JIMI HENDRIX VIDEO: Drifting 3:46

Drifting" originally appeared on the "Cry of Love" and was finished when Hendrix died. Like many songs it only needed a final mix that was made posthumously. A vibraphone track was added to "Drifting" like Hendrix had planned - though he also had an idea of using another guitar track instead of vibraphones and it cannot be known what he would have chosen if he had directed the completion of the track himself. Mitch Mitchell and Eddie Kramer have claimed that only those changes, that they had talked with Hendrix, have been made for unfinished tracks.


Hendrix had the uncanny knack of molding his music perfectly to his lyrics. "Drifting" is no exception. A beautiful guitar figure opens the track, soft and formless, and waits as the rest of the instruments slowly slide in, seemingly revolving one around the other. Hendrix' vocal is right up front, almost studied, filled with lovely images of "Driftin'/On a sea of forgotten teardrops/On a lifeboat ..." and floating off from there. It's a ghostly cut, one of the most moving pieces Hendrix ever created, and it says much for the breadth and scope of his talent.