Hendrix dedicated this song to soldiers fighting in Berkeley—you know what soldiers I'm talking about—and oh yeah, the soldiers fighting in Vietnam too ... and dedicate [it] to other people that might be fighting wars too, but within themselves, not facing up to the realities.

Hendrix's 12-minute performance of "Machine Gun" for the Band of Gypsys is often lauded as his greatest....

the song opens with a Uni-Vibe-based guitar riff intended to mimic the sound of a firing machine gun. The bass and drum patterns then commence. The rather sparse lyrics, which differ in every performance, relate the point of view of a soldier fighting in war: