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All Along the Watchtower

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For the Scottish TV comedy series, see All Along the Watchtower (TV series)
"All Along the Watchtower"
Song

"All Along the Watchtower" is a song written by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Dylan has performed this song more often in concert than any of his other compositions. It has been estimated that as of the end of 2007, Dylan had sung the song 1,748 times on stage.[1] It is also notable for the number of times it has been covered by other artists in different genres.

Bob Dylan's version

Commenting on the songs on his recently released album John Wesley Harding, in an interview published in the folk music magazine Sing Out! in October 1968, Dylan told John Cohen and Happy Traum:

"I haven't fulfilled the balladeer's job. A balladeer can sit down and sing three songs for an hour and a half... it can all unfold to you. These melodies on John Wesley Harding lack this traditional sense of time. As with the third verse of "The Wicked Messenger", which opens it up, and then the time schedule takes a jump and soon the song becomes wider... The same thing is true of the song "All Along the Watchtower", which opens up in a slightly different way, in a stranger way, for we have the cycle of events working in a rather reverse order."[2]

Christopher Ricks has commented on All Along the Watchtower": "...at the conclusion of the last verse, it is as if the song bizarrely begins at last, and as if the myth began again."[3]

The song was recorded by the artist as a quiet, menacing three-chord folk song on November 6, 1967, at Columbia Studio A, Nashville, Tennessee. Accompanying Dylan who was on acoustic guitar and harmonica were Charlie McCoy on bass guitar, and Kenneth Buttrey on drums.[4] The producer was Bob Johnston, who had been Dylan's producer since the album Highway 61 Revisited in 1965. The song was released on Dylan's equally quiet and sparse album John Wesley Harding, on December 27, 1967.

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Dylan, recovering from a motorcycle accident which had marked a shift in his career, had been seen reading the Bible on a daily basis.[5] As with many of the lyrics to the songs on this album, the words to "Watchtower" contain biblical and apocalyptic references.

The Book of Isaiah, Chapter 21, verses 5-9, contains the following: "Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise ye princes, and prepare the shield./For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth./And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with such heed./...And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground."

The song depicts a conversation between two people, a "joker" and a "thief", about the difficulties of getting by in life ("There's too much confusion"). The joker is concerned about losing his property, while the thief observes that some individuals among them aren't taking life as seriously as they should: "There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke." The joker suggests that time is running out. In the last verse, the viewpoint of the song switches abruptly. The ruling princes stand guard in a watchtower over their women and servants as an unnamed pair of riders approach amidst ominous sounds.[6]

In recent years, Dylan in live performance has taken to singing the first verse again at the end of the song. As Michael Gray notes in The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, "Dylan chooses to end in a way that at once reduces the song's apocalyptic impact and cranks up its emphasis on the artist's own centrality. Repeating the first stanza as the last means Dylan now ends with the words 'None of them along the line/Know what any of it is worth' (and this is sung with a prolonged, dark linger on that word 'worth')."[7]

In addition to his original recording, Dylan has released four different live recordings of the song on the following albums: Before the Flood, Bob Dylan at Budokan, Dylan & The Dead and MTV Unplugged.

Cover versions

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

"All Along the Watchtower"
Song
B-sideUS "Burning of the Midnight Lamp", UK "Long Hot Summer Night"

The Jimi Hendrix Experience began to record their cover version of Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower” on January 21, 1968, at Olympic Studios in London. [8] According to engineer Andy Johns, Jimi Hendrix had been given a tape of Dylan’s recording by publicist Michael Goldstein, who worked for Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman. “(Hendrix) came in with these Dylan tapes and we all heard them for the first time in the studio,” recalled Johns. [9] According to Hendrix’s regular engineer Eddie Kramer, the guitarist cut a large number of takes on the first day, shouting chord changes at Dave Mason who had turned up at the session and played guitar. Halfway through the session, bass player Noel Redding became dissatisfied with the proceedings and left. Mason then took over on bass. According to Kramer, the final bass part was played by Hendrix himself. [10] Kramer and Chas Chandler mixed the first version of “All Along The Watchtower” on January 26, but Hendrix was quickly dissatisfied with the result and went on re-recording and overdubbing guitar parts during June, July, and August at the Record Plant studio in New York [11] Engineer Tony Bongiovi has described Hendrix becoming increasingly dissatisfied as the song progressed, overdubbing more and more guitar parts, moving the master tape from a four-track to a twelve-track to a sixteen-track machine. Bongiovi recalled, “Recording these new ideas meant he would have to erase something. In the weeks prior to the mixing, we had already recorded a number of overdubs, wiping track after track. (Hendrix) kept saying, ‘I think I hear it a little bit differently.’” [12] The finished version was released on the album Electric Ladyland in September 1968. Hendrix’s obsessive re-working of the song totally transformed it: from a quiet acoustic ballad to a pyrotechnic display of Hendrix’s guitar virtuosity. The single reached number five in the British charts, and number 20 on the Billboard chart. [13]

Dylan has described his reaction to hearing Hendrix's version: "It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day." [14] Template:Sound sample box align left Template:Sample box end In the booklet accompanying his Biograph album, Dylan said: "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way... Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way." Hendrix's version was featured in the movies Withnail and I, Rush, Private Parts, Clockers, Forrest Gump, A Bronx Tale, Vegas Vacation, Tupac: Resurrection and the 2001 remake of Brian's Song and also in television shows such as The Simpsons, in episodes "Mother Simpson" and "My Mother the Carjacker". The History Channel series Ax Men uses a portion of the song in its opening credits.

