Manic Depression (song)

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"Manic Depression"
Song by the Jimi Hendrix Experience
from the album Are You Experienced
Released
  • May 12, 1967 (1967-05-12) (UK)
  • August 23, 1967 (US)
RecordedMarch 29, 1967
Studio De Lane Lea, London
Length3:30 [1]
Label
Songwriter(s) Jimi Hendrix
Producer(s) Chas Chandler

Manic Depression is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1967.

Contents

Song information

Music critic William Ruhlmann describes the lyrics as "more an expression of romantic frustration than the clinical definition of manic depression." [2]

The song is performed in an uptempo triple metre. [3] It also features Mitch Mitchell's jazz-influenced drumming. [2] [4] and a parallel guitar and bass line. [3]

Release and covers

Manic Depression is included on the Experience's debut album, Are You Experienced (1967). Recordings of live performances have been released on BBC Sessions (1998) and Winterland (2011). [2] Ruhlmann notes renditions by Seal with Jeff Beck on Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix (1993) and King's X on Dogman (1994). [2]

The Canadian band Nomeansno included a cover of the song in their EP You Kill Me . A live version is also featured in the bootleg Live in Warsaw.

D.C. hardcore band Beefeater included the song, credited as "Manic D.", on their 1985 debut album, Plays for Lovers.

Ace Frehley covered the song on his album Origins Vol. 2.

Brooklyn-based crossover thrash band Carnivore (band) covered the song on their 1987 album Retaliation (Carnivore album).

Hollywood Vampires covered the song on their eponymous debut album.

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References

  1. From Are You Experienced liner notes (original international Polydor edition)
  2. 1 2 3 4 Ruhlmann, William. "Jimi Hendrix/ The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Manic Depression – Song Review". AllMusic . Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix Transcribed Scorres. Hal Leonard. 1998. p. 115. ISBN   978-0-7935-9144-2.
  4. Mitchell based the drum part on Ronnie Stephenson's drumming on John Dankworth's recording of Galt MacDermot's "African Waltz". Doerschuk, Andy (11 October 2012). "Mitch Mitchell: The Hendrix Years". Drum! . Archived from the original on May 23, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2017.