Purple Haze

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

"Purple Haze"
Song

"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, which also appeared on the US release of their 1967 album Are You Experienced?.

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 AYE? and five months after the UK single. The title is sometimes confused as a drug reference, specifically to LSD. Hendrix in interviews said that the song comes from a dream Hendrix had, where he was walking under the ocean, surrounded by a Purple Haze. A rumour credits the song to a Native American myth told to Jimi by his Cherokee grandmother. Some say the phrase "purple haze" came from a science fiction novel Hendrix was reading at the time, written by Philip Jose Farmer. Hendrix also explained at one point, that the song is just about love and not about drugs. He said that the line "what ever it is, that girl put a spell on me" is the key to the meaning of lyrics.

The song's lyric "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" has been widely misheard as "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy." This kind of lyrical misunderstanding is sometimes referred to as a mondegreen. However, in some live peformances, 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).". On Woodstock performance Hendrix points towards the sky while singing those lines and when singing "that girl put a spell on me", he points towards the audience.

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.

Purple Haze was once featured in a Pepsi TV commercial first broadcast during the 2004 Super Bowl where Jimi Hendrix in his youth is drawn to a Pepsi vending machine and spies an electric guitar in a pawn shop as the opening riff of the song begins to play as the identity of the boy is revealed. By contrast, the boy glances at a Coca-Cola machine that is across the street right by an accordion store and a deliberately bizarre accordion version of the song's riff is played which soon cuts to the caption, "Whew! That was close!"

Well-known humourist MAX Acca was interested in Jimi Hendrix's work and soon got to know him. He came up with the line, "Is it tomorrow, or just the end of time?"