Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Infobox Single
Name = Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Artist = The Jimi Hendrix Experience
from Album = Electric Ladyland
Released = 1968 (album)/1970 (single)
Format = 7" single
Recorded = May 1968
Genre = Acid rock, psychedelic rock, hard rock
Length = 5:12
Label = Track, Polydor
Writer = Jimi Hendrix
Producer = Jimi Hendrix
Last single = Stepping Stone USA
This single = Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Next single = " Angel"Audiosample
Upper caption = Audio sample
Audio file = Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix Experience.ogg

"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" is the last track on the third and final album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Electric Ladyland". The song is influenced by Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone" and is known for its wah-wah-heavy guitar work. It is #101 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest songs of all time. [ [http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6595946/voodoo_child_slight_return "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" at rollingstone.com] ]

The song was recorded in 1968, and was re-released as a single after Hendrix's death in 1970. It was the A side on a three-track record, and reached Number 1 in the UK. It was catalogued as "Voodoo Chile" (Track 2095 001), and that is the title which appears on the single and is the title referred to officially. This obviously confuses it with the 15-minute song on the album "Electric Ladyland". The B-side of the single featured two of his previous hits: "Hey Joe" and "All Along the Watchtower".

Origins and recording

The genesis of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" was essentially in "Voodoo Chile", a long blues jam featuring guests Steve Winwood and Jack Casady.fact|date=January 2008 On May 3, 1968 (the day after "Voodoo Chile"'s recording), a crew from ABC filmed the Jimi Hendrix Experience while they played. As Hendrix explained it:

:"Someone was filming when we started doing that... We did that about three times because they wanted to film us in the studio—'Make like you're recording, boys.' So it was 'OK, let's play this in E, a one, a two, a three, and then we went into 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)'".fact|date=January 2008

The song became one of Hendrix's staples in live performances and would vary in length from 7 to 15 minutes. Notable live performances were at Woodstock and during his 1969 show at the Albert Hall, originally released on the posthumous "Hendrix in the West" album, later re-released on the Experienced Box Set. On the Band of Gypsys live album "Live at the Fillmore East", Hendrix refers to the song as the Black Panthers' national anthem.

Personnel

*Producer: Jimi Hendrix
*Engineer: Eddie Kramer
*Guitar, vocals, percussion: Jimi Hendrix
*Bass: Noel Redding
*Drums, percussion: Mitch Mitchell

Legacy

Hendrix's solo was named the 11th greatest solo of all-time in Guitar World's "100 Greatest Guitar Solos"; "Guitar Legends Issue #46". Hendrix was listed 6 times, more than any other artist on the list.

In the same issue Joe Satriani listed this as his favorite guitar solo:

"It's just the greatest piece of electric guitar work ever recorded. In fact, the whole song could be considered the holy grail of guitar expression and technique. It is a beacon of humanity."

Kenny Wayne Shepherd:

"This is pretty much "the" guitar anthem of all time. From that amazing opening riff to the way he breaks it down in the middle and gets funky, the whole thing is incredible. There are things Jimi did on the guitar that humans just can't do. You can try all day, even if you're playing the right notes, it's not the same. It definitely seems as if he was coming from a higher place when he played."

