"Little Wing": Let me count the ways

How one song gave rise to endless greatness

If you grew up in the 60’s, and loved your electric guitar heroes, you have heard “Little Wing”.  If you were more into soft rock or folk rock than guitar-hero rock, you almost certainly listened to  “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” by Derek and the Dominoes (an album of love ballads made by some true guitar heroes) and you heard it there, even if the name doesn’t ring a bell. 

“Little Wing” is one of the most covered songs in rock history, and that’s saying a lot, because like most of Hendrix’ work, it is impossible for a merely competent musician to perform.  The people who succeeded at making covers of this are all stars in their own right, and for good reason.  They are great at what they do.

I’m not even going to include the Derek and the Dominoes version of this because I have another one featuring Eric Clapton that I like even more.  So here goes.

……..

The original:  Jimi Hendrix

…..

The Corrs (1999)

If you’re going to cover a famous song, you have to make a choice: do you try to copy the original (this is what a typical cover band does), do you stay true to the original while adding some personal touches to make it your own, or do you do something so different that it's new? 

The Corrs are an Irish family band (three sisters and a brother) who may not be familiar to rock fans.  They are one of the best-selling Irish musical acts of all time, on the strength of their blend of Irish folk music and rock instrumentation.

There was no way they were going to try to do Hendrix.  So they did something completely different:

…..

Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow, David Sanborn (1999)

This concert happened when Clapton and Crow were dating.  It didn’t last long, but they continued collaborating afterward.  She actually released a song about it called “My Favorite Mistake.”  Why can’t more people be that sporting about busted relationships?  Instead, they go all Taylor Swift about it.  She can’t let go of this shit, and, instead, writes interminable songs about it, and apparently a lot of people like to wallow in it with her. Heck, she’s a billionaire because of that.  What the hell is wrong with people?  Oh? Ok done. Sorry, just had to get that out.

If you don't know David Sanborn, he is pretty much everywhere that someone needs a jazzy saxophone part to complete their production.  He has also had a few solo albums.  I think his sax line in this cover takes it from really good to great.

…..

Jeff Beck and Narada Michael Walden (2011)

Jeff Beck’s “Blow by Blow” was a staple of my college soundtrack.  In retrospect, it was far from the best thing he ever did, but it was a perfect gateway drug, without which three quarters of his fans might never have discovered him in the first place.  I’ll just put it out there right up front:  I think Beck is the greatest living electric guitarist. He has covered more ground, tried more things, jammed with more great musicians, than anyone else I know of.  He co-invented whole genres of music.  He has also made it a point to share his platform with a lot of young, up-and-coming musicians, helping launch their careers.

I’ve seen Beck live three times, at roughly 10 year intervals.  The first time was at an outdoor concert in upstate New York, where he co-headlined with Santana.  Santana was the bigger name at the time, but Beck made him seem downright pedestrian.  It’s one thing to have listened to his albums, another thing altogether to see and hear him live.  Each time I saw him, he was doing completely new stuff, and each time he was dazzling.

I was a fan of Narada Michael Walden going back to the Chick Corea/Weather Report era.  He had a lot of gigs with other groups as well.  He transitioned to writing and producing, and worked with some of the biggest names in soul and pop, including Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, and Whitney Houston, as well as doing a brief stint with Journey as their drummer. 

I saw Michael at a small gig he played in San Francisco in the mid 90’s.  A few of us ended up partying with the band afterward.  After a few drinks, he tried to pick up my girlfriend.  Hey Michael, I don’t hold it against you.

Stevie Ray Vaughan, 1983 Live at El Mocambo

The first time I ever heard SRV, I was hooked after one bar.  I was helping a friend with some refinishing on his house, and he had music blasting most of the time as we worked.  At one point, a guitar rang out, with a tone unlike anything I had ever heard-- reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix, but fatter and more resonant. Two minutes of hellacious shredding ensued.  I was pretty up to date on rock guitarists, but had never heard anything like this.  I asked my friend who it was, and he said “New guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan”. 

The next song was so different I thought it was a different band.  It was a down and dirty rocker, and the guitar work was mesmerizing—melodic and fluid, yet savage.  I figured my friend had had made a mix tape of great guitarists I had never heard.  The third song was a blues, with a mix of fluid melodic lines and a brutally heavy tone.  The fourth song was a cover of Jimi Hendrix, but better than the original, if that was possible. At this point I told my friend “Great mix, you’ll have give me the play list”.  He smirked and said “It’s all Stevie Ray.”

I immediately went and bought SRVs albums (there were only two in print; a third came out shortly thereafter and I snarfed that one up too.)  I resolved to see him each time he came anywhere within driving distance. A few weeks after the second time I saw him, he was killed in a helicopter crash as he was departing a music festival in Wisconsin.

SRV was a great songwriter and, though his home was the blues, he was also a blindingly fast, technical shredder.  He broke into the mainstream charts, a rarity for blues musicians, and used his drawing power to bring long overdue exposure to many of the old blues musicians who had been neglected and mistreated by the commercial music industry.  He considered them his mentors.  Like his hero, Hendrix, he had an outsized influence on musicians who followed him, despite a career cut short.