In the Studio: Robin Thicke "Brings Back the Seventies" on Third Disc

Recorded in Los Angeles, and featuring horn players from Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, Robin Thicke's third CD maintains the retro pop-soul feel of his 2007 breakthrough, The Evolution of Robin Thicke. "It brings back the Seventies — loud horns, loud strings, loud drums," says Thicke. The other main influence? Barack Obama. "He's the inspiration for what I'm feeling," says Thicke. The funked-out first single, "Magic," is full of Obama-worthy optimism, and "Dreamworld" addresses the racism Thicke has seen while traveling with his wife, who is black. "That song is a direct response to walking in Mississippi and being looked at sideways," he says.



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  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
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  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
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  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
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  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

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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