A Sneak Peek...
And this time we have a riddle for you.
What's the connection between the debut eponymous album "Bon Jovi" which we wrote about earlier today and one of the exemplary musical moments of "The Jimi Hendrix Experience"?? Want to find out?? Stay with us and find out.
On January 21, 1968, Jimi Hendrix recorded his version of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower".
The song first appeared on Dylan's 1967 album "John Wesley Harding".
The recording session at the "Olympic Studios" in London, was attended by Brian Jones, Hendrix's best friend from "The Rolling Stones", who played percussion, and Dave Mason from "Traffic", who played the 12-string guitar.
It is interesting to note that following Jimi Hendrix's argument with bassist Noel Redding, the latter left the studio. Dave Mason took the bass in his place, but in the end, the bass role played in the final recording, was performed by none other than Jimi Hendrix himself.
As for why Redding left the studio, there are several versions. One version tells that he was not happy with his performance and the presence of the guest musicians in the studio. Another version says that he came to the studio drunk after visiting a nearby pub and therefore could barely play. Hendrix was very angry and he simply decided that Redding will not record with them.
Over the years, the immortal song "All Along the Watchtower" became more identified with the interpretation given to it by Jimi Hendrix than with the original. It was included on "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" album "Electric Ladyland". Jimi Hendrix's version came out six months after Bob Dylan's original recording and became one of the top singles of 1968.
Hendrix's version received the "Grammy Hall of Fame" award in 2001, and was ranked 47th in "Rolling Stone" Magazine's 500 greatest songs of all time, in 2004.
And now for the answer to the riddle:
In the review we released earlier about the debut eponymous album "Bon Jovi", we mentioned that Jon Bon Jovi was working in his cousin Tony Bongiovi's studio, where he also recorded the demos for his debut album. So that same Tony Bongiovi was also the recording technician working with Hendrix on the recording of the song "All Along the Watchtower". He said that Hendrix was not happy with the results at first and slowly doubled his guitar tracks, which forced him as a technician to move the master tape recordings from four channels to sixteen channels tape. Bongiovi noted that the recording of these new ideas by Hendrix forced him to give up some of the channels, while during the mixes he sat down with Hendrix and they both started deleting some of the layers until Hendrix was satisfied.