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Song Stories

“It's a Man's Man's Man's World”

James Brown | 1966

Playing on the title of the 1963 comedy blockbuster flick It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, James Brown's song began its musical life as the single "I Cried," by Tammi Terrell, released on his Try Me Records label, before he used the same dramatic melody for his own classic. The lyric concern male dominance with a caveat -- "that it would be nothing without a woman or a girl." The idea for the song was sprung from something Brown's then-girlfriend Betty Jean Newsome said. "And riding along in the car, I wrote 'It's a Man's World,' but I let her have a piece, because that is where the idea came from," said Brown about sharing the songwriting credit with Newsome. Its tenderness is also evidenced by the number of men and women who've seen fit to record it since.

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“Running on Empty”
Jackson Browne | 1977
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“Sweet Baby James”
James Taylor | 1970

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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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