# What's your problem, Jimi? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 11, 2005, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-problem-jimi/303379 "2005-05-11T13:13:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stone\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Stone\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stone_Girl)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-problem-jimi/303379/1 "2005-05-11T13:13:49Z")
Did you have some kind of brain damage? Did your mama drop you on your head when you were a baby? Becuase an awful lot of your songs seem to be about: A: Killing women B: Raping women. Or maybe I’m imagining it. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-problem-jimi/303379/2 "2005-05-11T13:24:47Z")
Maybe you are. Care to cite a few specific examples, besides “Hey Joe,” which Jimi didn’t write? ---
**Author:** ![Stone\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Stone\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stone_Girl)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-problem-jimi/303379/3 "2005-05-11T13:41:39Z")
Machine Gun (the whole song is just…awful.) Fire. (The woman doesn’t like him, he doesn’t care, he’ll take her anyway.) Foxy Lady. (Same thing.) ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-problem-jimi/303379/4 "2005-05-11T13:50:50Z")
Give the guy a break. He’s dead. Besides, it’s not like he’s the only artist to ever sing/write about violence toward the opposite sex. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-problem-jimi/303379/5 "2005-05-11T13:55:46Z")
“Machine Gun” is about war. “Evil man make me kill you, evil man make you kill me.” No mention of women. “Fire” has Jimi imploring the woman to **let** him love her. Absolutely no implication of rape. Nowhere in “Foxey Lady” is it even implied that Jimi’s attentions are not welcomed by the foxey lady in question. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-problem-jimi/303379/6 "2005-05-11T14:04:26Z")
Just to reiterate, “Machine Gun” was specifically about his experiences in Vietnam before he was injured and discharged. ---
**Author:** ![Stone\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Stone\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stone_Girl)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-problem-jimi/303379/7 "2005-05-11T14:13:55Z")
> [@audiobottle](#): > > Just to reiterate, “Machine Gun” was specifically about his experiences in Vietnam before he was injured and discharged. Okay. I’m still standing by the other two. The vibe is just…creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-problem-jimi/303379/8 "2005-05-11T14:15:17Z")
Umm… We’re talking Jimi Hendrix, right? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-problem-jimi/303379/9 "2005-05-11T14:16:49Z")
> [@audiobottle](#): > > Just to reiterate, “Machine Gun” was specifically about his experiences in Vietnam before he was injured and discharged. Jimi didn’t go to Vietnam. He was stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, which is where he broke his ankle. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-problem-jimi/303379/10 "2005-05-11T15:33:06Z")
Oops, my mistake. Please don’t let my ignorance in this matter impugn the good standing of Jimi, though! ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-problem-jimi/303379/11 "2005-05-11T15:37:46Z")
Hendrix started as a blues guitarist, and even though he later took his music in a slightly different direction, he always remained loyal to his roots. Rough, earthy, non-PC lyrics are very typical of the blues genre. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-problem-jimi/303379/12 "2005-05-11T15:56:46Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Hendrix started as a blues guitarist, and even though he later took his music in a slightly different direction, he always remained loyal to his roots. Rough, earthy, non-PC lyrics are very typical of the blues genre. Absolutely. That whole “I’m a heavy stud who can make love to any woman I choose” theme is right out of the blues. But that’s still a long way from rape. In trying to think of _anything_ in Hendrix’s lyrics that could be construed as a rape fantasy, all I could come up with is the line in “Voodoo Chile” about “I’ll make love to you in your sleep, and lord knows you’ll feel no pain.” Now if you really want to stretch a point, you could say that making love to someone who’s sleeping means having sex with them without their consent. Of course, I don’t think for a minute that Jimi is talking about physical sex, anyway—rather, he’s talking about some kind of juju-incubus-“My spirit will come to you in your dreams and do the nasty with you” trip.