If any of you caught the recent American Masters show about Jimi Hendrix on PBS you know that there was some great seldom-seen interviews that made that documentary one of the best. It seems like there was a lot of footage that didn’t make the program, and here’s some of it, describing the making of “The Wind Cries Mary” from Jimi and The Experience’s first album Are You Experienced.
In the video you’ll hear Jimi’s late manager and producer Chas Chandler (once the bass player with the original Animals) describing how the song was cut in 20 minutes including 5 guitar overdubs (obviously everything was first take). Then you’ll hear my buddy the great Eddy Kramer (you can read part of his interview from The Recording Engineer’s Handbook here) isolate some of the guitar tracks from the song.
Sorry, but you’ll have to sit through a 15 second commercial first, but it’s worth it.