Gypsy Eyes
Encyclopedia
"Gypsy Eyes" is a song by Jimi Hendrix
, performed by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
on their 1968 album Electric Ladyland
, and based on the field holler
. When released as a double-A-sided single with "Remember", it reached no. 35 in the UK charts.
Richard Middleton
notes that licks
in rock music
are often used through a formula and variations technique and that "Gypsy Eyes" "is put together from variants of five stock ideas...familiar from other recordings in the same style."
He concludes that "the combination and variations of these formulae are many and highly imaginatve. But the basic formulae are so simple that the recording could well have been worked out 'in performance.'"
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, performed by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience were an English-American psychedelic rock band that formed in London in October 1966. Comprising eponymous singer-songwriter and guitarist Jimi Hendrix, bassist and backing vocalist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, the band was active until June 1969, in which...
on their 1968 album Electric Ladyland
Electric Ladyland
Electric Ladyland is the third and final album of new material by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in October 1968 on Reprise Records, catalogue 2RS 6307. It is the only Hendrix studio album professionally produced under his supervision. It topped the Billboard 200 album chart for two weeks in...
, and based on the field holler
Field holler
Field Hollers as well as work songs were African American styles of music from before the American Civil War, this style of music is closely related to spirituals in the sense that it expressed religious feelings and included subtle hints about ways of escaping slavery, among other things...
. When released as a double-A-sided single with "Remember", it reached no. 35 in the UK charts.
Music
The song features guitar themes that float between left and right channels.Richard Middleton
Richard Middleton
Richard Middleton may refer to:*Richard Middleton , English theologian, philosopher and Lord Chancellor*Richard Barham Middleton , British poet and ghost story writer...
notes that licks
Lick (music)
In popular music genres such as rock or jazz music, a lick is "a stock pattern or phrase" consisting of a short series of notes that is used in solos and melodic lines...
in rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
are often used through a formula and variations technique and that "Gypsy Eyes" "is put together from variants of five stock ideas...familiar from other recordings in the same style."
- "Drum lick A"
- "Drum lick B"
- "A complex of riffs on guitar and bass guitar"
- "A basic melodic falling pattern, using the notes of the pentatonic scale"
- "A characteristic guitar effecty, the attacked single note with long decay and glissando fall"
He concludes that "the combination and variations of these formulae are many and highly imaginatve. But the basic formulae are so simple that the recording could well have been worked out 'in performance.'"