Prince Sues Norwegian Record Label Over Covers Album

Having already unleashed his legal fury on his own fans, Prince and his Paisley Park lawyers are suing a Norway record company for releasing a 5-CD cover album of the Purple One's songs. Shockadelica, an 81-track album featuring all Norwegian artists, already released its run of 5,000 copies when the label, C + C Records, sent a copy to Prince as a goodwill gesture. Instead, Prince's legal team swiftly requested that Shockadelica be pulled and all copies destroyed. All artists involved with the album weren't paid for their contribution, and Shockadelica is, for the moment, still available online. To exacerbate matters, one band called Frost has made their cover of "Sex Shooter" available as a free download on their website. The whole thing seems quite hypocritical of Prince, as the Coachella audience can attest Minneapolis' favorite son has no problem with borrowing other people's songs.

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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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