Beatles Geek Alert: Site of First Quarrymen Gig Gets Landmark Designation

Thank you, Pete Best's mom. The Casbah Coffee Club — where the Beatles played their first show — was set up by Mrs. Best in the converted coal cellar of the family home in West Derby, England. In August 1959 John, Paul, and George played there together as the Quarrymen, and after Best joined they all played the Casbah many times before it closed in 1962. And now generations of Beatles-worshiping Anglophiles will be able to check out the remarkably well-preserved venue, which still has murals and paintings done by members of the band decorating the walls. A U.K. culture minister recently designated the Casbah Grade II, which apparently means that no one can mess with it.

"It is absolutely right that the club where the group first learnt their craft should be badged as an important part of our heritage, and receive the extra protection from harmful redevelopment that listed building status affords." Righty-o. Is it weird that you can now gaze upon a chair John Lennon once sat in from behind a velvet rope like you're on a class field trip to the Amish country? Yes, yes it is. Are we dying to do it anyway? Yes. We are.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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