10 Most Underrated Jimi Hendrix Songs

Feature Photo: Photographer: Ary Groeneveld (?) ; Auteursrechthouder: Gemeente Rotterdam (Stadsarchief) CC-0, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

It may sound rather odd to say the phrase “underrated Jimi Hendrix songs.” I could definitely understand if you kind of cringe when you hear that phrase. I felt like I shouldn’t be writing an article like this. I mean, is there really such a thing as underrated Jimi Hendrix songs? His record companies have really dug deep into his archives over the years, trying to present as much as they possibly could since his early passing at such a young age. Yes, of course, the general public knows all the big hits, and so I guess that’s kind of what I’m trying to present here: the ones that aren’t the big hits. That’s kind of the whole idea behind this article. It’s more of the unknown Jimi Hendrix songs to the masses. I just kind of like the word underrated better.

Jimi Hendrix left behind only three completed studio albums with the Experience during his lifetime, but the music he recorded went far beyond the songs that became classic-rock staples. Some of the tracks on this list come from those original albums, while others surfaced later through posthumous releases that opened up different sides of his work. Blues, studio experimentation, long-form psychedelia, social commentary, and unfinished ideas all sit next to one another in the Hendrix catalog. These ten songs deserve more attention because they show how much was happening beyond the obvious hits.

# 10 – Peace in Mississippi

“Peace in Mississippi” began as a ferocious instrumental recorded by Jimi Hendrix with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell at TTG Studios in Hollywood on October 24, 1968. The version used on the 1975 album Crash Landing replaced the original bass and drums and added new overdubbed guitar and percussion under producer Alan Douglas. We know that approach remains controversial, but the Crash Landing version is the one we have always preferred for this list. The original Hendrix-Redding-Mitchell performance later appeared in edited form on Voodoo Soup, while the complete recording was restored on later Experience Hendrix releases. Whichever version you choose, Hendrix’s guitar never lets up for long enough to make the track feel comfortable. “Peace in Mississippi” is a deep cut that sounds like the studio walls were barely holding it in.

# 9 – Valleys Of Neptune

“Valleys of Neptune” finally received an official release in 2010, nearly forty years after Hendrix worked on the song. He dated a handwritten set of lyrics “June 7, 1969,” and continued developing the recording through the following year. The master released on the Valleys of Neptune album came from Hendrix’s late-period studio work and was newly mixed by longtime engineer Eddie Kramer for the posthumous release. The song has the loose, exploratory feel of a musician who had moved beyond the original Experience but had not yet settled on the exact shape of his next studio album. Its strange oceanic and cosmic imagery fits naturally beside Hendrix’s fascination with science fiction and new worlds. For years this was one of the legendary unreleased Hendrix titles, and hearing the finished release proved the reputation was deserved.

# 8 – Night Bird Flying

“Night Bird Flying” was one of the recordings Hendrix brought close to completion during the final months of his life. He cut the basic track at Electric Lady Studios with Billy Cox on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums, returning for overdubs through the summer of 1970. Hendrix and Eddie Kramer completed a mix on August 24, less than a month before Hendrix died. The song first appeared on the 1971 posthumous album The Cry of Love and later became part of First Rays of the New Rising Sun. Its layered guitars show how far Hendrix had moved beyond the simple power-trio arrangements of his earliest records. “Night Bird Flying” sounds finished enough to make you wonder what the next Hendrix album might have become.

# 7 – The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam’s Dice

“The Stars That Play with Laughing Sam’s Dice” was released in 1967 as the B-side of “Burning of the Midnight Lamp.” Hendrix recorded it with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, with Chas Chandler producing, during sessions in New York that summer. The title’s initials famously form “STP with LSD,” which fits the track’s wild psychedelic character without explaining everything Hendrix was doing. Whistles, voices, distorted guitar, and loose studio chatter pile up until the record feels more like a party spinning out of control than a conventional song. Later releases brought the track back into view through compilations including South Saturn Delta and expanded Hendrix collections. It is messy, funny, noisy, and exactly the kind of record that gets lost when Hendrix is reduced to only his most famous guitar showcases.

