Mos Def Throws Guerrilla Concert Outside VMAs, Gets Arrested

Mos Def pulled the most rock & roll move of anybody last night at the VMAs, but it didn't make it onto the broadcast. Def rolled up to Radio City Music Hall on the back of a flatbed truck and started performing his politically charged tune "Katrina Clap," — a condemnation of the Bush administration's snail's-pace response to hurricane Katrina. The police weren't having any of it, and arrested him mid-show, along with several members of his entourage. The rapper/actor was released early this morning the fracas may have just begun: Members of Def's posse say they have video recordings of the entire drama.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
• 
  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
• 
  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."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter