10 Amazing Songs That Never Made It Onto A Studio Album

The only thing holding back Jimi Hendrix from making some of the greatest rock music ever was his limited amount of time on this Earth. Here was a musician that was boiling over with ideas and even had plans to collaborate with Miles Davis in the early '70s before succumbing to a drug overdose at the far too young age of 27. When you dig back into what he already gave us though, Jimi saved some of his most memorable moments for the live stage.

Although songs like his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner have become legendary at this point, Machine Gun might be one of the boldest statements that Jimi ever made on record, depicting the danger and fear of the Vietnam War in just under 15 minutes. The lyrics are as clear as day here, as Jimi talks about the destruction around him and the sound of a machine gun tearing him apart, but most of this song is him letting his music do the talking for him.

For all of the antics that he would get into from time to time, Jimi becomes one with the music on this track, turning his guitar solo into an emotional experience, almost like he's trying to paint a picture of the carnage that's unfolding half a world away, from the screams of his whammy dives to the rhythm chops that sound like a soldier reloading that machine gun. The '60s revolution may not have brought about world peace by any stretch, but it's a song like this that suggests where we could be heading if we don't look out for each other.