A Story About A Joker And A Thief – All Along The Watchtower / Bob Dylan

This book is about the song “All Along The Watchtower” by Bob Dylan.

There are many interesting aspects about this song that you can dive into and try to figure out their meaning.

This book will focus mainly about the structure of the song and how it connets with its lyrics, melody and instruments. which in my opinion is the main reason why this song is such an amazing piece of 60’s music.

Backround

“All Along The Watchtower” is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan on his 1967 Album “John Wesley Harding”.

By that time Dylan was an established and awarded artist that just came out of two of his most successfull albums “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Blonde on Blonde”.

It is believed that “All Along The Watchtower” came to be while Dylan was resting from a motorcycle accident which occurred on 1966.

Link to the original Audio of the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT7Hj-ea0VE

Lyrics:

“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief
“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth”

“No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke
“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late”

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl

The Story

“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief

The first line of the song throws the listener into a conversation between a Joker and a Thief.

This line sets a sense of mystery to the story, who are those characters? where is “here” and why do they need to get out?.

In the first two verses of the song we hear the conversation between the two characters. The joker explains to the thief what is bothering him and the thief replies “kindley” that there is “No reason to get excited” and calms the Joker as they need to move along because the hour is getting late.

In the third and final verse the whole scinery switches without any explanation or introduction for the listener.

We hear about a watchtower where a princes is looking at the distance, and suddenly two riders were approaching and the wind began to howl.

The Melody

Let’s pay attention to the melody and try to understand its connection to this seemingly odd story.

the songs starts of with an acousic guitar, and then the dominant sound of the harmonica kicks in.

the guitar and harmonica work together. The guitar plays 3 chords repeatitively where every bar starts off with the last chord played. this gives a strong feeling of some kind of a loop. Suddenly you hear a strong harmonica, the harmonica is making a squiking sound which is almost not pleasant to hear, it seems as if the harmonica is making the sound of a blowing wind and gives the song this intense and chaotic feeling like something is about to happen.

Where It All Connects

the melody locks you in, you are now in the story and something is about to happen. you hear a story about a joker and a thief when suddenly there is a watchtower and two riders are approaching it. you are trapped. what if the two riders are the joker and a thief? well, than this is a never ending story, a never ending loop.

chronologically speaking the most reasnable order of the story is as if the last verse was first, but the fact that the chronologically reasnable “start” of the story is the last part of it together with the guitar loop and chaotic feeling the harmonica gives you, makes this song a never ending story.

Quite remarkable in my opinion.

Cover By Jimi hendrinx

possibly the most known version of this song even more the Dylan’s orignial version is the version of Jimi hendrix from the album “Electric Ladyland”

I couldnt make an ebook about “All Along The Watchtower” without mentioning this incredible cover.

A quote by Dylan about jimi’s version: “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.”

link to the cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLV4_xaYynY