This song was a salute to "Field Hollers"... where African American slaves would come up with these songs, also called "Work Songs" on plantations. The song is written about Hendrix' mother Lucille.
The line, "Two strange men fightin' to the death over me today" is a reference to 2 men claiming to be Hendrix' father in an effort to capitalize on his success and money. Neither man was Al Hendrix who was known to be his real father (Jimi's real middle name was Allen).
Recording this song was quite a process. Hendrix did pretty much everything himself, including playing bass. He also messed around with various phasing effects that show up on the song.
