Jimi Hendrix – Machine Gun (Cover Jam)

Recreating Jimi Hendrix’s Music With A Near-Perfect Tone!

Prior to the release of this track, most of Jimi Hendrix’s works talk about love or spirituality. This was a change of direction in terms of the meaning of the song. This time, the lyrics told the story of a soldier from his own perspective. He was trapped in a war and it was inspired by the Vietnam War at that time. There was no proper studio recording but several live versions have been released.

The Band of Gypsys performance is often lauded as Hendrix’s finest, and is widely considered one of the finest electric guitar performances in the history of recorded music. The Band of Gypsys version of “Machine Gun” is roughly 12 minutes long. Hendrix’s long guitar solos and percussive riffs combine with controlled feedback to simulate the sounds of a battlefield, such as helicopters, dropping bombs, explosions, machine guns, and the screams and cries of those wounded or grieving.

During one performance, Jimi told the audience during introduction: “All the troops fighting in Harlem, Chicago and, oh yes, Vietnam.” The lyrics was memorable but so were Jimi’s use of several guitar effects to mimic the sound of machine guns among others. Not only did he use the wah-wah pedal, but also a Univibe pedal and even a heavy feedback just to name a few.

The improvisatory material revolves around a core descending riff and bassline: the song opens with a Univibe pedal-based guitar riff intended to mimic the sound of a firing machine gun.

“Machine Gun” was hailed as one of Jimi’s finest tracks which makes it more difficult to emulate his performance of the song but as you can soon see in this cover, this guy nails it. He rips that guitar in a way similar to Jimi and I was just blown away!