Fact #98353
When:
Short story:
At Olympic Studos in London, England, UK, Europe, the Jimi Hendrix Experience records a version of Bob Dylan's song All Along The Watchtower. Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones is in attendance.
Full article:
Dave Mason (Traffic) : Jimi and I were with some small group of people at some girl's apartment in London, UK. Viv Prince was there with this band called The Pretty Things. Viv Prince was there and he had spiked everybody's drinks, 'cause everybody was going, 'Whoa! new album'. And somebody had a copy of John Wesley Harding.
So we were listening to John Wesley Harding and Watchtower came on and Jimi and I were listening to it and at some place he said, 'We gotta cut that song'. 'Cause at the time I wasn't with Traffic anymore. Mostly because the others really didn't believe... they just didn't want me in the band anymore. So I was out and there was a point actually where Jimi had started playing the bass on most of his recordings and Noel (Redding) was kind of on the way out and I was going to join The Experience.
Mitch Mitchell (drummer, Experience) : Jimi had obviously just heard Watchtower and just fancied doing it. I'd never heard it before - it was like a quick play-through of the original, then it was the usual thing - the strummed guitar and 'This is how it goes.'
Kathy Etchingham (girlfriend) : He had a great love for Bob Dylan. He liked his lyrics, he liked the way he looked, he liked his work. Jimi actually wanted to do I Dreamed I saw St Augustine which was on the John Wesley Harding album, but he felt that was too personal so he didn't do that. He decided to do All Along The Watchtower instead.
Jimi phoned Dave Mason and Brian Jones and asked them if they'd like to come and play on it. They came round when we lived in Upper Berekely Street. Brian could hardly get through the door with this huge sitar. We all piled into this taxi to go over to Olympic.
Bob Dylan : We can’t forget Jimi Hendrix. I actually saw Jimi perform when he was with a band called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. Something like that. And Jimi didn’t even sing. He was just the guitar player. He took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and brought them up into the outer limits of the stratosphere. Turned them all into classics. I have to thank Jimi, too. I wish he was here.
(Source : speech at the Musicares Person Of The Year Event, Feb 2015)
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So we were listening to John Wesley Harding and Watchtower came on and Jimi and I were listening to it and at some place he said, 'We gotta cut that song'. 'Cause at the time I wasn't with Traffic anymore. Mostly because the others really didn't believe... they just didn't want me in the band anymore. So I was out and there was a point actually where Jimi had started playing the bass on most of his recordings and Noel (Redding) was kind of on the way out and I was going to join The Experience.
Mitch Mitchell (drummer, Experience) : Jimi had obviously just heard Watchtower and just fancied doing it. I'd never heard it before - it was like a quick play-through of the original, then it was the usual thing - the strummed guitar and 'This is how it goes.'
Kathy Etchingham (girlfriend) : He had a great love for Bob Dylan. He liked his lyrics, he liked the way he looked, he liked his work. Jimi actually wanted to do I Dreamed I saw St Augustine which was on the John Wesley Harding album, but he felt that was too personal so he didn't do that. He decided to do All Along The Watchtower instead.
Jimi phoned Dave Mason and Brian Jones and asked them if they'd like to come and play on it. They came round when we lived in Upper Berekely Street. Brian could hardly get through the door with this huge sitar. We all piled into this taxi to go over to Olympic.
Bob Dylan : We can’t forget Jimi Hendrix. I actually saw Jimi perform when he was with a band called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. Something like that. And Jimi didn’t even sing. He was just the guitar player. He took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and brought them up into the outer limits of the stratosphere. Turned them all into classics. I have to thank Jimi, too. I wish he was here.
(Source : speech at the Musicares Person Of The Year Event, Feb 2015)