Voodoo Chile

"Voodoo Chile" is a 15-minute improvised structured jam recorded at the Record Plant in New York City by Hendrix, Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, organist Steve Winwood, and bassist Jack Casady. It was distilled the following day by the Experience into the shorter, more intense "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)." Both songs feature on Electric Ladyland. Jack Casady recalled to Uncut magazine: "It wasn't as simple as a jam, there was a full structure to the song, so it was an extended song that you able to improvise in. We took directions through the language of playing. Jimi was able to experiment with his ability and with effects in order to create an atmosphere. 'Voodoo Chile' has a really eerie sound that kind of places you in a different world."

Steve Winwood recalled the recording of the song to Uncut. "Hendrix came up through music in some ways a similar route to me. He learnt a lot of the old skills. It wasn't like he just got up one morning and thought, 'I climbed on the back of a giant dragonfly.' He'd done all that and played all those songs and understood music. He had some wild thing in there, which he liked to inject in it. The take of 'Voodoo Chile' that's on the record is take 3 - on take two he broke a string, and changed it himself. You didn't have guitar techs in those days to tune your guitar. Take 1 is quite good, but it was take 2 that was the one. I knew pretty much what he wanted from me, and after the first take he didn't correct me or tell me anything. There was very little talk, the tapes rolled."