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Jimi and Bob Dylan: A Cosmic Friendship

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Jimi Hendrix: The Man In the Music (Part 4)

Jim Hendrix and Bob Dylan: All Along the Watchtower

(updated February, 2021)

Jimi Hendrix knew good lyrics when he heard them.  When Richie Havens handed Jimi Bob Dylan’s lyrics to All Along the Watchtower, an epic inter-racial, music exchange took place, which has never been bested in the rock universe.

Jimi Hendrix took Bob Dylans All Along the Watchtower poetry and filled it with energy and guitar genius.  He meshed it all with his psychedelic experience.   Hendrix was a poet himself, writing most of his songs.  Yet, the number one best-selling single of his career was All Along the Watch Tower.

In the greatest tribute of all, Dylan said: “I liked Jimi Hendrix’s record of this and ever since he died I’ve been doing it that way… Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it’s a tribute to him in some kind of way.”

All Along the Watchtower stands as the great collaborative piece of rock and roll.

He performed All Along the Watchtower exquisitely at Isle of Wright Music Festival.  This was one of his best concert preformances.

Amazing Similarities Between Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix

Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix were born within seventeen months of each other (March 24th, 1941; Nov. 27, 1942) respectively.  They did not come from towns renown for music.  Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington and Dylan in Hibbing, Minnesota.

Both were singer-songwriters.  They were often photographed with their guitars slung over their shoulders like traveling minstrels.  Each had an afro that was often the topic of the press, both the music and fashion universe.

The press picked up on the similarities between the two rather early on.   In fact, soon after Hendrix arrived in London for the first time, some journalists referred to him as the black Bob Dylan.

Other than that they were worlds apart.

If I were to draw some competitive comparison between them, I would say Jimi was a stone above Dylan.  He could compose great lyrics, sing well, and manipulate the guitar to be one with him in telling the story.   He knew how to make a guitar sing, moan, and explode.

Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix in Greenwich Village

Having started their careers miles apart, both migrated to New York’s thriving Greenwich Village.  The club scene in the village provided them hip venues that proved to be springboards to international acclaim for each of them.

“I love Dylan. I only met him once, about three years ago, back at the Kettle of Fish [a folk-rock era hangout] on MacDougal Street. That was before I went to England. I think both of us were pretty drunk at the time, so he probably doesn’t remember it.”

Jimi Hendrix told Rolling Stone magazine in 1969

Around Greenwich Village, Richie Havens was referred to as the third point in the magic triangle that connects Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix.

Havens also covered many of Dylan’s songs, such as “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, “If Not For You”, and “Lay Lady Lay”.

Havens first witnessed Jimi Hendrix play in at the Cafe Wha.  He was so impressed that he hipped him to everyone.   “He was a very shy person, quiet person,” Havens said,  “until he got on stage; then he grew two feet tall.”

Hendrix Covers Dylan

Havens takes credit for handing Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower lyrics to Jimi Hendrix. Though Dylan and Hendrix probably did not spend more than a couple of hours together in their entire lives, they admired and respected each other.

Dylan said, “My songs are different and I don’t expect others to make attempts to sing them because you have to get somewhat inside and behind them and it’s hard enough for me to do it sometimes and then obviously you have to be in the right frame of mind.  But Jimi sang them exactly the way they were intended to be sung and he played them the same way.  He did them the way I would’ve done them if I was him.”

Though they were not close friends, Jimi was a huge fan of Bob Dylan and covered at least four of his tunes, both live and in the studio. These tracks include:

Tributes To Each Other – A Cosmic Oneness

In an even greater tribute to Hendrix, Bob Dylan said

In a great tribute to Hendrix, Dylan said

“now that years have gone by, I see that the message must have been his message through and through, not that I ever could articulate the message that well myself, but in hearing Jimi cover it, I realize he must’ve felt it pretty deeply inside and out and that somewhere back there his soul and my soul we’re on the same desert…It’s not a wonder to me that he recorded my songs but rather that he recorded so few of them because they were all his.”

Jimi Hendrix told Rolling Stone magazine on November 15, 1969

“I love Dylan. I only met him once, about three years ago, back at the Kettle of Fish [a folk-rock era hangout] on MacDougal Street. That was before I went to England. I think both of us were pretty drunk at the time, so he probably doesn’t remember it.”

Jimi felt the cosmic oneness with Dylan.  He told Beat Instrumental in 1969 that, “Sometimes I do a Dylan song and it seems to fit me so right that I figure maybe I wrote it. Dylan didn’t always do it for me as a singer, not in the early days, but then I started listening to the lyrics. That sold me.”

Jimi’s take on Dylan’s Just Like a Rolling Stone blew people away.  It was part of his set at the 1967 Monterrey Pop Festival.  He performed it so well that it launched him into United States stardom.

Jimi did gain some notoriety from his time in Greenwich Village.  It was not enough to launch him into stardom.

Hendrix Goes to London With “Hey Joe”

It was at the Cheetah Club on Broadway where he met Linda Kieth, the girlfriend of Keith Richards of the Rolling Stone.  She was so impressed by Hendrix’s talent that she recommended him to Chas Chandler, who was just about to step down from The Animals.   He was on the hunt for talent to manage and produce.

Chandler liked the song “Hey Joe” and especially Hendrix’s version.  He was convinced he could help Hendrix make it a hit. He took him to London and did just that.

In the next post I will look at Jimi Hendrix rise to stardom and his friendship with Eric Burdon of the Animals.

This article is an installment in the Jimi Hendrix Series on 60s Folks

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