Album: Electric Ladyland (1968)

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• Hurrah I awake from yesterday
  Alive but the war is here to stay
  So my love catherina and me
  Decide to take our last walk
  Through the noise to the sea
  Not to die but to be re-born
  Away from a life so battered and torn
  Forever
  Oh say can you see its really such a mess
  Every inch of earth is a fighting nest
  Giant pencil and lip-stick tube shaped things
  Continue to rain and cause screaming pain
  And the arctic stains
  From silver blue to bloody red
  As our feet find the sand
  And the sea is strait ahead
  Strait ahead
  Well its too bad
  That our friends
  Cant be with us today
  Well thats too bad
  "The machine
  That we built
  Would never save us"
  Thats what they say
  (Thats why they aint coming with us today)
  And they also said
  "Its impossible for man
  To live and breath underwater
  Forever" was their main complaint
  (Yeah)
  And they also threw this in my face:
  They said
  Anyway
  You know good well
  It would be beyond the will of God
  And the grace of the King
  (Grace of the King yeah yeah)
  
  So my darling and I
  Make love in the sand
  To salute the last moment
  Ever on dry land
  Our machine has done its work
  Played its part well
  Without a scratch on our bodies
  And we bid it farewell
  
  Starfish and giant foams
  Greet us with a smile
  Before our heads go under
  We take a last look
  At the killing noise
  Of the out of style
  The out of style, out of style Writer/s: JIMI HENDRIX
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 13

• Surfergirl from Nv70 years old now & I still miss him. All us teenagers couldnt wait to see Woodstock & Jimi was at the end! Both us born in Seattle.. As a 14 year old teen I remember so well all we got to see was the tip of his iceberg of talent. My 24 yr old grandson was stunned to find out I knew all the supergroups. (including CREAM)Told him I knew all about narcotic music. HaHa I call it music to overdose on....MISS HIM FOREVER+ Jim Morrison......
• Frank from 3rd Stone From The Sun...still *sigh*The best of the boomers never made it out of the 70s. Well...Lou Reed excepted.
  
  I recall hearing this tune when I was younger. It coincided with a lot of the scifi I was reading then, so it resonated.
  Like many, many others I was drawn to Johnny Allen Hendrix's guitar wizardry, which upon reflection is quite sloppy, but I stayed on with Hendrix because he refused to commercialize like other bands of the time were doing. I think the Who for example were selling deodorants, etc.
  Anyway, while Hendrix wrestled with many demons, this song captures some of the creativity that I admire about the artist. I disagree that his message is cynical or nihilistic. While it is true that he despises what capitalistic greed and industrial war manufacturing and cultures of violence and death are doing to one another and to nature (and still are-he was absolutely right about that), he saw that ultimately each of us has agency, even if it is only in the power of escapism. Yes, there is a degree of cynicism there, because one might ask, "why not limit reproduction to decrease our impact on nature, why not stop capitalism, colonialism and neoconservatism and neoliberalism, why not embrace deconstructive re-naturalization, why not adopt consensus-based decision-making and why not adopt full and broad equity through wealth distribution, but I feel there is the glimmer of hope in this song because he is not dying, he is alive at the end. And that is really an important message. As messed up as things were back in the late 60s they are a million times worse now and we need all the optimism we can get, but more than that, we need collaborative change that stops the bloody, destructive, murderous and ecologically geocidal path we are on.
• Elbee from DetroitPEACE
  Sometimes,
  I dream of this.
  Beware Sharks and Killer Whales.
• Snakebitt from Florida"Atlantis, Full Of Cheer" !!! Yes.
• Brian from La Mesa, CaTo me, the most likely significance of 1983 is it's the year before 1984, a reference to the dystopia of George Orwell's novel. Hendrix is saying that he wants to transcend his human existence and seek refuge in the ocean to escape the world of 1984. Kind of what Nick said in the first comment. One of my favorite Hendrix tracks.
• Cordell from Washington,dc, DcContext is so important here.It's 1968,the country is on fire politically and physically.Black and white youth are talking to each other for the first time.You could be killed for looking a certain way.(Oh Yes!!!)Both Bobby Kennedy and Martin King would be killed within months of each other.Upheaval.And here's Jimi talking about altering his genetic structure so he can breathe underwater and survive what's coming.He's actually remembering the future in this song.Oh and also there is no digital technology in the house --only his imagination.Don't let those with limited understanding chalk up such an incredible vision to just drugs.In the song he tals about having been called before a council and after informing them they talked about the impossibility of what he wanted to accomplish.Jimi was a human Accelerator; if you were not ready for him then you'd be left behind.He gave interviews where he would talk about one day being able to make a guitar sound like a trumpet.He would have been at the forefront of all things which would later come with MIDI and digital tech.He showed us that glimpses are possible without being high.More will come out about him as the years pass;and when they do you'll see why the events of Sept 18th 1970 really occured.Thank God there is no Statute of Limitations on murder.Now that's what we used to call Far Out Man....
• Tyler from Oshkosh, WiThis is probably his most underrated song even though it shows all the parts of his genius. And it has a good message.
• Alex from Bristol, United KingdomPippin, I read that 1983 is a reference to a section of the 1871 Civil Rights Act. http://bit.ly/2oCflNs Personally I'm more interested in Jimi's use of the phrase 'straight ahead', which seems to crop up all over his work like its code or slang for something... anyone know?
• Alx from Asab, BangladeshThe song is a dream sequence between Rainy Day,Dream Away and Still Raining,Still Dreaming.
• Merman from Bethlehem, CtThis song changed my life. It is Jimi's best and still most mysterios. On this song i connect to Jimi and all spirts.
• Pippin from Rhye, CaIt's an awesome song. The whole Electric Ladyland album is awesome. But I was wondering, does the number 1983 have any significance of anything at all?
• The Man from Ny, NyThis is Hendrix's second longest song, the first being Voodoo Chile running at 15:00.
• Nick from Scarsdale, United StatesThis is Jimi's way of warning of the Apocalypse.

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