Hendrix researcher Harry Shapiro adds the song "delves deep into the well of blues history, recalling one of the classic motifs of the genre" and compares it to "Jim Crow Blues" and "Make My Getaway", two earlier blues songs about "escap[ing] trouble, be it political, social or personal". "Jim Crow Blues", recorded in 1929 by Cow Cow Davenport, deals with getting away from racial segregation in an American town: In "Make My Getaway", recorded in 1951, Big Bill Broonzy sings of leaving Arkansas to get over a broken relationship: Biographer Steven Roby sees a parallel in Hendrix's early life that is reflected in the lyrics for "Hear My Train A Comin. When he left home at 18, Hendrix departed by train for U.S. Army basic training in California. "Jimi's confusion about leaving those he cared about coexisted with his eagerness to put his nightmarish existence in Seattle behind him", writes Roby. Hendrix's earliest recorded version in 1967 includes the verses After an energetic guitar solo, Hendrix announces "Can you dig that, you see me gettin' it together, I'm tryin' to get my heart together that's all" and concludes by singing He nearly always introduced the song as "Getting My Heart Back Together Again" or "Get My Heart Back Together", the latter of which was used for the first release of the song in 1971. In his August 1970 handwritten notes for the track listing of his proposed fourth studio album, Hendrix listed the song as "Getting My Heart Back Together". It is unknown why it was renamed "Hear My Train A Comin for subsequent releases, although Hendrix sometimes introduced songs in concert using alternate names. Occasionally he added a train reference to the song title, such as "Lonesome Train", "I See My Train", and "Waitin' Down at the Train Station". As Hendrix developed the song, he added to the lyrics and included "I'm gonna be a voodoo child", a reference to his 1968 composition "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)". However, he stayed with the same theme and often prefaced his performances with a short commentary, such as at one of his best-known performances in Berkeley, California, in 1970: Composition and early live releases "Hear My Train A Comin was usually performed at a slow to andante tempo (65 to 80 beats per minute) centered on one chord with breaks. The first known recordings were made by the BBC on December 15,