In a move by the estate of the late Jimi Hendrix (which I predicted in a previous story), to protect the family interests, the upcoming movie ALL IS BY MY SIDE will feature none of the guitar master’s original songs. The filmmakers claim that this does not affect their film in any way.
Directed by John Ridley, ALL IS BY MY SIDE will focus on the beginning of Hendrix’s career in London during the mid-1960s. Because the focus will be at his start, the filmmakers feel that focusing on the music he would have played by other artists would have been the bulk of his repertoire. So, without Hendrix originals, the movie will feature reinterpretations of The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy,” Taylor’s “Wild Thing” and “Hound Dog,” and others. All the songs were sung and performed by Andre Benjamin himself which means we will get to hear how closely the rapper turned actor sounds like Hendrix as well.
ALL IS BY MY SIDE is currently filming in Ireland. The cast also includes Imogen Poots, Ashley Charles, and the sexy Hayley Atwell. Atwell will play Keith Richards’ girlfriend Linda Keith who discovers Hendrix in a nightclub. Check out the image below of Andre and Hayley strolling around town.
I completely get the idea of working around not having the classic Hendrix catalog for your movie, but I find it hard to believe Jimi was a glorified cover band with none of his own music to play at gigs each night. The lack of his tunes would be like having a movie about the early days of The Beatles and feature none of their original songs. Oh, wait, they did make a movie like that. Nevermind, maybe this will work out after all.