The secret intergalactic message Jimi Hendrix hid in ‘Third Stone from the Sun’
Jimi Hendrix completely changed music the moment that he stepped foot on UK soil. He had already made waves in the US, but was told to travel to the UK, where his forward style of guitar-playing would likely be a lot more accepted. Hendrix wasn’t prepared for just how accepted it would become, as it feels as though the moment he played his first gig in London, suddenly, the world couldn’t get enough.
To this day, people still talk about how much of a prolific guitarist Jimi Hendrix was. He played well, sure, nobody is denying that, but it wasn’t just how he played that took people by surprise. He was an animal on stage, setting light to his guitar, improvising 20-minute solos and playing the strings with his teeth. He changed how people played and also how they acted while playing. You forget that Hendrix was only a mainstream artist for four years because his cultural impact is akin to someone working in the music industry ten times that period.
Hendrix was also a complicated man, one who had his struggles in life and was also deeply spiritual. It’s as though Hendrix was constantly trying to reach out towards something bigger than himself. He tried to do that through music, but also through drugs and through spirituality as a whole. It led to him being a wide believer in science fiction and otherworldly beings.
His love for the universe and his trying to understand more than just that which is available on Earth began at a young age. While Hendrix didn’t talk about it much throughout his career, Hendrix believed that he was visited by aliens when he was young. He was convinced that he saw them through his bedroom window, and so when writing music later in his life, he often included different science fiction references.
One of his most obvious references to the universe was his song ‘Third Stone from the Sun’. In the track, the “third stone” which is mentioned is Earth, and the song tells the story of visitors from another world who come to explore. The track is largely instrumental and comes in different parts, each of which uses various recording strategies and science fiction-like sound effects.
Despite it being more of a sonic odyssey, there are some lyrics in the song. Some of them can be heard clearly, but others are distorted and slowed down so that they are borderline impossible to listen to. Some of the lyrics show the conversation of two of the otherworldly beings, discussing where they are and the fact that there is supposed to be intelligent life on Earth.
“Positive. It is known to have some form of intelligent species. Over,” the recording says, before continuing, “I think we should take a look.” One of the next passages spells out the destruction of the human race; however, the rationale for this is easy to miss. Thanks to slowing the lyrics down and playing around with the recording technique, we miss the section of the song where the space explorers realise that humans are stupid and the smartest lifeform on the planet is chickens. Because of the human race’s shortcomings, we are promised doom.
