Songfacts®:

• Hendrix wrote "Dolly Dagger" for his girlfriend, Devon Wilson. A fixture of New York's late-'60s nightlife scene, she got close with Hendrix after meeting him in the city. According to those around the sessions, Wilson was both part of his social circle and a source of tension, particularly as Hendrix's focus shifted toward recording.
• One incident often cited as lyrical inspiration took place on November 27, 1969 - Hendrix's 27th birthday - when he and Wilson attended a Rolling Stones show at Madison Square Garden. Hendrix had hoped to join the band onstage, but it didn't happen. At an after-party hosted by Wilson, she openly flirted with Mick Jagger. During the evening, Jagger cut his finger, and Wilson reportedly licked the blood, an episode that inspired the line, "she drinks the blood from a jagged edge" (as recalled by engineer Eddie Kramer).
• "Dolly Dagger" originated one morning in August 1969 when bassist Billy Cox was sitting outside a house in upstate New York he shared with Jimi Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell, idly playing a four-note figure.
  
  "I'd put some new strings on, and I'm playing 'doodoo-dum-dum' – the chime of Big Ben," Cox told Classic Rock. "Jimi's room was right above, and the window flew open. He said: 'Hold it! Keep playing that, don't stop!' He comes down in his undershorts and grabs his guitar, then he completes the riff. That was the formation of Dolly Dagger."
• "Dolly Dagger" was intended for a Hendrix studio album but was diverted to the soundtrack of the film Rainbow Bridge, a loosely assembled project overseen by Hendrix's manager Mike Jeffery. The film includes performance footage shot on the slopes of the Haleakala volcano in Hawaii.
• The track was first released on October 9, 1971, on the posthumous Rainbow Bridge album (it's the soundtrack of the film of the same name, but all the songs are by Hendrix), with a single following two weeks later. Hendrix had died on September 18, 1970, and never saw the finished release. With its funk-influenced groove and layered production, "Dolly Dagger" hinted at a new musical direction, one that, like much of Hendrix's late work, remains a matter of speculation as much as legacy.
• Hendrix used this song as the opener for his concerts in the summer of 1970.
• Arthur and Albert Allen from The Ghetto Fighters provided backup vocals.