Red House (song) - Original Song

Original Song

"Red House" was one of the earliest songs recorded by the Experience. The song opens with a diminished 7th chord frequently found in blues songs, as "heard at the start of Robert Johnson tunes like 'Dead Shrimp Blues', 'Kind Hearted Woman', and '32-20 Blues'". After the four-bar intro, Redding and Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell come in while Hendrix solos up to the vocal at bar thirteen. After two twelve-bar vocal sections, Hendrix solos for twelve bars, then finishes up with another vocal section. The song's most prominent characteristic is Hendrix's guitar. John Lee Hooker commented "That 'Red House', that'll make you grab your mother and choke her! Man, that's really hard, that tears you apart. He could get down, he could mash it, yeah, Lord! He had so many blues".

The song was recorded with Noel Redding playing the bass part on an electric guitar (tuned down 1/2 step), with the tone controls set to resemble a bass guitar. According to Redding, "I had borrowed a terrible old hollow-body electric guitar from someone at the studio...because I liked to play along on rhythm to familiarise myself with a sequence, not being quite at home on the bass yet".

A monaural recording from December 13, 1966 at the CBS Studios in London was issued on the UK version of Are You Experienced. Despite Hendrix's complaints, the song was omitted from the US release of the album because the recording company reportedly argued that "America does not like blues". However, a second take of the song with additional overdubbing by Hendrix in early 1967 was issued on the 1969 American Smash Hits compilation. This stereo version was later released on the 1984 Kiss the Sky compilation, making it available outside the US. The original mono take became available in the US and Canada when it was released (minus most of the chat at the end) on the 1994 Blues album.