It Started with a Fight Over Lumpy Mashed Potatoes

"The Wind Cries Mary" was written after a food fight.

That evening, Etchingham was trying to make mashed potato and not doing a very good job of it.

"He comes along and tastes them with a fork and says they're all lumpy," she recalls. "I knew he couldn't cook himself and that's how the argument started. It ended with my screaming and shouting, throwing the plates on the floor and marching out."

Etchingham spent the night at a friend's and Hendrix missed her so much that he sat down to write one of his biggest hits, The Wind Cries Mary.

Mary is Etchingham's middle name and the guitarist would sometimes use it to wind her up. That may be why when she first heard the song, she was distinctly underwhelmed.

"It was just the twanging of an electric guitar disconnected," she says. "It was only when it was recorded that I realised it was a nice, sad song - he was obviously a bit upset."

Found at Althouse.