The Jimi Hendrix estate is usually very stringent on what songs it allows on YouTube. At the time I’m writing this, you can listen to the song through the player above, but that may be taken by the time I actually publish this. We’ll see how it goes. But there it is anyway, ‘Manic Depression’ by the Jimi Hendrix Experience from the band’s debut album Are You Experienced?.

Really, the groove of this track is the best part. Right from the start and throughout, the guitar and bass play the same climbing, triple-time lines with Mitch Mitchell swinging drum pattern as clanging on those ride cymbals and striking the tom-toms. It’s a track that’s at full force and never lets up until that final strike of the last guitar chord. Jimi Hendrix doesn’t sing too badly either. He does song from the gut, and with a lot of feeling. There’s soul to his voice.

‘Manic depression’ was an old name for what is known today as bipolar disorder, but this song’s not about the condition. It’s a story about a man who wants to make love to music instead of women. Hendrix said so when introducing the number to a live audience. Not quite the way I’ve worded it, he said it in a more slick 60s man-of-the-times style.