"The Wind Cries Mary" | ||||
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Single by the Jimi Hendrix Experience | ||||
A-side | "Purple Haze" (US) | |||
B-side | "Highway Chile" (UK) | |||
Released |
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Recorded | January 11, 1967 | |||
Studio | De Lane Lea, London | |||
Length | 3:21 | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | Jimi Hendrix | |||
Producer(s) | Chas Chandler | |||
Experience UKsingles chronology | ||||
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Experience USsingles chronology | ||||
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"The Wind Cries Mary" is a rock ballad [1] written by Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix wrote the song as a reconciliatory love song for his girlfriend in London, Kathy Etchingham. More recent biographical material indicated that some of the lyrics appeared in poetry written by Hendrix earlier in his career when he was in Seattle.
According to Hendrix's then-girlfriend Kathy Etchingham, he wrote the lyrics after an argument with her about her cooking lumpy mashed potatoes, using "Mary" (Etchingham's middle name). [2] [3] [4] Etchingham suggested that the line in the song "a broom is drearily sweeping up the broken pieces of yesterday's life" represents Hendrix sweeping up the broken dishes she threw as a result of the argument. [4] In a later interview, Hendrix commented that the lyrics represent "more than one person". [5] Music journalist David Stubbs pointed out that Hendrix also used the line from the song “Somewhere a Queen is weeping / Somewhere a King has no wife" in a poem he wrote to another Mary who had been his girlfriend, Mary Washington. [4]
Billy Cox, Hendrix's long-time friend and later bassist, has noted Curtis Mayfield's influence on the song. Hendrix performed elements of an early version in the summer of 1966 with his band Jimmy James and the Blue Flames in New York City. [1]
The Experience recorded it at De Lane Lea Studios in London in February 1967, during sessions for their follow-up single to "Hey Joe". Hendrix producer Chas Chandler commented on the recording:
That was recorded at the tail end of the session for "Fire". We had about twenty minutes or so left. I suggested we cut a demo of "The Wind Cries Mary". Mitch Mitchell [drummer] and Noel Redding [bassist] hadn't heard it, so they were going about it without a rehearsal. They played it once through [and Hendrix then suggested overdubs]. In all he put on four or five more overdubs, but the whole thing was done in twenty minutes. That was our third single. [6]
The single, backed by "Highway Chile", was released in the UK in May 1967 and reached number six on the UK Singles Chart. [7] In the United States, the song was first released as the B-side of the "Purple Haze" single in June 1967. It was later included on the American Are You Experienced album, released in August 1967. [8]
Chart (1967) | Peak position |
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Australia (Kent Music Report) [9] | 12 |
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40) [10] | 18 |
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia) [10] | 35 |
Netherlands (Single Top 100) [10] | 6 |
UK Singles (OCC) [11] | 6 |
West Germany (Media Control) [10] | 35 |
Hendrix performed the song live often in 1967 and 1968. A recording from the Monterey Pop Festival was later released on Jimi Plays Monterey (1986) and Live at Monterey (2007); another from the Paris L'Olympia Theatre appeared on Stages (1991), The Jimi Hendrix Experience (2000), and Live in Paris & Ottawa 1968 (2008). Stages also includes a 1967 recording from a Stockholm concert.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked "The Wind Cries Mary" number 379 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". [12] A variety of musicians have recorded the song, such as Jamie Cullum, John Mayer, Xavier Rudd, Richie Sambora, Sting, Popa Chubby, Pat Boone, and Caron Wheeler, and Johnny A. Gil Evans later reworked the song as "Mademoiselle Mabry" for Miles Davis' album Filles de Kilimanjaro .
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist, songwriter and singer. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as the greatest and one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music."
"Purple Haze" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and released as the second single by the Jimi Hendrix Experience on March 17, 1967, in the United Kingdom. The song features his inventive guitar playing, which uses the signature Hendrix chord and a mix of blues and Eastern modalities, shaped by novel sound processing techniques. Because of ambiguities in the lyrics, listeners often interpret the song as referring to a psychedelic experience, although Hendrix described it as a love song. It was included as the opening track in the North American edition of the Experience's debut album, Are You Experienced (1967).
Are You Experienced is the debut studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in May 1967. The album was an immediate critical and commercial success, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. It features Jimi Hendrix's innovative approach to songwriting and electric guitar playing, which soon established a new direction in psychedelic and rock music as a whole.
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