All Along The Watchtower – The Jimi Hendrix Experience

So weirdly I never came across Jimi Hendrix to much later in life. I remember the other lads at school referencing him as part if their dads record collections as a big part of their 60s music, but my parents never had any of his stuff so I was none the wiser. As with lots of my influences I cottoned on to him at some point, like other previous posts I first heard this song on the soundtrack album of the film Stardust that I had on LP. That was enough to lead me to find out more.

Apparently this is a Bob Dylan folk song that Jimi revved up. Think this is a very cool sound and I adore the riff, not really sure what the song is all about. I’ve since explored Jimi's greatest hits and really like other tracks like Hey Joe and Voodoo Child. But when you see footage of him over playing at the famous festivals and setting his guitar alight it sort of ruins his genius for me. No need for gimmicks when you’ve got real talent, being spaced out probably didn’t help much. 

As a guitar player I'm fascinated he could play left handed on an upside down guitar, it’s also cool how Chas Chandler from The Animals was his manager because that helps with my musical timeline. I watched a bio film of the year leading up to a famous concert Jimi put on at the Saville Theater in London called 'Jimi: All Is By My Side.' I had never heard before that it was Keith Richards girlfriend of the time, the model Linda Keith, that introduced Jimi to Chas and that lead him to come to England. He was even playing a guitar she had borrowed from KR to start with. I didn't know the Rolling Stones connection before, I had always heard it was his longing to play with Eric Clapton that had been a big factor in his ambition. It’s strange how he had to come to England to get famous, his sad early death just makes him more of a rock and roll legend.

Favorite lyric : There must be some kind of way outta here / Said the joker to the thief