Jimi Hendrix Quotations

James Hendrix was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter.

Sourced

Purple haze, all in my brain
Lately things just don't seem the same,
Acting funny, but I don't know why,
'Scuse me while I kiss the sky.
- "Purple Haze", Are You Experienced? (1967)
- See also wikipedia on Purple Haze.
- kiss the sky is often misheard by listeners as kiss this guy (see wikipedia mondegreen). In many live versions, Hendrix does clearly sing kiss this guy or "kiss that guy".

You got me blowin, blowin my mind,
Is it tomorrow or just the end of time?
- "Purple Haze", Are You Experienced? (1967)

Anger he smiles towering in shiney metallic purple armour,
Queen jealousy envy waits behind him,
Her fiery green gown sneers at the grassy ground.
- "Bold as love", Axis bold as love

We’ll hold hands and then we’ll watch the sunrise
From the bottom of the sea
But first, are you experienced?
Uh-have you ever been experienced? Well, I have
- "Are You Experienced?", Are You Experienced? (1967)

Have you ever been experienced?
Not necessarily stoned, but beautiful.
- "Are You Experienced?", Are You Experienced? (1967)

White collar conservative flashin' down the street,
Pointing that plastic finger at me,
Hoping soon my kind will drop and die,
But I'm gonna wave my freak flag high.
- "If 6 was 9", Axis: Bold as Love (1967)

Castles made of sand, fall in the sea, eventually
- "Castles Made Of Sand", Axis: Bold as Love (1967)

I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.
- "If 6 was 9", Axis: Bold as Love (1967)

I used to live in a room full of mirrors,
All I could see was me.
Then I take my spirit and I smash my mirrors,
And now the whole world is here for me to see,
Now I'm searching for my love to be.
- "Room Full Of Mirrors", Rainbow Bridge (1971)

I'm a Voodoo Child, Voodoo Child,
Lord knows I am a Voodoo Child
- "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", Electric Ladyland (1968)

I got a bad, bad feeling my baby don't live here no more... But thats alright i still got my guitar.
- "Red House", Are You Experienced? (1967)

[When asked if music has a meaning]Definitely, and it's getting more spiritual. Pretty soon I believe people will have to rely on music to get some kind of peace of mind, or satisfaction, or direction, actually. More so than politics, the big ego scene. You know it's an art of words... Meaning nothing. Therefore you will have to get an earthier substance, like music or the arts.
- Interview with Dick Cavett

We want our sound to go into the soul of the audience, and see if it can awaken some little thing in their minds... Cause there are so many sleeping people.
- Interview with Dick Cavett

I don't really live on compliments. As a matter of fact, they have a way of distracting me. I know a whole lot of musicians, artists out there who hears the compliments and thinks 'wow, I must have been really great' and so they get fat and satisfied and they get lost and forget about their actual talent and start living in another world.
- Interview with Dick Cavett

Sorry for the tune up between time, but what the hell, cowboys are the only ones who stay in tune, anyway...
- May 30, 1970, at the Berkeley Community Theater, California.

Attributed

Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel.

quoted in: Charles Shaar Murray, Crosstown Traffic (1989)

I try to use my music to move these people to act.

I've been imitated so well I've heard people copy my mistakes.

If I seem free, it's because I'm always running.

Imagination is the key to my lyrics. The rest is painted with a little science fiction.

It's funny how most people love the dead. Once you're dead, you're made for life.
- Variant: It's funny the way most people love the dead. Once you're dead, you're made for life.

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.

Music is a safe type of high. It's more the way it was supposed to be. That's where highness came, I guess, from anyway. It's nothing but rhythm and motion.

Music makes me high on stage, and that's the truth. It's like being almost addicted to music.

Rock is so much fun. That's what it's all about man.

Sometimes you want to give up the guitar, you'll hate the guitar. But if you stick with it, you're gonna be rewarded.

The story of life is quicker than the blink of an eye, the story of love is hello, goodbye.

The time I burned my guitar it was like a sacrifice. You sacrifice the things you love. I love my guitar.

When I die, I want people to play my music, go wild and freak out and do anything they want to do.

When I die, just keep playing the records.

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

With the power of soul anything is possible.

You have to forget about what other people say, when you're supposed to die, or when you're supposed to be loving. You have to forget about all these things. You have to go on and be crazy. Craziness is like heaven.

Some people should just start ideas and other ones should carry them out.

When things get too heavy, just call me helium, the lightest known gas to man.

You have to give people something to dream on.

"Music is my religion."

"When you die you're just getting rid of that old body."

"You can leave if you want, we're just jammin' that's all."

"We call it 'Electric Church Music' because to us music is a religion."

"Technically, I am not a guitar player, all I play is truth and emotion."

"When I was a little boy, I believed that if you put a tooth under your pillow, a fairy would come in the night and take away the tooth and leave a dime. Now, I believed in myself more than anything. And, I suppose in a way, that's also believing in God. If there is a God and He made you, then if you believe in yourself, you're also believing in Him. So I think everybody should believe in himself. That doesn't mean you've got to believe in heaven and hell and all that stuff. But it does mean that what you are and what you do is your religion. I can't express myself in easy conversation—the words just don't come out right. But when I get up on stage—well, that's my whole life. That's my religion. My music is electric church music, if by 'church' you mean 'religion', I am electric religion."

"I wouldn't say that I'm the greatest guitarist ever. I'd say probably that I'm the greatest guitarist sitting in this chair."

"You can clap along if you want to, and if you don't, well, then fuck yuh (you)."

[Introducing a raw version version of The Queen live in England] "In fact it'd sound better if you'd stand up, for your country, and your brother ... and start singin'! And if you don't, fuck it."

"We're not trying to take away the greatness that America is supposed to have, but we're playing it [ Star-Spangled Banner ] the way the air is in America today... The air is slightly static, isn't it?"

"Well, I might be living in the wrong time but I don't go by comparisons. I go by the truthfulness of the whole thing. Forget about comparing, it's the biggest mistake trying to put your ego against the other person's."

Anybody can do anything, it's up to themselves. All it takes is the right intentions.

"Music is Magic. Magic is Life" (part of the lyrics to an unfinished song - found written on a piece of paper after his death)

I wanna do this song dedicated to maybe a soldier in the army singing about his old lady that he dreams about, and hugging a machine gun instead, or it could be a cat, maybe... Tryna fall in love with a girl, maybe but - a little bit too scared! That's what the problems come from sometimes, isn't it? I mean they can't really interfere a little bit so they call girls groupies, and they call girls this, and they call passive people hippies, and blah blah woof woof, on down the line. Thats because they're talking not in love man, that's what's happening. (Woodstock 69, before playing song "Izabella")

I don't give a fuck if you boo, as long as you boo in key...

"Don't use your brain to play it, let your feelings guide your fingers."

Quoternity