Why didn't Hendrix's "Dolly Dagger" become one of his bigger songs?

Cafe Society
#1

I was thinking about this as I was driving home today. Every time I hear **Dolly Dagger **I think it should have been better known. It’s catchy, not excessively long, great riff, fun lyrics. Seems to me that it should have been up there with Crosstown Traffic, Purple Haze, Hey Joe. I rarely hear it and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a band cover it as opposed to…say…**Voodoo Chile **which I’ve heard a hundred bands cover.

If you don’t like it…why?

PS. I’d post a link to the song but my normally slow internet is slowed to a crawl at the moment and it’d take forever to find the right one.

#2

I got your back.

#3

Thanks, when my anti-virus gets done choking off my internet with updates I’ll check it out.

#4

It’s not one I knew.
Listening, it’s a pretty good song but I just don’t find it all that interesting. There are even Hendrix songs that I dislike that I consider more interesting than this one. YMMV.

I did get to hear a Hendrix song I had never heard before, so Thank You for that.

#5

Partial DD lyrics:

"Been riding broomsticks since she was fifteen.
Blown out all the other witches on the scene.
She got a bull whip, just as long as your life.
Her tongue can even scratch the soul of the Devil’s wife.
Well I seen her in action at the Player’s Choice.
Turnin’ all the love men into donut boys.
Hey, red hot mama you’d better step aside,
This chicks gonna turn you to a block of ice.
Look out "

Damn, love that!

If I’m recalling correctly it was inspired by a real person, a record company exec’s wife maybe?

#6

Good question. I always loved this track. I remember it getting a lot of airplay when it was out as a single; I’m surprised that it didn’t chart any higher than #74 at the time. One issue that may have affected the song’s long-term popularity is that the album it originally appeared on, Rainbow Bridge, was not a particularly popular one by Hendrix standards. It was the second posthumous release, but unlike the solid Cry of Love, it was a bit of a rag bag of live and studio material from different sessions–one track has the original Experience; one track has the Band of Gypsys; most of it is the Cox-Mitchell version of the Experience. As such, it became Hendrix’s first album not to crack the Top Ten. It went out of print fairly early on, and has always been omitted from the Hendrix reissue campaigns over the years in favor of incorporating its tracks into speculative recreations of Jimi’s unfinished final album.

#7

Hendrix was planning for the song to be the A side of his next single at the time of his death.

#8

Because it doesn’t really have a hook.

#9

I like the catchy R & B feel of the verses but the riff he goes into in the chorus and breaks doesn’t appeal to me.

#10

I was just gonna say ‘because it sucks’, but, I think this describes it best. And, I loved Hendrix at the time.

Bland, bland, bland.

#11

Devon Wilson, groupie. Jimi was close to her, but she had a habit of shagging every other rock star she could get her hands on.

#12

A single? Interesting; to me it is fine, but as the 10th track on a 12-track album.

The verses are okay, but sound like a rehash of Walkin the Dog (not sure how to paste a YouTube link on my iPad), but that song is better with a better old-school r&b chorus.

The rave-up section at the end is fun. Just not hearing a single and can’t get paste the silliness of the name Dolly Dagger. Sorry.

#13

A pity those first few posthumous albums went out of print so fast; some really good songs on Cry of Love.

Hendrix must have thought rather highly of Dolly Dagger, as it was played live in 1970.

#14

ymmv, but I find it too wordy. Story telling songs work better with slower music. Hendrix frantic acid rock sound clashes with a song like this.

I like story telling songs. Cats in a Cradle, Taxi are two that come to mind. They have the right music that still lets you hear the story thats being told.

#15

Seriously? The lyrics are amusing, but the execution is plodding.

#16

I think I kinda agree with Biffy. Came out on a “bad” album at a bad time.

#17

Needs more cowbell.

#18

I wouldn’t be surprised if it worked better live than on record. The guitar work at the end is tasty but you have to suffer through a lot to get to it. That wouldn’t matter in a club with Jimi tearing it up; he could start with “Yummy Yummy Yummy” but if he finished it with blazing guitar that’s all you’d remember. As a track, it’s standard album filler. At 4:45 it’s a bit too long for a good single, but I wouldn’t skip over it on a CD. Yeah, faint praise.

#19

I think Exapno Mapcase is onto something here- the lyrics are pretty good and I’m definitely in the mood for this song sometimes, but the part I want to hear the most comes at the end. I like Dolly Dagger and I don’t think you suffer through any part of it, but the bulk of the song doesn’t necessarily stand out.

#20

I think I’m beginning to understand why my career as a radio programmer didn’t pan out…