Jimi Hendrix Experience – "Fire" (1967)

I have only one itching desire

Let me stand next to your fire

Verses one and three of “Fire” end with this rhyming couplet:

I have only one burning desire

Let me stand next to your fire

Verse two changes “burning” to “itching.”  You might disagree, but I think “itching” is much hotter than “burning.”

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Each of the five Jimi Hendrix LPs that were released before he died in 1970 were top ten albums.

But “All Along the Watchtower” – which peaked at #20 on the Billboard “Hot 100” – was the closest he came to having a hit single.  None of his other singles made it into the top 50.  (By the way, “All Along the Watchtower” blows!)

“Fire” didn’t even crack the top 100 in the U.S. or the UK, which surprises me.  I hear it on the radio all the time now, and I feel like I heard it a lot when it was new.

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These lines from the bridge of “Fire” may be my favorite rock lyrics of all time:

Move over, Rover

And let Jimi take over!

The story goes that Hendrix was once invited by bassist Noel Redding to spend a frigid New Year’s Eve at his mother’s home in Folkestone, England.  When he came in from the cold, Hendrix wanted to stand close to the fireplace and get warm, but his wish was frustrated because Mrs. Redding's Great Dane was standing in his way.  Maybe that experience inspired those lines.

However, there does exist a recording of Hendrix reciting this naughty nursery rhyme, which I’m guessing was the actual inspiration for the lyric quoted above:

Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard

To find her poor dog a bone

But when she bent over, Rover took over

‘Cause Rover had a bone of his own! 

Click here to see Andrew Dice Clay's version of that nursery rhyme.

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Click here to listen to “Fire,” the newest member of the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” ALBUM TRACKS HALL OF FAME.   (Hendrix is great on “Fire,” but drummer Mitch Mitchell really steals the show on that recording.)

Click here to buy “Fire” from Amazon.