Dave Matthews, Jay-Z, Weiland Step Up Obama Support

With this being the second-to-last weekend before Election Day, the music world is gearing up its support for Barack Obama. First, Dave Matthews and his frequent collaborator Tim Reynolds will play a free show, dubbed the "Last Chance for Change", in Richmond, Virginia. Tickets are available at a first-come, first-serve basis Obama campaign offices in both Richmond and Charlottesville, which was the birthplace of the Dave Matthews Band. Jay-Z will continue his string of Obama benefit shows with a free rally and concert in Cleveland, Ohio on October 29th. Another "Last Chance for Change" show, Jigga will be joined by LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers at the event.

And just in case Obama needed the support of the swing Stone Temple Pilots bloc, Scott Weiland announced that he's supporting the Democratic candidate for president. "Barack Obama is the leader, the listener and the visionary with international respect to take us from the depths of where we are today and bring us to a new place where dreams are made; that place is called America," Weiland said on his website. Lastly, Obama will finally make his long-awaited appearance at Chicago's Grant Park, the site of the Lollapalooza festival, for a rally on the evening of Election Day, November 4th. With early predictions estimating a crowd of 100,000+, Obama is expected to draw more people to the park than Radiohead, Kanye West and Nine Inch Nails manage to draw this past summer.

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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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