R. Kelly Trial: Relatives Testify Girl on Tape Isn't Their Kin

The R. Kelly trial resumed yesterday as the defense began their case by calling three relatives of the girl who is supposedly on the sex tape to the stand. An aunt, uncle and cousin of the girl all testified that the girl on the tape "definitely wasn't" their relative, even when a photo of the girl was juxtaposed next to a still from the video. So far, seven family members have been called to the stand, with four siding with the prosecution. Kelly's defense also worked to negate the testimony of Lisa Van Patten, the third member of the supposed threesome on the tape, by calling to the stand a law clerk who testified that Van Patten's fiancé said she wouldn't take the stand against Kelly for $350,000.

Also, Chicago Sun-Times music journalist Jim DeRogatis took the stand outside the jury's presence yesterday but declined to answer any questions, citing his First Amendment right to protect his sources.The judge rejected that argument but allowed DeRogatis to plead the Fifth until he gets immunity from child-pornography charges for copying the tape.

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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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