Conan O'Brien Hijacks "Rock Band" Session to Attempt Radiohead, Beastie Boys Covers

Last night, during his maiden show since the onset of the Writer's Guild strike, Conan O'Brien made a little video depicting how he'd spent the days waiting to return to the air. What we learned: O'Brien can proficiently execute "Sunshine of Your Love" and the opening riff of "Purple Haze" on guitar. Also, he enjoys busting in on his staffers' Rock Band sessions to play along with Radiohead's "Creep," and he does a wicked "Sabatoge" in the voice of Edith Bunker.

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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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