Did Jimi Hendrix steal Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower?”
That’s a question pundit Joy Reid should ask herself. Amid critique of Trump’s Smithsonian plans, Reid’s mini anti-Elvis rant revealed less about the king than it did her ignorance. Like or dislike Elvis, the narrative of him stealing black music is as false as it is tired.
Quite simply, Elvis never said he wrote his own music. He credited those who did. He also talked highly of black musicianship in Memphis, and cited black church music as a pivotal influence. The reality is that no oppressed group, from disenfranchised women to black slaves, can overcome discrimination without support from members of those in power. There were many black people who loved that Elvis brought black music into the mainstream.
Did black musicians get cheated? Yes, they did. So did white musicians, and the cheating was done by both white and black record executives. Reid’s simplistic tale of Elvis stealing Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog” has little to do with the complexities and misdeeds of the music business of that time. You can read all about it in the excellent book Before Elvis.
Reid might be surprised to learn that Thornton is actually one of the only black musicians of the time who remains well known — because of Elvis. I was blown away to learn of so many influential and talented black musicians I’d never heard of.
On the Left Hook podcast, Reid ranted that white people cannot “invent” any good music, one of the dumber things I’ve ever heard and a good reason why I avoid TV-type punditry. What about jazz — a genre she cited as black — built from fundamental contributions from both black and European musical traditions? Without classical composition, improvisation can easily become cacophony.
Musical theft exists when its originator is not properly credited and compensated. Theft is not a cover or an interpretation or even a straight up lift — such as in hip hop (another genre cited by Reid), which is built on sampling other people’s music.
Did John Coltrane “steal” from Rodgers and Hammerstein when he composed his beloved jazz ballad, “My Favorite Things?”
Does Joy Reid know that it was Dylan, not Jimi Hendrix, who wrote “All Along the Watchtower?”
Does she know that two Jewish guys wrote “Hound Dog”?
Shana Goldberg may be reached at shana@ijn.com
© IJN 2025
