The Girl in Jimmi Hendrix's Little Wig

The Girl in Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing

Abi Rahman Sugiri

James Marshall ‘Jimi’ Hendrix was a black musician, playing psychedelic rock in the 1960s. On his second album Axis: Bold as Love, he and his band The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded a song called “Little Wing” in a rhythm and blues style. The song speaks about a girl who is very different from real women. It represents the altered state of consciousness associated with LSD hallucinations. Furthermore, the melody and the lyrics are composed to enhance the psychedelic experience. I will analyze the genre of psychedelic rock, issues of race and gender, and imagery of the girl.

Drug use in the 60s was for experiencing new things, expanding the mind, and gaining knowledge, therefore the speaker explains that this girl can do what normal women cannot do, like “walking through the clouds” (line 1). The lyric shows that the speaker is hallucinating and so the girl has multiple applications because she is also a representation of the drug and its effects. She is said to appear in his time of need, “When I’m sad, she comes to me” (line 6). In the song, purpose of the imaginary girl is to serve the speaker. It shows that the writer is very patriarchal, because he desires that a woman do everything he wants. This woman is constructed as a strong sexual figure; she has the charisma that made him fall for her. The lyric shows writer empowers men and margin women, “With a thousand smiles, she gives to me free” (line 7). The writer pictures the woman’s purpose is to sexually satisfy men. This symbolizes that she sexually and psychologically make him happy. This type of woman is considered by Gretchen Esely Gregg to be an les enfants terrible. She argues that this construction is “based upon the idea that even young, innocent girls harbor an innate connection to female sexuality and evil, but given their youth and inexperience, they do not fully realize the full repercussions of their sexual power.”[1]...