Songfacts®:

• After Hendrix disbanded the Jimi Hendrix Experience in early 1969, he formed Gypsy Sun and Rainbows to fulfill his contract to play Woodstock. This was one of the new songs that he introduced at the festival, after which the guitarist was eager to perfect a studio version. Hendrix recruited bassist Billy Cox, who had played with him while they were in the army and his drummer friend Buddy Miles, for a new ensemble, Band of Gypsys. They recorded this as the B-side to his "Stepping Stone" single for Reprise, but it was quickly pulled after Hendrix complained about the mix. The Band of Gypsys made their live debut at the Fillmore East on New Year's Eve, 1969 and this song was played during their first set.
• A new version, which is markedly different from the Band Of Gypsys 45 single master was released on Hendrix's posthumous album, People, Hell & Angels. This one features Larry Lee, the guitarist's old friend from his rhythm & blues days on rhythm guitar.
• In "Izabella," Jimi Hendrix takes on the persona of a soldier fighting in the Vietnam War. While Hendrix was part of the hippie counterculture, there is no explicitly anti-war message in the lyrics - it's just a soldier thinking of his girl and hoping he makes it back to her alive. According to David Stubbs in his book Jimi Hendrix: The Stories Behind the Songs, the song's concluding power chord is "a bullet between the eyes, and the narrator drops dead."