Who is the Jimi Hendrix song ‘Little Wing’ about?
Between 1966 and 1968, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was synonymous with some of the most ferocious rock and roll music ever created. Their reinvention of the blues tradition in searing psychedelic tones, blistering drum fills, double-time syncopations and a free interchange between rhythm and lead guitar patterns not heard since the days of Robert Johnson ushered in the age of hard rock and heavy metal.
Yet there’s one Hendrix composition from his most famous period that sticks in the minds of his fellow 1960s guitar heroes more than any others. And it’s far from the brash, muscular riffing of ‘Purple Haze’ or ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return)’.
‘Little Wing’ is a track that humbly introduces itself with a single guitar line sounding almost unfinished before taking us “walking through the clouds” with its subject in the subsequent ninety seconds of gentle bliss. Finally, Hendrix releases his guitar to wail imploringly at the girl of his dreams to set herself free, adding some fire to his infatuation.
From Eric Clapton recording his impromptu tribute to its composer in the week of his death on Layla and Other Assorted Lovesongs to Jeff Beck thrilling an audience in an interview with Malcolm Gerrie, Hendrix’s peers seem in thrall to ‘Little Wing’. Its beautiful melodic lines are deceptively complex to play, and its unusual chord structures and finger positions make it a special challenge for any guitarist not using Hendrix’s unorthodox technique on the fretboard.
At just two and a half minutes long, the track arguably understays its welcome, but its span is just what Hendrix intended. In a contemporary interview, he referred to the song as a “very, very small little matchbox” in which he compiled many experiences. “It was very simple, but I like it though,” he added.
So, who was ‘Little Wing’?
There are multiple theories about the identity of the “She” described throughout the song. Firstly, a month before the song was written and recorded in October 1967, Hendrix and his band arrived in Gothenburg for the Swedish leg of their European tour. There, he first set on a 21-year-old hotel maid called Catharina, who would become the muse behind several of his songs. Not least, he wrote one piece on his return to Sweden four months later, when the two became more than just acquaintances. The song was called ‘My Angel Catherina (Return of Little Wing)’.
While it had nothing to do with the original ‘Little Wing’ musically, the title alluded to the thematic connection between the two songs. Hendrix had begun writing ‘Little Wing’ by adapting his earlier song ‘(My Girl) She’s a Fox’, but he only managed to finish it after meeting Catharina.
On the other hand, the title of the song bears the hallmark of Hendrix’s fascination with Native American culture, given his supposed ancestral links to the Cherokee people. The songs ‘May This Be Love’ and ‘I Don’t Live Today’ from his debut album, Are You Experienced? also bore the same influence. ‘Little Wing’ sounds very much like the name of an indigenous tribesperson spiritually associated with a bird of some kind. The diminutive “Little” is intended to feminise the name, adding a sense of fragility and vulnerability.
Most likely, Hendrix drew together these three disparate elements – his earlier R&B-influenced song, Native American tradition, and his meeting with Catarina – to create ‘Little Wing’. A synthesis of three different cultures in a single, brief moment of sonic perfection.
