One Rainy Wish

"One Rainy Wish"
Single by the Jimi Hendrix Experience
A-side "Up from the Skies"
Released February 26, 1968 (1968-02-26) (US)
Format Seven-inch 45 rpm record
Recorded Olympic Studios, London, October 1–2, 1967
Genre Rock ballad[1]
Length 3:40
Label Reprise (no. 0665)
Writer(s) Jimi Hendrix
Producer(s) Chas Chandler

"One Rainy Wish" (also known as "Golden Rose") is a song by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, featured on their 1967 second album Axis: Bold as Love. The song was written by Jimi Hendrix based on a dream that he had in which "the sky was filled with a thousand stars ... and eleven moons played across the rainbows," according to the song's lyrics.[2] Shortly after the release of Axis: Bold as Love, "One Rainy Wish" was featured as the B-side to "Up from the Skies", released in February 1968.[3]

Background and style

"One Rainy Wish" was "one of Jimi [Hendrix]'s many songs born out of a dream".[2] The style of guitar playing displayed by Hendrix is said to be reminiscent of that of American jazz guitarists Jim Hall and Wes Montgomery, according to fellow guitarist Mike Stern, who said the following about the song:

His playing is so lyrical. It has that same singing quality that I dig in Jim Hall's playing or Wes Montgomery's playing. But the thing about Hendrix was that he had that sound, he could achieve that lyrical feeling with a fatter sound on his Strat than you could get with a regular hollow-bodied jazz guitar.[4]

In the Hendrix biography Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy, the song is described as "creak[ing] with radical harmonies and rhythmic concepts, not least the fact that the verse is in 3/4 time while the chorus is in 4/4."[2] "One Rainy Wish" was recorded sometime midway through the Axis: Bold as Love sessions, in October 1967, at Olympic Sound Studios with producer Chas Chandler and engineer Eddie Kramer.[5]

Reception

In reviews of Axis: Bold as Love, "One Rainy Wish" has generally been positively regarded, although some critics do not like the ending. In a review for the BBC, critic Chris Jones noted the song as one of the album's examples of Hendrix's "loveliest lyrics,"[6] while critic Cub Koda described the song as a "beautiful, wistful ballad."[7]

Personnel

Musicians

Additional personnel

References

Notes

  1. Shadwick, Keith (2003). Jimi Hendrix: Musician. Backbeat Books. p. 125. ISBN 0-87930-764-1.
  2. 1 2 3 Shapiro & Glebbeek 1995, p. 229
  3. Shapiro & Glebbeek 1995, p. 529
  4. Shapiro & Glebbeek 1995, p. 228
  5. Shapiro & Glebbeek 1995, p. 528
  6. Jones, Chris (April 24, 2007). "Review of The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis Bold As Love". Music. BBC. Retrieved May 24, 2009.
  7. Koda, Cub. "Jimi Hendrix/The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold as Love – Album Review". AllMusic. Rovi Corp. Retrieved May 24, 2009.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, March 15, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.