Dylan had recorded the original in November 1967 for John Wesley Harding. Just a few months later, on January 21, 1968, Hendrix and the Experience began recording their interpretation at Olympic Studios in London. The sessions would eventually involve additional work in New York, with Dave Mason on 12-string guitar and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones on percussion participating in the recording sessions.
Hendrix approached the composition less as a song to be faithfully reproduced than as raw material for reinvention. The stark acoustic atmosphere of Dylan's recording was replaced by layers of electric guitar, pounding drums and a much more expansive arrangement. Hendrix also played bass on the finished recording, while Mitch Mitchell supplied the drums. The result was darker, heavier and far more explosive.
The song appeared on Electric Ladyland, Hendrix's third and final studio album with the Experience, released in 1968. It was also issued as a single in the United States on September 2, 1968, with Burning of the Midnight Lamp on the B-side. The British single followed in October.
Its chart performance was impressive by Hendrix's standards. In the United States, All Along the Watchtower reached No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 19, 1968, becoming the band's highest-charting American single. In the United Kingdom, it climbed to No. 5 on December 3, 1968.
There is also an unusual element to the song's history: Dylan himself admired Hendrix's interpretation. Rather than treating the cover as a departure from his original, Dylan incorporated elements of Hendrix's arrangement into many of his own subsequent live performances. That is a rare distinction for a cover version—it effectively changed the way the songwriter himself performed his own composition.
And its reputation has only grown. Rolling Stone included Hendrix's recording at No. 40 in its 2021 edition of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame also lists All Along the Watchtower among the essential recordings of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
When a cover becomes definitive
The fascinating thing about All Along the Watchtower is that there is no simple question of which version is "better." Dylan's original establishes the song's enigmatic world; Hendrix takes that same material and turns it into something almost apocalyptic. The lyrics remain Dylan's, but the musical identity becomes unmistakably Hendrix.All Along the Watchtower is one of those unusual recordings in which a cover version becomes so powerful that it acquires a life of its own. Hendrix didn't write the song, but his electric interpretation became so influential that it ultimately reshaped the way generations of listeners heard Bob Dylan's composition.
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