Jimi Hendrix Dolly Dagger

Early one morning in August 1969, bassist Billy Cox was sitting on the patio of the house in upstate New York that he was sharing with Jimi Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell. Looking out at the cows grazing in the nearby pasture, Cox thumbed a four-note pattern over and over through his amp.

“I’d put some new strings on, and I’m playing ‘doodoo-dum-dum’ – the chime of Big Ben,” Cox tells . “Jimi’s room was right above, and the window flew open. He said: ‘Hold it! Keep playing that, don’t stop!’ He comes down in his undershorts and grabs his guitar, then he completes the riff. That was the formation of .”