Cover versions

*The song was covered by Zakk Wylde's band Pride and Glory also featuring Slash of Guns N' Roses at Gibson Guitar Corporation's 100th Anniversary.
*The song featured as a jam between Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen at in 2003.
*The track was covered by avid Hendrix fan [ [http://www.djnoble.demon.co.uk/ints/STEVIER.VS.html "Vaughan worshiped at the altar of Hendrix, brazenly inviting comparisons with him and even recording one of his songs, "Voodoo Chile." "] ] Stevie Ray Vaughan for his 1984 album "Couldn't Stand the Weather" in a slightly extended version. Stevie played this song all throughout his career.
*The song was also covered by Angélique Kidjo for her 1998 album "Oremi".
*Another cover was recorded by Yngwie Malmsteen on the album "The Genesis" and is mentioned as a "jam".fact|date=January 2008
*The song has also been covered numerous times by Ben Harper during live performances{http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZNGAR7U7hY] , bootlegs of which circulate around the internet are frequently but erroneously attributed to Pearl Jam.fact|date=January 2008
*The song was covered by Kenny Wayne Shepherd and released as a bonus track on his "Blue on Black" single released in 1997 and is a staple in his live setlist.fact|date=January 2008
*The song was covered and released by the Argentinian band Divididos in their record "Acariciando lo Áspero" [ [http://www.rock.com.ar/discos/0/883.shtml Acariciando lo áspero - Rock.com.ar ] ] . The song is usually performed in their concerts. The guitar player Ricardo Mollo usually does the main riffs of the song with different objects such as trainers, drumsticks, carrots, and his own teeth. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfPPTXi6o-k YouTube - Voodoo Chile DIVIDIDOS en Chile ] ]
*Voodoo Child was also covered by Rob Thomas and pedal steel maestro Robert Randolph.
*The song appears on "The Best of Top of the Pops '70" (Hallmark HALMCD 1037), one of a series of albums recorded by session musicians that contained covers of hits.
*The intro of the song was sometimes covered by Slash before Guns N' Roses went into "Civil War" during their Use Your Illusion Tour.fact|date=January 2008
*Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood did a version of Voodoo Child at Madison Square Garden on February 25th 2008
*Eric Johnson also performed Voodoo Child (Slight Return) during his Austin City Limits performance.
*Top of the Poppers covered the song in 1970, with their version later appearing on their The Best of Top of the Pops '70 album.
*Buddy Guy covered it live.
*Mick Mars of Motley Crue used parts of the song during his guitar solo during the Carnival of Sins tour in 2006 and during Cruefest in 2008.

Other usage

*Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash often used the intro to "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" as part of an extended Jam/Intro after the song "Double Talkin' Jive" and before the song "Civil War."
*Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy quoted the song as his "last words" when he was sliding down from his balcony in 1999. McCoy said to his wife before falling down to the ground "If I see you no more in this world, I see you in the next world, and don't be late". McCoy, however, survived the fall (though his leg required multiple operations afterwards). "I quoted Hendrix", he told later in the interview in Helsingin Sanomat newspaper's weekly supplement.fact|date=January 2008
*Samples of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" feature on the KMFDM song "We Must Awaken" from the "Money" album.
*The song has been featured in the films "Payback", "In the Name of the Father", "Under Siege", "Almost Famous", "Flashback", and "Withnail and I".
*Stevie Ray Vaughan's cover of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" was also featured in the 2002 film "Black Hawk Down".
*The song has been featured in a Nissan Xterra commercial.
*In the late 1990s, WCW professional wrestler Hulk Hogan used the song as his ring entrance theme music. Following his return to the WWE in 2002, Hogan used the theme again for a short while. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a54OpoXMb7c | Hulk Hogan's 2002 WWE Titantron on YouTube] ]
*Retired MLB catcher Mike Piazza used the song when coming to bat.or|date=January 2008 Sal Fasano of the Toronto Blue Jays also uses the song as his entrance music.or|date=January 2008
*Relief pitcher Joel Zumaya of the Detroit Tigers also uses the song when entering from the bullpen. He does not come out to "Voodoo Chile", as Lynn Henning of the Detroit News mistakenly reports.or|date=January 2008
*The opening to the song also is one of the demos included in "Guitar Pro 5".fact|date=January 2008
*Radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge opens and closes his show with the song.fact|date=January 2008
*Muse frontman Matthew Bellamy has played the intro in between songs live.fact|date=May 2008
*In a bit by comedian Bill Hicks, Hicks presents the opening lyrics (Well, I stand up next to a mountain, and I chop it down with the edge of my hand) as proof that Hendrix had a "huge dick...like an anaconda flapping in the breeze".
*In the game Patapon, a unit called the Dekapon is described as, "A herculean warrior that once pulverized a mountain... chopped it down with the edge of his hand."

References

*"Experience Hendrix: The Best Of Jimi Hendrix" (Liner notes), Experience Hendrix, 1997.