Little Willow

Song facts

“Little Willow” was written early 1995 as a tribute to Maureen Cox, the first wife of Ringo Starr, who passed away in December 1994; it was released on 1997 album “Flaming Pie“. From the liner notes of the album:

‘Little Willow’ was written after Paul learned of the death of a dear friend. He created the song not only as an immediate personal response to the sadness but, hopefully, as a salve for his late friend’s children. The studio recording, begun ten months later (on the day the The Beatles Anthology 1, with “Free As A Bird” was released), is an eloquent combination of voice and instrumentation, Paul’s work being augmented by Jeff Lynne.

“I wanted to somehow convey how much I thought of her. For her and her kids. It certainly is heartfelt, and I hope it will help a bit.”

Even if I’m writing something very specific, I veil it. That’s just my way. It’s the way I’ve developed as a songwriter. You know, if I want to write about loneliness, it’ll be ‘Eleanor Rigby’ who carries the can. ‘Little Willow’, I know I was very affected by Maureen’s death, and again I remember just going into a room and putting those sentiments into that song. The sort of fragility of life is in that song. But it wasn’t called ‘Maureen’, it was called ‘Little Willow’. I always prefer to conjure up some story or tale or some bit of imagination around something, because then I can get my emotions out but it’s not quite as raw. And I think it makes it a little more available to people if you call it ‘Little Willow’. We’ve all got a Little Willow.

Paul McCartney, from the Flaming Pie Archive Edition, 2020

At the end of 1997, “Little Willow” was included in a tribute album to Diana, Princess of Wales, who had died in August the same year.

A promotional video directed by John Schlesinger was shot in September 1997, and premiered in December during the second airing of the Oprah Winfrey show.

“Little Willow” was remastered in 2016 for inclusion on the “Pure McCartney” compilation, and then in 2020 for the “Flaming Pie Archive Collection“, both times by engineer Alex Wharton. As explained on the Steve Hoffman forum:

It’s interesting that for both ‘Pure McCartney’ in 2016 and the new 2020 remaster the polarity is different. Which means something went wrong in the final mastering stage of the original 1997 issue. Because ‘Pure McCartney’ worked from a compressed and limited 1997 master, and this 2020 remaster from a tape without that compression and limiting.

by forum resident “mindgames”

Last updated on September 17, 2020

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