Jimi Hendrix's 1967 Hit Was Allegedly Inspired By This Comfort Food - Tasting Table

"True artists draw inspiration from all areas of their lived experience, though it is a rare thing for a true masterpiece to be attributable to something so simple as food. In the case of "The Wind Cries Mary," however, a track from Jimi Hendrix's 1967 album "Are You Experienced," the case can be made that its origin lies in a dish of mashed potatoes - albeit somewhat indirectly."

"As the story goes, Hendrix got into an argument with his then-girlfried Kathy Etchingham over a dinner she was preparing for them. As Etchingham recalled in an interview with the BBC, "He comes along and tastes them with a fork and says they're all lumpy." Feeling an understandable hurt as the only one of the two who cooked, this disapproval apparently ignited a dispute that only built in intensity. "It ended with my screaming and shouting," she remembers, "throwing the plates on the floor and marching out.""

"Etchingham did not return that night, but when she came back the next morning, Hendrix had something to show her. By way of apology for his comments about what he saw as a mistake with the mashed potatoes, he shared the lyrics to "The Wind Cries Mary." One verse in particular seems to fit the moment and the regret that Hendrix might have been feeling in the home alone that night: "A broom is drearily sweeping / Up the broken pieces of yesterday's life / Somewhere a queen is weeping / Somewhere a king has no wife / And the wind, it cries 'Mary.'" The song peaked at No.6 in the U.K., while not charting on the Billboard Hot 100 in the States at all."

Jimi Hendrix argued with girlfriend Kathy Etchingham after he criticized her mashed potatoes as "lumpy." Etchingham left in anger, later describing the dispute as ending with her screaming, shouting, throwing plates and marching out. When she returned the next morning, Hendrix presented lyrics to "The Wind Cries Mary" as an apology. The song contains melancholy lines that mirror regret and domestic aftermath. "The Wind Cries Mary" reached No.6 in the U.K. singles chart but did not chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Read at Tasting Table