WCSX Classic Cuts
The Jimi Hendrix Experience: “Fire”
The Hook: Recorded as they learned it, without dissection, arrangement or rehearsal.
Album: Are You Experienced?
Year: 1967
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Stats: Never released as a single in the U.S., the song received lots of airplay as an album track on FM rock radio. In Britain, it was released as a single under the title “Let Me Light Your Fire” two years after it first appeared on Are You Experienced? It wasn’t a hit.
Background: The early days of The Jimi Hendrix Experience were a frantic time for the group, which was playing every show its management could book for it. The late drummer Mitch Mitchell recalled that “Fire” was recorded on the quick, as were many of the group’s early numbers.
Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell on how “Fire” was recorded. OC:…of those. :21
“It wasn’t like, ‘Let’s take it apart and dissect it and go for it or rehearse it.’ We didn’t have time in those days for really going into the rehearsal room and getting the numbers right before going in the studio, which in retrospect might have been a good idea. It was one way of going about it, we literally went into the studio and gave it a crack. ‘Fire’’s one of those.”
