Pumpkins Get Sued

There's been lots of lawsuits in the music industry lately, but this one surprisingly doesn't involve disgruntled musicians who have been elbowed out of bands.

Last week, TIG Insurance Co. sued the Smashing Pumpkins and their management company, Q Prime, saying they are responsible for damaging expensive camera equipment. Just how expensive? TIG slapped the band with a suit outlining nearly $215,000 in damages, claiming the equipment, which was supplied by Presentation Services, was completely smashed while the Pumpkins played at Rochester, N.Y.'s War Memorial on January 26. So what costs that much money anyway? Four projectors and four zoom lenses.

JAMTV contacted Q Prime to get their side of the story, but the management company declined to comment on the suit.

• 
  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