‘Well she’s walking through the clouds’
With a circus mind That’s running wild Butterflies and zebras and moonbeams And fairy tales,
That’s all she ever thinks about
Riding with the wind
When I’m sad she comes to me With a thousand smiles She gives to me free
It’s alright, she says It’s alright Take anything you want from me Anything
– Jimi Hendrix Fly on, little wing
AS USUAL we take a break from the political scene and talk about more pleasant things, in this case music.
It gets to the point that just the thought of these “yellow ribbon devotees” can be nauseating. I suppose watching Rissa Hontiveros hair- splitting about her own version of rebellion is certainly irritating.
If that’s not enough, we have the obese and ugly Edsel Lagman saying that the ISIS wannabe Maute group is not to blame for the carnage and destruction in Marawi City.
Just recently though, Antonio Trillanes gave us a good laugh. His interview over the BBC’s HARDtalk program showed that he is much better off as the butt of the joke in “Eat Bulaga” or in some stand-up comedy bar in Timog.
So let’s get into music, particularly the music of Jimi Hendrix, an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter.
Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as “arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music, this according to that online encyclopedia.
Jimi Hendrix is mostly known for his blues influence on rock music but once in a while he would come out with a slow tempo, almost a ballad gem and we are going to talk about one of those rare gems.
“Little Wing” is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1967. It is a slower tempo, rhythm and blues- inspired ballad featuring Hendrix’s vocal and guitar with recording studio effects accompanied by bass, drums and glockenspiel.
Lyrically, it is one of several of his songs that reference an idealized feminine or guardian angel-like figure. At about two and a half minutes in length, it is one of his most concise and melodically-focused pieces.
According to Hendrix, “Little Wing” came from an idea he had originally developed while playing in Greenwich Village sometime in 1967…. “I got the idea like, when we were in Monterey and I was just looking at everything around. So I figured that I take everything I see around and put it maybe in the form of a girl maybe, somethin’ like that, you know, and call it ‘Little Wing’, and then it will just fly away. Everybody’s really flyin’ and they’re really in a nice mood, like the police and everybody was really, really great out there. So I just took all these things and put them in one very, very small little matchbox, you know, into a girl and then do it. It was very simple, but I like it though.” And from Songfacts.com: “This song was inspired by the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, a concert held during three days of the “Summer of Love” (1967) featuring The Who, The Byrds, Janis Joplin, and many others. Attended by about 200,000 music fans, it happened two years before Woodstock. Jimi wrote about the atmosphere at the festival as if it was a girl. He described the feeling as “Everybody really flying and in a nice mood.” He named it “Little Wing” because he thought it could just fly away.”
On a personal note, I like listening to “Little Wing.” It is like a cool breeze reminiscent of that whimsical and carefree summer of love.
So light that incense, get a glass of chilled Chablis and let Jimi Hendrix take you for a walk through the clouds with a circus mind that’s running wild and see visions of butterflies and zebras and moonbeams and fairytales.
As Lou Reed would say, “take a walk on the wild side.”