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
StudioDe 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.

Song information[edit]

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[edit]

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.

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).

References[edit]

  1. ^ From Are You Experienced liner notes (original international Polydor edition)
  2. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b 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.