From the album: Are You Experienced (1967) A song as legendary as "Purple Haze", which ranks as one of the greatest guitar tracks of all time, virtually needs no introduction. Everyone with a passing interest in Rock music has marvelled at Jimi Hendrix's virtuoso guitar acrobatics which remain as powerful and awe-inspiring as ever. "Purple Haze" is a bona-fide Rock institution and announced the arrival of the world's first true guitar hero who re-wrote the rule book with the very first track from his very first album. Is it Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Blues, or Heavy Metal? "Purple Haze" can't really be pigeonholed and tied down to specific genres as it encompasses all of them, expertly combined to showcase Hendrix's distorted, feedback-laden psychedelic guitar playing which was like no music heard before. Hendrix's vocals may be somewhat ropey, he could never be declared a great singer per se, but his vocals and sometimes misheard lyrics pale into significance in comparison to the relentlessly heavy music on "Purple Haze" which provides a solid backbone for his inventive and incendiary guitar playing. One spin of "Purple Haze" and an entire generation knew that things would never be the same again.