Joe Cocker to Headline New Israel Peace Festival

Joe Cocker has been recruited to headline a new summer festival in Israel. The three-day Gilboa Coexistence Festival, taking place August 26-28, will promote peace between the Jews and Arabs living in the Gilboa section of the Middle Eastern country. "Many acts will be original musical Arab-Jewish ensembles and bands created especially for the festival in never-before seen lineups," concert booking agent Hillel Wachs told Billboard.com. 2BVibes, the company staging the festival, also organized last year's Jerusalem Rocks fest, which featured Black Eyed Peas and Arrested Development. Joe Cocker seems the logical choice to headline Gilboa, because if there's one thing Jews and Arabs can agree on, it's that they have no idea what Joe Cocker is saying when he sings; thankfully, they'll have access to the handy translation in the video above.

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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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