All Along the Watchtower

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Written by: Bob Dylan
Produced by: Hendrix
Released: Sept. '68 on Reprise
Charts: 9 weeks
Top spot: No. 20

"All Along the Watchtower" had just been released on Dylan's John Wesley Harding when Hendrix began tinkering with the song at the Electric Ladyland studio in New York on January 21st, 1968. Using the line "And the wind began to howl" as a springboard, Hendrix constructed a tumultuous four-part solo that transformed Dylan's concise foreboding into an electric hurricane. Dylan acknowledged Hendrix's masterstroke: His subsequent versions of "Watchtower," including the treatment on his 1974 reunion tour with the Band, emulated Hendrix's cover.

Appears on: Electric Ladyland (MCA)

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