Castles Made of Sand (song)
| "Castles Made of Sand" | |
|---|---|
| Song by the Jimi Hendrix Experience from the album Axis: Bold as Love | |
| Released | December 1, 1967 |
| Recorded | October 29, 1967 |
| Studio | Olympic, London |
| Genre | Psychedelic rock |
| Length | 2:46 |
| Label | Track |
| Writer(s) | Jimi Hendrix |
| Producer(s) | Chas Chandler |
"Castles Made of Sand" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience for their 1967 second album, Axis: Bold as Love. Produced by manager Chas Chandler, the song is a biographical story about Hendrix's childhood, and was recorded towards the end of the production cycle for Axis: Bold as Love.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience began and finished work on the recording for "Castles Made of Sand" at London's Olympic Sound Studios on October 29, 1967, the penultimate day of recording for Axis: Bold as Love on which the songs "Up from the Skies", "Bold as Love", "One Rainy Wish" and "EXP" were also completed. As with the rest of the album, "Castles Made of Sand" was produced by Chas Chandler and engineered by Eddie Kramer, and was mixed at Olympic on October 31.
Writing the Hendrix biography Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy, commentators Harry Shapiro and Caesar Glebbeek summarise "Castles Made of Sand" as "a sharply observed reflection on life's bitter ironies". Addressing the lyrics of the song, Shapiro and Glebbeek go on to discuss the significance of sand within the track as a metaphor "for the temporary nature of existence, of time slipping away, how nothing can be taken for granted – love, loyalty, family bonds, [and] friendship". It is claimed that "Castles Made of Sand" is one of Hendrix's more obviously biographical songs, said to be written about his uncertain and transitional childhood involving "different homes, different schools, different careers and a mother who was here one minute and gone the next". Hendrix's brother, Leon Hendrix, has commented that the lyrics allude to their father's alcoholism, Leon being taken away so suddenly by Child Protective Services without announcement, and the abusive relationship between their parents (or from stories told by their grandmother, who was half-Cherokee). Writer Tom Maginn for AllMusic outlines the lyrical delivery of the song:
Each verse contains separate descriptions of universal disappointments ... All is not lost, however, as in the last verse a suicidal girl who is "crippled for life," moving her wheelchair to the shore, is saved by a sort of optimistic epiphany ... The band drops out as Hendrix speaks [the] final lines, his voice and slithering guitar circling and echoing up and away into the heavens.
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