The Wind Cries Mary

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The Wind Cries Mary^[1] is a song by Jimi Hendrix. It was the A side of Jimi Hendrix Experience's third single, with "Highway Chile" as the B side. The track is considered a good exhibit of psychedelic blues rock, as the song is in the key of F major, with a guitar solo primarily involving the F major pentatonic scale. One of Hendrix's first hits in England, the song was recorded at the end of the "Fire" sessions. Today, the song is considered a classic and continues to receive decent airplay around the world.^{[citation needed]}

In the USA, the song was first released as B-side to the song "Purple Haze" in June 1967 and later on the USA compilation version of the album Are You Experienced and along with the other sides of their first three singles, on most later re-releases of Are You Experienced

The song is said to have been inspired when Hendrix and his then girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham, had an argument over her cooking; after she stormed out of their apartment, Hendrix wrote "The Wind Cries Mary", as Mary was Etchingham's middle name.^{[citation needed]}. Kathy has said that many of the Dylanesque lyrics describe the test card that appeared at the end of BBC television transmissions at that time.^[2] , although this may have been a mistake on Kathy's behalf as that particular testcard wasn't first broadcast until July 1967, while the song had been written long before that. Billy Cox, who was the bassist for the Band of Gypsys and long-time friend of Hendrix has stated Curtis Mayfields' influence on the song.

"'The Wind Cries Mary' was a riff that was influenced by Curtis Mayfield, who was a big influence for Jimi."

It is a misconception^{[citation needed]} that Hendrix wrote the song about marijuana use, as "Mary Jane" is a slang term for marijuana (a literal translation from Spanish). "The Wind Cries Mary" and "Highway Chile" was re-released in 1983 on The Singles Album compilation.^[3]

[edit] Cover versions

• Jamie Cullum released a remake of "The Wind Cries Mary" on his album Twentysomething.
• Guitarist Marc Ribot released a cover on his Rootless Cosmopolitans album.
• Xavier Rudd recorded a version on his album To Let.
• The song "Mademoiselle Mabry" on the Miles Davis album Filles de Kilimanjaro is actually Gil Evans' arrangement of "The Wind Cries Mary."
• John Mayer did a cover version of this song.
• Richie Sambora covered the song, releasing it as a B-side to his "Ballad of Youth" single, and on the soundtrack album of the movie The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.
• Cassandra Wilson covered the song on the album Crossing Jordan: Music from the NBC Television Series (2003) .

[edit] References

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