The song 1983 (A Mermaid I should Turn To Be) featured on the album Electric Ladyland which was released in September of 1968. At over 13 minutes, the track is the second longest track ever released by the group after Voodoo Chile. Hendrix first recorded demo versions of 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) in March 1968 with just a guitar and vocals but the first official recording of the song, by the full lineup of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, took place at New York's Sound Center Studios on March 13, 1968.

Caesar Glebbeek and Harry Shapiro noted in their book Electric Gypsy that 1983... is a song of firsts and lasts, describing the music as Jimi's first piece of major orchestration, using the full capacities of the Record Plant's studio facilities, and contrasting the lyrical content as the last of Jimi's surreal apocalypses; despairing of mankind, he finally returns to the sea, the source of all life. They go on to note that the song contains references to Jimi's two favourite metaphors, sand and water, and that some of the phrases within the lyrics connote his belief in the power of positive thinking apparent in his music, lyrics and interviews through all the rest of his life. In an interview with Jane De Mendelssohn for International Times in 1969, Hendrix explained the significance of the track to be something to keep your mind off what's happening ... but not necessarily completely hiding away from it like some people do. In reviews of Electric Ladyland, 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) has often been identified as a highlight of the album. Writing for the BBC in 2007, critic Chris Jones described the track as a stoned classic, praising the way it [utilises] washes of backwards tape, jazzy timeshifts and far out fish-friendly lyrics to tell the tale of future apocalypse and return to the oceans. Uncut writer John Robinson has summed up the track as a brain-frying psychedelic epic.