What does Purple Haze mean?

Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze Meaning

Album cover for Purple Haze album cover

Song Released: 1967


Purple Haze Lyrics

Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just dont seem the same
Actin funny, but I dont know why
scuse me while I kiss the sky
Purple haze all around
Dont know if Im comin up or down
Am I happy or in misery?
What ever it is, that girl...

  1. austinhilly
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    Aug 31st 2009 !⃝

    NO!!!!!! READ A ROOM FULL OF MIRRORS!!! He told the press it was about a dream. but his manager and drummer mitch mitchell were tol by JIMI that it was an encounter with drugs. rather it be weed or LSD it WAS drug related. He struggled with drugs all of his life...And purple haze is a type of weed. so im sure that is what hes talking about..

  2. har0462
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    Aug 28th 2009 !⃝

    Which came first? Owsley's Purple Haze or Jimi's? Jimi wrote "Purple Haze" in December 1966. Jimi claimed that it was about a dream he had where he was walking under the sea.

  3. 70fan
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    Jun 17th 2009 !⃝

    Really guys? You're so so wrong. I was alive during this time and I know that Jimi Hendrix was talking about the purple dots and haze that go through his head when he's on acid drugs. He overdosed on it also. He might have said it was a dream to cover for himself.

  4. anonymous
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    May 21st 2009 !⃝

    I agree with the guy that said it's about acid cause a literally a few minutes ago smoke a pen and there is some freaky shit goin on that's we he says "purple haze all in my brain" cause your brains in a haze

  5. anonymous
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    May 12th 2009 !⃝

    This song isn't about Acid. It's about Jimi haveing a Dream and being engulfed by purple haze and getting lost and in by his fate in Jesus Jimi finds his way.
    The song was originally going to be called "Jesus Saves" but decide just to name the song "Purple Haze"

  6. JimiHendrix0298
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    Mar 22nd 2009 !⃝

    I submit that Jimi was probably on Mescaline at the time (purple Micro dot)

    But the song was written about the dream he had where he was underwater, and said "Jesus saved him"

    If you listen to the U2 song "Mysterious Ways"
    You will see a verse:
    "If you want to kiss the sky, you'd better learn how to kneel"

    Bono has said in interviews, that this verse is a biblical quote continued from:

    John the Baptist and the Holy Spirit. There are many clues to this meaning that reveal that the "she" is the Holy Spirit, including the Spirit talking about the "things you can't explain" (Romans 8:26)...

    Then Bono goes on to explain:
    Among the lessons that John learns is "If you want to kiss the sky better learn how to kneel"

    So since Jimi is refering that Jesus saved him from drowning,
    His reference to Kissing the Sky would be an induced Dream,
    "AND", reference to Jesus and reference from biblical scripture, Quoting Romans 8:26.

    I am not a bible thumper...
    Just trying to put things together.

    Possibility?

  7. anonymous
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    Feb 17th 2009 !⃝

    Hendrix said that he was inspired by a dream in which he was walking under the sea. In his dream his faith in Jesus saved him; an early song manuscript has the title "Purple Haze, Jesus Saves." "I dream a lot and I put a lot of my dreams down as songs," he said in a 1969 interview with the New Musical Express, "I wrote one called 'First Around the Corner' and another called 'The Purple Haze,' which was all about a dream I had that I was walking under the sea." Shapiro and Glebbeek point out that despite the colorful imagery of the song it may well have another inspiration than the use of LSD, since no one ever witnessed Hendrix take LSD until six months after the song was written. It was supposedly written in the dressing room of the Upper Cut Club on Boxing Day, 1966

  8. anonymous
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    Feb 14th 2009 !⃝

    it's about weed. no matter how hard yall try and deny it. what do you expect a person with common sence to say, "Oh yeah, this song it about weed..." No, he's a little more smarter and creative than that. But hey, yall probably aren't real jimi fans anyways. so whatever.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. anonymous
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    Jan 21st 2009 !⃝

    It's about a dream he had and LSD.

  10. anonymous
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    Jan 21st 2009 !⃝

    I think it's about poppers....poppers were big around his time werent they? they were inhalents and one of them was called purple haze
    here is a picture
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HOpoppers.jpg

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  11. anonymous
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    Dec 18th 2008 !⃝

    the people above about LSD are correct. In the 60s purple haze lsd was very popular and grew more when this song released. It's was his dream he had but yet who ever said he was a sniper and not a paratrooper should he shot BY a sniper cause he was a paratrooper for 7 years before he was taken out for breaking his leg after one of his jumps (which weren't to many btw). But you can put this song to purple haze as in the weed because that was his main "conisureship". That was one of the best around his time and when he says not sure if I'm coming up or down is to him not being sure if he's upset he can't have his love (a woman he was in love with) or up which is being high from the purple. Also excuse me while I kiss the sky. Not while I kiss this guy you freaking retards! This also refers to him flying and BEING HIGH!!!!!!

    So it can be put as either one of those drugs.... Also the reason why he said it wasn't about him on drugs is.... Really?.... Would you tell the press with the cops and stuff then have them up your butt even more? It was supost to be descrite like a drug deal and simple put it in the song for us to know subliminally! Duh!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  12. anonymous
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    Nov 9th 2008 !⃝

    Agree with Jammyness completely. Lot's of swirling around the hallucinatoriness of the song. Timelessness, wild color, Purple Haze Acid was an LSD type that was supposedly very powerful. There were many varieties, but Osley's was touted as "pure." JH was connected and in the thick of it. He seemed intelligent and would not have advertised the true nature. That would invite "the man" to your table. It's like strutting it in their face - they don't dig it - man!

  13. jammyness
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    Sep 9th 2008 !⃝

    This song could be about Purple Haze a purple type of lsd created by Owsley Stanley in the 60s. Jimi might have lied to the public because of the bad rep that LSD had started to receive toward the late 60's?

  14. anonymous
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    Aug 21st 2008 !⃝

    IT IS ABOUT AN ACID TRIP...he referred to it as a dream because media was so conservative! When on LSD, you sometimes see these purple hints on everything...I cannot believe that people think it is about weed. You have to be very young I can only imagine. Otherwise I am just confused as to why ANYONE would ever think that as a mature cognitive adult.

  15. anonymous
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    Jul 17th 2008 !⃝

    By name James Marshall Hendrix originally Jhon Allan Hendrix, got high off purple haze which is a type of Marijuana, and it has light shades of purple in it from its growing conditions. Really he got high. He probably told press and his record company it was a dream. I mean who would write and sing about a dream and called it purple haze? I mean if it was a dream then when he named it purple haze then surely he would knew that he was naming it after weed. jimmy is a black man in the 60's?? I'm sure he's touched drugs. But then again maybe it was a dream. Just casting my thoughts and differences. Hendrix died September 18, 1970 from drug releated problems. It's sad though. What a talented musician he was only 27.




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