I think it should be a fucking crime against humanity to play “Maggie May” without the guitar intro, “Henry.” Here is the proper version of the song.
As a kid, in the early and mid 90s, I always used to hear this song on the radio WITH the intro. The two were inseparable to me. I couldn’t conceive of the song without the intro.
Yet, seemingly, EVERY time I hear the song on the radio nowadays, it’s the song alone, without the amazing “Henry.” A totally castrated and cheapened version of the song.
That’s the way it was when it first came out on the radio in the '70s. IIRC the 45 didn’t have the Henry intro either. First time I’ve heard it actually, so thanks (although I don’t find it particularly amazing or integral to the song).
I don’t remember every hearing it before. And it doesn’t seem to fit with the song. And I listened to it on the radio back in the 70’s, though I never bought the album. I think I have it on a 45, but don’t remember the intro at all.
What radio stations did you listen to? I listened to it on both oldies and classic rock radio in the 90s in the Northwest, and they never played “Henry”. I didn’t even know it was part of the song until I bought the album.
BTW, “Henry” opens side two of “Every Picture Tells A Story”. The title track, which opens the album, also starts with a little bit of acoustic guitar that doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the song.
The short version is that “Maggie May” never had a guitar intro. The album had “Henry” as track 1 and “Maggie May” as track 2. The single version - originally the B-side! - was the same as the album version. Only later was “Henry” added.
Nobody old enough to remember the original thinks of them as one song. Kids, today. They don’t know from nothing.
I just checked my original 1971-vintage copy of the album Every Picture Tells a Story.
There is no selection listed as “Henry.” Maggie May is the first song on the second side. It’s length is listed as 5:46, which would be the right length to include the Henry guitar solo.
However, I was a certified Radio DJ in 1971, and I can attest that the single version indeed did NOT have the instrumental opening. If you think that’s totally castrated and cheapened, blame Mercury Records for releasing it that way.
OK, I stand quite corrected (as far as the Henry version being the “proper” version." I still maintain that it vastly improves the song as an introduction, but I guess that’s a matter of taste.
I’m surprised, though, by the verdict here. As a kid, the local classic hits station (WNAP - “The Buzzard” - sadly no longer in existence) would always play Henry before Maggie May. I always loved the “medieval” sound of the intro and I grew up associating those two songs.
Henry seems to be nice enough, but it just doesn’t seem to be connected to Maggie May at all, other than being the track in front of MM. I have a few Stewart albums, so I’d heard it before, but I’ve never considered it an intro, just a little snippet that happened to come before MM.
Well if the station played songs correctly, perhaps it’d still be a going concern :D.
That song has so many interesting touches - The chiming guitar intro, the mandolins, the tinkly keyboard (rhodes?) during "I suppose I should collect my books…), the organ playing, the way the drums just kind of shamble steadily through the whole thing. Quite an arrangement.
FWIW, my experience is the exact opposite of yours: back in the '90s, I only ever heard the song without the intro – but as far as I can tell, the local “classic rock” station only ever plays it with the intro, these days.
I’ve heard Maggie May a million times on the radio and on two different Greatest Hits compilations. I’ve never heard Henry before clicking the OP’s link.
Nice enough piece, but it seems too disconnected from Maggie May, both stylistically and in the amount of dead air between between them.
As a point of comparison, check out You Wear It Well from Stewart’s album Never a Dull Moment.Here, you’ll hear an intro, but here you don’t.
On the album, the intro is listed as a separate, 40-second track, called Interludings. I guess Stewart, or to be exact, Martin Quittenton, had a thing for detachable introductions.
I don’t ever recall hearing Henry before. I haven’t heard the song nearly as many times of as Hal Briston but I have heard it enough to know all the lyrics by heart.
Kinda off-topic, but related… this is why I hate the unplugged version of Eric Clapton’s Layla. That song is *nothing *without the piano interlude in the second half. NOTHING! As far as I’m concerned, the three minutes of guitar riffs and singing before the interlude is a mere introduction to the real song. :mad:
This is my experience too- listening to Classic Rock radio while coming of age in the 90s. The moment “Henry” instrumental comes on I could strum with it and knew exactly when “Maggie Mae” would take over. I just assumed they were the same song. My 3 Napstered versions (literally) all have “Henry” as well. So I am guessing that the combining of the two occurred in the 90s and onward.