# 6 – House Burning Down

“House Burning Down” appears near the end of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 1968 double album Electric Ladyland. Hendrix wrote and produced the track, played the guitars and bass, and worked with Mitch Mitchell on drums while Eddie Kramer and Gary Kellgren handled the engineering. The lyric addresses violence and destruction without turning the song into a lecture, especially when Hendrix asks people to learn instead of burn. His guitar effects make the record sound almost physically unstable, as though the arrangement is collapsing along with the world being described. It sits between “Still Raining, Still Dreaming” and “All Along the Watchtower,” which helps explain why it can be overlooked on such a loaded album. Taken on its own, “House Burning Down” is one of Hendrix’s strongest combinations of studio invention and social anger.

# 5 – Things I Used To Do

Hendrix returned to his blues roots with “Things I Used to Do,” the Guitar Slim classic that he jammed on at the Record Plant in New York on May 7, 1969. Johnny Winter joined him on guitar after Hendrix, Winter, and Stephen Stills came back from the nearby Scene club for an early-morning session. The performance stayed in the vault for decades before appearing officially on Both Sides of the Sky in 2018. Hendrix does not treat the song like a museum piece; he stretches the blues language until it sounds completely natural beside his own music. Winter’s slide playing gives the session a second guitar voice without turning it into a contest. This is Hendrix as a blues player first, which is still too easy to forget when people focus only on the psychedelic records.

# 4 – One Rainy Wish

“One Rainy Wish” appeared on the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 1967 album Axis: Bold as Love. Hendrix wrote the song from a dream, and the lyric’s colors, stars, moons, and impossible landscape sound exactly like someone trying to hold onto an image before waking up. Chas Chandler produced the recording at Olympic Studios with Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums. The arrangement moves from a soft, floating opening into a heavier section without breaking the spell of the song. On an album containing “Little Wing,” “Castles Made of Sand,” and “If 6 Was 9,” it is easy for a track this subtle to disappear into the background. “One Rainy Wish” deserves better because it shows Hendrix as a songwriter and arranger, not merely a guitarist.

# 3 – Once I Had A Woman

“Once I Had a Woman” is one of the strongest straight blues performances in Hendrix’s posthumous catalog. Hendrix recorded it at the Record Plant on January 23, 1970 with Billy Cox on bass and Buddy Miles on drums, with an unidentified harmonica player also joining the session. An edited version was prepared during the Alan Douglas era, while the longer performance later appeared on the 1994 collection Blues. The slow tempo gives Hendrix room to sing without rushing and then answer himself with guitar lines that sound almost conversational. There is no psychedelic concept or elaborate production hiding the basic structure of the blues here. “Once I Had a Woman” is Hendrix proving how much he could say when the arrangement was stripped down to almost nothing.

# 2 – Burning Desire

“Burning Desire” belongs to the period when Hendrix worked with Billy Cox and Buddy Miles and pushed toward the music that became associated with the Band of Gypsys. He worked on the song repeatedly at the Record Plant in late 1969 and early 1970, but he never completed a definitive studio master. The authorized Dagger Records album Burning Desire later collected studio explorations from those sessions, including a lengthy version of the title track. The performance below comes from the first Fillmore East set on December 31, 1969, with Cox and Miles locking into the changing rhythms behind Hendrix. The song is heavy, funky, and far less tied to the psychedelic-pop language of the original Experience. “Burning Desire” points toward another Hendrix direction that was only beginning to take shape.

# 1 – 1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)

“1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)” is one of the most ambitious recordings on 1968’s Electric Ladyland. Hendrix wrote and produced the song, played guitar and bass, and built the track with Mitch Mitchell on drums and Traffic’s Chris Wood on flute. The lyric escapes a world of war by sending its narrator and his lover beneath the sea toward a new existence. Hendrix spent months shaping the recording, using edits, effects, backwards sounds, and layers of guitar to create an environment rather than a normal rock arrangement. At more than thirteen minutes, it asks for the kind of attention radio rarely gives a song, which is one reason casual Hendrix listeners sometimes pass it by. For us, that scale is exactly why “1983” belongs at number one on a list of his most underrated work.

Read More: Jimi Hendrix Albums Ranked