo Chile", are known to exist. A composite of the first two takes is included on the 1994 Blues album.

The day after recording "Voodoo Chile", Hendrix with Mitchell and Noel Redding returned to the studio for the filming of a short documentary. Rather than repeat what had been recorded the day before, they improvised on "Voodoo Chile", using some of the imagery and guitar lines. As Redding recalled: "We learned that song in the studio  They had the cameras rolling on us as we played it". The song became "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", one of Hendrix's signature songs, and has been covered by numerous artists. Both songs were released on the Electric Ladyland album.

Jimi Hendrix occasionally used different names and spellings for some of his songs. In his handwritten lyrics, he used "Voodoo Chile" for the longer song, while he used both "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" for the following one recorded with the Experience. In his handwritten album notes for Electric Ladyland sent to his record company, he listed the songs as "Voodoo Chile" and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"; when the album was released in the US by Reprise Records on October 16, 1968, these spellings for the two songs were used. When the album was subsequently released by Track Records in the UK, the songs were listed as "Voodoo Chile" and "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)". In 1970, the "(Slight Return)" song was released as a single in the UK and it was simply titled "Voodoo Chile", without the further designation. Later album reissues usually follow the Reprise or Track album spellings, depending on the country of origin.