Text by Bruce Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery)
1983, A Merman I Should Turn to Be – Composed & Performed by the Jimi Hendrix Experience
Recorded for Electric Ladyland, 2 LP set released in October of 1968
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 reborn,
Away from lands so battered and torn
Forever, forever
Oh say, can you see it’s really such a mess
Every inch of Earth is a fighting nest
Giant pencil and lipstick 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 …
Straight ahead, straight up ahead
Well it’s too bad that our friends,
Can’t be with us today
Well it’s too bad
The machine that we built,
would never save us’, that’s what they say
That’s why they ain’t coming with us today
And they also said
It’s impossible for a man to live and breathe underwater
Forever, was their main complaint
And they also threw this in my face,
they said: Anyway…
You know good and 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, it 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 …oooh…
I can vividly remember the first time I heard a song by Jimi Hendrix on the radio (FM radio, mostly). It was the Spring of 1967 and the song that erupted from my speaker was “Purple Haze”. That opening two-note riff and the chorus of “Scuse me while I kiss the sky” were almost too much for my 13 year old mind to deal with.
I was astonished by it and felt like Jimi Hendrix had come from another (psychedelic) dimension or planet! I became a Hendrix fan-addict right then & there and remain that way more than 50 years later! The Jimi Hendrix Experience (with Noel Redding & Mitch Mitchell) recorded just three albums in around two years before Mr. Hendrix’s untimely demise in September of 1970, just before his 28th birthday.
For me and many Hendrix fans, all three albums are essential masterworks. Aside from being one of the most singular, pioneering and brilliant electric guitarists of all time, Jimi Hendrix was also a great songwriter, singer, producer and performer.
His third album, Electric Ladyland was his crowning achievement (reaching number one in the charts!?!) and the above song, “Merman”, was & still is my favorite. Aside from that stellar, stunning, repeating riff (played partially by guest guitarist Dave Mason), the words are like a cosmic, psychedelic painting for our collective minds. It is an apocalyptic song about another world at the bottom of the sea (Atlantis, perhaps). The song still sends chills down my spine and ripples in my (cosmic) consciousness. Listen to it with headphones and you will be transported to another place. Especially when the spaceship takes off at the end. Wave goodbye to the Planet Earth and set sail for the heart of the Sun. And say hello to Jimi!
