Mashed Potatoes and Jimi Hendrix
Would it shock you to know that lumpy mashed potatoes were the reason behind Jimi Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary”? According to ultimateclassicrock.com, in an interview with the BBC Sounds, Hendrix’s old girlfriend stated just that. Kathy Mary Etchingham was a hairdresser that met Jimi Hendrix in 1966. The couple ended up living together for three years. The relationship, one of Hendrix’s longest relationships, was filled with turmoil. And of the many fights they had, one fight led to one of Hendrix’s most famous songs.
In the interview with BBC Sounds, Etchingham recalls the relationship:
“Most of our arguments seemed to stem from my cooking, or my inability to cook,” she said. And on one fateful day in 1967, the argument was about mashed potatoes. “The mashed potatoes were lumpy and he made some cutting remark,” Etchingham said. She then proceeded to smash the plate of food on the ground… and the other dishes, too, along with the pots and the pans. “He was very upset,” she admitted.
And all these years later, Etchingham still sees the song as a direct, lyrical interpretation of their disagreement. “’All the jacks are in their boxes’ probably relates to during the argument when he said, ‘You play games, you’re always playing games,’” she explained to the BBC. While the broom, “drearily sweeping up the broken pieces of yesterday’s life,” appears like an obvious stand-in for Hendrix himself, brushing up the shattered china in their apartment. Etchingham said he was cleaning the mess as she ran out the door that night, crying.
She didn’t come home until the next day. And when she did, Etchingham said, Hendrix handed her the lyrics. The song was complete. “It actually documents, in a poetic way, the events of that day,” she concluded. She also offered further conjecture about the song’s other famous lines. “He [wrote] late at night, and in those days… when the television finished at about 11 o’clock, there was a test card with a clown and a girl. And he was probably sitting watching the test card,” she said, referring to the line, “The clowns have all gone to bed.”
Here are some great images of Hendrix:
The Legendary Jimi Hendrix Gallery
