Although"Purple Haze" is often associated with acid culture, Jimi Hendrix biographer Charles R. Cross explained that the song's basis wasn't drug-related. "Though the tune would forever be linked in the popular imagination with LSD, Jimi said it was inspired by a dream he had that mirrored the novel Night of Light: Day of Dreams, by Philip José Farmer." There has been some talk over the years about an often misunderstod line from the song, in which Hendrix sings, "Excuse me while I kiss the sky." When Frank Zappa's band covered the tune in 1988, they went with "Excuse me while I kiss this guy."