2000 Great Songs #1272: Dolly Dagger

My Jimi Hendrix sentiments aren't intentionally contrarian, but it does feel that way sometimes. As much as I enjoy his original 3-LP run with the Experience, I don't really include many of those songs among my favorites (and his sole appearance on this list to date is a certain Bob Dylan cover rather than one of his own groundbreaking originals). Also incongruously, a lot of the Hendrix songs I enjoy most turn out to be the posthumous recordings which have seeped out over the years since his 1970 passing.

I can't say why "Dolly Dagger," a 1971 single found on that year's Rainbow Bridge (and, later, the more comprehensive First Rays of the New Rising Sun collection), stands out for me. Great riff, sure, and a cleaner sound than his psychedelic earlier work. But I think some of it is the track, like the rest of First Rays, most strongly conveys a feeling of an alternate reality where Hendrix had survived into the post-psychedelic 1970s rock landscape and continued to produce amazing (and perhaps even more enduring) music than the Experience records for which he's largely remembered.

Live 1970 (audio):

James Byrd Group cover:

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