You Got Me Floatin'

Album: Axis: Bold As Love (1967)
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Songfacts®:

  • In "You Got Me Floatin'," a lady (or perhaps some illicit substance) has Jimi Hendrix all twisted up, but in a good way:

    Now your daddy's cool
    And your mama's no fool
    They both know
    I'm heads over heels for you
  • The music changes at the 2:10 mark, which is when the third verse ends and the song turns from youthful infatuation to carnal desire.

    And when the day melts
    Down into a sleepy red glow
    That's when my desires start to show


    In Jimi Hendrix: The Stories Behind the Songs, author David Stubbs describes the transition as "a sleazy, X-rated quality, with an erotic squirm of background guitar." He also observes that the song might not be about a woman at all, and might be about LSD, with this point in the song being the moment when psychedelics kick in.
  • Roy Wood and Trevor Burton sang backing vocals on this track. As members of the Move (known for songs like "Night Of Fear"), they toured with Hendrix earlier in 1967. They just happened in an adjacent studio as Hendrix recorded "You Got Me Floatin'" and stopped by. Graham Nash also sang background vocals.
  • The mellow hip-hop act P.M. Dawn covered "You Got Me Floatin'" on a 1993 compilation titled Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Their version is very different from the original. It was released as a single and peaked at #115.

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