This version of the song appears at number 48 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs ever, and in 2000, British magazine, Total Guitar, named it top of the list of the greatest cover versions ever.[15]

U2

Template:Sound sample box align left Template:Sample box end Irish rock band U2 first played a cover of the song during the Boy Tour in 1981. Years later during the Joshua Tree Tour in 1987, the cover was played for a second time, in San Francisco, CA, with an additional verse added by Bono. This special performance was later included as a scene in U2's 1988 rockumentary film, Rattle and Hum, and also as a track on the album of the same name. The performance was impromptu, with the band literally learning the chords and lyrics within minutes of taking the stage, and thus had problems which were edited in the soundtrack. The song was played as a homage to both Bob Dylan and The Jimi Hendrix Experience,[citation needed] and was later followed up by making its way into almost 50 live shows during the band's 1989 Lovetown Tour. The song has since faded from the band's live performances, but has made brief comebacks as it was snippeted by the band at two shows during the Zoo TV Tour and Elevation Tour.

Dave Matthews Band

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Dave Matthews Band has played the song since the band's inception in the early 1990s.[16] Their rendition of the song maintains Dylan's three chord structure and key signature but differs in style. Vocalist and guitarist, Dave Matthews, typically begins the song slowly with just vocals and acoustic guitar. The band members come in after the line "the hour is getting late" and the song tempo and intensity picks up. This is then followed by extended solos taken by the band members culminating with the line that the band chooses to highlight, "No reason to get excited." The song is often chosen to feature a guest performer since it is a well known rock standard. Watchtower, as it is often referred to by fans, is a concert staple, often performed as a concert closer or encore. Performances of the song, including those played and sung solo by Matthews or with guitarist Tim Reynolds, have totaled more than 500 to date.[16] The group has released the song on more than a half-dozen live albums but has never released a studio recording of the song. Both Pat McGee and Howie Day have performed the song in the style of Dave Matthews.

Prince

During the halftime show for the National Football League's Super Bowl XLI (2007) game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears, Prince performed a cover of "All Along the Watchtower".

Dionysis Savvopoulos

Greek singer and composer Dionysis Savvopoulos's album "Ballos" (released in 1970) included a version of this song. The lyrics are adapted into Greek. The Greek name of the song is "Paliatsos kai listis", which is a Greek translation for the phrase "the joker and the thief".

Neil Young

Neil Young performed a version live, and was joined onstage by The Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde. This version later appeared on Young's live album Road Rock Vol. 1: Friends & Relatives. He has also played this song with the above mentioned Dave Matthews Band and performed it w/Booker T and the MGs at the Dylan 30th Anniversary Celebration (aka "Bobfest") at Madison Square Garden. The subsequent recording of the Dylan tribute was issued in 1993.

Grateful Dead

The Grateful Dead performed Watchtower 123 times[17], first on June 20, 1987. This adds to a lengthy repertoire of Bob Dylan covers by the Dead.

Bear McCreary

Television composer Bear McCreary wrote a version of All Along the Watchtower for use in the final scene of the Battlestar Galactica season three finale "Crossroads, Part II". The lyrics had been written into the screenplay by Ronald D. Moore.[18]

Bryan Ferry

Bryan Ferry recorded this song as a demo with Robin Trower in the mid 1990's. He completed the track during sessions in August 2006 for his Dylan tribute album Dylanesque released March 2007.

Pearl Jam

After playing the song four different times from 2004-2006, lead singer Eddie Vedder was asked to play the song with The Million Dollar Bashers for the I'm Not There soundtrack.

Others

The song has been covered by many other artists[19], including:

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Top 30 List of Dylan songs performed live in concert". HisBobness.info. 2008-01-22. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ Jonathan Cott (ed.), Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews, p. 122
  3. ^ Christopher Ricks, Dylan's Visions of Sin, p. 359
  4. ^ "Log of every Dylan Recording Session". Bjorner's Still on the Road. 2006-08-20.
  5. ^ Heylin,C: Bob Dylan Behind the Shades, page 285
  6. ^ "Lyrics of "All Along The Watchtower"". Bob Dylan.com. 2007-10-07. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ Michael Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, p. 7
  8. ^ Eddie Kramer, 'Hendrix: Setting The Record Straight, p. 135
  9. ^ Eddie Kramer, 'Hendrix: Setting The Record Straight, p. 136
  10. ^ Eddie Kramer, 'Hendrix: Setting The Record Straight, p. 136
  11. ^ Eddie Kramer, 'Hendrix: Setting The Record Straight, p. 174
  12. ^ Eddie Kramer, 'Hendrix: Setting The Record Straight, p. 175
  13. ^ Eddie Kramer, 'Hendrix: Setting The Record Straight, p. 198
  14. ^ "Interview with Dylan: 09/29/95". Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel. 1995-09-29. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ "The Best Cover Versions Ever", Total Guitar, Future Publishing, August 2000
  16. ^ a b "DMBAlmanac.com".
  17. ^ DeadBase - Searchable Grateful Dead Setlists
  18. ^ Moore, Ronald D. Podcast commentary for Crossroads, Part 2. Available at http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/season03/
  19. ^ All Music Guide lists about 250 versions as of Jan. 2008

References

  • Cott (ed.), Jonathan (2006). Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0340923121. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  • Gray, Michael (2006). The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. Continuum International. ISBN 0-8264-6933-7.
  • Heylin, Clinton (2003). Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited. Perennial Currents. ISBN 0-06-052569-X.
  • Kramer, Eddie (1992). Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight. Warner Books. ISBN 0751511293.
  • Ricks, Christopher (2003). Dylan's Visions of Sin. Penguin/Viking. ISBN 0-670-80133-X.

Further reading

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