Castles Made of Sand (song)
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| “Castles Made of Sand” | ||
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album cover
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| Song by The Jimi Hendrix Experience | ||
| Album | Axis: Bold as Love | |
| Released | 1 December 1967 (UK) 15 January 1968 (US) |
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| Genre | psychedelic rock, hard rock | |
| Length | 2:46 | |
| Label | MCA (reissues) | |
| Writer | Jimi Hendrix | |
| Producer | Chas Chandler | |
| Axis: Bold as Love track listing | ||
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Side 1
Side 2
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"Castles Made of Sand" is a song from The Jimi Hendrix Experience's second studio album, Axis: Bold As Love, released in 1967 in the UK and 1968 in the U.S. It was available in two different stereo mixes and a mono mix.
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[edit] Structure
The song is a melancholy meditation on thwarted plans, the first verse features a broken relationship, the second the surprise death of an Indian boy before battle and the third a happier event - an attempted suicide that ends as a miracle cure, each specific occurrence supported by chorus-lines: three slight variations of "...and so castles made of sand fall in the sea, eventually...".
The song is known for its intricate solo, heard on record as being completely backwards in time (at first recorded properly, then reversed on track) and its lack of a conventional chorus.
[edit] Interpretation
A common interpretation of the lyrics is the message that sand is not water resistant (thus "Castles made of sand fall in the sea eventually"), not only the good things like love, dreams or life, but also the bads, like diseases, death and fears, as shown in the last part of the song.
Leon Hendrix, the younger brother of Jimi has said that privately, Jimi revealed to him that the song was about their family. The first verse is their mother leaving their father Al again for the final time. The second verse is referencing his Native American heritage and the stories his grandmother (a quarter Cherokee)[1]would tell him. The boy who played "war games in the woods with his Indian friends" is said to be Leon (as stated by himself) but could also be about Jimi as well. The third verse recounts Jimi's mother Lucille in the hospital suffering from liver disease, wishing to die so she would suffer no more, "to her legs she smiled you won't hurt me no more." Lucille did have cirrhosis of the liver, but was recovering outside of Hospital, when she was admitted unconscious to hospital, where she died from a ruptured spleen caused by a blow from an unknown source, not a liver complaint as is often repeated, although this was listed as a contributing factor on her death certificate[7]. The song "Little Wing" is also about his mother Lucille as stated by Leon, although in interviews he gave an alternate interpretation, most likely so he would not have to recount painful memories for strangers. Jimi himself said the song was about the Monterey Pop Festival personified as a girl.
Locals from the Moroccan town Diabat has claimed that the song title is inspired by the Bordj El Berod-watchtower ruin. It is known that Hendrix stayed in Diabat in the 60's, so it is not unlikely he has seen the famous ruin before he named the song.
The song can also be related to the deaths of Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix himself. Morrison is stated in the first verse by being the drunkard; and it was alcohol that ended up killing Jim. Jimi is revealed in the second verse about the Indian boy. Jimi was himself part Indian, and Jimi died by a surprise attack in his sleep, when Jimi died from choking on his own vomit. Janis is shown in the last verse by being the girl whose heart was a frown, because she was never able to find a man to love her. She became so depressed and crippled by not finding a man, Janis began to use heroin, the "golden winged ship". And when it is said for the ship kept on going and going, it refers to Janis's heroin addiction which led to her death of a heroin overdose in 1970.
[edit] Covers
The song was covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and a live version was featured on the 1994 B-Sides, Remixes, Outtakes and Live compilation CD Out In L.A.. The same version was released on the 2003 remastered version of their album Mother's Milk. The studio version was recorded in 1991 and was released as an iTunes exclusive bonus track to Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Four Tet also covered the song for the Late Night Tales mix album. The song was also covered (with Little Wing) by Tuck & Patti.
[edit] References
- ^ Electric Gypsy by Harry Shapiro & Caesar Glebeek
