Coverocktober Song #14: "Killing Floor" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience

I owe you two songs today because I didn't have time last night to post one, as I was gleefully attending Nat Bargatze's show at the United Center.  Who knew one could be so funny without swearing?

Anyway, my song choice today comes from the very first Jimi Hendrix Experience tape I ever bought, and from Columbia House at that, if I'm recalling correctly.  It was a 1988 compilation called Radio One, comprised of songs the group recorded for BBC broadcasts in 1967.  Ten years later, the songs from Radio One were included on the more comprehensive BBC Sessions double album.  Radio One was the perfect introduction to Hendrix for me.  It had some of the group's own big hits, as well as a bunch of great covers, like The Beatles' "Day Tripper," Curtis Knight's instrumental "Drivin' South," Elvis Presley and Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog," and several blues songs, including today's selection, "Killing Floor."

Written and originally recorded in 1964 by blues legend Howlin' Wolf, right here in Chicago at Chess Records -- and featuring Wolf's fantastic guitarist Hubert Sumlin, as well as Buddy Guy -- the song is an electric blues classic.  Wolf's lyrics reference the killing floor of a slaughterhouse as a metaphor for relationships.  If the song's narrator had only followed his gut instinct, rather than some devil woman, he would have had a nice little trip to Mexico.  instead, he's down on that killing floor.  The song was adapted by Led Zeppelin as "The Lemon Song" in in 1969 on Led Zeppelin II, giving Wolf a co-writing credit.

In March 1967, the Experience recorded the song on the BBC.  Hendrix's opening guitar riff blows my doors off every time.  It's controlled chaos, and he keeps it up the whole song, -- save for his amazing solos -- giving the song a more frantic feel than the original.  Just another example of the genius that was James Marshall Hendrix.