Songfacts®:

• A gentle ballad on the Jimi Hendrix Experience's debut album, Are You Experienced, "May This Be Love" finds Jimi taking refuge behind a waterfall, where his worries dwindle to nothing and the world's laughter can't reach him. It shows a softer side of a guitarist who often preferred a little peace and quiet to setting fire to his equipment on stage.
• The song builds around one extended metaphor: the waterfall as a place of emotional shelter. In the opening verse, Jimi stands at his waterfall, where nothing can harm him and his worries seem tiny. The image works two ways; the roar of the cascading water drowns out the noise of the outside world, while the sheet of water hides him from view. It is an ideal setup for anyone who just wants to be left alone.
  
  By the second verse, a rainbow cuts through the misty breeze, calling to him from inside his watery sanctuary. It provides a glimpse of hope from the very spot where he has escaped his troubles.
  
  The bridge brings in the doubters, who write off daydreaming as something for lazy fools with nothing better to do. Jimi isn't bothered. Let them laugh, he suggests; as long as he has his mysterious "you" to see him through, he has nothing to lose. The identity of this reassuring figure remains open; it could be a lover, the waterfall itself, or the power of imagination. Whatever it represents, it gives him solid protection against people who spend their time criticizing other people's dreams.
  
  The final verse turns this temporary escape into a lifelong promise. He asks the waterfall never to change its ways and to fall with him for a million days. That might sound like a long commitment to a body of water, but his point is simple: he has found a quiet space where he belongs and wants to stay there.
• The Experience recorded the track on April 3, 1967, during an eight-hour session at Olympic Studios in London with Chas Chandler producing. That same busy day also delivered "Highway Chile" and the title track, "Are You Experienced?." Unlike some tracks cut for specific markets, "May This Be Love" made both the UK and US editions of the record.
  
  The old title didn't vanish completely, though. A French Barclay seven-inch single featuring "51st Anniversary" on the flip side kept "Waterfall" on the label.
• An alternate version from the same date, featuring doubled vocals and a different guitar mix, eventually surfaced on the 2010 box set West Coast Seattle Boy: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology.
• The song has attracted a diverse group of artists over the years. Emmylou Harris covered it on her 1995 album Wrecking Ball, while The Pretenders recorded a version for their 1990 release Packed!. Meshell Ndegeocello featured her own interpretation on Bitter in 1999, and Brazilian singer Céu gave it a bossa nova spin on her 2021 covers album Um Gosto de Sol.