Im now listening to another Jimi Hendrix song. It's called "Castles Made of Sand". It's O.K., I guess. I like "Gypsy Eyes" better--instrumentally, that is. The message in "Castles Made of Sand" is more esoteric (all that is solid melts into air). "Gypsy Eyes" is just about getting hypnotized by some beautiful person's illusive mystique.

Now im listening to "Gypsy Eyes". It is so much fun, SO hip. It has a back-beat topped over with a raspy, yet flying electric guitar melody, with a special emphasis on bass notes. Almost pure Blues. You feel like you are in a car, in a highway, at night, with your head sticking out through the window screaming as you watch the other cars whiz by.

Jimi's guitar has a way of making you jerk, especially in this song. I read in one of his biographies that he didn't know how to read music. He had an "untrained ear", whatever that means. Clearly, none of this stopped him. He had soul. The author writes that what was important to Jimi was not the notes of a given piece of music, but the sound. The most important--and obvious--aspects of Jimi's music could not be put down on paper. He made unheard-of sounds with his guitar. In his famous "Star Spangled Banner", for example, Hendrix makes his guitar sound like bombs dropping and children crying--quite literally (his intention being to show the twisted and blood ridden reality that is America). His music came from the earth, it could not be contained by paper and pen.