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Song Stories

“As Tears Go By”

Marianne Faithfull | 1964

With its gentle nostalgic theme and an arrangement that owed debts to both Phil Spector and classical music, "As Tears Go By" gave Marianne Faithfull her first hit in 1964. Originally titled "As Time Goes By" and retitled to avoid confusion with the song of that name performed in Casablanca, it was written for her by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards with some help from Rolling Stones manager Andrew Oldham (the Stones released their own version a year later). "We never dreamed of doing that ourselves when we wrote it," said Jagger in Rolling Stone. "We just gave it straight to Marianne."

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“Dirty Blvd. ”
Lou Reed | 1989
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“For Free”
Meat Puppets | 1995

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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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