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Manic Depression by Jimi Hendrix

Manic Depression is one of my favorite songs to come out of the 1960s, a hardcore guitar riff with a driving drum-and-base backup, all punctuated by Jimi Hendrix's mellow voice singing over the stew of sounds. It's considered one of the band's best by many, which is why I love it so much. It's considered one of Jimi's best by very few, since it highlights the work of his rhythm section Noel Redding (bass) and Mitch Mitchell (drums) as much as it does the man himself.

Manic Depression was written for and released on the Jimi Hendrix Experience's debut album, "Are You Experienced?", which came out in May of 1967. Wikipedia.org gives the background on how the song came to be written, and the various cover versions of it produced in the 42 years since:

The song's name, Manic Depression, is an old name for bipolar disorder, a mental health disorder. There is no evidence that Hendrix ever suffered from (or did not suffer from) bipolar disorder himself, but when he was doing a press conference in London his manager at the time, Chas Chandler, told him that he sounded like a manic depressive. So the next day Hendrix wrote this tune.

"Manic Depression" has been covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers; Styx; Blood, Sweat and Tears; Tanya Donelly; Carnivore; Nomeansno; David Ryan Harris; Seal & Jeff Beck; Clawfinger; Jan Hammer; Katharina Franck; King's X; Stevie Ray Vaughan; Yngwie J. Malmsteen; et al. The Hungarian Gypsy band Besh O Drom have a track called Mániás Depresszió on their album Gyi! which uses Hendrix's tune. Rozz Williams and Gitane Demone released a very different version of Manic Depression on their album Dream Home Heartache. Singer/comedian Sandra Bernhard combined the song with the song "Close Your Eyes" from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar to create the song Manic Superstar on her album Excuses For Bad Behavior (Part One).

As the second song on side one of Are You Experienced, Manic Depression holds a hallowed place in rock and roll history. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Are You Experienced the fifteenth greatest album in rock history, and Manic Depression - namely, the musicality of the rhythm section added to Hendrix's always virtuoso guitar work - is one of the big reasons why. Guitarist magazine went even further, naming it the single most influential guitar album ever made.

Will it ever be topped? It's doubtful.

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