Up from the Skies
| "Up from the Skies" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
the Jimi Hendrix Experience | ||||
| from the album Axis: Bold as Love | ||||
| B-side | "One Rainy Wish" | |||
| Released | February 26, 1968 | |||
| Recorded | October 29, 1967 | |||
| Studio | Olympic, London | |||
| Genre | Psychedelic rock, jazz fusion[1] | |||
| Length | 2:55[2] | |||
| Label | Reprise | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Jimi Hendrix | |||
| Producer(s) | Chas Chandler | |||
| Experience US singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Up from the Skies" is a song written by
In 1968, the Experience's American record company, Reprise Records, released the song as a single, which reached number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[3]
Background and style
"Up From the Skies" was recorded on October 29, 1967, the last day of recording for Axis: Bold as Love, at Olympic Sound Studios in London.[3] AllMusic reviewer Matthew Greenwald described the song as "a breezy, jazz-based stroll, and it's quite different from anything on his debut album".[4] Biographer Harry Shapiro commented on the "easy triplet jazz feel", bringing attention to the "delicate wah-wah and Mitch [Mitchell]'s brush-work".[3]
The lyrics are told from perspective of a visiting alien "concerned about what has happened to [Earth] since the last time he passed through".[3] Greenwald suggests that this motif is adopted to "[address] the older generation and their flaws and judgements against the youth of the 1960s", which Hendrix supposedly does "with a sense of idle curiosity rather than distaste, not unlike an alien visiting the planet Earth for the first time".[4]
Reception
Despite being less commercially successful than previous singles, "Up from the Skies" was generally well-received critically. In an album review for
References
- ^
Shadwick, Keith (2003). Jimi Hendrix: Musician. Backbeat Books. p. 129. ISBN 0-87930-764-1.
- ^ From original US Reprise Records single
- ^ ISBN 0-312-13062-7.
- ^ a b Greenwald, Matthew. "The Jimi Hendrix Experience: 'Up From The Skies' – Review". AllMusic. Retrieved June 5, 2009. [dead link]
- ^ Puterbaugh, Parke (May 20, 2003). "Jimi Hendrix: Axis: Bold As Love". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 2, 2007. Retrieved June 5, 2009.
- ^ Koda, Cub. "The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold as Love – Review". AllMusic. Retrieved June 5, 2009.
- ^ "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. March 2, 1968. p. 30. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
